Trending TikTok Hashtags: How to Create a New Viral Hashtag on TikTok

Do you have a strong hashtag strategy on TikTok? Creating trending TikTok hashtags can make you go viral and attract valuable audiences. How do you get it right?
Fanbytes | Trending TikTok hashtags: how to create a new hashtag that goes viral on TikTok

In 30 seconds:

  • Trending TikTok hashtags are a powerful tool for brands. It’s a great way to foster user-generated content (UGC) and explode your brand reach.
  • How can you create the top TikTok hashtags – and make sure you get it right every time?
  • The right hashtags make people feel connected to your brand. We’re providing a tutorial on how to make hashtags that attract valuable customers and turn visibility into sales.


Anyone with marketing experience on social media platforms will tell you that hashtags are an important part of your social media marketing strategy. On the TikTok app, this is particularly true.

The potential of TikTok to reach new audiences is enormous. TikTok is currently the most downloaded app globally, and it overtook Google last year as the most visited web domain. And that’s not the only reason the app is coming for Google’s crown: TikTok is now Gen Z’s favourite search engine. It’s even the fastest growing news source for UK adults.

If you want to be discovered, TikTok is your ticket. And hashtags are built for discovery. If you can create a viral TikTok hashtag, you can reach huge numbers of your ideal audience, instantly. But how do you get there?

New TikTok hashtags: why they work

TikTok users often spark new trends themselves, but they’re also motivated to join fresh trends they like. That means there’s a huge opportunity for brands creating new trending Tiktok hashtags

Why? 

On social media, hashtags are all about participation. One video alone with a hashtag isn’t going to help your brand: what you want to achieve from your new TikTok hashtag is a sense of lively conversation, and relevant audiences (i.e, your target customers) joining in. That’s how your new hashtag becomes a trending TikTok hashtag

TikTok’s egalitarian algorithm can really help you here. As our CEO and founder, Timothy Armoo, says, “they don’t know it, but people are basically on TikTok to show off.” On TikTok, anyone can go viral if their video is engaging – no matter the size of their TikTok account following – and so TikTok users feel encouraged to try joining in hashtag trends themselves. 

New hashtags are a good way of doing this, because they’re less likely to get lost in the noise. If the hashtag goes viral, their video will be shown to a huge number of people who’ll like it. And that makes them look good!

The other pull for TikTok audiences is the sense of community that trending TikTok hashtags offer. TikTok users are majority Gen Z, who are the loneliest generation and crave connection. Popular TikTok hashtags can create a sense of belonging, as people use them to share their perspectives on a shared subject. If you can use a trending TikTok hashtag to centre conversations around your brand, you’ve got a ticket to a highly valuable and engaged audience.

So, how can you create a new TikTok hashtag that becomes a trending TikTok hashtag? Let’s get into it.

Tips for creating new trending TikTok hashtags

First off, it’s important to consider whether creating a new trending hashtag is the best step for your brand, or whether it will suit your strategy more to capitalise on already existing relevant hashtags (or related hashtags) that are already starting to trend in your niche. 

If it’s a new TikTok hashtag you want to use, read on. Otherwise, we recommend reading our article, Viral TikTok Hashtags: how to use already popular hashtags to skyrocket your brand instead: this is a great guide for how to use already existing TikTok hashtag trends to go viral.

Ready to create a new hashtag?

The first thing to remember is even the most popular TikTok hashtags had to start somewhere.

In the earliest days of TikTok, you’d see more generic TikTok hashtags perform incredibly well for brands and TikTok influencers alike (examples include #DanceChallenge, #DanceMoves #Followforfollowback #TikTokTrend, #FunnyVideos, #ViralVideos #Prank #DIY or #TikTokChallenge). Nowadays, these are still some of the most watched hashtags on the platform – but they’re incredibly competitive. The chances are your video won’t get seen if you only use these TikTok hashtags – no matter if you’re a small business or even a big brand.

