I Joined the Road to 10k Trend on TikTok and Here’s What I Learned

A trend that supports new or small content creators to gain a following of 10k people? Sign me up! Or, at least that’s what I thought….

When I started seeing videos of small content creators promoting a follow-for-follow trend to get to 10k followers, I thought it would be a quick way to increase my following in a fairly short time.

I didn’t know much about the trend, but I knew I wanted to take TikTok a bit more seriously and learn about the ways I can monetize it.

I learned so much in such a short time, and I hope my experience is helpful for anyone looking to join the Road to 10, Pay Off Debt, or #teamwork trend.

Gaining 10k Followers is Still Hard Work

A lot of people oppose this trend because they feel like people are taking the easy way out to get followers. The truth is that even if you follow the Road to 10k trend, getting followers requires a bit of work.

Most of the people who are on the Pay Off Debt trend or Road to 10k trend are focused on only gaining followers. This means that people are reluctant to follow first.

Instead of passively scrolling and liking TikToks, you have to completely view, like, and comment on multiple different TikToks a day. This doesn’t seem like a lot, but it can quickly add up.

The entire purpose of the Road to 10k And Pay Off Debt trends is to engage in other people’s content. In turn, they should engage in your content. Just like almost everything else in life, you have to build trust within the Road to 10k community before you see any results.

Even after building a bit of trust, the return on investment can be on the lower end if you aren’t taking it seriously.

How Many Followers Did I Gain?

There are a few different ways to know if someone is a part of the Road to 10k trend and gain followers. I go into a bit more depth about the Road to 10k, Pay Off Debt, and #teamwork trend in this article.

Initially, I found that the fastest way to gain followers was to go to a live Grow Room. A Grow Room is a TikTok live that is specifically used to grow your following. Since it is happening in real-time, people have more trust that you will follow them back.

I only spent about 2 weeks actively trying to gain followers. Honestly, I only stayed in the Grow Room for about 1 hour a night for 4 of those nights.

The real gold is when the host pins your comment to the top of the live. I gained over 200 followers in one night by having the pinned comment in a Grow room. How many followers you’ll gain simply depends on how many people are in the room at the time.

I gained a whopping 573 followers before I decided to call it quits. I only had about 133 followers when I decided to start the Road to 10k trend and I only posted for fun. I had a total of 5 posts when I started, and most of the people who were following me were friends from other accounts or spam accounts.

Many other people who spent more time on TikTok gained a lot more followers than I did and more quickly. It just all depends on the time and effort you put into it.

You Have to Make Content

The first few days that I started this trend I didn’t make any content. I needed to give myself time to get over being camera-shy and think of what kind of content I wanted to make. In those first few days, I only gained about 30 followers.

It turns out that people trust you more when you have, well…content.

Making content also gives your fellow Road to 10k followers the opportunity to repost what you create which gets in front of more people and leads to even more engagement.

Once I started creating content I noticed my following growing even more because I was also gaining authentic followers. You don’t have to post 3-4 times a day — I only posted once a day. That’s not to say if I posted more a day I wouldn’t have seen better numbers.

Why I Stopped Following the Road to 10k Trend

It turns out that following random people on the internet has some repercussions that I wasn’t exactly expecting.

You see, my TikTok account was perfectly curated with the content that I wanted to see. I was more of a passive scroller when I started so I was following for purely entertainment purposes and the great thing about TikTok, is that my FYP was filled with similar content.

When I started following the Road 10k trend, I noticed a shift in what was showing on my FYP.

Coincidentally, I decided to start the Road to 10k and Pay Off Debt trend within the two weeks that some major political shifts were happening. There was an assassination attempt on former President Trump and President Biden announced he was stepping down and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

I noticed major changes to my FYP page and narrowed it down to the new followers that I gained. Most of my followers were reposting content that I just didn’t want to see.

Getting on TikTok was no longer enjoyable. I was spending half of my time in a Grow Room trying to gain new followers and spending the other half of my time being fed content that I didn’t find enjoyable. My perfectly curated FYP was now a big political mess with stay-at-home mom content sprinkled in.

What I Would Do Differently

I don’t regret joining the Road to 10k/Pay Off Debt trend because I actually made some genuine connections. I decided to quit the Road to 10k and focus on authentically building a following.

Since I still have a full-time job, I would rather create content than hang out in Grow Rooms or comment on TikToks to increase followers.

If I had to start all over, there are some things that I would do a bit differently.

Start a new TikTok

I would definitely start with a new account, since the account I had only had a few videos. If you are already posting content consistently you may want to stick with that account, but just know that your FYP may change.

If you decide to start a new account, you may need to be the first to follow others on the Road to 10k because an account with zero followers will seem sketchy.

Join Smaller Grow Rooms

I would prioritize finding smaller content creators in niches that I enjoy that hold Grow rooms every night. Smaller Grow Rooms make it easier to “scoop” new followers. The chat moves at a slower pace so you can see the names of the other people in the room.

Larger rooms are harder to follow and you have less of a chance of being pinned or featured. You have to work a bit harder in larger rooms

Finding content creators in niches I enjoy will ensure that my FYP stays a bit more consistent with what I’m already watching.

Focus on Content Creation

The follow-for-follow will only get you so far. If you aren’t putting out quality content that people want to see then it won’t matter if you have 10,000 followers.

The truth is that most of those followers are only focused on their best interest so you’ll struggle to get the views you need to be successful in the Creator fund or Tik Tok Shop.

Remember at the end of the day Content is KING.