TikTok Announces a Huge Increase to its Video Descriptions as it Leans into Discovery

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

As you possibly can see on this notification, posted by social media knowledgeable Matt Navarra, TikTok has expanded the publish description subject from 300 characters to 2,200 – a 730% enhance within the house out there to define your clip.

As defined by TikTok:

“This enables you to specific 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’ factor 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 individuals, once they’re searching for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

That presents vital alternative for TikTok, utilizing its extremely attuned, personalised, algorithmic method to refine and showcase related search matches, which is able to 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’ll reap the benefits of massive low cost coupons or particular bookings.”

Chan explains that by utilizing its algorithmic benefits in understanding person behaviors, Douyin is in a position to spotlight extra related search matches to every person, which improves the invention course of, whereas additionally enabling individuals to reap the benefits of reductions and different gives within the app.

“Thanks 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. Quick video successfully allows the continual discovery of one of the best locations round you, and it will get higher with each swipe as the platform higher understands you and your pursuits.”

TikTok’s now trying to faucet into the identical.

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

As it’s rolled out extra broadly, that’ll allow TikTok to showcase regionally related updates, based mostly on the content material that you just interact with in your essential ‘For You’ feed – which signifies that TikTok will likely be ready to spotlight extra posts from native enterprise, occasions and places, that relate to your pursuits.

The added room to your descriptions will improve this, with extra alternatives for key phrase matching, so as to showcase extra related, native content material, which could possibly be a large assist in highlighting related companies to customers. And if it follows the lead of Douyin, that might 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 a enormous consideration for companies.

It’s not there simply but, however based mostly on the place Douyin has gone with search, you possibly can see the possible roadmap, which may 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 be aware of focus from TikTok’s announcement, and it’s these components that might change into a lot greater factors of be aware for manufacturers shifting ahead.

These are simply the primary steps, and it could be price contemplating how constructing a TikTok presence now may provide help to capitalize on these developments as they change into extra vital components in future.