The Biggest Social Media Marketing Strategy Shift in Years

Every so often, a technological shift forces businesses to rethink their entire social media marketing strategy. Meta’s July 2025 shift is one of those tectonic changes.

For the first time, Instagram and Facebook posts are being indexed by Google and other search engines. This isn’t just another tweak to the algorithm or a minor feature release. It fundamentally reshapes how your social media strategy and your SEO strategy work together.

Until now, social content lived in its own bubble. We all know the power of social media (for instance, 41% of Gen Z now use social as their primary search tool). But up until recently, if you posted a Reel, it lived or died based on how many of your followers saw it in their feeds or whether the platform’s recommendation engine decided to push it further. Once that short window passes, the content joins your library of posts (only to be found when someone visits your profile or searches a hashtag).

Not anymore! Now your social media content is discoverable on Google just like a blog post, a YouTube video, or even your website. For local businesses, every post has the potential to become part of your long-term marketing strategy…this is a moment that truly can’t be ignored.

 

How Did This Social Media Marketing Strategy Change?

In July of 2025, Meta flipped a switch that fundamentally altered discoverability of it’s user’s content.

• Search engines can now crawl and index public photos and videos on Instagram and Facebook.
• It applies to professional and creator accounts set to public.
• Retroactive indexing means older posts, dating back several years, are now eligible to appear in search.
• Private accounts, Stories, and non-public content remain excluded.

For more than a decade, Meta operated as a walled garden. You could search inside Instagram, use hashtags, or scroll through ‘explore’, but the reach stopped there. Now, Google & Bing can pull in your posts the same way they pull in articles, business listings, and YouTube videos.

This is HUGH for small and mid-size businesses because Google search traffic is not casual. People go to social media to browse…but they go to search engines to find.

 

Why This Matters for New Jersey Businesses

For years, many local business owners have been told they “need to do social media” or “should invest in SEO.” And those same owners have wrestled with a frustrating trade-off: social posts fade quickly while SEO feels expensive, time-consuming, and highly technical.

Meta’s update finally ties the two together. Your social media presence is now also part of your search presence!

Think about it:

• A Morristown coffee shop posts a short Reel of a new fall latte. That video, captioned with the right keywords and tagged with the shop’s location, could rank for “pumpkin spice latte Morristown NJ.”
• A Bridgewater-based contractor shares a before-and-after video of an addition. That Reel could now surface when someone googles “roof replacement Bridgewater NJ.”
• A Newark fitness studio films a quick HIIT workout tip. Optimized properly, it might show up in searches for “HIIT classes Newark NJ.”

The opportunity found in this social media marketing strategy is enormous, especially for service-based and location-driven businesses. 88% of people who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a business within 24 hours. That means a strong social media marketing strategy should treat every post as a searchable asset. A single indexed Reel, written with the right keywords and location tags, isn’t just a fleeting social update. It becomes a long-term driver of foot traffic and revenue.

1. Search traffic has higher intent. People who use Google are actively looking for something. If your content answers their question, it positions you as a helpful authority.
2. Visual content influences decisions. Consumers make choices based on what they see. High-quality visuals in search results increase click-through rates and trust.

We’ve seen firsthand how this plays out. Awakened Films partnered with a local landscaping and snow removal company. From its inception, they had always relied on word of mouth. We helped them launch media rich content on their website and a video-first social strategy featuring before-and-after yard transformations, snow plowing reels, and quick customer testimonial clips. Captions were written with search in mind. Think “Summit NJ patio installation” or “commercial snow removal Parsippany NJ.” Within months, they were getting inbound leads from people who had never heard of them before. And these leads came not from paid ads, but from people who found their videos in search results.

For New Jersey businesses that have struggled with social media, this update removes the excuse. The posts you’re making today can now pull double duty on Google & Bing. For marketers, this unlocks a new layer of SEO: optimizing social media content for Google (not just your website).

 

SEO and Social Strategies Converge

For years, digital marketers treated SEO and social media as separate tracks. SEO meant blogs, backlinks, and structured metadata. Social meant static & video posts, and engagement metrics. The two overlapped occasionally but mostly lived in different silos.

This kind of separate thinking no longer makes sense.

Captions, hashtags, geotags, and alt text are signals for both Instagram’s algorithm and Google’s crawlers. Every public post is now part of the web. Every caption is a potential keyword match. Every alt tag is a description Google can use to index your visual content.

And here’s where it gets even more urgent: 58.5 percent of Google searches in the U.S. end without a click. Users often find what they need right in the search results; whether it’s a featured snippet, an image pack, or a local listing. Your Instagram or Facebook content showing up in those results gives you a chance to claim major visibility.

This shift is the clearest sign yet that social content is a powerful marketing driver and should be created with SEO in mind. The line between the two has officially disappeared.

 

How to Optimize Your Social Media Marketing Strategy for Google Search

The good news is that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. A few intentional steps can make your social content more search-friendly.

