How do I know you’re real
Years ago I was called by a customer who said “I’m on your website and I am just about to make a purchase - how do I know you are real?” she asked. I was able to confirm that RedBalloon was real, I was real and that she could trust us. This situation is even harder today. Creating trust when there is so much misinformation and deep fakes… So being real may well be your greatest business asset today? - warts and all… (as confronting as that may seem).
For twenty years, digital strategy was built on controlling the customer journey—securing the click, mastering Google rankings, and focusing on website traffic. As a founder who launched an online business in that era, I can tell you those metrics were the bedrock of building RedBalloon into a national brand.
That era is over, mate.
A new generation of "answer engines"—led by platforms like ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, and the integration of AI directly into our phones and wearables—are fundamentally rewriting the rules of visibility and influence.
But there is a far more profound shift happening on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and even LinkedIn: The value has shifted from the
My core philosophy, AI is for tasks, relationships are for people, has never been more relevant. The real battle for the future is a competition for Trust and Authenticity in a world where AI can replicate anything.
The Great Digital Lie: Why Perfection Now Signals FAKE on Social
We have hit a wall where the aesthetics of perfection are no longer aspirational on social media—they are suspicious. AI can create any image, any piece of polished copy, or any high-production video in seconds.
The market’s reaction is fascinating, and it’s captured by this powerful insight: "Flattering imagery is cheap to produce and boring to consume."
For decades, brands and personal accounts chased highly produced, airbrushed perfection. Now, AI can generate it instantly, and our human instinct is to scroll right past it. Why?
Because perfection now signals inauthenticity. It’s a red flag. We know it’s too easy to fake.
Authentic leaders are already leaning into what AI cannot fake: "unproduced, unflattering images." In a world where everything can be perfected, imperfection becomes a signal.
I've always invested in real people with real ideas. Now, the digital world is proving that: "Rawness isn't just aesthetic preference anymore—it’s proof. It’s defensive. It’s a way of saying: this is real because it’s imperfect."
Your brand’s social strategy must pivot to embrace real, transparent, and consistent content in a way that AI cannot simulate.
The Cognitive Leap: From Trust by Default to Scepticism by Design
The proliferation of AI-generated media means that the visual information we consume is now unreliable. "For most of my life, I could safely assume photographs or videos were largely accurate captures of moments that happened. This is clearly no longer the case and it's going to take us years to adapt."
This forces a major psychological shift: "We're going to move from assuming what we see is real by default, to starting with skepticism."
In the social sphere, this means that the context around the content is everything. Users will increasingly be:
- Paying attention to who is sharing something and why. The person is more important than the post.
- Demanding transparency about the source. This will be uncomfortable, but necessary.
For leaders and brands operating on social media, this is your mandate: Be the signal of authenticity in a sea of algorithmic noise.
The New Rules of Social Influence in the AI Age
The shift away from traditional SEO has led to a completely new set of dynamics for building influence across social channels. Your job is to be the Changemaker who understands and architects this new trust economy.
1. Your Social Video is Now AI Training Data
AI models like Google's Gemini 2.5 don't just read the captions on your Instagram Reels or TikToks; they watch the video to understand context, motion, and human behaviour.
- Consistency is Trust: Your short-form video strategy is now a direct signal to the AI. The AI will analyse the consistency between what you show in your videos and what you write on your blog or speak about on LinkedIn. If your messaging is stable across all platforms, your brand authority is reinforced.
- The Unproduced Advantage: Focus on videos that feel real and authentic, even "unflattering." This human-led content becomes a unique, verifiable dataset that automated systems cannot easily replicate, reinforcing your human-led Experience and Trust.
2. The Rise of the "Micro-Interaction"
New chips from Apple and NVIDIA are making on-device AI instantaneous. This will fragment the traditional "search session" into dozens of micro-interactions with AI assistants throughout the day, often triggered by voice or camera.
- Ambient Discovery: Search is becoming ambient. A user wearing smart glasses might point at a product in a store and ask, "where can I buy this cheaper?" The camera and voice replace the keyboard. Your social presence must feed this Visual SEO by ensuring your images and real-world presence are easily discoverable.
- Agent-to-Agent Commerce: Eventually, AI agents will book appointments, order supplies, and compare providers autonomously. Your content will become instructions for another machine. It must be unambiguous, with clear pricing, availability, and simple rules. To win, you must make it easy for a bot to choose you.
3. Competitive Intelligence Moves into the Prompt Space
The best way to analyse your competitors will be to ask AI about them: "Summarise the market position of Lyssna," or "Compare the features of Xero vs. MYOB."
- The Power of Clarity: Your content must be designed to be summarised accurately. If the AI model struggles to articulate your value proposition, your competitors gain an advantage. This makes clarity, simplicity, and well-structured messaging an existential priority on every platform, including your LinkedIn posts and video descriptions.
4. The Terror of the "Silent Vote"
The most significant change is the rise of Latent Choice Signals—the "silent votes" that occur when a user ignores an AI’s suggestion.
- The AI will detect the "cognitive friction" your brand creates.
- If your brand's recommended answer on a conversational search platform is confusing and causes the user to rephrase their question, that's a signal to the AI to deprioritise you.
Your influence from social media may look stable, yet your conversions from AI-mediated decisions will decline. The winners will be the businesses obsessed with clarity, simplicity, and removing ambiguity—treating every piece of content as a precise instruction for a machine and an authentic conversation with a human.
The Changemaker’s Final Mandate
The modern competition for attention is fierce, but the ultimate war is for Trust. In a world where AI can replicate any aesthetic, your authentic, imperfect, and verifiable humanity is your most valuable asset.
Being real, transparent, and consistent is the new authority.
Your job as a leader is to be the Changemaker who builds the systems and culture necessary to architect this trust at scale.
My personal motto: If it is to be, it is up to me.
It is up to you to embrace this change. It is up to you to lead with integrity, value the human element, and ensure your brand's presence, from your website to your social media, speaks with one clear, authentic, and trustworthy voice.
