Why Every Professional Should Become a Creator

You are as good as your brand, or you could go a step further and say you are your brand. Even if you don’t like the idea, you cannot help but be a brand in today's day and age. This is especially true of professionals whose success depends upon how they are personally perceived.

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The emergence and spectacular rise of the creator economy has made a media professional out of almost anybody- students, teachers, cooks, coaches, wanna be actors and singers, budding musicians, freelancing journalists, intrepid travellers and consultants of all manner.

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They blog, create YouTube videos and podcasts, make Instagram and Facebook reels, come out with newsletters for their subscribers and create digital products for their target audience. The whole process is driven by their ability to create a brand persona that resonates with people.

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Why is a personal brand important?

Julius Caesar, the famed Roman general and conqueror, was assassinated by his rivals who did not want him to be emperor. However, his image and persona as a fearless warrior who brought glory to Rome ensured that a new line of Roman Emperors called Caesar ruled their vast global Empire for a millennium and a half. The German Kaisars and the Russian Czars are variations of the same name. That is the power of a brand for you.

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A creator makes and promotes his or her own brand

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People in the creativity business like artists, singers and actors are renowned for their skill and artistry, and this is reflected in their fame and the adulation they receive from fans. Their names become a representation of what they embody. Their brand value is such that they don't need to introduce themselves or announce their names.

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Everybody knows who Tom Cruise is, and Michael Jackson never went unrecognised. This kind of brand recognition can be and is often monetised by those that possess it with huge success. In today’s digital age, when everyone has the avenues available to express themselves creatively to large numbers of people, it makes eminent sense for professionals like architects, journalists, teachers, chefs, authors, marketing executives, realtors and a host of other professionals to build their brands by displaying their creative skills.

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There isn’t a better way than by showcasing your skills as a professional to a desired target audience for influencing and networking with them.  You get to distinguish yourself from the competition, earn their trust and imprint your brand image on them in an organic and subliminal way. Not only does this incentivise your target audience to buy your services or offerings, but you will also attract the best talent to work for you. Somebody like Sanjeev Kapoor, who is quite an influencer thanks to his TV show, books, website, YouTube channel and brand collaborations, will have customers flocking to his restaurant and no dearth of outstanding talent willing to work for him.

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We live in a chaotic digital universe, where everyone is expressing themselves online. No matter how reticent you are personally, you have got to be there online engaging with your prospects and clients through your creative expressions. The online space is not only a place where people pick up their social cues, but also a place where AI seizes you up, which makes it all the more important to wear your creator garb and engage in outreach.

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A professional who doubles up as a creator gets to build a community of people who have a stake in them. This can help them in myriad ways apart from selling their offerings. It can help them test and launch new projects as well as obtain investment. What’s more, they can save massive amounts of money they would otherwise have to spend on paid advertising campaigns.

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The creator economy is not to be scoffed at

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The creator economy is not something to be scoffed at. According to Forbes, it could reach a whopping $480 billion by 2027. That means that not only can professionals who are creators as well earn more by growing their core businesses, but they can also supplement their income by monetising platforms like YouTube, Blogger.com, Substack, and Medium. Besides, they can earn from newsletter subscriptions, speaking engagements, book royalties, and affiliate marketing. Everybody from a chartered accountant and a chef to a PR consultant and a realtor can augment their income massively by participating in the creator economy.

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The Rise of the One-Person Media Company

There has never been a more opportune time for one-person media companies than now. Look around you- the evidence is everywhere. Individual influencers across genres and in every part of the world who have built multi-million-dollar businesses abound, with brands falling over each other to sign deals with them. As a matter of fact, they have more than given a run for their money to storied and well-established media companies.

​The advent of the internet age and now the AI era has made high and mighty media gatekeepers with their cosy clubs of networks and privilege not just redundant, but has also seriously endangered the business models of the many media firms still steeped in the old way of doing things.

​The moats keeping so many enterprising solopreneurs lacking in capital and manpower from achieving success have long been bridged, with anybody with the right set of skills, talent and aptitude being able to make it big in the world of media.

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The age of paraphernalia is gone

​The new age media company no longer necessarily requires paraphernalia to succeed in a major way. A single individual is perfectly capable of running a thriving media company sans an office building and a team of specialists handling editing, copywriting, SEO, photography, advertising, PR, social media posting and, of course, marketing.

