Digital Marketing · Social Search · Video Marketing
Searching the Internet no longer necessarily means going to Google. Social media and video platforms have also become discovery spaces where users research products, look for recommendations, compare experiences, and find answers through content.
For years, talking about digital visibility meant thinking primarily about search engines. Someone had a need, typed a few words into Google, and browsed through different results until they found an answer.
That behavior has not disappeared, but it now coexists with other forms of search.
Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are now part of the process through which many people discover places, products, services, trends, tutorials, and opinions.
This evolution is commonly known as Social Search: the use of social platforms as tools for search and discovery.
What Is Social Search?
Social Search describes the behavior of using social media and content platforms to find information that might traditionally have been searched for through a search engine such as Google.
Someone can search for a recipe on TikTok, compare products through YouTube videos, discover a restaurant on Instagram, or look at other users’ experiences before making a decision.
The difference is that the answer does not necessarily appear as a list of web pages.
It may come through a video, a demonstration, a comment, a personal experience, or a creator’s recommendation.
Search is no longer simply about finding information. On many platforms, it also means discovering experiences, opinions, and perspectives.
Why Are Social Platforms Gaining Ground as Search Tools?
Research published by WARC and TikTok in 2025 examined how these habits were evolving, particularly among younger audiences.
The study found that 48% of surveyed Gen Z consumers were using social and video platforms for search more frequently than they had three years earlier.
By comparison, 19% said they had increased their use of artificial intelligence platforms for the same purpose.
This does not mean that social media is universally replacing Google or that every generation searches in the same way.
What it does show is that search behavior is becoming fragmented across different platforms depending on the need, context, and type of information each person is looking for.
TikTok as a Search and Discovery Platform
TikTok is one of the most visible examples of this shift.
According to the cited research, 86% of surveyed Gen Z Internet users used TikTok weekly for search, compared with 90% for the leading traditional search engine included in the study.
This comparison does not automatically make TikTok a replacement for Google. The two environments respond to different behaviors and needs.
But it does show how a platform originally designed around entertainment can also become a discovery tool.
The audiovisual experience has a great deal to do with this.
Instead of only reading a product description, users can see the product in action. Instead of simply checking a restaurant listing, they can see the dishes, the atmosphere, and the experiences of other customers.
Why Does Video Work So Well for Discovering Information?
Video combines demonstration, context, storytelling, and human communication within a single format.
This can be particularly useful when someone needs to understand something that would be more difficult to explain through text alone.
For example:
- how a product works;
- how to prepare a recipe;
- how to get somewhere;
- what kind of experience a restaurant offers;
- how to use a tool;
- what the differences are between two products;
- how to solve a specific problem;
- what other people think before making a purchase.
Video is not better than text for every search. Its advantage appears when seeing, hearing, or demonstrating something provides information that complements the explanation.
Creators Are Also Part of Search
Another characteristic of Social Search is that information often appears connected to a person.
The WARC and TikTok study found that participants were 1.2 times more likely to believe a claim when it came from a creator than when the same claim was communicated directly by a brand.
This does not mean that every creator is automatically more trustworthy than a company.
Trust depends on factors such as experience, transparency, knowledge, reputation, and the relationship with the audience.
However, it helps explain why creators can influence discovery: they turn commercial or technical information into experiences communicated through a recognizable human voice.
Not Every Generation Searches the Same Way
One mistake when discussing Social Search would be to assume that all users are abandoning traditional search engines.
The research showed generational differences.
Millennials and Gen Z placed greater value on platforms oriented toward content discovery, while Gen X and Baby Boomers continued to place greater importance on factors such as speed, relevance, and reliability of results.
This has an important strategic consequence:
A brand should not choose its channels based on trends, but on how the audience it needs to reach actually searches for information.
Does Social Search Mean Traditional SEO Is Disappearing?
No.
Google remains fundamental for an enormous number of queries, and search experiences themselves are evolving with artificial intelligence.
What is changing is the idea that there is only one place where a brand needs to be visible.
Today, someone can discover a product through TikTok, search for reviews on YouTube, look for additional information on Google, visit the company’s official website, and later return to a social platform before making a decision.
Search therefore becomes a journey distributed across different touchpoints.
That is why SEO and Social Search should not necessarily be treated as competing strategies.
From SEO to Search Everywhere Optimization
The fragmentation of search is driving a broader view of digital visibility.
Instead of optimizing only a web page to appear on Google, brands are beginning to think about how they can be discovered wherever their audiences search for information.
This can include:
- traditional search engines;
- video platforms;
- social media;
- marketplaces;
- maps and local search;
- answer engines;
- generative artificial intelligence systems.
The objective is not to publish the same thing everywhere.
It is to understand what people are searching for on each platform and which format best responds to that intent.
What Changes for a Digital Marketing Strategy?
The first consequence is that relying exclusively on a single channel increases the risk of missing discovery opportunities.
A strategy can combine search-optimized web content with videos, social posts, and other pieces adapted to different moments in the user journey.
Create Content Based on Real Questions
The questions an audience types into Google can also become videos, posts, demonstrations, or educational content for social platforms.
Use Video When It Adds Context
Not every message needs to become a Reel, Short, or TikTok. The format makes sense when it allows us to demonstrate, explain, or tell something more effectively.
Build Recognizable Voices
Brands can work with external creators, but they can also develop specialists, executives, or internal professionals who are able to communicate knowledge from a human perspective.
Connect Discovery With Owned Assets
Social platforms can generate visibility, but a company still needs owned assets — such as its website — where it can develop its proposition, provide complete information, and turn that interest into a more direct relationship.
Social Search, SEO and Artificial Intelligence Are Part of the Same Shift
The growth of social search is not happening in isolation.
At the same time, Google is incorporating generative answers and conversational experiences, while artificial intelligence systems are creating new ways to access information.
The result is an ecosystem where search is no longer concentrated exclusively in a search box and a list of links.
For brands, this means thinking about digital visibility as a system: useful content, recognizable entities, experience, video, social presence, search engines, and owned assets working together.
Search Is Changing, but the Strategic Question Remains the Same
TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Google, and artificial intelligence tools can change the way people discover information.
But for a communication strategy, one question remains:
Where is my audience searching, and what do they need to find when they reach me?
Answering that question correctly is more important than chasing every new platform.
The search tool may change. The need to find useful and trustworthy information remains.
The growth of Social Search confirms that brands need to broaden their concept of digital visibility. It is no longer simply about appearing on Google, but about being discoverable and relevant in the places where their audience’s discovery process actually begins.