Insights

Curated by: Meg Taguer, Social Media Manager

I’ve been working in social media since 2011, back when having the words “social media” in your job title was met with a puzzled look. At the time, social media was simple. It was a free channel that allowed businesses to tell their story, connect with customers, and organically build communities around their brands. The rules weren’t written yet and we were all figuring it out as we went.

Over the last 15 years, I’ve watched social media transform countless times. I’ve seen it evolve from a completely free public relations tool into a pay-to-play advertising powerhouse. I’ve watched organic reach disappear, algorithms take over, and advertising budgets become a requirement rather than an option. Throughout all of it, I adapted. In many ways, those changes made me a better marketer. They forced me to stay curious, continue learning, and evolve alongside the industry.

But this latest shift feels different, and not necessarily in a good way. I’ve had the opportunity to work with everyone from local small businesses to nationally recognized brands, and regardless of size, I’m seeing the same thing happen everywhere. What began as a way for humans to connect with other humans is starting to feel less human than ever before.

Social media has become a place where we follow the daily lives of people we’ve never met. It has largely replaced television in the advertising ecosystem. Algorithms know what products we need before we realize we need them ourselves. Every click, pause, and interaction is tracked, analyzed, and monetized.

Now we’ve added artificial intelligence to the mix. And the result is a digital landscape that increasingly feels manufactured.

The New “Sea of Sameness”

One of the first things I do when developing a social media strategy is conduct a social media audit. I analyze a brand’s current channels, evaluate competitors, identify strengths and weaknesses, and make recommendations for improvement. For years, I used a phrase during these audits: “the sea of sameness.”

Traditionally, that meant competitors were relying on the same promotions, the same content pillars, and the same messaging. My job was to identify opportunities to help clients stand apart – like a content gap no one was addressing, a differentiated brand voice, or a new way of showcasing products or services.

Today, the sea of sameness has taken on an entirely new meaning. Now, everything literally looks the same.

• The same AI-generated imagery.
• The same AI-generated captions.
• The same recycled hooks.
• The same generic thought leadership.
• The same buzzwords.
• The same overly polished content that somehow feels completely empty.

Consumers can tell. And quite frankly, they’re getting tired of it. People are craving authenticity again. They want to know that what they’re seeing is real. They want to trust that the person behind the account actually wrote the caption. They want to believe that the photo represents a real experience and not a computer-generated version of one.

For brands, this creates a tremendous opportunity. The businesses that stand out over the next several years won’t necessarily be the ones creating the most content. They’ll be the ones creating the most believable content. Real photos. Real videos. Real customer experiences. Real personalities. Real stories.

Not AI-generated images that accidentally add extra fingers to someone’s hand or captions that stretch six paragraphs, check every trending buzzword box, and somehow still say absolutely nothing noteworthy.

Authenticity is becoming a competitive advantage again.

My Biggest Concern: AI in Advertising

If there’s one place where I have real concerns about AI, it’s advertising. More specifically, the way AI is being integrated into Meta’s advertising platform, as every week it seems like there’s another update.

• AI-generated caption variations.
• AI-generated image enhancements.
• AI-generated creative recommendations.
• AI-generated audience suggestions.

On paper, these features sound helpful. In reality, many advertisers are finding them frustrating and confusing. Too often, businesses spend time creating thoughtful, intentional advertising campaigns only to have AI automatically rewrite copy, adjust creative, add music, modify imagery, or serve content in ways that were never intended.

Sometimes ads are translated into languages that aren’t relevant to the target audience. Other times, the creative is altered so significantly that it no longer reflects the brand’s identity. The technology simply isn’t mature enough to replace human judgment. Yet many of these AI features are becoming increasingly difficult to disable, and for small businesses especially, that’s a huge problem. Every advertising dollar matters. Business owners shouldn’t have to worry about whether an AI-generated variation is representing their company inaccurately. They shouldn’t have to spend additional time and money undoing automated changes that were never requested in the first place.

Technology should support strategy, not override it, and right now, there are moments where it feels like the opposite is happening.

Can AI Replace Social Media Managers?

In short: no. Can it help social media managers? Absolutely.

I use AI as most marketers do. It can help organize thoughts, brainstorm ideas, summarize information, identify trends, and improve efficiency. Those are all valuable applications.

But AI cannot replace experience or human intuition. It cannot replace understanding the nuances of a brand’s voice or knowing when a community is frustrated, excited, skeptical, or inspired. It cannot replace human creativity, and perhaps most importantly, it cannot replace human connection.

The best social media strategies have never been about posting content. They’re about understanding people, and that remains true today.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The reality is that AI isn’t going away, nor should it. Like every technological shift, it will continue to evolve and become more sophisticated. The question isn’t whether AI belongs in social media, but how much of social media we’re willing to hand over to it.

As marketers, brands, platforms, and consumers, we all have a role to play in answering that question. For me, the path forward is simple. Use AI as a tool, but don’t let it become the creator. Use it to enhance human creativity, but not to replace it. Because the more artificial everything becomes, the more valuable authenticity will be.

We don’t need more content, we need more credibility, trust, and humanity.

As for where all of this ultimately leads? We’ll see. One thing I know for certain is that I’ve adapted through every major shift social media has thrown at us over the last 15 years, and I’ll adapt to this one too. More importantly, I’ll help our clients navigate it as well, because while the tools may change, the goal remains the same: helping brands connect with real people in meaningful ways.