Digital campaigning in the era of AI slop
An argument for throwing aside attempts to use tried and tested methods that are now failing, and spending time building small(er) scale community instead.
The same conversations are happening in a lot of campaigning spaces: digital ads to recruit new supporters aren’t working as well as they used to, it’s harder to get numbers on digital actions, is Reddit a good platform for digital ads?
I get why these conversations are happening. It took a lot of us years to get to grips with campaigning in the digital landscape, and just when we thought we had gotten the hang of it, it seemed like everything changed.
I don’t think trying to apply the same strategy to new platforms is the way forward, though. This is brand new terrain, and requires new strategies and a willingness to experiment.
Today, let’s look at how the current state of digital platforms evolved, and the opportunities for impactful campaigning and advocacy - in brief and in long.
TL;DR (too long, didn’t read):
More and more money is thrown into buying attention as everyone competes for eyeballs, so feeds become swarmed with promoted posts
This creates a shitty experience for users, so they enjoy digital spaces less, and become less likely to positively engage
The companies that own these digital spaces throw money into keeping users on platform and financially reward content creation to try and keep users on the platform
A side industry pops up where “gurus” claim they can make you rich using AI content creation tools
It becomes harder to profit financially for content creators as there is more competition
So content creators turn to sensationalist rage bait or pumping out vast amounts of content, usually assisted by AI
This context means that attempts to ethically engage audiences on these platforms is incredibly hard, especially with financial constraints
To get ahead of this, digital campaigners need to start pivoting to creating smaller but more engaged online communities, taking principles from community organising and applying them to digital spaces
TS;DR (too short, didn’t read):
How did we get here?
From charities to scammers to big businesses to politicians to people trying to sell you their online course to MLMs to Mormons to coffee shops: all competing for attention, and reducing the space for content without money behind it.
As reliable platforms become less effective because everyone is advertising, people look to other platforms, and the cycle repeats.
As the net grows wider, each digital platform fights to retain usage time. And they don’t seem to care what type of content gets that, they just care that it’s keeping people there, so posting unsubstantiated rage bait quickly becomes financially profitable.
He says he has had 11 million views over the past few months since he began posting regularly about the US election. He brings several up on the screen[.]
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[A]n image of someone on the roof of their flooded home as fighter jets pass by, with the comment: "Remember that politicians don't care about you on November 5th."
The image echoes Mr Trump's claim that there were "no helicopters, no rescue" for people in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene. The claim has been rebutted by the North Carolina National Guard, which says it rescued hundreds of people in 146 flight missions.
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Susan says she never intended to start making money from her posts - or for her account’s reach to “explode”.
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[S]ome of her most viral posts - racking up more than three million views - have promoted unfounded and false conspiracy theories suggesting the July assassination attempt was staged by Donald Trump.
- How X users can earn thousands from US election misinformation and AI images, Mariana Spring for BBC News
But it seems like the law of diminishing returns strikes again, because online hustlers spot the opportunity to sell tools and courses on how to make money from posting content.
We have recently been getting bombarded with Instagram Reels of influencers explaining how they make five figures a month by using AI to create tons of viral TikTok pages using stolen celebrity clips juxtaposed next to Minecraft gameplay footage. This strategy, the influencers say, allows them to passively make $10,000 a month by flooding social media platforms with stolen and low-effort clips while working from private helicopters, the beach, the ski slope, a park, etc.
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“People are getting fucking rich from those silly little theme pages on TikTok and you’re still not doing anything about it,” another says. “This new app will literally generate you viral theme videos, and TikTok will pay you thousands for them.” “I’m about to show you how to make 100 faceless reels in under two minutes,” another influencer says.
- Inside the World of TikTok Spammers and the AI Tools That Enable Them, Jason Koebler for 404 Media
So more people start to do it, the quality of content declines quickly, the market becomes oversaturated, and there’s a knock-on effect on everyone else sharing content.
It’s increasingly common to see accounts with huge follower counts regularly posting genuine content that gets little or no traction, as they’re drowned out by AI generated nonsense.
Is anyone having a good time online? Asking for a friend…
And it’s not just these accounts that suffer, it’s people that want to use social media to actually…socialise.
Three-quarters of Zs agree that the presence of too many ads has ruined their experience on their favorite platforms, as ads and sponsored content drown out genuine posts from friends and communities.
The State of Community, Tumblr in partnership with Archrival
This isn’t limited to social media, it’s proliferated into every digital space - personally, I can’t use any search engine that has AI without wanting to die because a simple query generates a bizarre AI answer summary that I have absolutely no trust in.
Attempting to read news online is now fraught with the possibility that you’re consuming unedited AI-generated tattle: CNET, BuzzFeed, USA Today, and Sports Illustrated have published stilted and often incorrect AI-generated articles or used phony images and biographies for “authors.”
- Drowning in Slop, Max Read for Intelligencer
Why progressive digital campaigning is faltering
A large and engaged online audience can be achieved through donations, disinformation and division. That means a large and engaged progressive audience is simultaneously harder to achieve and loses its teeth when it comes to influencing.
It’s entirely feasible that bad actors can just drown us out. Even if we navigate that challenge, big numbers are not a unique achievement anymore. They can be bought and mobilised through rage and misinformation.
Even if they’re acquired with good values and facts, they’re not necessarily funnelled into civic engagement.