But there’s good news: it’s very possible to start new trending TikTok hashtags. In fact, we’re still creating new, successful hashtags and solid hashtag strategies for brands to this day.

The trick to creating a great new hashtag is understanding how hashtags work. So, how do you create the best new TikTok hashtags for your brand?

Tip 1. research your niche

One of the most exciting aspects of the TikTok algorithm is how it is able to create such personalised experiences for each user. This has fostered content communities on the platform hinged on particular shared interests. These niche communities have their own trends and discussion points. 

Work out what your brand’s niche is. The way to do this is by acting like a TikTok user first: research existing hashtags that are relevant to your brand (for instance, if you are a skincare company, search #SkinTok. If you’re a publisher, search #BookTok). Start with the obvious, and TikTok’s algorithm will adjust to show you more related posts that are applicable to you. Engage with the relevant videos you see on your FYP: this will help you get even more embedded in your TikTok community.

Once you’re there, you’ll see more users in your content community talking about or creating videos around more specific subjects and memes. Check out where there’s a gap for niche hashtags: what are people talking about or doing that doesn’t have its own hashtag yet? Can you create a subject (for instance, discussing a novel trope or a skincare benefit) and name it with a new, specific hashtag? Can you relate the hashtag name to your brand?

The great thing about researching your niche in this way is that it doesn’t just help you with ideas: it also triggers the TikTok algorithm to share your video with the TikTok users who will love it the most.

Tip 2. relate your new hashtag to a content formula

For a new TikTok hashtag to become a hashtag trend, people need to know how to copy it. You may have identified the best TikTok hashtag for your brand, but if it’s not clear to others how to create their own videos around the hashtag, you’ll never start a TikTok trend around it – as people simply won’t copy you.

We worked with music label M-Theory to promote the #ShowYourParadise trend on TikTok, which featured the song Sunset Lover by Petit Biscuit. The song’s lyrics repeat the line “hallelujah, oh, I’m down on the beach”. We took this, along with the song’s dreamy ambiance, as inspiration to encourage TikTokers to create clips featuring some of their favourite summer moments.

The hashtag is self-explanatory. It indicates to users exactly what the clips are illustrating (the TikTok video creator’s personal paradise) and is a prompt for them to do likewise, using video clips from their own summer memories.

A large proportion of TikTok users create their own videos, and they like triggers that help them to create content. So, the more you can make this easy for them, the better chances you have of them copying your video and making your Tiktok hashtag start to trend.

Make a video that’s simple to copy, but where TikTokers can bring their own spin. Then, include a hashtag that’s obviously related to the content. That way, you have the best chance of TikTokers copying your video concept and using the hashtag to spread the word.

This is a key principle at play in hashtag challenges. If you can tie an action to a hashtag and challenge TikTokers to copy you, it’s obvious to see how to join in.

Tip 3. make your hashtag easy to see

You need to make the hashtag as easy to discover as possible, to encourage the most people to see and use it.

TikTokers often don’t copy over all the hashtags on a post, so if you’re trying to trigger a new TikTok hashtag to trend, it’s best to just include this one hashtag to carry the message. Otherwise, you may find that TikTokers copy your video content formula, but copy the wrong hashtag!

Don’t be tempted by adding extra hashtags such as #likeforlikes, #featureme or #followme or by bulking out your hashtags with a hashtag generator – these not are your friends when starting off new hashtags!

Another way to help the visibility of your hashtag is to include it in the in-video text as well as the caption. This provides an extra visual prompt to help remind your audience which hashtag to use to join the conversation.

Finally, you can supercharge your TikTok hashtag’s visibility is through using influencers. After all, if TikTok users encounter a new hashtag, and click it to see relevant TikTok accounts also creating videos with the same content formula and sharing the same new TikTok hashtag, they’ll identify this as a fun new trend to copy.

TikTok influencers also have their own large audiences who will be watching their videos. This means your new hashtag can quickly spread.

