At our recent Think Tank event Beyond the hype, Senior Social Media Strategist Faber Whitehouse explores the role of AI in social media, and how best to (and not to) use it to filter out risks and reap rewards.
AI generated content is quickly taking all sorts of shapes and sizes across social media - with some trends like the recent AI action figurines sweeping the internet, to the backlash received by Skechers for a recent Vogue advertisement. With Dove’s prediction that 90 per cent of online content will be AI generated by 2025, it is more important now than ever to understand the role of AI in media content.
When we talk about AI, we’re referring to two key components: Machine Learning (ML) and Generative AI (GenAI). It’s GenAI which is responsible for the influx of AI imagery and copy present across social media and advertising. We’ve progressed from AI aiding tasks like sentiment analysis in 2008 to full campaign planning. The tech is here to stay so it’s now about how we choose to implement it.
Conversations about AI and its viability often see familiar arguments, largely these can be categorised into:
The pros...
- Time efficiency
- Accessibility
- Versatility
- Consistency
- Cost savings
The cons…
- Shift in employment
- Consumer backlash
- Copyright and plagiarism
- AI bias
The downfall of Skechers:
“For one second I thought wow, that's kind of cool. And now I am disgusted.” says @polishlaurapalmer about the Sketchers’ full-page Vogue ad featured in the December 2024 issue.
If you've been scrolling through social media lately, you might have come across Skechers’ 100% AI-generated ad. As many organisations often do, Skechers attempted to cut costs and reduce internal workloads but this ad not only poorly depicted its brand personality, but also received a lot of backlash.
It only takes one inauthentic ad for people to no longer trust that what you do is original or genuine. Audiences may lose trust, which is why it is more important than ever to create content that is in line with your brand personality and true to the people behind the results.
Why? Because in a world of carefully curated perfection, genuine connections are what truly stands out.
But how do we balance authenticity and the undeniable benefits of AI? We have all been bombarded with a myriad of articles, videos, social media posts (you name it) on how AI can be beneficial to brands, but how do we filter out the risks and reap the rewards?
Balancing authenticity and the use of AI:
What we can learn from Skechers’ mistake is that AI should never be the solution, the response or the outcome. Rather, AI should be involved in the process of reaching the solution.
AI is an excellent voice for the audience and the perfect tool for understanding how your audience perceives you. Often brands have tone of voice and personality documents that position the brand in its ideal version, which might not always align with true brand perceptions. Asking AI to accumulate information on your brand might give you a true idea of how your brand is seen online and amongst your customers/audience.
To maintain authenticity:
- Make content that is so timeless that AI could never replicate it
- Imbue your social copy with your brand’s personality so your customers know you wrote it
- Don’t shut out AI for its research capabilities, allow it to provide you with objective information, and then add your human subjectivity to it.
Closing thoughts
AI comes with risks and rewards (as with most things) and in order to make the most of this new resource, you need to focus on using it alongside what you normally do, rather than replacing what you do with it. Ditch the super tidy and perfect content and embrace the emotion that comes with human-generated work. Do not rely on AI to do your job for you and rather, help it help you by keeping an eye out, and putting a little bit of you in what you do. Authenticity on social media means showing up as your true self, because in a world of curated perfection, real connection is what truly stands out.