When Prospects Say “I Found You on ChatGPT”: Why Social Media Just Became Your SEO Infrastructure

This summer, something shifted in Eric Elkins’ discovery calls.

“How did you hear about us?” he’d ask prospects reaching out to his Denver-based social media agency.

The answer stopped him cold: “I asked ChatGPT how to improve my social media and you came up first.”

Not Google. ChatGPT.

Eric’s been running WideFocus Social Media since 2007—18 years focused exclusively on one channel. He’s seen social evolve from “nice-to-have brand awareness” to business-critical infrastructure. But this was different. This was prospects finding him through AI search, informed by the social content his team had been creating strategically for years.

When Eric mentioned this on my AI SEO Insighter Podcast, I realized we were documenting something most marketing directors are experiencing but haven’t named yet: the moment social media stopped being a separate discipline and became SEO infrastructure.

I’m Chris Raulf. I’ve been optimizing for search engines since before Google existed—back when it was called BackRub. These days, I’m a globally recognized AI and SEO expert, SE Ranking Brand Ambassador, and I teach at the University of Strasbourg’s TCLoc Master’s Program. I started this podcast to cut through the AI hype and talk to people getting real results.

Eric and I spent an hour unpacking what’s actually happening when prospects say “I found you on ChatGPT”—and what it means for marketing directors trying to allocate limited budgets between SEO, social media, and this new thing everyone’s calling GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).

This isn’t another “optimize your Instagram captions” article. This is about understanding why social content now literally trains AI platforms to recognize businesses as solutions.

Before we dive in, here’s the full podcast conversation with Eric—grab a coffee and watch how this convergence is actually happening in real-time:

The Shift You’re Already Experiencing

Pull up your Google Search Console. Look at the queries driving traffic to your site.

See those increasingly long phrases? People aren’t typing keywords anymore. They’re asking complete questions. “What’s the best burrito in Denver?” becomes “What’s the best burrito place in Denver with outdoor seating that takes reservations?”

This isn’t speculation. I’m seeing it in actual client data across dozens of accounts.

Here’s what’s happening behind the curtain. When someone’s LinkedIn post is cited in ChatGPT or Perplexity, it’s because AI platforms are crawling and learning from social content, just as they do from websites. Social media isn’t just engagement anymore. It’s literally training data for how AI understands who solves what problems.

Eric experienced this firsthand with his team. “We had a mutual client with an SEO agency,” he told me. “We were having our monthly reporting meeting, and before we could even pitch that the client needed blog posts, the SEO partner said: ‘Looking at what’s happening with AI search right now, we really believe you need blog posts, and WideFocus should be writing them for you.'”

That moment crystallized everything. The SEO specialist—someone who’d spent years focused on websites and backlinks—was now saying social agencies needed to create blog content because AI visibility required a coordinated strategy across both channels.

The technical barriers that kept these disciplines separate have disappeared. Google officially began indexing Instagram in July 2025. AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Mode now pull from social content, blog posts, forums, and websites interchangeably.

Why This Convergence Happened Now

I’ve lived through every major search evolution since the BackRub days. Keywords to semantic search. Desktop to mobile. Ten blue links to rich results. This convergence of social and SEO isn’t random—it’s the logical next step.

When Eric founded WideFocus in 2007, social and SEO were completely separate disciplines. SEO was technical and strategic. Social was relationship-building and engagement. That separation made sense. Google couldn’t effectively crawl social platforms. AI search didn’t exist. The technology didn’t allow these worlds to connect.

Fast forward to today. The technology enabling convergence is here. Google indexes Instagram. AI platforms synthesize information from every corner of the web. ChatGPT doesn’t distinguish between “social content” and “website content”—it’s all just data to learn from.

But here’s what most articles miss: the why behind this convergence goes deeper than technology. It’s about how AI platforms learn authority.

Traditional SEO focused on signals Google’s algorithm could measure: backlinks, keyword relevance, site speed, and mobile optimization. These remain important. But AI platforms learning to answer questions need something more fundamental: they need to understand who actually knows what they’re talking about.

That’s where E-E-A-T comes in—Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These aren’t new concepts. Google’s been talking about them for years. What’s new is how AI platforms recognize these signals.

When you consistently publish about “Denver HVAC repair” across your website, your social media, and earn mentions in industry publications, AI models learn the association between your brand and that solution. The more consistent and widespread that pattern, the stronger the signal.

Eric put it perfectly during our conversation: “SEO and social media have become the Wonder Twins—you can’t succeed in one without the other anymore.”

I recently explored exactly this challenge in my lesson for SE Ranking Academy’s AI for SEO course—how to ensure AI-generated content meets Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines. The core insight: AI platforms don’t just want content. They want demonstrated expertise from real people with real experience.

