Do You Need To Trend To Succeed On Tiktok In 2025?

TikTok is still where trends get their start – there are always new dance routines, audio clips that catch on, or a meme that suddenly shows up everywhere. But as 2025 gets closer, it seems like the game is changing. It’s less about who can jump on a trend the fastest and more about who can keep people interested over time. The app is pushing longer videos now, and you can tell the algorithm cares more about how long people stay with a video, or whether the people watching are part of a real community.

So, a lot of creators are starting to notice that having a real audience is more valuable than going viral for a week and then being forgotten. People are looking at things like steady growth, the kinds of comments they get, or if their TikTok actually leads to something – like someone signing up for a newsletter or placing an order.

If you want to build something on TikTok, whether it’s for your art, your business, or just for the sake of connecting, it’s probably worth thinking about what actually makes you want to post in the first place. Being honest, showing up as yourself, and sticking with it even when things are quiet seems to matter more now.

The users are growing up a bit, and while you can still get a quick burst of attention, most people who stay are focusing on getting to know the people on the other side of the screen. Even when you read suggestions about how to improve your TikTok strategy, it seems to come back to the idea that what works isn’t chasing every new thing, but figuring out what you care about and letting that guide what you share.

I learned this the hard way when I was helping clean up someone else’s TikTok account. Their page had blown up because a sound they used went viral, but when that wave passed, their engagement dropped, and suddenly everything felt a lot more stressful. It wasn’t that they didn’t have good ideas – it’s that their whole plan depended on whatever was trending that week. It’s become clear to me that TikTok now is less about who can jump on a trend first and more about who can build something people actually want to come back to. I’ve seen a lot of accounts take off really fast, then lose steam when the algorithm stopped favoring them.

What makes a difference isn’t just being early on trends – it’s whether people see you as credible. Most viewers can spot when someone’s repeating what everyone else is doing. Now, regular posting and actually responding to people in the comments seem more important than ever. The accounts that stick around are the ones that make their own stuff, take time to reply, and have a way of talking that people recognize. It matters less if you’re the first and more if people know you for something specific – even the people who grab your TikTok followers now still have to figure out what makes them worth following. Whether you’re running a brand like INSTABOOST or building your own page, it’s worth figuring out what you’re actually good at instead of always chasing whatever’s new. If you want any kind of steady growth on TikTok going forward, trust and substance start to feel like the only things that really last.

Having a vision is important, but it doesn’t really get you anywhere without a way to follow through. On TikTok, it’s easy to fall into the habit of chasing whatever’s trending – using the popular sounds, scrambling to keep up with each wave. But after a while, it starts to feel like you’re always reacting, not really making something that matters to you or to anyone else.

What seems to work better, especially with how fast things move, is having a routine you can rely on – a way of planning and making videos that fits into your life, no matter what the algorithm is doing. For me, that looks like setting aside a few hours a week to record a batch of clips, or trying out a series idea to see if it sticks. It’s practical stuff, like putting together a simple calendar or deciding which days to focus on editing. There are so many approaches out there – some people even experiment with things like affordable TikTok likes – but this sort of system is less about going viral and more about having a way to keep going, even when views drop or trends pass by.

And it helps you notice what really matters – like if people are actually saving your videos or leaving real comments, not just scrolling past for a second. The accounts I end up sticking with almost always have this steady, thoughtful feel to them. They pay attention, they test things out, and even if they watch what’s trending, they’re not building their whole approach around it. I think it’s less about chasing the quick wins, and more about making space to do the work in a way that actually lasts.

I’ve felt a bit lost with this kind of advice before. Every so often, someone says you have to jump into whatever TikTok trend is getting attention right now, or you’re missing out. But when you catch wind of a trend and try to join in, it’s usually already fading.

It starts to feel like you’re always a step behind, and what you post doesn’t even really sound like you anymore. Sometimes it seems like chasing trends is the only way to get anywhere, but if you talk to people who’ve been on TikTok a while, you hear something different. They talk about how tiring it is – always watching the For You page, changing up hashtags, trying to copy whatever worked for someone else. It’s a lot, and it doesn’t actually help you build a group of people who want to stick around. What I’ve noticed is that people who grow on TikTok in a real way are doing something that feels steady – sharing what they know, or showing something in their life that people actually care about.

Trends can give you a quick bump, but people remember you for showing up in a way that’s solid and real to you. Even places like INSTABOOST seem to be moving away from the trend-chasing thing; I noticed recently, while I was reading about ways people try to boost TikTok reels with views, that they’re starting to talk more about making your own space and focusing on what you actually want to say. So when I think about trends now, I try to treat them like an extra, not the focus. It’s easy to forget about the bigger picture when there’s pressure to go viral, and then you look up and realize you haven’t said what you wanted to say at all.