Social Media is no longer optional

What was once a space for brand awareness, community building, or something you should be doing (but rarely had time for), social media is now one of the most powerful tools in your digital marketing toolkit.

With Meta’s latest update allowing Google to index public Facebook and Instagram posts, and the rise of AI-powered search tools and social-first search behaviours, your social content plays a crucial role in how people discover your brand online.

Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn have become fast-moving, high-impact spaces where your posts don’t just start conversations, they help people and search engines understand who you are, what you do, and why you matter.

How social feeds search

Each platform plays a unique role in shaping how your brand is shared in search results. Here’s how Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn contribute to your online visibility, both in traditional SEO and social-first search journeys:

• Instagram
  Visual-first, but captions, hashtags, and your bio now matter more than ever. Reels and carousels showcase brand personality and, thanks to Meta indexing, now contribute to how Google interprets your brand.

• Facebook
  Still a community-led and local discovery powerhouse but with public posts and reviews now being indexed, your conversations, check-ins, and your Facebook reviews act as high-trust signals that can appear in Google results and influence customer decisions.

• LinkedIn
  The go-to for B2B and service-led businesses, thought leadership and expert-led content often performs well in search and is picked up by AI tools like Google’s SGE or ChatGPT.

Together, these platforms help build credibility, authority, and discoverability.

How to optimise social content for search

Your posts have the power to show up beyond your feed - in Google search results, AI tools, and discovery tabs. But to make that happen, they need to be written with intention. Here are some simple ways to optimise your social content so it works harder to be seen:

1. Write captions with purpose

Use natural, search-friendly and human language. Think about what your audience would type into Google or Instagram when looking for what you offer and build a list of keywords from there and weave these into your captions naturally. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends or SEMRush to help you.

2. Use descriptive hashtags

Hashtags act like mini search signals. Mix broad tags with niche or location-based tags) to increase your chances of being indexed and discovered.

3. Optimise your profile

Make your bio work hard. Include what you do, where you’re based, and use relevant keywords. And it goes without saying - make sure your account is set to public!

4. Post consistently

Google and AI tools favour fresh, valuable content as this signals that you’re active, engaging and relevant. A consistent posting schedule helps you stay visible and gives search engines more content to index.

5. Encourage engagement

Comments, shares, saves, and tags don’t just boost your reach, they signal to search engines that your content is trusted by others and worth showing in search results.

6. Use alt-text

Alt text provides short, descriptive text for images and improves accessibility for users with screen readers while gives search engines more context, this is especially valuable for visual search.

7. Add text to Reels

Include on-screen text in your Reels where you can as Google indexes text that appears in video content. On-screen text also reinforces your message, supports accessibility, and helps viewers engage, even with the sound off.

Social platforms are becoming search engines

Social media is fast becoming a search channel as much as it’s a social one.

Did you know:

• 41% of Gen Z now use social media as their primary way to search online, ahead of Google, which sits at 31% (Sprout Social, 2024).

• There’s been a 25% drop in Gen Z using Google first to search, with TikTok and Instagram becoming their preferred platforms for discovering products, services, and recommendations (Forbes, 2024).

This shift means your content isn’t just for your followers anymore, it’s a discoverability tool in it’s own right.

Search happens everywhere

Your digital presence is no longer limited to your website. It’s your Instagram captions, your Facebook reviews, your LinkedIn posts, your bio, your blog, even your alt text.

If you want to be discoverable in modern search, whether that’s Google or social-first search, your content needs to be helpful, relevant, and everywhere your audience is looking.

Because visibility doesn’t come from one channel anymore, it comes from showing up well across them all.