Social Search

Social search is the shift towards people searching for information on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Reddit, rather than starting with Google. For your business, it means visibility now depends on more than a traditional search results page. Customers are researching, comparing and forming opinions of brands across the platforms they already spend time on, and that activity increasingly shapes what AI search tools like Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT choose to cite.

AI search tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews increasingly favour real discussion and firsthand experience over polished web copy when forming their answers. Platforms like Reddit, LinkedIn and YouTube are full of exactly that kind of content, which means an active, credible social presence has become a genuine factor in AI visibility, not just a brand awareness channel. Put simply, brands already visible and trusted on these platforms are the ones AI tools are increasingly citing.

AI search tools such as ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews increasingly draw on platforms like Reddit and LinkedIn when forming their answers, treating genuine discussion and expert commentary as more trustworthy than polished marketing copy. That means your visibility and reputation on these platforms directly shapes whether, and how, your brand gets mentioned when someone asks an AI a question.

It depends on where your audience already searches, not just where they scroll. Younger, visual audiences search on TikTok and Instagram; B2B buyers increasingly search LinkedIn and Reddit; ecommerce brands can’t ignore Amazon’s own search function. We help you identify which of these matters most for how your specific customers search, rather than spreading effort across all of them.

Not entirely, but it is reshaping it. Around a quarter of people worldwide now use social platforms as their main way of searching, rising significantly among younger audiences. Google remains the dominant search engine overall, but for everyday queries, such as a product recommendation or an honest review, social platforms are increasingly the first place people look.