TikTok Is Competing With Google.
It’s not TikTok vs. Instagram anymore. It’s TikTok vs. Google. 40% of Gen Z users are using TikTok as a search engine as oppose to Google.
The company that used to be known for teens dancing while they were bored at home during lockdown, now has every business frantically trying to navigate the app. TikTok’s sales are predicted to triple to $12 billion in 2022-2023, it’s a huge platform and has revolutionized the way in which we consume content. Why is TikTok preferred over Google? Why is it important for me to know? That’s what we’ll be covering in this blog!
WHY IS TIKTOK PREFERRED OVER GOOGLE?
According to a qualitative study conducted by social media consultant, Sheares, Gen Z deem TikTok as a more trust-worthy and quicker way to find information. Searching via Google requires not only a lot of reading (which is time-consuming) but also sifting through ads, whereas on TikTok, you have people in real-time, sharing their opinions, experiences & more, almost like in real-time. It’s more trust-worthy. For example, when deciding whether to buy a product, people like to see what it looks like or how it’s used on someone else and what their experience with the product is! It is so much quicker to type in a product in TikTok, and see all the reviews by real people on the other side of the screen, rather than sifting through hundreds of Google reviews.
Remember, people’s attention spans are only getting shorter, especially with the introduction of TikTok and short-form video content. Even, YouTube is reporting that there are more users than ever watching videos at faster playback speeds.
The study states that Gen Z claims to search more “lighthearted” topics on TikTok, such as restaurants near them, fashion ideas and inspiration etc, while sticking to Google search for “heavier” information, like the news; however, in recent times, the Daily Mail, Sky News and more have recently been covering news stories on TikTok, by hiring younger reporters, or by simply repurposing their content. In our books, this further shows that TikTok is surpassing Google as a search engine with flying colours.
Smart businesses know that they have to cater to Gen Z if they want to stay around long-term, because the youth is the future.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER FOR ME & MY BUSINESS?
The key takeaway for you and your business, is making sure that you are catering to your audience using TikTok as a search bar. This means, using keywords in the following:
text on video,
your caption,
your hashtags.
Another important point to keep in mind, is try to incorporate sentences that mimic how your audience will be typing in the search bar, for example “how to style a black blazer”, or “how to increase sales”, or “best nutrition for anxiety” etc…
TikTok’s search engine is much more specialized than Instagrams, and there is also a much higher potential to discover smaller accounts through the search engine, versus on Instagram, bigger accounts are mostly pushed out. More to come on the big debate between Instagram and TikTok’s algorithms, next week on the blog!
