TikTok’s giving users more room to explain their content, as well as connect with interested users through a massive expansion of its video description field. As seen in a recent notification posted by the phenomenal Matt Navarra, TikTok has expanded the post description field from 300 characters to 2200 – roughly a 7x increase in available space to outline your clip. 2200 is even enough for users to write a short narrative about their clips.
As per TikTok:
“This allows you to express more details about your creations, describing what your videos show, giving you the opportunity to get closer to your audience, generating more engagement while becoming more searchable and better recommended by TikTok to viewers.”
Contextually Speaking…
The ‘Searchable’ element here seems to be the key focus. As SocialMediaToday recently reported TikTok is becoming a key search platform for younger audiences, enough that it has even Google Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan taking notice of TikTok’s growing ‘threat’. This presents TikTok with a significant opportunity, using its highly attuned and personalized algorithmic approach to refine and showcase relevant search matches, which will increasingly relate to each users’ interests.
This is how search already functions on Douyin, which is basically TikTok’s Chinese version. Douyin, with its many users, now turns to the app for more customized discovery. As Connie Chan explains:
“On Douyin, which has been monetizing short-form video search for years, videos are often tagged with the names of stores and other locations, and tapping on these links takes users to in-app pages where they can take advantage of large discount coupons or special bookings.”
Chan further explains that by using its algorithmic advantages in understanding user behaviors, Douyin can highlight more relevant search matches to each user, improving the discovery process, while also enabling people to take advantage of discounts and other offers in the app. TikTok is now looking to tap into the same.
Last month, TikTok launched its new ‘Nearby’ content Feed in testing, which displays content posted by users in your current location. As it’s rolled out more broadly, that’ll enable TikTok to showcase locally relevant updates, based on the content that you engage with on your ‘For You’ Feed
The Wrap
Adding more room for your descriptions will only further enhance this, with more opportunities to match keywords and also showcase more relevant local content and even businesses. ‘More searchable and better recommended’ – this is the phrase TikTok focused on in its announcement, and it’s these elements that could become much bigger points of note for brands moving forward. These are but the initial steps, and it may well be worth considering how building a TikTok presence now could help you capitalize on these trends as they become more significant in the future.
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