🔍 How Russ Used TikTok To Hit #1 On iTunes (70M+ Views)

Happy Thursday, friends :)

Glad you're here. 

Today, I'm covering how Russ (the rapper) used TikTok to drop a remix to his song Handsomer, the #1 song across all genres on iTunes.

Also, I wrote a deep dive case study on how to grow organically on TikTok for Growth Marketing Examined members.

If you want it, you can get it here :)

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If you’ve never heard of Russ, he’s an independent rapper who’s become a mainstream artist all on his own.

He’s known for producing, mixing, mastering, engineering, writing, and performing all his songs and albums by himself.

And yesterday, his Handsomer Remix topped #1 across all genres on iTunes.

According to Russ, “that’s the first time this has ever happened.”

Magic question: How?

So, a few weeks ago, I spoke to Zack Hargett, and we talked everything organic growth on TikTok.

One of the main takeaways from the conversation was that if an individual or brand can create a challenge or piece of content that people duet, it’s lights out.

Duet definition: A duets allow you to build on another user's video on TikTok by recording your own video alongside the original as it plays.

So, for Russ, he dropped his new song Handsomer.

Someone replied to his post on TikTok, asking if he could create “an open verse for this one?”

Which sparked the Handsomer Open Verse Challenge Remix.

With this challenge, contestants had to:

• Duet his video
• Rap their verse over the beat
• Use the hashtag #handsomer or #handsomerchallenge

And whoever dropped the best verse in the open verse challenge would be featured in the song's official remix.

Because of this:

• The Handsomer Open Verse Sound was used by 34.1K videos
• The hashtag #handsomer has 61.7M views
• The hashtag #handsomerchallenge has 13.2M views
• The original TikTok video has 2.8M views
• The winning contestant’s video has 22M views

Some wild numbers.

Plus, here was the timeline:

The challenge started on February 3rd.

The winner was chosen on March 5th, Kaitlyn, aka @ktlynraps.

And the official remix dropped on March 8th.

March 9th, and it’s the #1 song across all genres on iTunes.

Plus, some bonus numbers...

Over the course of that month, both Russ and Kaitlyn EACH gained 600K and 800k followers.

Plus, here are 12 tips from Zack Hargett who has helped multiple accounts go viral on Tiktok and drive insane results without spending a single dollar on ads.
He's also dropping a course specifically to help you grow and leverage TikTok -- you can pre-order it here.

1. Make sure TikTok is right for your brand.
   1. Is your audience on TikTok? You may be surprised! According to a recent Statista model, 51% of TikTok users are over the age of 30.
   2. Find out! Use TikTok’s Explore feature to search for your target audience. Start by searching hashtags and phrases but don’t be afraid to get creative in how you find them.
   3. If your audience is on TikTok, read-on!
2. Get out of an advertiser's mentality.
   1. TikTok is re-writing the rules of advertising. So, if you come from an advertising or traditional marketing background, TikTok may be a bit counter-intuitive to you!
   2. Instead, adopt the mentality of your target customer in their leisure time.
3. Start by getting inspired.
   1. TikTok is about culture and vibes as much as it is metrics and conversion. Creating content that converts starts with creating good content. Creating good content starts with consuming content.
   2. So, if you’re not already, start watching TikToks! Explore the product and get acquainted with the interface. Begin to understand how TikTok is unique from YouTube and Instagram. Like and comment on videos you like. Favorite videos you especially love. Notice which videos you like so much you’re compelled to share with friends.
   3. TikTok is built with remix culture in mind — they make it easy to create content at the point in which you’re most inspired... When you’re consuming content.
4. Sign up as a creator account.
   1. When you’re ready to start creating, be sure to sign up as a creator account (not a business account). We’re still testing this theory but we have reason to believe creators' accounts are better for organic content.
5. Leverage trending sounds, filters, and hashtags.
   1. In tip (3) you collected inspiration — now it’s time to use them!
   2. Trending sounds, filters, hashtags, etc are all changing on a weekly if not daily basis. Stay on top of trends to increase your chance of creating viral content.
6. Identify a hook that will captivate your audience within the first 1.5 seconds.
   1. The best content we’ve ever posted led with beautiful visuals from the product in the first second (and in the thumbnail). Having a captivating hook — be that aesthetic, sound, drama, humor, or shock!
7. Create content around all of your value props; from all angles.
   • Think of your product from all angles... Think. of the most compelling, exciting, funny, and scandalous use-cases for your product. How could you act it out as if a superfan of your product is making a video about that scenario?
   • People like following storylines! Create multi-part videos that allude to past content.
   • Create a numbered series of videos. Multi-part TikToks can drive viewers to your profile page and drive views on past videos up! Multi-part videos subliminally say “other parts in this series were good enough for me to continue and are available in my profile... don’t you wanna go check them out?”
8. Use your best-performing videos as a template for new content.
   1. Continue what works! Don’t be shy about recycling the same format and style of a video you’ve had success with or seen another person have success with.
   2. Experiment with getting extreme here! Our most viral videos never said the name of the product. It helps message to the viewer — this isn’t an ad.. otherwise, they would have said the name of the product! (Note: if you can drive users to open comments on your TikTok (e.g. to find the name of your product) loops of your video increase in the background which encourages TikTok to show your video to more people).
9. Interact with your audience.
   1. Reply to any relevant comments and pin the best ones to the top of your page.
   2. Make videos replying to comments left on your video.
10. Study and stay up-to-date with your niche.
    1. What seems to be resonating within your niche? Stay up to date on new lingo, memes, trends, etc happening in your target audience.
    2. If possible, identify what's working for your competitors. What are the comments saying? What style of content and themes seem to be getting traction?
    3. Engage with other creators' content in your niche! Don’t hesitate to comment on their posts and hop into their livestreams with digital gifts. Making a name for your account can happen in comments and through creator connections in addition to original content!
11. The best-branded content doesn’t feel like an ad.
    1. Your audience can detect BS from a mile away. Referring back to tip (2), don’t be salesy! The art of content on TikTok is being subtle with your call to action. The goal is to create content that feels native to the platform.
    2. Try actor-Generated Content: Almost like a superfan is creating content about you for fun, instead of it looking like it's made from an in-house hire.
12. Find your Flo from Progressive or Jake from State Farm.
    1. If possible, have your content come from a single creator/voice. We assigned a creator to manage our TikTok account that has a personality our target audience can relate to and identify with.