Social media provides that proof. When you’re consistently posting strategic content, engaging with industry thought leaders, and earning mentions across platforms, you’re building the digital footprint AI platforms use to understand your authority.

What Social Content Actually Does for AI Visibility

Eric broke down his converged content model during our conversation, and it’s brilliant in its simplicity. He thinks about content in four categories—owned, curated, earned, and paid. Each one feeds AI understanding differently.

Owned content is about your business. Product launches, service explanations, team profiles, case studies. This establishes entity recognition. When you consistently post about “project management software for architecture firms” across your website, LinkedIn, and Instagram, AI models learn the association between your brand and that specific solution.

But here’s where most businesses stop. They talk only about themselves. That’s a mistake.

Curated content—sharing thought leadership from others in your industry—builds topical authority. Eric’s insight about this stopped me: “When you share authoritative content and tag the sources, you’re not only expanding reach through engagement, you’re showing AI platforms you’re part of the industry conversation, not just self-promoting.”

This is gold for E-E-A-T signals. AI platforms look for businesses that understand their field deeply enough to recognize and amplify the work of other experts. It signals you’re a participant in the ecosystem, not just a seller.

Earned media creates the strongest AI trust signals. When industry publications, podcasts, or influencers mention your brand, AI platforms weigh this far more heavily than self-generated content. Eric’s emphasis on extending earned media’s shelf life through social amplification is brilliant: “You might share it when you first have that media hit, but you’re going to share it multiple times and position it in different ways. In case you missed it. Or pull a quote from it.”

That repeated amplification reinforces the AI learning pattern. The more places and times your brand appears associated with authoritative sources, the stronger the signal.

Paid content drives the engagement metrics that signal relevance. Eric hit me with a stat I hadn’t realized: “Organic reach on social is less than 1.5%. It’s locked down.”

This means even brilliant organic content struggles to generate the engagement signals that tell AI platforms “this content resonates with people.” Strategic paid amplification isn’t just about human eyeballs anymore—it’s about generating the engagement data AI platforms use to assess content quality and relevance.

This connects directly to my Micro SEO Strategies℠ methodology. I’ve been teaching multi-platform content optimization for years because I recognized AI platforms would eventually pull from everywhere, not just traditional websites. The Universal Content Engine system my team built transforms expert conversations—like sales calls and consultations—into content that ranks because it captures authentic expertise. That’s exactly what AI platforms prioritize.

The Structure That AI Platforms Actually Recognize

Structure matters more now than ever.

Eric explained why during our conversation: “We’re really thinking in terms of how are you answering what questions are they asking? How are you answering those questions both in explaining that this question has been asked and then what the answer is, but also in the structure to make it easy to understand, both for people, but more importantly, right now, or just as importantly, for these AI models.”

His practical example nailed it: “I’m often asked how to pick a social media agency?” That question-then-answer format makes it ridiculously easy for AI platforms to understand, extract, and cite. It’s the same principle behind FAQ schema and how-to markup—but applied to social content.

The tactical elements Eric recommends: clear, descriptive headlines that signal what the content addresses; short summaries or takeaways at the beginning; bullet points for scannable information (when appropriate—not overused); direct answers to specific questions; and structured sections with descriptive subheadings.

This isn’t just social media best practice. This is how you help AI platforms quickly parse and synthesize your expertise.

I use SE Ranking’s keyword research and SERP analysis tools to identify the actual questions people are asking in our clients’ niches. Then we structure content—both on the website and on social—around real search queries rather than guessing what might work. The data informs the strategy. The structure makes it accessible to both humans and AI.

The Wonder Twins Framework: Integration, Not Isolation

“SEO and social media are the Wonder Twins—you can’t succeed in one without the other anymore.”

Eric’s metaphor captures everything. For those who don’t remember the old cartoon, the Wonder Twins were siblings who could only activate their powers when working together. Individually limited. Combined, unstoppable.

That’s where SEO and social sit today.

Eric shared a story about working with SEO agencies for mutual clients: “The SEO provider said we were just about to pitch blog posts because we just felt like they needed more website content. And then he went into what AIO is and how it’s emerging, and talked about the importance of that content strategy both in the blog post and on social media. How now SEO and social feed each other.”

This is what coordinated strategy actually looks like in practice. The SEO partner identifies target keywords and search volumes. Eric’s team ensures social content reinforces those themes. The content calendar aligns. The messaging stays consistent across channels.

Most businesses aren’t there yet. They have separate teams with separate KPIs, treating these as distinct channels. Your social media manager posts whatever feels engaging. Your SEO team optimizes website pages. Nobody’s connecting the dots.

Eric’s insight about needing a content strategy first before execution is critical: “You need a content strategy before you think about anything else. You need to have content pillars or themes you’ll focus on. You need to think about what your areas of expertise are, what problems you solve, and what questions you can answer, and build that into a plan.”