We frequently work with influencers to promote hashtags. For example, for upcoming artist Ruth Anne we created the #PromoteLove hashtag to drive content about loving yourself, and worked with influencers to normalise talking about insecurities. The hashtag was incredibly successful, getting over 2 million views – with 871 fans creating their own TikTok content for the hashtag.

Branded hashtags & branded hashtag challenges

One way businesses can use hashtags to grow their reach on TikTok is via branded hashtags – or branded hashtag challenges. This TikTok marketing feature takes the principles we discussed above for creating a new hashtag (fostering user-generated content, and linking the content formula to a specific hashtag) and ties these both specifically to the brand. Usually, a branded hashtag will include the brand’s name.

Challenges on TikTok are primarily driven through hashtags, as this makes the challenge more accessible and shareable. Like any new hashtag, the popularity of challenges on TikTok is down to how easy they are to replicate: the content formula is obvious from the very start.

Branded hashtag challenges are supported by TikTok as one of their ad features. There are also a number of add-ons available, including branded effects, or promotion on TikTok’s explore page. As a TikTok partner, we can work with you to determine what form of TikTok ad or branded hashtag is the best for your brand. Get in touch with us to learn more.

Do brands have to create branded hashtag challenges on TikTok?

You don’t have to create your own brand challenge to join hashtag challenges on TikTok. Brands can join existing challenges as well as setting their own. 

@nbcsnl did we do this right? #dropchallenge @Atsuko Okatsuka ♬ Yoncé - Atsuko Okatsuka

In fact, joining a trending TikTok challenge is a great way for brands to showcase their personality. An example of a brand that uses TikTok hashtags flawlessly in this way is NBC’s Saturday Night Live. 

Even though the brand didn’t start the hashtag challenge in this example, by joining in they can showcase some fun behind-the-scenes footage – and because they’ve nailed the challenge, it’s been widely liked and shared (they’ve received over 1.3 million likes and 25K shares), meaning it’s right near the top of the hashtag page.

Joining Successful Hashtags

As we saw in Saturday Night Live’s hashtag challenge example, it’s possible for brands to join previously existing hashtags and win over large audiences. These can be challenges, or simply trending hashtags.

The key is: you have to bring your own original take on it – don’t be afraid to have a laugh. And the hashtag has to be trending. If you join a hashtag trend too late, you risk looking try-hard, or will miss the boat entirely.

This is why Fanbytes created our weekly TikTok trends newsletter, so brands can always be up-to-date with the latest TikTok hashtag trends they can join. It’s free, and lands in your inbox every Tuesday. Sign up via this link.

If you want to learn more about how to join already-successful TikTok hashtags to reach your perfect audience, read our article, Viral TikTok Hashtags: how to use popular hashtags to skyrocket your brand.

Creating trending TikTok hashtags: taking it further

So, now you know how to create trending hashtags that land on the ForYouPage of your ideal audience, and how to create a hashtag strategy that ensures those TikTok users turn your video (and hashtag) into a viral trend to boost your reach.

But it’s not always easy for brands to know how they’re going to be perceived by Gen Z. This group have a very particular sense of humour and their memes are surprisingly specific. Understanding Gen Z mentality is key for the best TikTok hashtags for them – and that takes expertise.

As your Gen Z partner, this is exactly what we offer. We’re masters of Gen Z’s favourite social media platforms, so can inform you on a strategy that will land perfectly for your target audience. We also have an industry-leading tool, ByteSights, that allows us to see the best time to post, the best influencers to work with, and where you should be taking your TikTok content next.

If you’d like to find out more about how to go viral on TikTok and create a social media presence you can be proud of – and that Gen Z loves – get in touch. We’d love to talk you through how we can make your brand shine on social media.


Still looking for answers? Check out these links for more advice on creating the best hashtags on TikTok, and taking your content viral:


Let's Talk

To find out how Fanbytes can help you connect with a Gen Z Audience fill in the form to get in touch!