How to use your brand’s organic social media as a search engine

In a world where the demand of the consumer’s needs is ever-growing, organic social media is becoming more important – not just as a place to build community, reach new audiences and engage with the audience, but to become a new kind of search engine for online users

In this blog we’ll highlight the elements of organic social media that help to answer user’s queries and educate them. We’ll also look at how these platforms are becoming just as effective as search engines, such as Google or Bing, when it comes to converting customers.

Common questions & FAQs

People use search engines to find the most up to date information to help answer their queries. Some may use social media in the first instance, as they trust the brand they’re seeking out will be active enough on their profiles to give them the answer they need instantly.

Working alongside SEO to find the most in-demand search terms that relate to your industry and business, you can get ahead of the curve by updating your FAQs to automatically pop up if someone messages your business Facebook page.

You might also find that some of your most commonly asked questions are to do with your opening hours – whether you have a physical place of work or operate online – or contact details such as an email address or telephone number.

Keeping this information as up to date as possible in your social media bio or ‘About’ section will be greatly appreciated by your followers.

Hashtags & keywords

Attaching relatable and trending hashtags to your content is an effective way to increase reach and allow curious users to find your business when exploring the social media platforms.

In SEO terms, keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about. Hashtags, much like keywords, are words that users will be using in their social searches to find out more about a specific service, product or piece of information that is related to your brand. One of the best things about hashtags is that you can think big or niche at the same time to maximize the opportunity for your content to be seen.

Hashtags can be used on most of the social media platforms but are most effectively used on TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

Links and URLs

One of the main purposes of organic social media is to create content which will spark interest in your brand, engage with users and then direct them to your website. This means clearly displaying URLs to certain landing pages, product pages or blogs is crucial when posting on any social media platform; if the platform allows it.

On platforms where posting links per post isn’t available, such as Instagram, investing in a third-party multiple link sharing tool – Linktree just one example – is beneficial as this will be one of the first places a user will go to look for ways to find more information.

Video format

Video led social media platforms such as TikTok are paving the way in educating most users, and especially Gen Z, in an easy and fun way. The rise of visual how-tos, FAQs, or news can be applied to any sector or industry and is becoming a key part of presenting digestible content to online users.

On TikTok, you can find most answers to anything whether it is a scientific query or how to play an instrument. Other social media platforms are following suit too, with Instagram pushing Reels which is making brands rethink their social media strategies to stay on top of the constantly evolving algorithm.

Working in collaboration with the organic SEO and content strategy

Leanne Douglass, our senior SEO analyst, has been seeing a shift in the industry and places an importance on organic social media, content and SEO working collaboratively.

She says: “A lot of users use the likes of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube as a search engine to search for how-to’s, FAQs and news so they need to broadcast the correct content in line with the SEO strategy.”

The collaborative work is simple. The SEO team performs keyword research to find out what people are searching for, which then leads to a formation of content ideas to support the keywords they have identified.

Next, the content is written with both SEO and the user in mind and set live online. Finally, this content is posted on social media to increase reach and visibility to the target demographic and taps into answering the initial search queries found through the keyword research. The cycle continues and this integrated strategy ensures that all channels are in sync, no matter where a user is seeing the content.

Social proof

User generated content (UGC) can be beneficial to your organic social media strategy for helping to build your community, but it can also be one of the most crucial ways to help educate and convert your potential customers.

Most users will post about something they have bought on social media to review it positively and recommend it. Or alternatively, they can review it negatively and attempt to dissuade someone else from buying it.

For example, if you sold clothing items and a customer posted on social media to showcase their purchase from you, their content could persuade another potential customer to buy by providing extra details that your website or Google currently doesn’t.

These extra details, such as sizing guidance, a review of the material, postage and packaging time and how to style the piece of clothing can all be small details that combine into helping you convert more people.

This is why influencer marketing has become a highly sought after type of marketing on social media as trust is built more easily with a brand if they see the product being recommended by a real person.

A great example of social proof in use is DeliverChew. They use UGC to supply their feed with happy dogs who love their products.

And to support their marketing, they encourage their loyal fans to spread the word on their social media feeds by supplying them with discount codes and incentives.

See Rupert the Big White Retriever below.

Facebook groups

Following on from UGC being a source of trust building for potential customers, another place that boosts this is within Facebook groups. Facebook users will use these community groups to get recommendations, compare reviews and promote services that they know and trust to people with similar interests or based in a similar location.

Users within these groups are usually active and their engagements in the form of likes and comments will create an online buzz surrounding the topic. This type of online word of mouth marketing could give your business better visibility than on any search engine.

We hope to have inspired your thinking when it comes to organic social media after reading and help to spark ideas on how you can maximize your content when using your platforms as a social search engine.

For an integrated SEO, content and social media strategy for your brand, get in touch with Honchö today – let’s get the conversation started.