Episode 26: How to Boost Visibility in AI Search Through Social

Key Takeaways

• Consumers now expect instant, hyper-specific answers from AI search
• Information overload is the strategy: share every detail about your business across every channel, including options, quirks, and features that may seem minor
• Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram now have their own AI overviews, making social content a direct input to AI-powered local discovery
• SEOs must become the connective glue between social, content, and operations teams
• Your website should be the source of truth, with social media channels reinforcing and distributing that information across platforms where AI pulls data

The way consumers discover local businesses is fragmenting across more platforms and AI tools than ever before. A single search query can now pull answers from Google, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, Yelp, and local wikis simultaneously — and the brands that surface are the ones that have made their information available everywhere.

In this episode of the Local Marketing Beat podcast, host Christian Hustle sits down with Celeste Gonzalez, Director of RooLabs, the SEO Testing Division at RicketyRoo, to explore how AI search is reshaping local discovery, why information overload is the winning strategy, how social media is becoming a direct AI search signal, and what SEOs need to do to lead cross-team collaboration in the AI era.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction and Celeste Gonzalez’s background in SEO testing

01:58 How AI search is changing local discovery: instant gratification and longer queries

05:46 Strategies for local brands: information overload across every channel

07:54 Are consumers actually using AI for local search? Audience-dependent adoption

09:28 Gen Z perspective: TikTok and Instagram as local search engines

12:00 How the consumer journey keeps changing across generations and platforms

13:42 Conversions: how “know before you go” details drive foot traffic

17:40 Website as source of truth, social as reinforcement

19:10 SEOs as the glue: why cross-team collaboration is now essential

21:07 Key takeaway: information overload and unification across channels

AI Search Demands Instant, Hyperspecific Answers

“We’re in the age of instant gratification. People want their answers. They want their information. They want it now. And with AI search being integrated on Google and on other tools, they’re expecting a lot almost immediately.” — Celeste Gonzalez

Celeste brings a Gen Z perspective to the conversation, describing how consumer expectations have fundamentally shifted.

Users are now entering highly specific, paragraph-length queries into Google and ChatGPT — asking for a matcha shop nearby that offers strawberry matcha with sugar-free or adjustable sweetness options — and expecting a complete answer in a single result. The research phase that used to require visiting multiple sites, checking Yelp photos, and reading menus is being compressed into one AI-powered response.

For local brands, this means that missing details can be disqualifying. If your menu does not mention sugar-free options, if your hours are not current, or if your specific services are not documented, AI will simply recommend a competitor that has that information available.

Information Overload Is the Winning Strategy

“I would call it just like information overload. I think this is time to overshare and those things that maybe you think are not that important to share with your audience, no matter where — it’s time to share it.” — Celeste Gonzalez

Celeste’s core recommendation is counterintuitive for brands accustomed to curated, minimal messaging: Share everything. Even details that seem insignificant — sugar-free syrup options that rarely get ordered, the fact that half your tables are designated as laptop-free, fair trade coffee sourcing — can be the deciding factor that gets your business surfaced in an AI response.

She references a coffee shop in her college town where Google’s “know before you go” feature pulled in details about split seating and Wi-Fi access codes from local wikis and reviews, because the business had not published that information on its own channels.

For multi-location brands managing listings at scale, this insight has direct implications. Every attribute, every service detail, every operational quirk should be documented on the business’s own website, Google Business Profile, social media profiles, and any relevant third-party platform.

When AI tools go looking for information to answer a specific query, the brands that have made that information available across multiple sources are the ones that get recommended.

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Social Media Is Now a Direct Input to AI Search

“There’s AI search in TikTok and Instagram now. TikTok has AI overviews where if I look up coffee shop places in West Hollywood, it’ll give me an AI overview of five different places. It’ll pull in some information and reviewers say this because they actually have reviews in TikTok now too.” — Celeste Gonzalez

One of Celeste’s most striking observations is that AI-powered search is no longer limited to Google and ChatGPT. TikTok and Instagram now display their own AI overviews for local queries, pulling in reviews, user-generated content, and business information to create discovery experiences that compete directly with traditional search.

TikTok has even integrated Google Business Profile reviews and Yelp data into its results, while also allowing users to leave native reviews on the platform.

For brands investing in local social media management, this is a paradigm shift. Social content is no longer just about engagement and brand awareness — it is now a direct feed into AI-powered discovery. When a local business posts a photo of its strawberry matcha on Instagram with a caption mentioning sugar-free options, that information becomes available for AI overviews to surface.

Celeste recommends mentioning key details in captions, video text overlays, descriptions, and transcripts across every social platform. For food and beverage brands and other visual industries, the combination of user-generated content and business-posted content creates a rich data layer that AI tools actively mine.

Know Before You Go: How Small Details Drive Conversions

“Those features that could be really helpful for people in knowing before they go — that it’s all available. It’s very important for local businesses to have any small detail possible that could be a determining factor for someone on their own channels.” — Celeste Gonzalez

Celeste connects information overload directly to conversions through Google’s “know before you go” feature, which surfaces operational details, quirks, and user-reported facts about a business before someone visits.

She describes seeing a coffee shop’s listing show that tables are split between work and leisure, that Wi-Fi requires an access code, and that they serve fair trade coffee — all pulled from third-party sources like reviews, Reddit, and a local wiki, not from the business itself.

The conversion implication is direct: If a potential customer can confirm that a location meets their specific needs without additional research, they convert. If they cannot, they move on instantly.

For brands optimizing local landing pages and location performance, this means proactively publishing the kind of details that would otherwise only surface through reviews or third-party forums. When the business controls its own narrative with accurate, detailed information on its own channels, AI tools are more likely to pull from those authoritative sources.

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SEOs Must Become the Glue Between Teams

“We kind of have to be the glue now. I think before, we were kind of siloed, kind of off in our own little corner, and that’s over. It’s done. It’s the time for as much collaboration as possible.” — Celeste Gonzalez

The role of local SEO has fundamentally expanded. With AI overviews appearing in TikTok, Instagram, and Google simultaneously, the information that drives visibility is no longer confined to a website or a business profile — it spans every channel a brand operates on.

SEOs are uniquely positioned to lead this cross-functional effort because they understand how AI systems consume and prioritize information across sources.

For multi-location brands, this means SEOs should be collaborating with social media teams, operations, and content creators to ensure consistency.

If the website mentions sugar-free options, the Instagram captions should too. If hours change for a holiday, it should be reflected on the Google Business Profile, the website, social posts, and Bing Places simultaneously.

Celeste frames the website as the source of truth and social channels as reinforcement — a model that aligns directly with how location data management platforms like Uberall help brands maintain consistency at scale. The brands that break down silos and unify their information across channels are the ones AI will consistently recommend.