How Social Media Shapes AI Search Results: What Multi-Location Brands Should Know

Thanks to the rising popularity of AI search, how your brand appears to potential customers is no longer dictated solely by traditional SEO or paid media.

Tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity are shaping how people discover and choose local businesses — and your social media presence is playing a bigger role than you might think.

At Yext, we've been studying how AI tools decide what to recommend when users ask things like: "What are the best pizza places in North Vancouver?"

To be included in these answers, you need a robust digital presence (more on that here). What you might not know? Social media activity — from engagement to user-generated content — is increasingly influencing AI-generated results.

Even though large language models don't always crawl Instagram or TikTok directly, social media still influences AI-generated answers in three key ways:

1. Social activity sends authority and popularity signals:

Active, verified, and widely followed social accounts help build digital trust. If your brand is regularly mentioned in top-ten lists or goes viral on social platforms, AI tools may reference those signals to identify what's trending in a specific area.

Example: Let's say a local blog features your restaurant in a "Top 5 Most Instagrammable Pizza Joints in North Vancouver" blog. That post gets indexed by AI tools, boosting your visibility in related future queries.

2. User-generated content builds recognition:

When customers tag your brand in their posts — especially with location info or hashtags — it creates a stream of data that may be pulled into AI models via aggregation or re-shared on blogs and in forums.

Encouraging UGC (like "Tag us in your pizza night pics 🍕📸") can help you amplify your brand's footprint far beyond your direct followers.

3. Social media spotlights content that mirrors customer intent:

AI tools prioritize content that reflects how people naturally ask questions. Your social posts can do the same.

Instead of posting:

"Try our new Margherita Pizza 🍕✨"...

Try adding:

"Hiking Quarry Rock in North Van? Refuel with our wood-fired Margherita pizza🍕🏞️ #NorthVancouver #PostHikeEats"

This subtle shift mirrors search intent and local discovery — and is more likely to be referenced in blogs, local guides, or Reddit threads that AI tools analyze. With the latter option, if someone were to search for the "best pizza near Quarry Rock," — your restaurant is more likely to show up.

At Yext, brands often ask us: How do tools like ChatGPT choose what to recommend?

Here's a simplified look at where they get their signals:

• AI looks at individual listings to find foundational information (structured data like brand name, hours, and category.

• AI looks at customer reviews to identify brand sentiment, popularity, and freshness.

• AI looks at local web content to find mentions of your brand in blog posts, "best of" lists, and city guides.

• AI looks at structured website data to find schema markup, local landing pages, and FAQ pages.

• AI looks at forums and social discussions (Reddit, Twitter/X, and TikTok mentions) to find sentiment information and real user-generated insight.

Here's how your brand can take immediate action to optimize for AI visibility, starting with social:

• Geo-tag and hashtag all location-specific content (to surface in local search queries)

• Encourage user tagging and repost UGC (to build organic buzz and broaden reach)

• Get featured in roundup content (to increase your odds of being cited by AI tools)

• Share local-specific tips or moments (to align with how users ask discovery questions)

• Embed social content on your website in a structured way (to gain visibility across channels)

Each of these actions helps AI models associate your brand with real-world relevance, making it more likely you'll appear in high-intent local discovery moments.

AI is redefining how customers find and choose local businesses — and your social media presence is more than just a branding tool. It's a real-time signal that AI models use to surface trusted, relevant recommendations.

Whether it's a viral post, a customer tag, or a well-placed hashtag, your social content plays a role in how (and if) you appear in answers to prompts like:

"Best chiropractor near me"

"Top-rated dentist in Chicago"

"Pizza spots locals love in North Vancouver"

The bottom line is that visibility in AI search isn't the future — it's already here. Curious to know where your brand stands? Scout can show you.