Human Branding

AI Slop

There is a growing backlash against so much content or even full works being created by AI and shared. Some isn't hard to spot - pretty average sounding words, little emotion.

Others are harder, from just being hard to distinguish as Human vs AI to even stealing author's names and publishing books for sale! This is being seen in just about any profession, but we'll focus on authors today. 

Labels
Some are leaning into labeling themselves to note "Guaranteed Human" or some percentage of what is human vs AI work. Others are date and time stamping posts on socials to confirm humanity, in case material may get swiped by AI or people. You may also be in a rapidly evolving field where your date/time reference helps put perspective on the post you made. 

​Stolen Property
Some authors are going through the time and expense of trademarking their name. This is a fascinating story with step-by-step cues on the process. 

Dave Malone shares an article on Jane Friedman's blog suggesting categories of AI usage to post - AI Assisted vs AI Generated. Many use AI these days - most have no problem accepting that. The thing that's useful to know is how much is AI vs Human.

Jane Friedman shared her fight in August 2023 against books posted on Goodreads and Amazon with her name as the author that she never wrote, stealing her name and reputation. She regularly updates the post as this evolves.

Amazon has developed Content Guidelines in an attempt to curb the flow of AI content. Amazon announced in September 2023 a new limit of 3 per day self-published books by the same author in an attempt to control a flood of AI content. That does not appear to have been updated or changed. 

Lean into Human Value
You are uniquely you in all your amazingness, flaws, quirks, life experiences, stories, and lousy first drafts. Your human factor is what sells. Be Human in as many ways as you can.

• Events: Show up. Network. Be a speaker and authority. You are fully human here.
• Share the process: In newsletters and on social media, share behind the scenes tales of your process which will help bring your book to life with your audience and develop your following. 
• Website and email: These are your owned property. Develop a regular, consider weekly, habit of blogging. This will give you material to populate your email news to those who subscribe or follow you or have requested your information. 
• Social media: Each platform has a different approach and vibe. Focus your energy on 2-3 at most as your go-to social spot. This is a great way to share more frequent insights or communication with followers, daily to 3x/week. These posts can be pure text, text + image (photo), or short video. It would not surprise me if we begin seeing tags at the end of posts noting "100% Human Created Content" or something similar. 

Human Branding Sells
Use AI. It's a useful tool. But be aware of how much of your work is you vs the tool. At the end of the day, it makes a difference the level of Human in your work. If you have a pro AI account, you are able to toggle an option not to make your chat public which may be extremely useful to protect your content.

This isn't intended to be an all or nothing perspective. The best option is often a blend of human and AI. It's a tool we can use to improve our words and how we share experiences. This May 2025 article encourages a blend. Even Google suggests a blend of AI and human content is successful. The article also suggests human content outperforms AI by 47%. I definitely appreciate that.

Human Branding
How much are you creating as human generated content? Are you feeling a need to label it as such?

Love to hear your thoughts - Let's Chat or find me on LinkedIn!

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