Every Feed Is Becoming TikTok, and Your Social Channels Are Becoming Search Results
Facebook is testing something that sounds small but isn't.
Some users in India now open the app and land straight in a full-screen video feed. No friends' updates, no scrolling past birthday posts. Just video. Meta says it's starting in "video-heavy countries" first, with a possible US rollout in 2027 (no word on Canada, yet). At the same time, Instagram is testing an option to make Reels the first thing you see when you open the app, with sound on. (The Verge)
Not every test becomes a feature. But the direction is pretty clear. On Meta's latest earnings call, time spent watching video on Facebook was up 9% globally and 10% in the US and Canada. Threads barely got a mention.
Meta isn't building social networks anymore. It's building never-ending TV channels full of short-term dopamine hits.
Most people watch. Few people post.
Here's the stat that stuck with me: 81% of US Instagram users say they've watched a Reel. Only 39% say they've posted one. (Morning Consult)
That's the whole opportunity in one line. If feeds are turning into video, and most people (and most businesses) only watch, the ones who actually post get a disproportionate share of the attention.
Your social channels are also search results now
The second shift is quieter, and I think it matters more.
SE Ranking looked at 100,000 keywords to see where AI answers pull their sources from. Social media links showed up in about 68% of Google's AI Overviews and about 32% of answers in Google's AI Mode. YouTube was the most-cited source in AI Overviews. (Social Media Today)
The study doesn't share much about its methodology, so I'd treat the exact numbers as directional. ChatGPT was the outlier: social barely registers there, and its citations have been swinging around a lot. But on Google, the pattern is hard to ignore.
So when someone asks Google about your business, or a business like yours, there's a good chance the AI answer is pulling from your Facebook page, your YouTube channel or your Instagram. If you haven't posted since spring, that's what it's working with.
What I'd do
Business owners should make social media a focused, consistent habit, not something that happens when there's a spare hour. Here's where I'd start:
1. Post one short video a week. Vertical, under a minute, decent audio. Consistency beats production value.
2. Answer the questions you already get. Every question a customer asks you is a video. "How long does it take?" "What does it cost?" "What should I bring?" You already know the answers.
3. Keep your profiles current. Hours, links, services, location. AI tools read these, and old info gets repeated back to your customers. I've seen Google trust Yelp over our client's own website, even after we updated their Google Business Profile with the right hours.
4. Check how your social channels show up in Google. I wrote a quick guide on how to find out how your social channels are performing in Google search.
5. Don't abandon your website. Social is where people find you. Your website is where they decide. Feeds change overnight. Your .com doesn't.
The platforms are making their choice. Video is the default, and social is part of search. The good news is most of your competitors are still just watching.
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