People are overwhelmed, cynical, and disengaged with democratic institutions. That means that while online noise might be louder than ever before, it’s not resulting in a direct threat to the people you might be trying to influence.
Despite data from the Electoral Commission showing comparatively low numbers of young people voting, parliamentary research from 2021 found people under 25 were the most politically active age group.
They are more likely to sign petitions, join campaigns or share political content online. In other words, they have the potential to pack a political punch.
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Our Generation Our Vote, which is a coalition of youth charities and organisations including Save the Children, Girlguiding and Young Citizens, works with schools to introduce children who are under 18 to politics.
Meg Briody, head of child and youth participation, said a lack of engagement with younger voters by MPs could be part of the problem.
"There's this vicious cycle where MPs might not think young people will vote, therefore they might not be engaging them," she said. "And therefore young people might be less likely to vote."
- 'It's a vicious cycle why many young people don't vote' Jamie Morris for BBC News
That means achieving those numbers is an uphill battle, and might not get you much impact after that. Without evidence of impact, it’s harder to get action takers to continue taking action.
You may end up trying to plug the hole by bringing in more new people, but keep facing the same problem.
The salad days of social are over. Social media was great at delivering hard metrics and conversions, but consumers aren’t paying attention anymore. Smart marketers will embrace this paradigm shift, and put connection over clicks, social over media, and respect over reach.
- The State of Community, Tumblr in partnership with Archrival
For anyone else that had not come across the phrase “salad days” before and was picturing women laughing with salad stock photos, here’s what Wikipedia taught me:
"Salad days" is a Shakespearean idiom referring to a period of carefree innocence, idealism, and pleasure associated with youth. The modern use describes a heyday, when a person is/was at the peak of their abilities, while not necessarily a youth.
Plot twist: it might actually be a good thing
If you are feeling overwhelmed and cynical about digital platforms right now, you are in the same headspace as many of the people you are trying to reach.
I suggest taking a deep breath and looking at these kittens, because I’m about to throw some optimism at you which could cause some cognitive whiplash after the doom and gloom above.
This era is just as exciting as when we first realised how digital platforms could expand our reach and saw evidence of that impact.
Signs show that people increasingly want to get away from oversaturated algorithms and are craving content that is more authentic.
As Joanne, 19, in Ilchester, MD, says, “Every social media content creator is marketing something to me, and I feel like I can’t trust every creator out there anymore.”
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“People tend to believe smaller creators more because it doesn’t look like they’re just taking a check,” says influencer Maggie Thurmon, who has over 5 million followers on TikTok. “It looks like they care about what they’re promoting.””
- The State of Community, Tumblr in partnership with Archrival
And who cares more about what we’re promoting online than us: the activists, campaigners, community organisers, fundraisers, policy makers and allies trying to shape a better world?
With every threat, there’s a new opportunity
The current digital state of play and the culture it creates is benefiting individual bad faith actors seeking money, prestige, and power.
Instead of trying to figure out how to succeed in a system designed to divide and disengage, we need to ask ourselves what would benefit our networks and causes instead? Here’s my starter for ten:
Community
Solidarity
Active engagement rather than passive viewing
Connection built through authenticity
Digital spaces without algorithms
People consistently engaging with civic institutions and demanding a better deal because they believe they have power.
These are not just essential components for activism and advocacy, they also present a direct threat to people and institutions that thrive when people are isolated, fighting against each other, and disillusioned.
Our teams are a corporate marketer’s dream
Disrupting the status quo doesn’t mean we throw out digital entirely, but it does mean reshaping our use of digital platforms along with our aims and metrics.
When digital platforms are designed to keep people on the platform and to buy stuff at the click of a button, metrics don’t get us far in terms of impact.
There are so many experienced digital experts, content creators, strategists, public affairs professionals and community organisers with authenticity and passion by the bucketload to make the world a fairer place.
Do you know how many corporate marketers would kill to have access to that? Actual tangible proof that our aim isn’t to sell people plastic tat, but to form a values led community?
Do the work to understand a community’s values, desires, and challenges, and what you can bring to the table. How can you support the collective mission, build authentic social connections, and create a sense of belonging?
- The State of Community, Tumblr in partnership with Archrival
Why are we trying to fight to conform to corporate algorithms if they’re not even working for companies anymore? They’re being advised by digital strategists to focus on building community instead of flogging stuff relentlessly, and that’s our wheel house!
Quite frankly, it would be a bit embarrassing if companies were ahead of the curve on this instead of us 💀
Cool pep talk, but where do I even start?
First things first, go back to your strategy, and define the personas you want to attract to your online community, which will vary depending on your overall objectives.
For example the type of person that will regularly take supportive actions such as signing a petition and donating is different to someone who is an activist and will attend workshops and protests. The type of people you need to join you will depend on your overall objectives and your campaign strategy.
Once you have defined your personas, you can start to build out what an online campaigning community would look like for these people: where it is, how people engage, where these people already are online, and who should host and facilitate the community.
But, we’ve already gone through a lot here - so stay tuned for next time, when we’ll explore building a digital campaign strategy in more detail.
Until next time, here’s my earnest attempt at community building:
How have you found being online, either personally or professionally in the last year?
Is it more stressful these days?
Does building community strategies instead of digital reach strategies excite you or scare you - or both?