TikTok Proclaims a Enormous Enhance to its Video Descriptions because it Leans into Discovery

TikTok’s giving customers extra room to elucidate their content material, and join with customers, with a massive expansion of its video description field.

As you’ll be able to see on this notification, posted by social media professional Matt Navarra, TikTok has expanded the put up description area from 300 characters to 2,200 – a 730% improve within the house obtainable to stipulate your clip.

As defined by TikTok:

“This lets you categorical extra particulars about your creations, describing what your movies present, supplying you with the chance to get nearer to your viewers, producing extra engagement whereas changing into extra searchable and higher beneficial by TikTok to viewers.”

The ‘searchable’ ingredient is the important thing focus on this respect.

As we reported recently, TikTok is quick changing into a key search platform for youthful audiences, with Google’s VP Prabhakar Raghavan recently noting that:

“In our research, one thing like nearly 40% of younger folks, after they’re in search of a spot for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

That presents important alternative for TikTok, utilizing its extremely attuned, personalised, algorithmic method to refine and showcase related search matches, which can more and more relate to every customers’ pursuits.

That’s how search already features within the Chinese language model of the app, Douyin, with many customers now turning to the app for extra personalized discovery.

As defined by Connie Chan of Andreesen Horowitz:   

“On Douyin, which has been monetizing short-form video seek for years, movies are sometimes tagged with the names of shops and different places, and tapping on these hyperlinks takes customers to in-app pages the place they will make the most of massive low cost coupons or particular bookings.”

Chan explains that by utilizing its algorithmic benefits in understanding person behaviors, Douyin is ready to spotlight extra related search matches to every person, which improves the invention course of, whereas additionally enabling folks to make the most of reductions and different affords within the app.

“Due to the algorithms and person conduct on Douyin, the app can push new locations to a person that she or he would by no means have thought to seek for. Brief video successfully permits the continual discovery of the perfect locations round you, and it will get higher with each swipe because the platform higher understands you and your pursuits.”

TikTok’s now seeking to faucet into the identical.

Final month, TikTok launched a brand new ‘Nearby’ content feed in testing, which displays content material posted by customers in your present location.

Because it’s rolled out extra broadly, that’ll allow TikTok to showcase regionally related updates, based mostly on the content material that you just have interaction with in your predominant ‘For You’ feed – which implies that TikTok will be capable to spotlight extra posts from native enterprise, occasions and places, that relate to your pursuits.

The added room in your descriptions will improve this, with extra alternatives for key phrase matching, with a view to showcase extra related, native content material, which could possibly be an enormous assist in highlighting related companies to customers. And if it follows the lead of Douyin, that would allow manufacturers to supply reductions and connection choices direct in-app, using TikTok’s huge presence to nice impact.

And with projections that TikTok will attain 1.5 billion users before the year is out, that could possibly be an enormous consideration for companies.

It’s not there simply but, however based mostly on the place Douyin has gone with search, you’ll be able to see the seemingly roadmap, which might make TikTok an much more necessary platform for native manufacturers, straight connecting intent and curiosity to their choices.

‘Extra searchable and higher beneficial’. That is the important thing notice of focus from TikTok’s announcement, and it’s these components that would develop into a lot greater factors of notice for manufacturers transferring ahead.

These are simply the primary steps, and it could be value contemplating how constructing a TikTok presence now might enable you capitalize on these developments as they develop into extra important components in future.