No sooner has the debate around whether TikTok is a search engine calmed down (until the next new feature is announced at least), Reddit has announced a new $60m partnership with Google to share data and improve its search capabilities.

So what does this mean, and is the line between search and social becoming increasingly blurred?

For a start, there has never been a clear separation between search and social. Hashtags mean that there has always been an element of categorisation to the content on social. People have always wanted to be able to find topics and discussions on social media. As such platforms have had to develop ways to enable users to directly search for these things.

The key difference between social media and search engines in this sense is that social media platforms don’t index or rank content, domain (in this case user) authority has not been as important, and what content is served to users searching for a certain topic changes on a more regular basis due to the nature of social media.

However, search behaviour on social is becoming more and more similar to that on search engines.

Behaviour has shifted to such an extent that WARC’s 2023 Consumer Trends report identified that Gen Z prefer searching for information about brands, products and services on algorithm-led social media platforms over traditional search engines.

Search for communities

A clear beneficiary of this shift has been Reddit. We can see below the growing trend for including ‘Reddit’ in search terms to get results from its many communities.

Over the years, people have increasingly looked to Reddit, and its communities, to provide advice on purchase and activity decisions.

Rather than trying to find the right way to phrase a search term to give the best chance of finding the result a user needs, and then reading through potentially irrelevant results, users can read through posts from a community of people who are familiar with what they’re searching for. If that doesn’t provide the answer they need, they can ask their question within the community for a tailored answer.

Since Reddit and other forums are increasingly capable of meeting consumers’ needs, Google is increasing their prominence in results pages. Research by Search Engine Land showed that discussions and forum sites appear in the results for 77% of key phrases.

While there’s still value in editorial reviews and influencer recommendations, consumers are looking to other customers for reviews and advice. If a community of people with no financial incentive to recommend a product do so, the product must be good. This genuine feedback and lack of any doubt over bias means there’s more trust. And since people can ask their own questions, they’re able to get a nuanced response suited to their individual scenario.

Is TikTok a search engine?

While Reddit has been stealing recent headlines for its agreement with Google and increased prominence as a search destination, it is of course TikTok that sparked the most ferocious debate around the crossover between social media and search engines.

Fundamentally this debate is utterly pointless, and it doesn’t matter at all. Scrambling to define a platform is much less important than adapting to new behaviours and meeting customers where they’re searching.

If your customers are searching for terms related to your brand and offering on TikTok, but you’re not on the platform, then you’re missing an opportunity and leaving money on the table.

Dismissing TikTok search behaviour is a foolish choice, but anyone proclaiming that SEO is dead is also a fool.

TikTok’s prioritisation of search is such that it has begun pushing users to add a specific search shortcut to reduce friction between users and being able to search in the app.

TikTok is undeniably changing search behaviour, but there will always be a need for more in-depth content from trusted, editorial sources, the likes of which you’ll find on Google. A lot of more functional local searches will also remain more Google-focused. If you need a mechanic in your small town, TikTok is probably not anyone’s first port of call.

Informational searches key on TikTok

Up until more recently, TikTok has been heavily viewed as a platform whose primary benefit for brands is discovery. The nature of its format and opportunities for virality mean that the main consideration for brands using it has been wide-reaching discovery content. And some brands with less of a requirement for ‘discovery’ haven’t fully utilised the platform as a result.

It’s clear now that TikTok is not just key in the discovery stage, but also in the consideration stage.

Similarly to what we’re seeing with Reddit, viewers want to see unaffiliated, genuine opinions on products and brands, to help them form relationships with these brands and products.

The difference with TikTok is the depth in which someone feels involved in the search results, due to it being a video first platform. Insider Intelligence say that how-tos and other informational content are the most popular social searches for Gen-Z as a result of their video-first preference.

If someone wants to know how to style a certain shoe, rather than seeing images and reading an article describing the style, they can watch a video that shows them how the style looks from multiple angles, with a voiceover talking through what they’re seeing. For learning how to cook something, rather than finding ingredients and instructions, they can see the process in greater depth. What the sauce should look like when you add the next ingredient, how finely you should be chopping another ingredient.

Another element where TikTok, and social media in general, has an advantage is that personality is key.

As well as finding out information, people want to be entertained. Creators and brands alike can add more personality to their content than they can through a blog post. People are increasingly searching for informational content, but they want a mix of information and entertainment. TikTok’s content packaging makes consuming ‘how-to’ content much more engaging and appealing than an article.

Perspectives and SGE blend search and social

Google can see the appeal of consuming content visually, and it’s launch of Perspectives shows another example of how search and social behaviour are blending.

Informational creator content will likely play a prominent role in this development, fulfilling the ‘experience’ part of Google’s E-E-A-T. Simple, informational searches that can be backed by a visual answer seem to be shown through SGE at the moment. However, this will undoubtedly spread to make product reviews a key part of the function’s offering.

Incorporating reviews, user feedback and community discussion into your own content will help with appearing in these two functions.

Takeaways

Search on social is nothing new. Data from Insider Intelligence shows that Gen Z have preferred social media over search engines for researching brands since 2016. For as long as search has been an option on social, people have used it to find information.

The recent debate is due to the fact that these behaviours are shifting and now have a much greater importance in a consumer’s journey than simply researching brands and finding new products and content.

Search on social now offers users the possibility of going through the full purchase funnel. Discovering a brand, finding products, researching those products and considering reviews from other users, and then ultimately also purchasing in-app.

While it is rare that the full purchase journey takes place on social media, and most consumers will involve search engines or in-store experiences before making a purchase, it still represents a big shift in behaviour. But also a big opportunity for brands.

Brands can make the most of the discoverability of platforms like TikTok, and also produce content for users at the consideration stage on the same platform. Rather than someone having to leave the platform, they can discover a product, follow that up with a ‘how-to’ search query and see examples of how to use the product.

Producing this content for visibility on Google has always been, and will continue to be, essential. However, people are now searching everywhere, and as such it’s important to show up everywhere that your customers are searching.

Within this search everywhere philosophy, you can strategise as to where your customers are showing up, and therefore where you need to be, as well as what content you need to produce to meet their needs.