How Social Media Platforms Are Evolving Into Search Engines (And How To Adapt)
Have you ever abandoned Google when searching for a topic and searched for it on a social media platform instead?
You’re not alone if you do. As it turns out, a lot of consumers now turn to social media to find information.
In this post, you will learn why social media platforms are turning into search engines and how you can optimize your marketing strategy to align with this change.
Note from Adam: One of the main reasons we’re talking about this topic is because some of our readers are looking to reduce reliance on traffic from Google Search. Social search is one way to do this. By the end of this post, you’ll have a basic understanding of how it all works. Including how to optimize your content to rank on social platforms – it’s far simpler than traditional SEO.
How search works on social media
Every social media platform has a search function.
On YouTube, the search box provides suggestions as you type.
Just clicking on the box reveals your most recent searches.
You can filter your searches by upload date, content type and duration.
On TikTok, the search box provides suggestions as you type.
Filters allow you to filter search results by relevancy, date posted, like count, whether or not you’ve watched any of the results, and whether results were posted by people you follow.
Instagram’s search feature isn’t all that great.
It has no search filters and instead separates results for keywords into different tabs: For You, Accounts, Audio, Tags, Places and Reels.
What it does well is keep a database of results for specific hashtags, which is why hashtags are so popular on Instagram.
If you enter a hashtag into the search bar, you’ll find results for posts that use that hashtag.
Unfortunately, there are no search results here, either, so you can’t filter or sort these results by popularity.
On Twitter (X), search results are divided into different tabs: Top, Latest, People, Media and Lists.
This makes it a lot more useful than Instagram’s search function as it gives you a simple way to sort a topic into its most popular posts as well as its most recent.
You can filter results by only showing results from people you follow and from posts that were shared at locations near you.
Facebook, as you know, is a multipurpose platform that has personal profiles, text-based posts, videos, business pages, group pages and even an entire marketplace.
As such, you can filter results by the following categories: Posts, People, Photos, Videos, Marketplace, Pages, Places, Groups and Events.
You can even search from within these different areas of the platform.
Pinterest has one of the best search functions of any social media platform.
The platform allows you to filter results into specific categories, but those categories are dynamic and change depending on what your search term is.
For example, if you enter “polymer clay ideas” into the search bar, some of the categories you can filter results by include “tutorials,” “tiny,” “easy” and “cute.”
If you type “winter soup ideas,” the categories that appear include “healthy,” “dinner,” “crockpot” and “hearty.”
There are additional filters for the platform’s content types: Videos, Boards, Profiles and Products.
How are social media platforms evolving into search engines?
A lot of marketers are worried about artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, and for good reason.
Before Google started providing an AI overview with almost every search query, they simply provided you with a list of web pages that likely contain the information you’re looking for.
This quickly led to the emergence of search engine marketing in the early days of the internet. If you own a blog, search engine marketing plays a huge role in your marketing strategy.
ChatGPT, on the other hand, uses machine learning and language processing to provide information directly, negating the need for the user to visit web pages related to a search query.
This means they don’t need to visit your website to find that information.
However, there’s evidence to suggest that it’s not AI consumers are turning to for information instead of traditional search engines, it’s social media.
According to a study that was commissioned by Forbes Advisor and conducted by Talker Research, 24% of consumers primarily use social media to search for things online.
The study includes survey results from around 2,000 consumers.
They even broke this figure down by generation with 46% of Gen Z and 35% of millennials saying they primarily use social media to find information online.
These numbers drop to 18%, 7% and 2% for Gen X, baby boomers and the silent generation, respectively.
In a study conducted by Adobe, these are the platforms 808 consumers use to find information online:
- Google – 91% of consumers use this platform to search for things online
- YouTube – 39%
- Bing – 21%
- TikTok – 17%
- DuckDuckGo – 17%
- Twitter – 12%
- ChatGPT – 11%
- Yahoo – 10%
- Facebook – 7%
- Pinterest – 7%
To be fair, the study was conducted in January of 2024, so ChatGPT’s numbers may be higher now, but these figures still prove how popular social media platforms, especially YouTube and TikTok, are becoming as search engines.
The study also stated that 41% of consumers have used TikTok as a search engine at least once.
Specifically, 64% of Gen Z, 49% of millennials, 29% of Gen X and 14% of boomers have used TikTok as a search engine.
How are consumers using search on social media?
84% of consumers use social media to find more information on brands they’re interested in.
94% of baby boomers still prefer to rely on search engines for this information compared to 64% of Gen Z.
57% of consumers search for information on YouTube in the same way they do on Google. 56% do this on Facebook, 38% do this on TikTok and 36% do this on Instagram.
