The changing role of mainstream media in reputation management
In a world of AI Search, mainstream media is important, but not definitive.
Today the reputation of any Single Family Office, principal family, business or UHNWI is mediated mostly by algorithm and AI within Google.
One of the core precepts of Michael Macfarlane Associates is a focus on reputation being primarily mediated by algorithms and by AI.
Reputation management, whether it be to build a reputation or to protect a reputation, especially through times of challenge and change, is increasingly about curating an online persona and substantiating authentic online profile attributes that are not susceptible to being challenged by alternative content that does not represent the true position.
Today the reputation of any Single Family Office, principal family, business or UHNWI is mediated mostly by algorithm and AI within Google.
Mainstream media still matters for reputation management
And so it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that this means that mainstream media no longer plays a role in reputation. But this would be erroneous.
Whilst no longer definitive to reputation, mainstream media continues to play a hugely important role (though see our blog here about how this is quickly changing).
Most big news websites sit within the Google’s E-A-T algorithm, which measures ‘expertise’, ‘authoritativeness’ and trustworthiness. Content on web sites that fall within the scope of the E-A-T algorithm consistently rank very highly in Google search.
Therefore, mainstream media content does matter for reputation management.
At the same time, the entire legacy media is under lots of financial pressure. It is shrinking, certainly in the Western world, and fewer journalists are trying to cover ever more stories. Under pressure, rarely do journalists have the time for full due diligence on every story.
Journalists therefore are highly influenced by Google and what they can substantiate through Search and through other informational tools which scrape their information from Search. Search is thus a primary reference source and driver of sentiment for any journalist being asked to write about a particular individual or perhaps about a Single Family Office.
What appears on Google therefore greatly impacts the sentiment that the media takes, and the sentiment that the media takes impacts what appears in Google, in a symbiotic circle.
But mainstream media is now only one component of reputation
This brings us to the brand-new world where reputation is mediated by Search algorithms and, very soon, by AI-powered search. In this world, what one might have once called ‘spin’ will no longer be possible (see this blog). Authenticity and substance will be everything.
Managing a reputation will mean having to actually ‘be’ the thing that one wants to be known for, which means defining and curating clear profile attributes, and then, most importantly, substantiating that they are real and authentic and ongoing by continuously creating content and sharing stories within each of those profile attributes, such that Google recognises those attributes as a core part of who an individual is.
This requires the constant creation of video, image, audio and written content published on owned channels or as part of collaborations. It requires the turnkey creation and management of projects that help to substantiate and support profile attributes. And it requires the curation of the structured data that the natural language processing of Search uses to interpret meaning and importance.
And only then, with all of these pieces in place, does it mean engagement with the mainstream media in the pursuit of validating stories of features.
It is also worth bearing in mind the evolution of search. The evolution is no secret and has been announced publicly by Google and to great attention within the worlds of SEO and people who are interested in such things.
Google is moving, unsurprisingly in a world of ChatGPT, toward a world where the current methodology of search, which has remained largely unchanged since Sergey Brin and Larry Page first invented Google, will become obsolete.
The notion that one “Googles” a subject matter and is then presented with pages of ranked results to click through to, ranked according to what the search engine believes are perhaps the most relevant results, will seem old fashioned and passe less than five years from now.
The future of Search is not the curation by a search engine of multiple third party pages and the ranking of those pages according to anticipated relevance, driven by an algorithm. The future of search is AI-derived answers to queries being provided directly within Google.
Successful outcomes are highly influenced by the reputation and sentiment that are mediated by AI-powered search
This means moving far from a world where Google curates search results to click through to, and instead Google delivering the results ‘in page’, such that users who are trying to form an impression about, for example, an UHNWI or a Single Family Office, no longer need to click through multiple pages to form their impression and to generate their sentiment, but instead ges everything they need within Google in a single detailed snapshot derived by AI.
This is hugely important to UHNWI’s and Single Family Offices, because it means that substantiating profile attributes to be relevant to this new world of Search is an absolute prerequisite for having a resistant and resilient reputation. Managing reputation means understanding the sources that AI-Search draws from and curating creative, diverse, interesting and high quality content across all media types to ‘feed’ the AI.
When the world switches to search derived entirely from artificial intelligence, the role of the mainstream media will still be of meaningful importance. But it will be increasingly, as is already the case, be diluted in its importance by these other sources of information.
So it going to be hugely important that UHNWI families and Single Family Offices are ‘feeding’ the AI of Search with authentic, substantive, resilient content that substantiates each of their profile attributes and ensures that AI accurately reflects the true position of who they are.
If UHNWI families and Single Family Offices do not do this, then all of the KYC and AML systems, all of the due diligence systems, all of which are derived in some way from the data that feeds from the same artificial intelligence that will feed the future of search engines, will give an inaccurate picture and may negatively impact sentiment.
When data is king in an AI world, having an accurate capture of the ‘true position’ will be an absolute prerequisite to be able to act and to transact around the world without any friction. Whether that’s making an investment, funding a philanthropic project, or achieving goals in a private life. The success of all of these things will be heavily influenced by sentiment mediated by AI within Search.
Mainstream media will continue to play an important role. But in a world of AI search, is it no longer definitive.