Telling people what social media marketing is and why it’s important—when they clearly asked for practical suggestions on how to improve their strategy, because You want to stuff keywords you have an unhealthy obsession with just because they have high search volume, deluding yourself into thinking that this is what SEO ‘optimized’ content is, and that will magically earn you a spot on page one.
Spoiler: it won’t. What it will do is frustrate real visitors—83% of whom won’t return if your site doesn’t deliver what they were looking for on the first visit.
Not only that, your audience—especially Gen Z—judges the value of your product or service based on your free content. Be it a blog, a social post, or a freebie, they consume that first. If you don’t deliver value upfront, your so-called “high traffic” is temporary and pointless, because they won’t trust you enough to pay you anyway. Even if your site is ranking number one right now (which is already unlikely without delivering value), it won’t stay there because the algorithm doesn’t reward high traffic—it rewards high satisfaction.
Another major issue with conventional SEO is the outdated belief that Google is the only search platform that matters. Back in 2016 it was true when over 85% of all searches happened on Google. But search behavior has fragmented. Today, people use Amazon for products, Reddit for discussions, TikTok and Instagram for discovery, and even AI tools for instant answers. Neil Patel reports that only 16% of searches now happen on Google in certain contexts—which means if you’re not visible on these other platforms, you’re invisible to a majority of your potential audience. SEO no longer stands for Search Engine Optimization. It now means Search Everywhere Optimization.
The above Rant, gives rise to a very important question, how do we actually optimize our content for visibility and impact across all platforms?
Short answer, stop obsessing over crawlers and bots, and start focusing on people.
Satisfy Intent, not algorithm:
Algorithm is a reflection of user behavior, if they click, stay, engage and comeback, the algorithm will notice and reward your efforts. So, write like a human talking to another human who have limited time and infinite choices. Not like a man mansplaining something to his wife.
Give Value Upfront:
Get to the point, quickly and clearly, do not make your visitors scroll through 800 words of fluff for two lines of (optional) insight. Every piece of content you put out should answer an actual question, solve a real problem, or deliver some kind of win for the reader. Value is the ultimate strategy, Algorithm rewards that, your readers reward that, that is what gets shared, linked and trusted.
Think platform-first, not just keyword-first.
Where is your audience actually searching? Optimize your content differently depending on whether it’s going on TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, or a blog. A Reddit answer isn’t the same as a TikTok video. A YouTube tutorial doesn’t play like a product page. You can’t copy-paste the same content everywhere and expect results.
Reformat THEN Repurpose.
TL;DR
People don’t want a definition of social media marketing—they want usable, valuable answers clearly and quickly. Gen Z especially judges you by your free content, and if it sucks, you’ve lost them before you even get a chance. And Google isn’t the only search engine anymore—people search across platforms like TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, and even AI tools.
Focusing on people, not algorithms. Delivering value upfront, tailoring content for each platform, and solving real problems is what you need to do because THAT’S what works in 2025.
