TikTok = search engine? The concerns of Google executives, the opportunities for overseas brands

In a recent tech brainstorming conference held by Fortune magazine, Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice president of Google's knowledge and information organization, expressed the status quo that young people are using TikTok and Instagram as search engines.

"In our study, about 40 percent of young people who were looking for a lunch spot didn't go to Google Maps or Search, they went to TikTok or Instagram," he said.

The data is based on Google's internal research, and this trend will be a continuous, irreversible trend that diverts Google traffic, just as people shifted their product searches from Google to Amazon.

What does it mean for overseas brands?

It means that on TikTok, you can also do more for your brand and have more opportunities to interact with younger user groups. On the way to the sea, we should not only focus on the optimization of Google search engine, but also on communication and SEO on TikTok.

01

Brands should iterate quickly on the way of communication: starting from the habits of young users

From the rise of Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, it is obvious that young users are more inclined to accept "visual information". Today, older Internet users are transitioning from print media to the Internet, so their reading habits or information receiving habits are still static.

The example Google executives gave at the conference was vivid. He said that today's young users of the Internet have not even touched a paper map, but the map product is designed as a paper map installed in a mobile phone, which is undoubtedly difficult to match the cognition and expectations of young users.

And Google's response is to add AR technology to the map, allowing people to recognize the surrounding environment through the camera, and follow the loaded direction signs in the real picture of the screen. This is also one of the successful cases of innovating the experience from the technical level and using vision as the entry point.

The same is true for overseas social media marketing of overseas brands. A lot of pictures, videos and even AR and VR methods are used to convey information to young users, which is easier for them to accept and interact with.

This is why established technology companies, including Google, are wary of TikTok and are responding to the impact of TikTok.

Because TikTok is a new, completely audiovisual expression, and brands should keep up with this new expression.

02

How can I increase my ability to create audiovisual content on TikTok?

TikTok has provided brands and creators with a lot of official advice and skills, and has recently officially accessed TikTok data to help overseas brands manage one-stop TikTok-authorized enterprise accounts and conduct data analysis, interaction management, and content publishing.

We will share the effective methods and methods in the actual service process:

Quickly cut into the topic and advance the core message that the brand wants to convey: In the scenario of text reading, you need to set an introduction for the reader, introduce the background, enter the topic step by step, and finally let the reader agree with your point of view after a few minutes of reading. But the communication of short videos is not required. In the fragmented attention, you need to quickly convey the theme you want the audience to get in the video.

According to data, 63% of effective TikTok ads introduce brand or product information within the first 3 seconds, which is the attention time young audiences give your brand today.

Use sound effectively: 100% of TikTok ads use songs or audio clips to give viewers an intuitive impression of the brand. A good soundtrack can boost engagement and make a brand more impressive.

In the "Video Analysis" - "Creation Preferences" data monitored by the TikTok account of Marketing Cloud, you can intuitively see the top 5 soundtracks used by your account within a certain period of time, and combine the videos to which the soundtracks belong during that period of time. Data such as interaction and playback, to further measure whether a bgm is more suitable for your brand.

Breaking down the fourth wall: This is a little-mentioned, simple, yet effective, practical method.

At a time when people are increasingly looking for real and interactive experiences in the virtual online world, using real people in your videos and looking directly at the audience will further enhance the attention of young audiences to videos. And if you add a call-to-action phrase, or ask a question, to your video dialogue and credits, it will be more likely to trigger positive audience interaction in the comments section.

Epilogue

The use of TikTok as a search engine has long been noticed overseas. As early as 2019, based on the extension and change of Douyin's usage scenarios in China, investment firm Andreesen Horowitz emphasized the potential of TikTok as a search engine.

Today, the layout of TikTok has changed from an "early adopter" action of overseas social media marketing to a must-have strategy for brands.

If you want to know more about TikTok Enterprise Account data monitoring, one-click posting and interaction management and other functions, if you want to manage overseas social media matrix including TikTok Enterprise Account more efficiently through Marketing Cloud, please leave your contact information, We will have someone contact you.