TikTok is becomming a search engine, so how can you incorporate your social media and your search engine strategy?

TikTok has more in common with Pinterest and YouTube than it does with Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (X) and I am moving my attention more and more to these platforms. TikTok has morphed from a hub of dance challenges into a visual search engine.

TikTok requires a radically different strategy to Instagram. We can’t do TikTok with an Instagram strategy and expect good results. Right now, I’m working on campaigns that are hybrid insta-tiktok campaigns that fulfill multiple goals for my clients, but in my opinion, I’d put Instragram in the bin if I could. The problem is, Instagram followers are still seen as a status symbol of sorts for brands and people. Even if the actual value and engagement of those followers is EFF ALL.

Most social media managers will tell you that following trends is the best way to achieve success on TikTok, I highly disagree for multiple reasons, but for the sake of this blog, my main disagreement is that trends don’t have longevity and aren’t searchable.

It’s common to see TikTok as the fast food of social media, but it’s not just a quick snack. A lot of popular TikTok content goes quite into detail and is often educational. The main difference is in style—TikTok doesn’t require perfection, and plenty of people make TikToks in their night bonnets and facemasks about serious topics while still being taken seriously.

YouTube acts as a great source for detailed video content, from tutorials to in-depth reviews and educational series. It’s a place where you can post 3 hour videocasts that don’t require as much sheen as television. YouTube remains unchallenged as the go-to for detailed video content—from tutorials to in-depth reviews and educational series. Here, content needs to be both engaging and informative, rich enough to compete with a detailed blog post. For businesses, YouTube offers a platform to produce comprehensive content that answers specific questions or provides how-to guides, much like you would strategize content for SEO to ensure it pops up in Google searches.

Whereas Pinterest also serves longevity — web pages can be bookmarked and saved for later. Women often use Pinterest to build up little details of a big picture, such as which items, colours and furniture to use in their new living room, or what to buy and how to use storage in their new pantry. There is no detail too small for Pinterest, no product photo too boring.

TikTok fits in as a place to serve a video—which could be 10 seconds to 10 minutes long—showing one opinion, one product, or one how-to in as fast a way as possible. That means editing out all the ums and ahs, no introductions, no goodbyes, no ‘dont forget to like and follows’.

Unlike the Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram), which primarily focused on networking and personal sharing without a robust vision for search, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube have embraced their roles as search engines. This shift requires a strategic overhaul from brands. Just as you wouldn’t use a one-size-fits-all approach for blog content across various topics, your content on these platforms needs to be tailored, with a keen eye on what your audience is actively searching for.

However, crafting social media content that aims to have longevity over time requires more effort than just throwing out a few images of your product (which used to work just fine on Instagram). And brands are still wanting agencies to post every day/every other day, yet don’t want to be forking out thousands. But it is here you can benefit from having your SEO and web content team work in harmony with your social media manager on strategy. And I’d advise to reduce the frequency of your posts, focusing instead of creating as valuable content as you can. And of course, to spread it out, don’t be afraid to repeat the same info in different ways, on different days.

Crafting your search-friendly social content strategy

How can we craft content that not only shows up but stands out, ensuring that when someone searches for a topic, your brand not only appears but resonates?

This isn’t just about keeping up with the digital Joneses. When you plan your next content calendar, think like a searcher on each platform, strategise like a seasoned SEO expert.

Integrating TikTok into your brand’s search strategy…

1 Understand TikTok’s appeal as a search engine:

TikTok provides a visual, engaging and fast-paced way to consume information. This is not just appealing to young users with no attention spans. We’ve all searched for something like a recipe or tech review on Youtube only to get frustrated with the ‘hi guys, sorry I haven’t made a video in a while, I’ve been on vacation’ chitchat that is popular on YouTube, but bombs on TikTok (they save that for TikTok live streams). On TikTok we’re getting to the point right away.

2 Utilise your own keyword priorities:

My keyword priorities are social media management, social media manager, social media freelancer. And then the localised versions such as social media manager UK. So it would make sense to use these in my TikToks where I can, because as well as searching for social media managers on TikTok, my TikToks might show up in search like this:

I’m currently working on my TikTok audience building, so I haven’t worked up to some really meaty videos yet. But they are showing up in Google. Notice how the first line of my copy shows up as a heading. So just like the first line of your blog or website, this is important.

3. Remember that you are not the only channel who represents your product/service

If someone decided to search for a review of your product or service, you likely won’t be the only account who shows up. Which can make influencer campaigns on TikTok useful.

For my clients Skin Health Alliance, there is a mix of our content produced or commissioned by me, but also plenty of content from a large influencer campaign they worked on with ana agency last year. Showing that the influencer campaign still holds influence as it were.

4. Leverage creator search insights to fill gaps

Go to creator search insights – there is a tutorial for how to use that here.

This will tell you trending keywords on TikTok. Right now as an example there is ‘back to school haul’ and plenty about the olympics.

But then you also have suggested trending keywords, mine are things like ‘marketing strategy tips’, ‘how to improve video quality’.

Then we have content gaps – which is important because these are things that people are searching for but there isn’t much content available for. Such as: day in my life, how to get followers as a new creator and ‘introduce yourself challenge’.

You can also see what your followers are searching for.

So just by using this tool, you can come up with 10 ideas for content easily that will likely appear in search.

It’s that easy guys