The New Search Engine
The New Search Engine
How companies show up in the search bar of their consumers
More and more brands are taking the stage on social media apps. Companies get followings over night, as app users see their favorite logos appear on their FYP’s. But now what? What do brands share and how do they promote and “fit in” at the same time?
Social Media is becoming the search engine of the future. Personally, I recently adopted a dog, the first place I looked? TikTok. I searched on TikTok for ways to train, love, and care for my puppy.
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Video is dominating, not just for entertainment but for learning too. Gen-z is leading the charge, we’d rather watch a 45 second video from people like us, than read through an ad saturated article.
Not only does using TikTok as a search engine give convenience it also creates a place to hear from real people. There is less saturation of paid ads. Comparatively, companies are paying to be on the first page of google. TikTok creators are sharing their real experiences, because they want to, not as some writer for a big company. This creates that personal experience.
Back to my puppy example, I got to learn from other dog owners, that are filming life in their real houses and cars. I saw people actually going through the same thing, and that are similar to me, on TikTok. This further demonstrates the contrast between traditional search engines and social media. There isn’t so much curated photoshoot vibes, or the corporate twist in blogs of how to care for your dog.
So how do companies show up in search results?
By combining their reality with information that their consumers want. For example, Petco could hire a person to do a day in the life with their puppy and post it on the company account. They aren’t directly sharing Petco items, but we see a real person using items from Petco. A gentle logo in the background of a new toy, and maybe a grooming session at Petco with an honest review.
Interested in more ways to show up in TikTok’s search engine? Subscribe to Organically Riley, my weekly newsletter that dives into all things social media, being 23, and all of the things in between! I’d love to connect via comments to learn about how you are showing up on social media!
BYU Computer Science - Machine Learning (Grad 2025)
2 年This is an interesting pattern that I've noticed recently. I think we will see a lot more micro-courses and answers to questions in video format. Maybe popular search engines will start embedding short-form videos into their search results soon.