It can feel very discouraging to be posting on social media and feel that your efforts are being wasted. It may be that your metrics are showing that your posts only have a few views and you are not seeing your follower count growing.
You may well ask yourself if it is worth the time and effort if no one is reading your posts.
But what if I told you that humans are not the only audience that matters on social media?
On my latest podcast episode, I shared how artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an important consideration for what you say online.
You can listen to the podcast in full here:
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In brief
Your social media posts can have value even when they don’t get many likes, comments or views. Publicly available content can help AI build a clearer picture of who you are, what you know about and the clients you help.
Being consistent about the subjects you talk about, answering the questions potential clients ask and making sure your information is clear across your online presence can all make it easier for both people and AI to understand your practice.
How AI is changing how people are finding therapists
Increasingly people are using AI to seek answers to their questions. This may include a number of different strategies:
- Using an AI search function on their normal browser, e.g., AI Search Mode in Google
- Talking about their problems with a large language model such as ChatGPT and asking for recommendations
- Searching via AI on social media, such as Meta AI
When answering current queries, AI search tools may draw on information from a number of sources across the web. These include social media, google business profiles and directories and help build a picture as to whether a therapist might be relevant to someone’s search.
Does AI read social media posts?
Publicly available social media content can be used for a couple of purposes. Posts can be used to train the AI model itself. They can also be read for their current information to answer questions, verify identities and make recommendations.
Here’s a few examples.
Microsoft Copilot
CoPilot will compare the information on a company page with the company’s website. Similarity will make it more likely that the company will be recommended.
Equally, content such as LinkedIn blogs that answer relevant queries is another factor that can enhance a company’s likelihood of being found.
Meta AI
Meta AI is trained on publicly available posts and uses them to provide conversational answers. You’ll often see prompts underneath posts.
OpenAI (ChatGPT)
OpenAI has an agreement with Reddit that it can be used for training the model. In addition, it can be used to answer current queries. So if someone has previously recommended you in a public Reddit discussion, that information could potentially be retrieved when someone later asks AI for a therapist recommendation.
What happened when Meta AI searched for me
After I was tagged in a public post, Meta AI offered me the search query “Who is Josephine Hughes?”
It gave me detailed and accurate answers and offered further information such as fees for Therapy Growth Group.
It was fascinating to see how much Meta AI seemed to know about me, drawing from sources online. My public Facebook and Instagram posts will have formed at least part of this information.
What should therapists post if they want to be found?
In order to help chatbots find your information online, here are a few pointers for your social media feed.
Be clear about who you help
If you say you help everyone with a variety of problems, it is hard for AI to pick you out from thousands of other therapists.
But if you regularly speak about, for example, grief after baby loss, late diagnosed ADHD, anxiety in university students or loneliness after divorce, you’re giving AI much stronger signals about when you might be relevant.
Talk regularly about the subjects you want to be known for
You don’t necessarily have to say “I specialise in X”.
You can demonstrate what you know by talking about it.
Over time, your website, directory profiles and social media might contain lots of information about a particular subject. Talking about the same subject consistently helps AI to obtain a clearer picture of your practice. People won’t see all of your posts either – so don’t be frightened of repetition.
Answer the questions potential clients actually ask
By providing clear answers to frequently asked questions, you’re more likely to be found and quoted by AI.
Use natural language the way your clients would. They’re unlikely to ask about complicated grief, but they may well ask: “Is it normal that I’m grieving two years later?”
But also, remember that AI is looking for professional therapists, so it’s also useful to include some clinical terminology in a human way. For example, in an answer to the question about grief, part of the answer could include a reference to complicated grief.
Remember, you’re creating a digital footprint
Even if you are not gaining much traction in terms of likes and follows for your posts, you are still creating an extra resource that can be used by AI to help people find you.
And while likes and comments do act as an extra signal to AI that your content is useful, they’re not essential.
But social media is only one part of it
AI will be forming a picture of you across the web. So while your social media presence can help, remember to use all the resources available such as:
- Blogs on your own and shared websites (such as Medium)
- Directories
- A Google business profile
- Other people’s audience, such as podcast appearances, guest blogs and professional journal articles
Your social media may be doing more than you think
Your social media doesn’t have to go viral. You don’t need thousands of followers. And low engagement doesn’t necessarily mean everything you’re publishing is disappearing into a void.
Focus on creating a clear and consistent presence on the internet. This will help both humans and technology understand who you are and who you can help.
If you’d like to know what to do to be found by AI, please sign up HERE.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, social media can form part of the online information that AI uses to understand who you are and what you do. Your social media presence is only one part of your wider digital footprint, alongside your website, directory profiles, Google Business Profile and mentions on other websites.
Publicly available social media content can be accessible to AI in different ways, depending on the platform. Some content is used in training AI models, while some AI tools can retrieve current public information when answering questions. This means that what you share publicly may help AI understand your areas of interest and the people you help.
No. A large following is not essential. Likes, comments and other engagement may provide useful signals, but clear, relevant and consistent information about your work can still contribute to your online presence even when a post receives little visible engagement.
Talk about the subjects you genuinely know about and the people you most want to help. Answer the kinds of questions potential clients might ask and use natural language alongside relevant professional terminology. Don’t be afraid to return to the same subjects regularly rather than trying to find something completely new to talk about every time.
No. Social media is only one potential source of information. Your website, therapist directory profiles, Google Business Profile, articles, podcast appearances and mentions elsewhere online can all contribute to your digital footprint. The aim is to make it easy for both people and technology to understand who you are, what you do and who you can help.
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