The first search engine a lot of people open isn't Google anymore. It's TikTok or Instagram. They type a question into the search bar, scroll the results, and decide who to trust based on what they find. If your business doesn't show up in those results, you're invisible to customers who are already looking for you.
Why search moved to social
Search on social started as a way to find funny videos. It's become something bigger. People search social for the same reasons they used to search Google: to compare options, check reviews, see real examples, and get a feel for who they'd be dealing with. The difference is the format. A Google result is a list of links. A social result is a person, a product, a story, or a customer who already bought.
The platforms have noticed, and they've been pushing search features hard. The results are good enough now that people trust them. For a growing share of customers, social search isn't a backup to Google. It's the first place they look.
What people actually search for
Search on social is rarely a brand name. It's a question or a problem. 'Best running shoes for flat feet.' 'How to fix a slow Shopify store.' 'Accountant for tradies in Sydney.' The people typing those searches are further along than someone scrolling a feed. They have a need, they're comparing options, and they're close to a decision.
This is where most businesses miss it. They treat social as a broadcast channel: post content, hope it gets seen. Search rewards the opposite. It rewards content that answers a specific question clearly, with a real person or brand behind it. The businesses that show up in social search are the ones that published the answer before anyone asked.
How to be findable
- Put your name and your offer in your bio and your captions. Search can't match what you never wrote down.
- Answer the questions your customers actually type. Every good enquiry you've ever received is a search query waiting to be answered.
- Post consistently around the topics you want to be known for. Consistency beats virality here too, because search rewards a body of work, not a single hit.
- Use the platform's own search bar to see what people are asking, then make content that answers it.
The part that hasn't changed
Social search isn't a replacement for everything else. Google still owns the commercial searches, the ones where people are ready to buy. SEO is still the only channel you actually own, and it's still worth building. But social search is where the relationship starts for a growing number of customers, and being absent there means losing them before they ever reach your site.
Think of it as a second front door. The businesses that win show up in both places: ranked on Google for the buying searches, and findable on social for the research ones. Neither is optional anymore.
If your social content is all broadcast and no search, that's a fixable problem, and it's the kind of work we do every day. Our content team builds social content that earns attention and answers questions. Tell us what your customers are searching for and we'll help you show up where they're looking.