This is exactly how I work with Daniel Burns, my COO at Boulder SEO Marketing. Daniel has over 20 years of experience in web design and digital strategy. We ensure technical SEO and content strategy align before execution. This founder-level coordination—not junior account managers working in silos—is why boutique agencies like ours can outperform larger firms that silo disciplines.

When I spoke at DigiMarCon Denver, presenting “The AI Content Engine That Ranks: How I Turn Sales Calls Into #1 Google Results,” this coordination was the core message. You can’t treat channels as separate anymore. The AI platforms learning to answer questions don’t distinguish between “social content” and “website content.” They’re looking for authoritative information wherever it lives.

Where To Invest First: The Question Nobody’s Answering

Here’s the section most competing content completely misses. A marketing director reading this needs to know: “Given my limited budget, what do I do first?”

I asked Eric directly during our podcast: “Say I’m a B2B SaaS company or a local service business with limited resources. How do I prioritize my content efforts between traditional SEO, social media for engagement, and now AIO for AI visibility? Where should I put my money first?”

His answer was refreshingly honest: “You’ve got to put—I think you need a content strategy for any of this to be effective. Which means you need to start. I think you need to put money into both, honestly. You need your SEO partner to help you figure out what the questions are that your target audiences are asking, where you can rank, and what keywords, phrases, and content are going to be resonant.”

The reality: you probably need coordinated expert help. Most businesses can’t do this well internally. You need someone who understands SEO fundamentals and works with someone who grasps social platform dynamics. Eric put it plainly: “Even if you have really strong content people in the house, that’s probably maybe you can’t do it. And um, and work closely with your SEO provider. But most likely, if you’re really trying to grow your brand, expand your network, drive more sales, boost online conversions, and increase website traffic, you need a really strong SEO provider. You need a social media provider as well.”

But start with strategy. Identify your content pillars—the 4-5 themes your brand should consistently address. Understand the questions your target audience actually asks. Build from there.

Don’t try to do everything at once. Eric’s wisdom about choosing sustainable consistency over sporadic excellence resonated: “You know, whatever it is, whether you start with an SEO company that’s giving you that advice or you start with a social media agency that has that experience, you need a content strategy before you think about anything else.”

This aligns with our typical engagement model at Boulder SEO Marketing—six-month sprints with clear, phase-based deliverables, focused on moving pages from page 2-3 to page 1 rather than trying to rank for everything. This precision approach applies to social-SEO convergence: focus on 2-3 pillar topics where you can dominate rather than spreading thin across dozens of keywords.

Eric’s recommendation for paid social budget was practical: “You don’t need a lot of money to spend to get a lot of engagement, to get a lot of impressions. Obviously, website clicks are a little more expensive, but they’re generally cheaper than other programmatic media and some other channels. So, you know, for a few thousand dollars a month, you can get a huge boost in visibility.”

The prioritization framework I recommend to clients:

• First, establish your content pillars through discovery work with experts who understand both SEO and social. This might cost $3K-$5K but provides the foundation for everything else to build on.
• Second, ensure basic technical SEO is solid. If Google can’t crawl your site effectively or your page speed is terrible, nothing else matters. Fix the foundation first.
• Third, begin consistent content creation aligned with your pillars. Start with 2-3 pieces per week across your website and primary social channel. Quality and consistency beat volume.
• Fourth, layer in strategic paid amplification once your content is performing organically. Don’t throw money at amplifying mediocre content. Amplify what’s already resonating.
• Fifth, build systematic authority through digital PR and third-party mentions. This is the earned media Eric emphasized—the highest-value signal but often the last thing businesses invest in.

Measuring What Actually Matters

Traditional metrics don’t capture AI visibility well.

Google Search Console doesn’t break out AI Overview performance separately. Social platforms show engagement but not AI citation frequency. You’re flying partially in the dark unless you adapt your measurement approach.

Eric shared his practical method: track where prospects find you. In discovery calls, ask “how did you hear about us?” When they say “ChatGPT,” “Perplexity,” or “I saw your LinkedIn post in a Google search,” you’re seeing the convergence work in real time.

This anecdotal tracking matters more than many marketers realize. Your analytics might show declining click-through rates from search—a trend we’re seeing across the board as AI Overviews reduce clicks to websites. But if your sales calls are increasing and prospects are saying they found you through AI search, your strategy is working. The metrics just look different.

SE Ranking now tracks AI Overview inclusion and brand visibility across AI platforms—critical data that didn’t exist even a year ago. As their Brand Ambassador, I can tell you they’re investing heavily in AI search tracking capabilities because they recognize (as I do) that this isn’t a future trend—it’s a current reality businesses need to measure and optimize for today.

