To show up in AI search, publish consistent, specific content about what you do, who you do it for and what you believe, across the platforms AI tools learn from, including YouTube. AI assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini recommend businesses they can clearly connect to a need. The more clearly and often you talk about your expertise, the easier you are to recommend.
This isn’t a theory for us. It’s how Monarch is growing right now.
One of our latest clients found us through ChatGPT. They were looking for an agency that specializes in UGC, short for user-generated content: content made by real customers and creators rather than the brand itself. We’ve been doing that for years, and we talk about it constantly.
Our latest hire found us the same way. She was looking for an agency that focuses on one part of social media and does it really well, rather than trying to do every job at once.
In both cases, someone asked an AI assistant a specific question, and Monarch came up as the answer.
Marketer Gary Vaynerchuk recently pointed out that the content businesses post on YouTube Shorts can feed into Google’s AI, Gemini, helping products show up when people ask for recommendations. We’re seeing the bigger version of that idea play out: what you publish is now how AI tools decide whether to recommend you.
This is post six in our Monarch Social Media Mindset series. In post five, we covered which platforms to be on. Here, we look at why that choice now affects whether AI search can find you.
We talk about our work consistently, specifically and from more than one angle. There was no trick behind it. It’s the same media company mindset we recommend to clients, applied to ourselves.
On a regular basis, we publish content about:
Two topics come up again and again: product seeding and UGC content creation. We’ve built a lot of content around both. So when someone asked ChatGPT for an agency that specializes in UGC, there was a clear, consistent body of content connecting Monarch to that exact need.
The same thing happened with our hire. Because we talk openly about focusing on specific disciplines within social media, someone looking for that kind of workplace found us.
AI tools can’t recommend you for something you never talk about. If you want to be the answer to “Who’s the best at ___?”, you need to be consistently, clearly and publicly connected to ___.
YouTube Shorts is a growing part of our work, both for clients and for Monarch itself. Shorts are YouTube’s short vertical videos, similar to TikTok and Instagram Reels.
We often post similar videos on YouTube Shorts to the ones we share on TikTok and Instagram. But they aren’t simply copied over. Each one is optimized differently for YouTube, because YouTube works differently: it behaves as much like a search engine as a social platform.
Some of these videos take off and reach thousands of views. But the more important result is what happens next:
We’re using YouTube Shorts for Monarch’s own account, and it’s been very interesting to watch which videos do well. Those results feed back into our content strategy. When a topic does well on YouTube, it tells us people are actively searching for it, and that’s a topic worth building more content around everywhere else.
YouTube and Gemini are both owned by Google. We believe the businesses that build a steady library of useful, specific videos on YouTube are setting themselves up to be found, not just by people scrolling, but by the AI tools people increasingly ask for recommendations.
Here’s what we’d recommend, based on what’s worked for Monarch and our clients.
Our clients ask us about AI, especially when they’re deciding whether to hire us. The questions usually come in two forms.
Clients want to know we’re using modern tools well, and we are. AI helps us work faster on the parts of the job where speed matters, so our team can spend more time on the parts that need real people: strategy, creators, filming, editing and conversations with your audience.
No. And this is the more important question. If you just push out AI content, nothing’s going to happen. Social media works because of real people, real experiences and real connection. Generic AI-generated posts can’t replace a creator showing your product in their life, or your team answering a customer’s question.
The real question is: do you use AI because it’s actually useful, and do you use it responsibly? Our answer is yes to both. AI supports our people. It doesn’t replace the human side of social media, which is the whole point of what we do.
Publish consistent, specific content about what you do, who you serve and what you believe, across social media, your website and YouTube. AI tools recommend businesses they can clearly connect to a need, so the more clearly and often you talk about your expertise, the easier you are to recommend.
Yes. Monarch’s latest client and latest hire both found us through ChatGPT, because they were searching for things we talk about consistently: UGC and focused social media disciplines.
It can. YouTube Shorts in particular helps accounts appear in YouTube and Google search results and reach new viewers through the Shorts feed.
You can use similar videos, but optimize them for YouTube. YouTube works partly like a search engine, so clear titles, descriptions and topics people are searching for matter more there.
Not on its own. Pushing out generic AI content rarely gets results, because social media works on real people and real connection. AI is most useful behind the scenes, helping a team work more efficiently.
By using it where it makes the work better or faster, while keeping real people in charge of strategy, creative, creators and community conversations.
People are asking AI tools to recommend businesses, and those tools can only recommend what they can connect to a need. Talk about your work, your services, your team and your beliefs consistently and specifically. Get on YouTube and optimize your Shorts for it. And use AI to support your people, not to replace the real content that makes social media work. It’s how our own latest client and latest hire found us.
Next in the Monarch Social Media Mindset series: LinkedIn isn’t just for job posts.
Want your business to be the answer when people ask AI for a recommendation? Book a discovery call with Monarch Social Media.
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