Technological developments come like a storm. Sometimes, it is quite hard for everyone involved in the chain of online business to keep up. We have already discussed about previous practices that are no longer viable in content creation. However, we also have to keep in mind that, especially for businesses, everything is part of our Digital Marketing Strategies (DMS). Yet another reason to trust professionals to do this job for you. It takes a lot of time now to get ahead of what’s going on. And we know that the vast majority of those doing business through the internet, do not have the resources to allocate for a dedicated department for the purpose.
Let’s take a look at some of the new developments that really need experts to understand and put to good use.
AI: NO for content creation but YES for digital marketing.
Artificial intelligence is her to stay. And take over more and more of what we do. The reason that it is no longer viable for content creation is that already 48% of internet searches are automated and conducted by AI apps. In the near future this percentage is expected to go up to 74%. Therefore, it is the compliance to the trend of really high-quality content that will produce the organic results. There has to be something unique and identifiable to make the cut. AI cannot beat human ingenuity and creativity on that issue.
However, it is essential for digital marketing. Everything is analyzed and broken down by AI apps. Especially information that comes from social media platforms. On this subject matter, real-time platforms like BlueSky or Threads are quickly gaining momentum for two reasons. First, they are ad free and second, they are locations where content creators can address customers that value niche communities and have control over the content that they are receiving.
Trust is built through EGC
The latest survey on trust conducted by Forbes, says that 94% of users and potential customers will follow companies that do not have a straight and uniform strategy of content creation. To their reasoning, such policies do not show transparency and honesty as they are effectively not allowing the people that actually work for a company get in touch with the people that said company is supposed to approach! Enter, Employee Generated Content.
In a nutshell, EGC narrates the real story of the people that work for a business. The recent idea by brands like IKEA, to upload short form videos of what’s going on «behind the scenes» met with great success. The point of the exercise is the genuine perspective of very relatable people. Every day people. Those that we meet out on the street, or going into a shop. Effectively, EGC tries to emulate the relationship between a customer and a clerk of a supermarket, or a dairy store, or a dinner.
Forget SEO. Go to GEO.
You all know that SEO works according to the algorithms set by each search engine. In the past every content creator was more or less complying with the requirements of those algorithms. Since the actual search is now passed on to AI-driven apps (Copilot, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, ChatGPT), the new prerequisite is to comply and optimize according to their needs. And this process is now called Generative Engine Optimization.
Effectively the general idea of making it to the top of the organic results, is to use AI for research, analysis and generation of ideas for content that will be created by humans. Again, as shown by the latest content metrics, 50% of the visitors of a site can easily identify content that has been written by AI and and even greater percentage (52%) will not trust that content.
The name of the game is interaction
People need to connect with what they see. A reason that a walk-in store has more customers than another similar shop, is that the people working on that store are more relatable than the people working on the other shop. What we actually have here, is a transfer of what is happening in reality to the online world. Instead of faceless companies with cold product descriptions, have an actual warm and sincere relation with actual faces and names.
Which actually means that content managers will have to change their way of thinking. Online marketing is no longer simply audiovisual. It’s a full real-time immersive experience.