Social content is showing up a lot more in AI answers today than even a year ago. Platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn and Reddit are becoming discovery engines themselves.
But many organizations are still treating GEO as someone else’s job, said Brent Bowen, chief storyteller at Sparkcade Marketing, yesterday during Ragan’s Social Media Conference.
“I still see GEO handed off to the digital marketing SEO squad or IT while communicators and social media managers are left knocking on the studio door,” Bowen said.
Social media managers trying to increase discoverability, especially for long-form content, should start with structure, clarity and repeatable systems, he said.
“Search is happening in all these platforms,” Bowen said. “The opportunity is for social leaders to shape how their brands show up when machines do the recommending and humans do the deciding.”
- Frontload the question and answer: Social posts should start with the main topic and response. “You’re going to be frontloading the main question and the main response,” he said. Bowen compared this to the inverted pyramid used in reporting, where the most important information is seen first. This structure helps discovery tools quickly identify what the content is about and improves the chances it will appear in search results or AI summaries.
- Use lists and steps whenever possible: Structured formatting also makes content easier for AI models to interpret, Bowen said. “Lists, steps, tables and flywheels are great in the structure of the social media post,” he said. These formats help machines understand relationships between ideas and help people quickly and easily scan the content. Brands should focus on step-by-step lists, bullet points or simple frameworks instead of long paragraphs that are harder to read, he said. It may initially feel less creative than traditional social copy, but it improves clarity and increases the chance that the content appears in search results or AI summaries.
- Be precise and clear: Many brands use humor and sarcasm or inside jokes for social media, which is OK if it aligns with brand voice. Being humorous can drive engagement, but it also might confuse LLMs that are trying to categorize the content, Bowen said. However, the goal isn’t to remove all personality or humor from your posts, but to add more clarity. “Be precise and specific,” he said. “That doesn’t mean sterile. This is where the storyteller comes out.” Specific details help AI platforms understand what a post is about. It also helps audiences trust the information. Teams should avoid being overly wordy or technical, he said. “Drop the jargon,” Bowen said. “No inside baseball.” Simple language improves accessibility and ensures the topic is clear to people encountering the content for the first time, he said.
- Optimize the content: Social media teams tend to focus on the visible parts of a post like captions, visuals or comments. But discoverability also depends on what audiences don’t see, Bowen said. This includes things like file names, alt text, tags and keywords. Even the language used in replies and comment threads can contribute to how content is categorized, he said. Small changes to titles, descriptions and tags can dramatically increase organic reach over time, he said. “Get a good foundation of content,” Bowen said. “Then you can come back and optimize.”
- Provide context and sources: Posts should also include context that supports the topic, On social media, sources can include tagging experts, referencing guests on a podcast or pointing to other credible voices connected to the topic. These help AI models understand authority and relationships around the content, Bowen said.
- Create consistent and repeatable patterns: Consistency also plays a role in GEO. AI systems learn patterns over time. Bowen pointed to the podcast “What Was That Like?” as an example. The show grew its audience largely through Facebook posts that follow the same structure every time. Each post starts with a short description of the podcast. Then it introduces the story of the episode, tagging the guest speaker. It ends with a call to action that encourages people to search for the show by name. “The formula is repeating,” Bowen said. “And this is an independent show that has grown to have hundreds of thousands of followers now.” Consistency helps platforms recognize the content and associate it with a clear topic.
“You’re already creating the content for these platforms,” he said. “Now it’s just about applying the right framework and testing for discoverability.”
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].
