You’ve probably noticed it by now.
The dystopian vibe social media has been giving off lately. It’s been bubbling away at the surface for years now, but recently, more of us are having to rely on the consensus of the comment section to tell us if the reel we just watched is real or not.
That’s how good AI is getting. And it’s only getting worse as bots begin to overrun the comment section as well. The more attention we farm through automation, the less anyone sounds like an actual human.
This has created a schism between personal and impersonal branding. The demand for connection has, and always will, exist — but the gap has widened so significantly you could argue those who lean into their authentic personas will command a monopoly within the attention economy.
This case study is a glaring example.
The Subject: Founder “Frank”
Earlier this year, a founder—let’s call him Frank—reached out to me for a second opinion. He had a proven product, cash to splash on ads, and every reason to believe he could scale to seven figures. Yet after months of paid ads and a ghoswriting agency running his account, nothing was happening.
I only had to take a quick glance at his profile to see the problem. The content was completely soulless. See when your starting point is faceless, impersonal, and arbitrary, your content is gonna be…faceless…impersonal…and arbitrary. You can hire the best writers in the world; a turd is still a turd, no matter how much you polish it.
The Diagnosis: The 3 Sins of Branding
There are three fundamental reasons Frank’s feed resembled a ghost town (despite boosting exposure through paid ads).
1 – It lacked connection
People connect with people. People need connection to build trust. Trust is what moves people to buy. It’s really as simple as that. When you remove the face behind the message, you lose the emotion and end up talking at people instead of to them.
If you’ve ever come across the know-it-all “guru” vibe that make your eyes roll, this is it—and it’s exactly the vibe Frank’s feed gave off.
2 – It lacked credibility
At best, an impersonal brand can only really borrow authority from others: referencing quotes, leveraging popular figures, following whatever’s trending. I’m not saying any of these are wrong—I do it too—but there’s a massive difference between:
“Here’s Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout routine”, and
“I tried Arnold’s workout routine and here’s how it went.”
The first builds Arnold’s brand. The second builds yours—by putting you at the centre—while signaling common interest(s) (e.g. fitness, bodybuilding, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.)
Generic info-brands like “musclefitness5X” can only get you so far before they come off as a cheap way to get views.
3 – It lacked continuity
This is the most underrated of the three. When your brand lacks identity, your content cannot evolve into a story. When there’s no narrative to follow, there’s no sense of progression for readers to emotionally latch on to.
Every post becomes a one-and-done. Another attempt at a quick sale. Nothing compounds or builds from the last. It’s why Frank’s profile felt like I was stuck in an unskippable ad, instead of real content from a real person with real value.
The Fix: Personalization
After breaking all this down, Frank asked if I could take over the account and rebuild it from the ground up. I agreed—and began mapping out the system I use for all my clients.
A process I call personalization.
See most people think fixing content is about better copy or being more creative. It isn’t. It’s about putting the founder back into the position of authority—and allowing content to naturally flow from their perspective, philosophies, and experience.
You can think of it like running a podcast. The guest brings the content. The host extracts it. The team batches it. And the audience compounds it. Thus, personalization has 3 clear steps:
1 – Extract
2 – Batch
3 – Compound
The extraction stage is about drawing out what’s already there: the struggles, successes, and stories that define who a person is and what they represent. I sat with Frank and asked him a line of questions, the same way a Joe Rogan would get the best out of his guests. You’d be surprised how many months of interesting and insightful content you can get from a 1-2hr call.
Next comes batching. Ever watched a YouTube short that made you watch the full thing? Same principle. Reader stumbles on your tweet. Reader clicks on your blog. Reader buys your thing.
Batching is simply the process of breaking the bread down into crumbs—from long to mid to shortform—so the reader can follow the trail back to the original piece.
Think of how podcasters snip, edit, and polish segments from a 3hr interview. This is what gave Frank not only a runway, but that continuity we spoke about earlier.
Lastly, compounding. This is just my fancy way of saying “double down on what works.” What people saved. What people shared. What people engaged with. These signals are what feed the next cycle—the same way comedians test out material before getting on stage. Over time, the fly-wheel becomes so well-oiled, the machine basically runs itself.
The Result
After 4 months (exactly 129 days) with this system in place, Frank’s account crossed 6.55M total impressions. A complete one-eighty from the graveyard it was before.
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But the real win for us wasn’t just the quantitative, but the qualitative metrics that underpin everything else.
- more profile visits
- more bookmarks
- higher click-through rates
- more downloads
- more replies from people who actually gave a shit
- and a clear rise in trust and perceived authority
Even I was a bit surprised at how quickly the account moved from a faceless output machine to a thought leader. Of course, I’m not saying that Frank’s account blew up over night—any serious marketer knows that progress isn’t always linear.
However, if my experience as a ghostwriter-in-the-trenches has taught me anything, it’s that AI hasn’t “taken over.” All it’s done is give personal brands more leverage.
Takeaway: Imperfect beings will always value beauty in imperfection over artificial perfection.
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** the following weeks ill be sharing a deeper dive on the process as this is just a high level
