Also known as Keywords.
Quick definition
A keyword is a word or phrase that people type into search engines or social platforms when looking for content, products, or information on a topic.
Keywords are the bridge between what people search for and the content that appears in response. In SEO, keyword research identifies the exact terms your target audience uses so you can create content optimised to appear in those results. On social media, the same principle applies to platform search — Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube all have search functions where users discover content by typing queries, and posts and profiles that use those terms gain discoverability.
Social search is growing. Published research indicates that a significant share of younger users — particularly on TikTok and Instagram — use social platforms as their primary search tool for certain categories. Incorporating relevant keywords into captions, profile bios, alt text, and post text increases the chance that your content appears when someone searches a relevant phrase, extending reach beyond your existing followers.
Start with the terms your audience would type to find the problem your content solves. Use platform search bars to see what auto-completes, check which hashtags cluster around your topic, and look at how competitors caption their best-performing posts. Work one or two natural-language keyword phrases into captions rather than stuffing them — clarity for the reader and discoverability for the algorithm are the same goal.
Where SocialKit fits
SocialKit's per-platform caption customisation lets you tailor keyword-rich captions for each network's search behaviour — different phrasing for TikTok's conversational search and LinkedIn's professional queries — from one compose window.
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FAQ
Quick answers to the questions people ask most about this term.
SocialKit posts to all 11 platforms from one calendar and tracks how every post performs, so the numbers explain themselves. Try it free for 7 days.
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