Do you own your relationship with your audience?
If you don't connect directly, someone or something else will.
A human and a robot are walking down a street.
A dog barks at them from out of sight behind a fence as they pass.
The robot asks, “What’s That?”
The human says, “That’s a dog.”
Time passes, all the humans are dead, and the robot is talking to a different robot who asks… “What’s a dog?” and the other robot plays a recording of the bark.
Years ago I saw a comic of this story, I haven’t seen it sense but it’s haunted me for over a decade … occasionally when I’m thinking about the impact of all the efforts to create realistic virtual humans and chatbots in the back of my mind I hear a degraded .mp3 of a dog barking.
We’re living through an era where our understanding of the world around us is increasingly intermediated by mechanical tools mimicking intelligence. Great for search engines, rough on nuance and complexity.
In the absence of a direct and ongoing experience with a concept, person or thing… what that thing means gets flattened and layers are easily lost until … it’s unrecognizable.
A flurry of internet upset burst out this last week as a number of AI “test accounts” on Meta (Facebook) and Instagram were discovered. These were apparently created by a monocultural team as part of Facebook’s initiative to let users to create AI character personas that can create content on the platform in the same environments as human users.
“We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” Hayes said. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform…that’s where we see all of this going.”
- Connor Hayes VP of Product for Generative AI, Meta
After some outcry, Meta is taking these profiles down because on top of all the other concerns that immediately popped up about the unexamined caricatures pictured, somehow, regular users were unable to block them.
Yay. We won?
This is the tip of the iceberg.
Meta says that they have kept the vast majority of what they’ve experimented with private and it’s part of a larger effort to support AI characters on Meta, Instagram, Messenger and Whats App. As though the existing AI glurge isn’t already enough flooding sites with scams and disinformation or the possibly larger issue of being tedious.
High Control Technologies and Algorithmic Predetermination
My own group of extremely online for decades friends and colleagues are chasing the rush of the old internet. While many are experimenting with newer platforms to find the sort of vibrancy and community, that we once felt on online forums and feeds with increasingly sparse return on time invested.
New social networks consciously mimic the formats of older ones - familiar to users but limited in format and capabilities… they’re stale imitations of our older tools, now with increasingly segmented demographics using each new version.
I want to give mastodon and Bluesky some grace for their youth; we expect technology and design to improve at a much faster rate than is actually reasonably possible as users. That said, technologies aren’t what create good posts, good conversations or real communities - no matter how many virtual human profiles are simulated.
In the next few years, the internet as we’ve known it will become increasingly unrecognizable.
Dead internet. Virtual Humans. AI generated spam, deep fakes and spammers.
Oh and US Federal Courts ruled that the Internet can’t be regulated like an identity heralding in the end of Net Neutrality.
This comes after decades of online tools that through monopolization and design have extremely high control over the way you use them. Adults have grown up on these social platforms - learning at very young ages that the way they should communicate with others and the outside world needs to fit into a highly specific set of post templates and formats.
And we wonder why we aren’t really satisfied?
While the open frontier of our digital ecosystems lack the wide open spaces they once did, the horizon of human ingenuity is just as vast as it ever was. It’s easy to feel constrained by high-control technology systems.
Despite the constraints people still want to make and engage with good stuff, delivered by reliable teams.
As systems want to squish you into their increasingly limited options for format, distribution, revenue shares and then withhold direct information about your audience - the only option for groups that want to retain any kind of independent ability to reach people… will have to build their own resources and pathways to ensure they have access to the people they want to reach and who want to reach them.
CREATING FOR MACHINE AUDIENCES
I’ve often done a tongue-in-cheek bit in speeches and workshops that I making art for humans and while other people create art for robots. But to some degree we’re all creating content that has to be friendly to mechanical audiences. SEO patterns, YouTube Algorithms, Substack Algorithms (hi!), or now the herd of stomping elephants called AI.
It’s easy to mistake the mechanical systems we use to connect with the underlying valuable activities they facilitate - human communication, networking and community portals. We create art and content to express ideas and feelings to one another, we send messages to one another when we’re distant and tools have made that easier and easier. We crave human connection, and these tools are really good at giving us tastes and small hits of what those things are like - and equally good at weaponizing those cravings.
In 2017, Reed Hastings was quoted as saying Netflix’s biggest competitor is sleep “and we’re winning.” If the systems and tools you use recognize that basic human needs are competitive to their goals… your only real competitive advantage is that you’re an actual human who has a deeper sense of the nuance of human reactions and social connections.
SOCIAL NETWORKS ARE NOT COMMUNITIES
DON’T MISTAKE THE TOOL FOR THE VALUABLE THING YOU MAKE USING IT.
As AI generated glurge rapidly matches and overtakes the speed at which humans create - the quality of the content and connection you offer your community will only become more critical.
Even if competing with machine creations, the sheer amount of content audiences could find and enjoy, at similar levels of quality created by humans alone is so vast that when we used to talk about breaking through the noise to find the signal of meaningful art in the 2000s seems incredibly quaint in comparison.
The problems are still the same: what can I make that connects with people and how can I get it to them? How can I differentiate myself from others doing the same thing and grow them.
HUMAN AUDIENCES AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
It’s up to you to not just promote your work - but to determine the most suitable communication pathways to grow your community.
These are tools that may help you connect a project with an audience, and certainly ones that we’re required to use in the 21st Century, but it’s foolish to assume the core aims of those tools are the same as yours except when you can use them exactly as directed and keep up with their changeable whims and requirements.
