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In 2026, differentiating your brand and maintaining a human voice is essential, especially amid the rapid growth of AI. In this week’s edition, learn how to elevate your brand with authentic, human-centered storytelling, and read all about the new features on X, Meta, and LinkedIn.
Be the Human in the Room
As AI continues to reshape the digital landscape, authenticity matters more than ever, and trust has become essential. Brands that are gaining the most trust and credibility are the ones that feel most human.
This starts with knowing how to tell your story in a way that feels relatable and is built for your audience. For example, readers are far more likely to remember a story than a list of facts.
Of course, strong storytelling is only one piece of the puzzle. Building an authentic brand and earning trust means understanding how your organization shows up in the conversations your audience is already having, as well as establishing credibility for the pieces you write.
Your Brand’s Current Perception
Your audience most often discusses your brand in social media comment sections and forums. These discussions are more candid than formal ones and can reveal how your audience truly perceives your organization. While it can be difficult to navigate the wide range of conversations surrounding your company, Strategic Elements has you covered. Our media monitoring services can help you better understand how to strengthen your brand’s credibility by identifying the narratives surrounding it.
Real Authorship
Readers are looking for authors with expertise and leadership in their fields now more than ever. Sharing who is writing lends credibility to what you write. Additionally, citing sources is essential. Make sure your audience knows where you get your information. The simple act of attributing an article to its rightful author, whether that be an individual or your company, as well as linking to the rightful sources, builds trust with your audience.
If you use AI to help you write, do so mindfully. Audiences prefer lived experiences and human emotion. While AI can be a useful starting point or help you make edits to your writing, it should support your voice, rather than replace it. In a sea of AI-generated content, the best way to stand out is to be the human in the room.
Meta Gives Content Creators a Hand
Meta continues to support content creators, this time with two new tools.
The Content Planner tool in Creator Studio provides an overview of scheduled content and engagement trends, showing which posting strategies are working best for your brand.
Additionally, Meta has made it easier to upload content with its new bulk uploads tool. This feature makes it easier than ever for content creators and businesses to plan multiple posts at once. Combined with the new Content Planner tool, these updates are part of Meta’s effort to elevate authentic content and crack down on inauthentic activity. The goal is to give real creators better tools to stay active and organized on the platform.
LinkedIn Boosts Small Businesses
LinkedIn’s new Premium Company Pages feature can help small businesses better understand how competitors’ pages perform on the platform. Through Premium Company Pages, companies can now access competitor analytics. With this feature, you can track up to nine competitors. In doing so, companies can see how their page compares to their competitors, with statistics to back it up. This tool, paired with LinkedIn’s other small-business tools and those currently being rolled out, can give small businesses a deeper understanding of what they’re doing well and where they can improve their presence on LinkedIn.
History Replaces Bookmarks
This change allows users to see their bookmarks, likes, watched videos, and articles in one place. With Bookmarks, X users can see what they have previously enjoyed and save it for later. With History, this function remains, and users can also see the posts they have previously interacted with. They will also be able to see the articles and videos they have read and watched.
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What are some creative ways your brand has embraced authentic storytelling?
Strategic Elements is a full-service public affairs, marketing, and media consulting firm based in Iowa. Our team of political operatives, marketing experts, and media strategists helps businesses, organizations, and causes shape public opinion, influence policy, and drive meaningful change.
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