​Smartphones and apps can help create all manner of audio visual content and text, respectively, which can then be distributed across a plethora of inexpensive and easy-to-access and operate channels and platforms. These include websites, e-mail campaigns, blogs, RSS feeds, social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and Threads, as well as other channels of distribution like Spotify, Medium, and Substack.

​No longer does one have to struggle to get one’s content distributed across hoity-toity conventional media outlets with high entry barriers- traditional newspapers, magazines, television networks, radio stations, book publishers, and even well-established digital news publishers.

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What makes a One-Person Media Company Tick

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A one-person media company has certain inherent advantages over a much larger traditional one. First the fixed cost is nearly negligible for a one-man setup when compared to a conventional media company. 

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Second, unlike old school media agencies, whose growth is shackled by budget constraints, a one person media company will grow in direct proportion to the time one invests in it. Third, profitability is achieved quite soon, in the case of a single person media company in comparison to a conventional media company with a fair amount of overheads.  

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Lastly, scaling up business requires increased hiring in the case of old school media companies. Single person media companies, on the other hand,  can have low-cost scaling up thanks to AI and automation

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One Person Media Company- Carve Your Own Destiny

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A person running a one person media company is free to carve their own destiny in that they don't have to get caught up in the 9 to 5 grind and all the complexities associated with it. There are none of the interpersonal, inter personnel and inter-departmental issues to wrangle with, allowing one to focus on one’s own objectives.

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One can make decisions faster, pivoting as often and as many times as is necessary without having to engage in lengthy consultations and negotiations. A one-person media company provides an escape to brilliant professionals straitjacketed by the constraints of hierarchy in a traditional organisation where so much time is wasted on posturing and one-upmanship.

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Besides, the profit margins are quite high and the risks relatively moderate for such organisations. Scaling up is that much easier, and that allows one to both grow one’s business and personal wealth at a rapid clip.

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For instance, leading the newsletter subscription business model are two creators on Substack- Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson with 2.9 million subscribers ($12 million plus yearly earnings) and Lenny’s Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky with more than a million subscribers ($2 million plus yearly earnings).

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The highest earning You Tube channel owned by a single individual, by the name of Jimmy Donaldson, alias Mr. Beast boasts an annual earnings of $300 million. As a matter of fact, the top 50 creators in the world made as much as $1.02 billion between March 2025 and 2026.

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We may well be at the start of a golden age for one-person media companies. Are you ready to join the gold rush?

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Why the Creator Economy Is Bigger Than Hollywood

Hollywood has been the stuff that dreams have been made of for more than a century and a quarter now. It has given us epic movies, larger-than-life film stars and directors and elevated the age-old art of storytelling into a spectacular audiovisual extravaganza.

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From cowboy westerns and Biblical tales to war movies and from classics like Gone With The Wind to comic superheroes like Superman and Batman, Hollywood has been a part of everyone’s growing-up years, youth and old age- a constant reassuring companion that makes you look at everyday life with curiosity, awe and wonder. It made life worth living.

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Yet we have, in our collective wisdom, decided to turn our back on that wonderful edifice of entertainment, spectacle and knowledge and replace it with what- the creator economy?!

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What is the creator economy?

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The creator economy comprises everyday people using modern technological tools like smartphones, digital cameras, laptops, and digital software to create content (text and audiovisual) for other people, which they monetise through ads, product promotions, subscriptions and memberships, digital products, and myriad other channels.

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The content creation industry, aided by the technological revolution, has given Hollywood and other traditional media a run for their money in vying for audience attention. Rather than watch movies in cinema theatres, hundreds of millions of people prefer to consume audiovisual content available on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook across every genre under the sun on their smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

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Size of the global creator economy

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Not only do these platforms provide customised entertainment as well as information on the go, but they also provide a viable income stream to millions of content creators and influencers around the world. The global creator economy market size is expected to touch $310.4 billion this year and reach a whopping $1345.5 billion by 2033. As many as 200 million people worldwide consider themselves to be creators. According to Deloitte,50 million content creators create content for 5 billion social media users worldwide, making the creator economy a buzzing hub of activity.

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Size of Hollywood

At $50.9 billion, Hollywood has a modest turnover compared to the burgeoning creator economy. A mere 407000 people work across the motion pictures and sound recording industry in the USA, which includes those associated with Hollywood. So, Hollywood is really a pygmy compared to the creator economy, and the number of people who are gainfully employed in this industry is constantly dwindling.