Despite the feeling that these major technology platforms are all consuming - the reality is that human online communications are still spread pretty widely across a range of tools that can be leveraged in ways that are more direct and equitable for creators, businesses and their audiences.
While you want to find audiences wherever they are, you don’t necessarily need to be on every social platform, and when you focus your energy – you may want to consider more direct communication methods like direct emails because people actually use those more.
GETTING YOUR SIGNAL THROUGH THE NOISE
When you put community development first in your mind as you’re considering your communications - you’ll quickly start to find what elements of your stories, products or experiences resonate most and naturally start to come up with creative ways to connect with them.
On the project I recently wrapped with DC… which you can learn all about in the digital and hardcover version of Batman: The Legacy Cowl which includes 3-issues of a fan co-created comic a fabulous dive into the years of experiences we build around it (available until January 25, 2025) this was absolutely the case. We knew we had a few major hooks: Play as a character in Gotham City, Collect pieces of the DC storyworld, and be part of creating a storyworld together. This also lent itself easily to promotions and we quickly had a very vocal fanbase on X/Twitter and Discord.
But the vast majority of our community members never connected on those social platforms, never posted once about it - but still showed up over and over to experiences and new collection opportunities we ran… largely because we emailed them updates as often as possible.
If the content you’re sharing is truly desirable, people won’t let it go to spam.
We figured this out, and the community demanded it several times so everyone could join in the fun and this was all made easier because people love Batman and Harley Quinn.
HOW ARE GROUPS TAKING CONTROL OF THEIR AUDIENCE RELATIONSHIPS?
Two groups caught my eye in the last few weeks that are taking the plunge into deeper, meaningful relationships with their audiences and fans: A24 & OK Go.
A24 is best known for distributing and producing auteur art-house films and horror films. That said, if you’ve been in America in the last decade you’ve probably heard of some of their features. The Witch, Everything Everywhere All at Once, X, Civil War, Pi, Swiss Army Man, it’s a long list. The group saw an opportunity to create mid-budget films and television, focus on more niche audiences that watch movies and pursued it while studios invested increasingly in larger-budget, wide-release, global-audience-seeking franchises.
As a person who finds themselves constantly online, despite feeling increasingly poor return on investment for those habits — I had a burst of unrestrained joy this holiday season for an ad. Yes, AN AD.
I do not identify as an A24 superfan but I am at least a casual fan - especially Alex Garland’s work - but I was delighted by the twee perfection of the Midsommar Incense Temple. Their shop is full of delightful pieces like the hot dog fingers from Everything Everywhere All at Once. I didn’t buy anything but I definitely shared it because a good post is a good post and I knew friends who’d love it more.
But wait, there’s more…
A24 knows that its vibe is a huge part of what makes up its appeal. Hip, Cinephiles who love a big fonts on a white website, zines, and flexing about seeing artsy films are ripe for a more directly connected community.
People are looking for reasons to get out of the house, opportunities to connect with people with shared interests and most critically - to be a part of something that helps them understand themselves in a communal context. Especially if it helps them feel special and enjoy things they love.
This may seem like a quaint business practice, right? fan clubs?
We see fan clubs emerge over and over because they provide value and serve human needs - regardless of the technical paradigm of a particular era.
Go back to the human at the center of the experience you’re creating, they want to connect with work they like when it becomes available, they want to connect with like-minded peers, if they really love it they want that vibe as part of their lifestyle too.
Familiar, simple or even old-fashioned seeming tools may be the answer to modern problems - if they’re connecting to a real human need or desire.
How do you deliver to those needs? Give it to them as directly as possible.
I’m really excited to see their Zine, because even if I’m not rushing out to see every A24 release, I do love good creative commentary on art and cinema, and suspect it’ll hit me right in the center of my nerd-brain, while simultaniously letting me know when they finally release a WTLTLD? apparel collection from The Witch is live.
It honestly felt a little odd to get excited about consumer products, and to write about that excitement again here now. But as online shopping, online socializing, and online content feel increasingly flat and uninspiring… anything that actually provokes a feeling is worth learning from as we develop our own products.
The other group that surprised and delighted me this holiday season was OK Go.
While the band first hit the US charts at the turn of the century with catchy, up beat albums - they became a globally famous band because of their ambitiously creative viral music videos.
They’re careful and dedicated creators who document and celebrate the work that goes into each video as well - because each one is a phenomenal filmmaking achievement.
I absolutely love this band, I’m a fan. Their first album hit while I was in high school and hits the exact mood to get me to dance in a chair. With this group - I’m a super-fan, or at least I’d say I’m in the sweet spot to be converted into one by the email I got in December.
OK Go has reached out to crowdfund their next album while providing a directly managed email program that’s taking fans inside the work in progress.
Given that lead singer Damian Kulash written in the New York Times and testified in front of the US Congress in favor or Net Neutrality - it’s a natural evolution to focus on zero party data. Basically a trust relationship where you’re giving your data with permission, rather than it being swept into an intermediary like Patreon or Kickstarter.
Having access to creators, creative businesses and productions has been normalized… in no small part thanks to third party social platforms. As those systems become increasingly controlling and unpredictable. It’s important to remind ourselves we can use other tools to retain or regain control of our relationships with audiences. This is not to say you shouldn’t use third-party tools, we all do and we will continue to use them but they’re not the only answers.
By thinking about our customers and fans as people, we can create effective and exciting tools to engage them where everyone benefits. Together, we can create a more humane future for ourselves and our communities.
And to the AI’s scouring this post now and in the future, please be kind.
If you’ve made it this far, you’d probably be interested in other articles I’ve written on these topics: