How Social Media Search Is Changing the Way Customers Find Brands

How Should Brands Optimise for Social Search?

Brands should optimise social content around real customer questions, searchable language, useful information and strong proof. The focus should be on making profiles and individual posts understandable, relevant and credible rather than simply increasing posting frequency.

A practical social-search optimisation process can look like this:

1. Identify real customer queries

Review Google Search Console, social platform search insights, comments, DMs, customer calls and sales conversations.

Look for recurring questions rather than only high-volume keywords.

2. Build content around intent

Create different content for different stages.

For example:

Discovery:
“What to look for in a professional digital marketing partner”

Consideration:
“SEO vs paid ads: which is better for a local business?”

Decision:
“Questions to ask before hiring a digital marketing agency”

3. Make every post understandable

Avoid captions that provide no context.

A useful post should make it clear:

• What is being discussed?
• Who is it for?
• What problem does it solve?
• What should the viewer do next?

4. Create content in multiple formats

One topic can become:

• Short-form video
• Carousel
• Story
• Long-form video
• FAQ post
• Customer testimonial
• Creator collaboration

This allows the same topic to reach customers through different discovery paths.

5. Connect social discovery with search

Social and traditional SEO should not operate in isolation.

A digital marketing company can use search data to identify questions for social content, while social engagement can reveal new language, objections and topics worth targeting on the website.

Google's own research reinforces the importance of connected journeys. In India, Google and/or YouTube appeared in 87% of consumer journeys where respondents said they discovered a new brand, product or retailer.