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The creator economy is gargantuan compared to Hollywood

In sheer size and financial heft, Hollywood is no comparison to the creator economy. However, it is in the colossal loss of its social capital, or to use a more political term, soft power, that Hollywood has suffered its biggest fall from grace. It is not its Oscar-winning movies and caped crusader fantasy franchises that have an all-pervading influence on communities and societies around the world.

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On the contrary, it is social media influencers rising from amongst the ordinary people around the world who carry tremendous clout with peoples across nations. If young people come out on the streets in support of a movement anywhere, it is social media that influences them. Politicians these days worry much more about their online support base than the number of people who turn up for their public meetings and rallies.

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While Hollywood is largely about the entertainment industry, the creator economy drives business itself. Brands know that they will get more bang for the buck chasing influencers than they will possibly get by signing up waning Hollywood celebrities at exorbitant prices. Things were tough as it is for Hollywood for quite some time now, but the advent of cutting-edge technology, especially AI, has in all likelihood put the final nail in the coffin of that venerable industry.

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The Hollywood writers strike a few years back in protest against the use of AI in writing was an early sign of things to come. Today, AI has pervaded every aspect of filmmaking, ranging from pre-production and actual physical production to post-production.  As a matter of fact, social media is already full of short films or reels which have been created entirely from scratch, right from writing and scripting to filming and composing the music to filming with virtual actors using virtual voiceovers.

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The creator economy is not just much bigger than Hollywood; it is fast becoming a way of life for hundreds of millions.

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The future of content marketing after ChatGPT

When it comes to content marketing, there is clearly a period before ChatGPT and after it. One fateful November day in 2022, ChatGPT was launched, and the world of content marketing was shaken to the core. With its incredible ability to create any amount of text on any subject under the sun in practically no time, it upended the world of wordsmiths around the world at that time, and content marketers began to worry about their jobs.

​Things didn't quite pan out that way, with people eventually being able to distinguish seemingly brilliant AI created content from human created one and feeling shortchanged on account of it. They increasingly chose the former over the latter as it felt real, relatable and more human.

​That does not mean that AI-generated content isn’t useful. It is, but as a recognisable separate category of its own alongside human-generated content. AI can help one with research, generating ideas and helping structure human-created content, and where necessary generate the content, thereby making the content marketing process smoother, faster and much more efficient than before.

​Clients are fine with AI being used by human content creators to the extent that it makes them perform better. At the same time, they would like to have a disclosure on the part of the content creator with regard to the use of AI, as they would likely like to know how much of what they are paying is on account of human inputs.

​It is not surprising, therefore, that 40 percent of marketers use ChatGPT regularly. It helps them streamline their writing and  get the job done faster and better. No wonder content marketers these days consider prompt engineering a very important skill.

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What's there not to like about ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms?

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While ChatGPT is a great companion to the human content creator in helping them come up with topical, reasonably well researched and resonant content, it is not as if it doesn't come with its own set of pitfalls.

​For one, you are not sure about the provenance of the content it displays for your consumption. You cannot take what it provides you at face value every time it comes up with some information. Any references that it might cite need to be checked to ensure accuracy.

​Besides, the content that ChatGPT and other generative platforms often generate comes across as formulaic and repetitive. Machine-created content, which is not imbued with real human emotions which can only come from lived experience, does not connect with the target audience the way one would want it to. Human communication has to be both subtle and nuanced and not just expressive, and that often does not reflect in the text created by generative AI.

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A partnership between generative AI and humans

​Just like handcrafted and bespoke products and services are valued more than mass produced cookie cutter like ones, honestly created real content based on a living person’s real-life experiences will always resonate with people much more. AI is good at managing the mundane aspects of content creation like pulling up stats, organizing text into bullet points, research, creating structure and carrying out grammar and spell checks. It is also great at repurposing content.

​But when it comes to originality of thought, critical thinking and strategic insight, human content creators have an inherent advantage over AI. This is also true in the case of storytelling. Even though AI can spin a brilliant yarn in practically no time, it is inevitably regurgitating other people’s style of writing. It could write like another Hemingway, but never be another Hemingway.

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The Path Ahead

The future of content marketing after ChatGPT is in fact better than it would have been without it. The advent of aeroplanes did not kill off road and rail transport, but made the latter better. As a matter of fact, there is a resurgence in rail travel, which is seen as a cleaner alternative to air travel in these environmentally fraught times.

​Human content creation is evolving thanks to the advent of ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms, which makes content marketing perform way better than it ever has in the past, providing more bang for every buck spent on it.  