1. Create professional social media content. Remember, this content is going to be readily found on both your social profile and Google/Bing. Make something worth sharing.
2. Write descriptive captions. Skip the vague one-liners. Instead of “new install today,” write “New roof installation in Bridgewater NJ using Owens Corning shingles.” Make it clear what the post shows, where it happened, and who you are.
3. Add custom alt text. Instagram will auto-generate alt text, but it’s usually generic. Take the time to describe what’s in the photo or video, include your brand, and reference the location.
4. Use geotags and location references. Tag your business, your city, and even neighborhoods when relevant. Local intent drives local results.
5. Mention your brand name. It strengthens brand authority and helps your content rank in branded searches.
6. Be strategic with hashtags. Five to ten targeted hashtags are more effective than twenty random ones. Think #BridgewaterNJContractor or #MorristownCafe instead of #goodvibesonly.
7. Keep your profiles public and optimized. A private account won’t be indexed. Your bio should read like a micro landing page: who you are, what you do, and where you serve.
8. Lean into video content. Tutorials, transformations, event recaps, and behind-the-scenes footage all perform well in both social and search.

When we created fundraising videos for a New Jersey nonprofit that focuses on children with special needs, we optimized both the YouTube uploads and the shorter social edits with captions that spelled out what the event was, where it took place, and why it mattered. That content didn’t just engage donors, it also surfaced in searches around “child advocacy events NJ.” The same principle applies for a landscaper, a restaurant, or a gym.

 

Local Business Social Media Marketing Examples

The impact of this change can already be imagined:

• A hotel’s event highlight film could appear in searches for “luxury wedding venue New Jersey.”
• A restaurant’s brunch Reel might rank for “top brunch spots Hoboken NJ.”
• A lawyer’s testimonial video might show up for “lawyers New Jersey that care.”

Awakened Films has seen time and again that strong visuals paired with descriptive context drive results. For instance, when we created a corporate recruitment video campaign for a local staffing agency, we were delighted at how quickly it drew new hires on social, as well as their landing pages. And when we created a series of video based holiday buying guides for a local nursery, we saw increased impressions versus their previous newsletter marketing approach.  When content is crafted with both story and search in mind, it delivers again and again on multiple platforms.

 

Beyond Google: LLM GEO and Zero-Click Discovery

Search engines are just one part of the equation. The other is AI.

Large Language Models like Google Gemini and ChatGPT are now answering local queries directly inside the chat box. These tools pull from indexed content, which now includes Instagram and Facebook posts.

That means if someone types “Who are the top plastic surgeons in NJ?” Gemini might just pull in one of your Reels. The user may never click through to your website, but they’ll recognize your brand in the AI’s answer. That is powerful exposure.

This is what marketers call zero-click discovery. The answer happens right there in the search experience, without a click to your website. In an AI-driven world, where clicks are becoming less common, visibility itself becomes the prize. And visibility builds trust.

Consider this: the #1 organic result on Google still captures about 27.6 percent of clicks. In the traditional world of SEO, being number one on Google was the ultimate goal. In an AI-powered search world, the equivalent of “position one” is being cited directly in the answer. If your content is structured properly, you have a shot at being the name Gemini or ChatGPT drops when someone searches for a service you provide.

Measuring the Impact

You won’t have perfect data in the beginning, but you can measure progress in practical ways.

• Search for your brand + service keywords on Google and see if any posts surface.
• Watch referral traffic in your analytics to see if new sessions are coming from search to social.
• Look for spikes in engagement or follower growth tied to posts you optimized.
• Test different caption styles and geotagging approaches to see what performs best.

Even simple tools like Google Analytics, paired with native Instagram insights, can reveal whether search is sending new eyeballs to your social presence and vice versa. Your social media marketing strategy can help you move the needle of revenue and profitability.

Risks and Considerations

No major change comes without some caution.

• Once indexed, public posts are more permanent. Make sure everything aligns with your brand values.
• Avoid stuffing captions with keywords. Natural, helpful language always wins.

Think of this as the same discipline you’d apply to your website. If you wouldn’t publish it on your homepage, maybe it shouldn’t be a public post either…you know the cringe worthy stuff we’ve all seen recently!

 

Don’t Get Left Behind in this Social Media Marketing Strategy Shift

Meta’s July 2025 update is the biggest shift in social media marketing in years. For local businesses, it levels the playing field. Every post is now a potential SEO asset. Every caption, every alt text entry, every Reel is a chance to be discovered by someone who is actively searching for what you provide.

At Awakened Films, we’ve built our reputation on helping organizations tell their stories in ways that connect. Whether it’s social media content for NJ businesses, or, commercials to connected TV, we know how to create cinematic, story-driven video content that doesn’t just perform in a feed. It gets discovered in search, it gets cited in AI results, and it continues to work long after the first view.

If you’re ready to make your next post work twice as hard — to inspire on social and to rank in search — let’s talk.

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Social Media Marketing Strategy FAQs

Q: Do I need a social media business account in order to be included in Google/Bing indexing?

A: Only public business and creator accounts are included in this major social media marketing update.

Q: Will my older social media posts be indexed?

A: Yes, many older posts will now surface in search if public. It might be a good time to go back through your social content and make sure the copy is strong and aligns with your brand goals.

Q: What content performs best?

A: Any content with optimized copy is likely to be indexed. But video content such as tutorials, transformations, and testimonials with descriptive captions tend to perform the best.

Q: How do I optimize my social media captions?

A: A business’s social media captions should include brandname, service offering, and location all within an organic cadence (don’t keyword stuff).