The AI Visibility Toolkit in SE Ranking covers over 100 million prompts across ChatGPT, AI Overview, and AI Mode in six regions (US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Spain). You can track how often your brand appears in AI-generated responses, what queries trigger mentions of your business, how you compare to competitors in AI visibility, and which content gets cited most frequently.

This is frontier territory. Having the right tools gives you a massive advantage over competitors who are still measuring only traditional search metrics.

Beyond tools, watch for these signals:

• Brand search volume increases indicate growing awareness, often driven by AI platform mentions. People see your brand cited in ChatGPT, then search for you directly.
• Referral traffic from AI platforms appears in analytics. Look for chat.openai.com, perplexity.ai, and similar sources in your referral reports.
• Quote requests and media inquiries from publications that found you through AI search. We’re seeing this increasingly—journalists use AI tools to find expert sources, then reach out for quotes.
• Consultation requests mentioning specific content they found on social or in AI results. When prospects reference your LinkedIn post or blog article they discovered through Perplexity, you’re seeing attribution in action.

What’s Next: Future-Proofing Your Approach

ChatGPT just launched its Atlas browser. Google’s AI Mode is still in testing. Perplexity continues evolving. These platforms will keep changing—but the fundamentals remain constant.

Authentic expertise. Strategic content. Multi-platform presence. Consistent messaging.

I just returned from summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, an eight-day climb where altitude sickness hit me hard on summit day. But I pushed through and made it. That same persistence applies to navigating this SEO transformation happening right now. Eric’s agency continues expanding its social-SEO integration services. Neither of us sees this convergence slowing down.

During our conversation, Eric shared advice that applies far beyond social media: “Don’t be afraid. Don’t get stuck in the ways things are done. Just be open to new things. Experiment. Right now is the time of experimentation because things are changing. People who experiment are going to come out on top. The more mistakes you make, probably the higher on top you’re going to be in a few years.”

This is exactly the mindset that’s served me well across nearly 30 years in this industry. I’ve seen search evolve from simple keyword matching to semantic understanding to mobile-first indexing to AI-generated results. The marketers who thrived weren’t the ones who mastered one approach and stuck with it. They were the ones who adapted quickly, tested new approaches, and learned from what worked and what didn’t.

My students in the TCLoc Master’s Program at the University of Strasbourg have free access to SE Ranking because it helps them experiment with these emerging approaches. They can track traditional SEO metrics alongside AI visibility signals. Test different content structures. See what resonates across platforms. The best learning happens through doing, not just reading about theory.

The convergence Eric and I discussed isn’t slowing down. If anything, it’s accelerating. As more AI platforms emerge and more people shift their search behavior toward conversational queries, the businesses that will dominate are those treating social content as SEO infrastructure rather than separate marketing activities.

The Bottom Line

When prospects say “I found you on ChatGPT,” they’re not describing a future trend. They’re documenting current reality.

Social media content now literally trains AI platforms to understand who solves what problems. Your LinkedIn posts, Instagram captions, Twitter threads, and YouTube videos aren’t just engagement tools anymore. They’re training data. They’re authority signals. They’re how AI learns to recommend your business when someone asks for solutions you provide.

Eric’s converged content model—owned, curated, earned, and paid—provides a framework for strategic implementation. My Micro SEO Strategies℠ methodology ensures precision execution. Together, these approaches help businesses outperform competitors with bigger budgets by focusing on what actually moves the needle.

The “Wonder Twins” metaphor captures everything. SEO and social can no longer succeed independently. The technical barriers keeping them separate have disappeared. The AI platforms learning to answer questions don’t distinguish between channels. Your strategy shouldn’t either.

For marketing directors reading this, the path forward is clear:

Start with a content strategy that identifies your pillars and the questions your audience actually asks. Ensure your SEO and social teams (internal or agency) are coordinated, not siloed. Build consistent content that demonstrates genuine expertise across platforms. Layer in strategic paid amplification once your content is resonating organically. Measure both traditional metrics and emerging AI visibility signals.

This isn’t easy. It requires investment. But the alternative—watching competitors dominate AI search results while your traditionally strong SEO performance delivers declining returns—is far more expensive.

Eric and I will continue documenting this evolution through the AI SEO Insighter Podcast. We’re talking to specialists who are implementing these strategies and getting real results, not theorizing about what might work someday.

If you’re a marketing director navigating these changes and want to discuss your specific situation, I’m happy to schedule a consultation. Unlike the early days of SEO when we were all guessing, we actually know what works now. Eric’s clients are being found through ChatGPT. My content is showing up in Perplexity citations. These aren’t predictions—they’re the current reality we’re documenting and refining.

The convergence happened. The question isn’t whether to adapt. It’s how quickly you’ll move.

Cheers,
Chris