According to Harvard Business Review, premier management consulting firm McKinsey stated back in 2023 that LLMs and other types of generative AI would bring about a $4.4 trillion growth in corporate profits.Let’s see how things pan out on a macro level, but the future of content marketing is brighter and better than before- one should know how to be a part of it. Human-centric content and marketing are going to be at the forefront even as ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms play a vital supporting role.

Prompt Engineering Is Dead. Strategic Thinking Is Back.

 When it came to using Large Language Models (LLMs), it used to be all about prompt engineering, which was seen as the silver bullet to obtain the best possible answers with the help of generative AI. The limitations of this belief  became apparent soon enough, and one began to turn to what has been termed context engineering. This involved inputting more advanced information from sources such as database summaries, retrieval pipelines, and contextual memory, among other things.

​Given that LLM models have evolved considerably over time and today possess an enhanced ability to comprehend natural language, it is far less dependent on prompt engineering than in the past. The ability to apply strategic thinking in order to accurately describe the problems in question, ask pertinent questions, analyse AI-generated output and use it to achieve one’s objectives is what is required these days. The AI era does not advantage those who are past masters at using prompt tricks, but those who can bring critical thinking to the fore and combine it with domain expertise and an ability to make sound judgment calls. Creative people who can strategise with the help of a partner that thinks and is more than a chatbot will be the ones to call the shots in this new dispensation. So strategic thinking is back in business, and the days of mechanically hammering in formulaic prompts into unthinking chatbots are definitely over.

​There was a time when prompt engineering had taken on a life of its own. It was all about skilfully using clever phrases and chain-of-thought tricks to somehow coax or trick generative AI models into offering up reasonably sensible output. Modern models happen to reason by default. It no longer has to be all about clever words; not so much the prompt but the thinking that goes into creating it that matters. Having a handle on the exact nature of the problem one is trying to solve and what it is that an optimal answer should look like helps. A query that is supported by a clear knowledge of one’s goals, the context in which it is required and the inherent constraints one might face will obtain the most useful information almost by default. In other words, strategic thinking is the way to go, not how good you are at using a predefined prompting structure. A victorious general is almost always marked by a superior strategic understanding of the battlefield, which helps them provide their troops with just the right brief for the latter’s best course of action.

​An extensive prompt vocabulary is not what helps one leverage AI in the best possible way. It is instead the ability to clearly define problems, be able to catch answers that are even the slightest bit wrong and come up with a better iteration. It is not about how you talk to a machine, but how clearly you express your request to the model in question. Prompts are, of course, not entirely dead, but they have to be backed by clear thinking and not some kind of engineering. No place for snake-oil salespeople- it's back to strategic thinking.

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AI Search vs Google Search: The New Battle for Visibility

 

Google search has been a part of our lives for decades now, and unless one was born under a rock and stayed there all these years, we have all had occasion to use it to obtain information for practically everything under the sun. In fact, to digital natives, anybody who hasn’t “googled” something might as well as be an alien from outer space.

​But as the old adage goes, change is the only thing that is permanent; the era of Google search is giving way to the age of AI search. This  promises to make the process of obtaining information more involved, as it involves a collaborative process where we can have a conversation about what exactly we are searching for instead of merely posing a simple mono-dimensional query and hoping for the best.

​What is AI search?

Like Google Search, AI search too can be used by people to obtain information or seek answers to any question they might have. AI search is superior to traditional search engines like Google Search as it does not rely on keyword-based indexing and instead is able to intelligently analyse the exact context of the query in question and is, therefore, able to come up with very pertinent and relevant answers that speak to the exact need of the person carrying out the search. This is made possible on account of AI search leveraging the power of cutting-edge AI technologies like  Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Machine Learning (ML).

​AI search vs Google Search- The path ahead

For all the talk about the emergence of AI search and its growing importance in the overall scheme of things, the fact of the matter is that Google Search still dominates, with AI search only being able to drive less than 1% traffic to most sites. People still primarily turn to Google Search when trying to locate products, services or websites. That is the reason why businesses around the world continue to spend big bucks on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to ensure that they are able to obtain top rankings.