Forbes’ study includes results on what Gen Z consumers search for the most on each platform.
Here’s what Gen Z searches for the most on TikTok:
- Gift ideas – 40% of Gen Z consumers search for this topic on TikTok
- Hair & makeup – 40%
- Wellbeing & fitness – 39%
- Recipes & meal ideas – 38%
- Fashion brands – 36%
- Video games/gaming – 35%
- Interior design – 33%
Here’s what Gen Z searches for the most on Instagram:
- Fashion brands – 27% of Gen Z consumers search for this topic on Instagram
- Hair & makeup – 25%
- Interior design – 21%
- Wellbeing & fitness – 20%
Finally, here’s what Gen Z searches for the most on Google:
- Local services – 66% of Gen Z consumers search for this topic on Google
- Restaurants & bars – 66%
- Electronics – 60%
- Financial services – 54%
- Cars – 46%
- Sports news & updates – 43%
- News & current affairs – 43%
According to Adobe’s study, 36% of consumers use TikTok to find new recipes, 35% use it to find new music, 34% use it to find DIY tips and 30% use it to find fashion advice.
Why are social media platforms evolving into search engines?
It’s not hard to understand why social media platforms are becoming popular sources for information.
Online video content in general has become quite popular over the last two decades, and with so many consumers preferring videos over written content these days, it was only a matter of time before a lot of them started seeking information from online video platforms.
In Adobe’s study, the company asked consumers what they preferred when using TikTok as a search engine.
An overwhelming majority, or 62%, preferred having access to video tutorials.
Here’s what else consumers preferred when using TikTok as a search engine:
- Video tutorials – 62% of consumers preferred having access to this
- Product or service reviews – 39%
- Personal stories or anecdotes – 38%
- Trending challenges or memes – 33%
- Influencer recommendations – 30%
- Guides – 26%
- Short, digestible text slideshows – 24%
- Q&As/interviews – 16%
Prior to Google’s helpful content update (HCU) in 2023, to many consumers, traditional search engines had become tainted by marketers using SEO to rank content in the hopes of driving affiliate commissions or sales for a particular product from that content.
This happens on social media as well, but it’s much easier to find the personal stories and anecdotes that 38% of consumers prefer when using a social media platform as a search engine.
Plus, social media platforms have comment sections, so if an influencer is lying, misrepresenting facts or giving incorrect information, their audience is going to confront them, something that doesn’t happen as often on blogs since most blogs disable their comment sections.
How to optimize your marketing strategy for social media search engines
The best way to optimize your marketing strategy for social media-based search engines is by actually creating useful and entertaining content your target audience needs and enjoys.
Adobe’s study included a survey of 251 business owners who claimed the following content types outperformed traditional SERPs on social media:
- Video tutorials – 22% of business owners say this content type outperformed traditional SERPs
- Content related to company product – 21%
- Product or service reviews – 18%
- Trending challenges or memes – 15%
- Personal stories or anecdotes – 12%
- Short, digestible text slideshows – 10%
- Guides – 8%
- Q&As/interviews – 7%
- Influencer recommendations – 6%
To improve your odds of being discovered in search results on social media, create social media content that targets keywords your audience might use on a given platform.
Consider their biggest pain points, then determine the best keywords to represent those pain points. Use search suggestions as well, and analyze your competitors’ best content to see which keywords they target.
Use keywords in your captions and hashtags to improve your odds of being seen.
And if you’re publishing videos on YouTube, you’ll need to make sure you verbally say your target keyword within the first 10 seconds.
Just remember that different keywords will perform differently on different social networks. I’d always recommend cross-promoting your content regardless but you’ll get the best results by focusing on a small number of platforms.
For example, you might focus on short videos for TikTok. Then, use a social media scheduler to cross promote those videos to all other platforms.
This is why it makes sense to use a tool like keywordtool.io to conduct keyword research for the specific social network you plan on using.
Note from Adam: Traditional SEO has a lot of variables and it can get quite complex, especially if you’re new to it. It also takes a lot of time and effort to start moving the needle. But “Social SEO” is very different. Once you’re including the right keywords in your posts, it really comes down to how well your content performs. Social networks are all about engagement metrics. Any account has a chance to rank in social search or go viral in general – the number of followers you have doesn’t matter as much as it used to.
Final thoughts
The landscape of online search is changing.
While Google may still dominate traditional search engines, social media platforms are being used as search engines more and more.
For certain topics, traditional search engines are not the best option.
So, as a content creator, this means adapting to ensure you can be found on as many platforms as possible.
Depending on your business, it may be worth including both traditional search and social search in your strategy.
It would add an extra layer of redundancy and reduce your reliance on Google which is becoming more and more important.
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