​However, the advent of AI has refined the process of obtaining information with the help of AI-backed search platforms like Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT. Where they score is in their ability to provide customised information on the basis of conversations they are able to have with the searchers. That makes AI search considerably more useful than traditional SEO ones, and that is something that hasn’t escaped the notice of brands and businesses. They have caught on to the fact that they need to optimise for both types of search engines-Google and AI

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It is not surprising, therefore,  that 37% of consumers are already searching with AI tools in place of the Google search engine, with ChatGPT alone boasting over 900 million active users. The Google Gemini app has as many as a very impressive 750 million active monthly users. Today, a brand's online reputation is more important than keywords for achieving optimal search results in the world of AI. Over here, your AI search strategy requires that your brand is the answer to people’s questions. Your digital presence has to be optimised so as to catch the attention of Large Language Models. The more the ChatGPTs, Claudes, Geminis and other such models cite your content and accord it importance, the better your brand’s authority gets stamped in the digital universe.

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While SEO will stay important and relevant, it will have to be strengthened by what is called answer engine optimisation. The more high quality original research goes into your content the more can you expect to build your industry authority and thereby lead to better capitalisation of traffic to your site.

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Summary

The old way of obtaining information via good old Google search is passe. No longer do links that will hopefully lead to the right answer do the trick. Instead, AI-powered search engines are able to come up with direct, personal, precise and conversational answers that serve your interests much better than the old way. Consequently, the click through rates are no longer as high as in the past, being supplanted by authoritative and highly reliable content. Brands are now called upon to do more than SEO and work on enhancing their AI visibility as well, by furnishing precise, high-quality, and context-rich information which helps them stay on top in the battle for online possibility.

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The Death of Traditional SEO—and What Comes Next

 

Traditional SEO, as we have known over the last three decades, is effectively dead. This is borne out by the fact that experts reckon that the $80 billion SEO market is on its last legs. What is slated to replace it instead is Generative Engine Optimisation or GEO. In place of using traditional search bars, consumers increasingly feed their queries into chat boxes on platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity. More and more, we are  seeing the rise and domination of an AI propelled system of search that brands would do well to adopt at the earliest, unless they want to be consigned to oblivion.

​It is no longer about ranking, but reference

In the old way of doing things, the higher one ranked on the results page, the better it was. The world of GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) or LLM (Large Language Model) Optimisation that individuals and brands now operate in demands that one achieve creditable reference rates vis-a-vis AI, instead. Where this form of search is intrinsically better than the old way is in the fact  that it actually entails engaging in active conversations rather than merely typing keywords. 

​AI Search all the Way

Online discovery is done the AI way in the post-SEO era with the help of a myriad of platforms like Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. Factors like keyword density and backlinks, which were the lifeblood of traditional SEO, are no longer as critical in the online discovery process. Instead, AI models zero in on content that is well crafted, factually reliable, and sufficiently cited. In other words, they go for content that is unequivocally authoritative. The way things are these days, a brand may do without a website, but not without an impressive digital experience.

​Go for GEO

World over, people are making a move to EVs (Electric Vehicles) from traditional ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) Vehicles, troubled by the growing incidents of extreme weather events caused by global warming. A similar paradigm redefining move is afoot in the digital marketing universe with regard to a move from SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to the more contemporary GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). This is because it helps generate content that is reliable, trustworthy and authoritative and, therefore, more liable to be found useful by AI models.

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GEO requires individuals and brands to ensure that they prioritise high-value and high-quality content over articles stuffed with keywords as was practised in the past. One has to be recognised for one’s insights and cited often enough to denote credible authority. This helps build a brand that exemplifies expertise. The idea is not to encourage clicks, but to become a go-to source for knowledge.

​Up the Trust Quotient

You may be masterful at technical optimisation and a past master at creating reams of content, but the ladder to success in the age of AI will come to those who display real expertise, rather than the ability to crack an algorithm. Your ability to come up with high-quality content that provides demonstrable value will make people as well as AI gravitate towards you as a point of reference. Now’s the time to up the trust quotient of your brand.

​Age of the Personal Brand

This may be the AI era, but there is an increasing premium on the human connect in an age of AI generated content with its almost cookie-cutter precision. Businesses and brands with the foresight to empower their leader by allowing them to create and build personal brands that emotionally resonate with their prospects and customers are on to a good thing. People crave to hear from successful people who seem to have everything sorted. These could  range from a highly regarded CEO, a super rich and successful entrepreneur, a hugely respected researcher or a consultant whose advice is much sought after. A credible  personal brand allows a business to wield far more influence than a mere website. It also helps the brand place better in AI driven searches.

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As the old adage goes-the old order changeth, yielding place to the new. We are on the cusp of a digital marketing revolution.

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