Tag: linkedin

Social Media & AI. Help or Hindrance?

I want to close this series with something that isn’t quite a platform verdict – because AI isn’t a platform in the way Facebook or LinkedIn is. You don’t have a profile on it. You don’t build a following there. But it is reshaping every platform we’ve covered in this series, and ignoring it in a series about social media for SMEs would be dishonest.

So here is my honest observation, after watching social media professionally for a long time and closely for the past couple of years.

Something has changed in the feeds. And most people can feel it, even if they haven’t named it.

The 40/40/20 observation

Scroll your LinkedIn feed right now and make an honest assessment of what you’re reading.

My rough estimate – and it’s an observation, not a statistic – is that around 40% of what appears there is straightforwardly AI-generated. Written by a tool, maybe given a light polish, and posted. Another 40% is AI-rewritten: a human had something to say, fed it into a tool, and the result is technically accurate but sounds like nobody in particular. That leaves around 20% that sounds like an actual human being with a genuine point of view, writing in their own voice about something they actually think.

That 20% is the most engaged-with content in my feed. By some distance.

Which tells you something important.

What AI is actually doing to social media

The content creation layer is the visible part of this shift. But there’s a less visible layer that matters just as much: engagement.

AI agents are now being used by businesses – and by individuals – to monitor social media feeds, like posts, respond to comments, and simulate the kind of active presence that used to require a human being to actually be there. If the post was written by AI and the response to it was generated by AI, what is that interaction worth? What relationship has been built? What trust has been established?

The feeds are filling up. The rooms are emptying out.

This isn’t a new problem – social media has always had bots, spam accounts, and low-effort content. But the scale has changed, and the quality of the imitation has improved to the point where it takes more effort to notice. The result is a growing sense among people who pay attention that something has quietly drained away from platforms that used to feel genuinely valuable.

Why this matters for SMEs specifically

The businesses most damaged by this shift are the ones who’ve invested in an AI-mediated presence that feels like showing up but isn’t. A posting schedule maintained by a tool. Responses drafted by a tool. Content that covers the right topics in the right format but sounds like it could have come from anyone – because it could have.

None of that builds the thing that actually drives SME growth: trust. And trust, as we’ve discussed across this series, is what shortens sales cycles, generates referrals, and turns a platform presence into a pipeline.

The businesses best placed to benefit from the current moment are the ones that still sound like a real person. Not because authenticity is a virtue in the abstract – but because in a feed that’s increasingly dominated by AI-generated content, a genuine human voice stands out more than it ever has. That’s not a moral argument. It’s a commercial one.

What AI is actually good for in a social media context

I want to be careful not to land this as a blanket rejection of AI tools. That would be dishonest, and it would miss the point.

AI can genuinely help with the parts of social media that are about logistics rather than voice. Generating a list of post ideas when you’re staring at a blank screen. Repurposing a long blog post into shorter social formats. Drafting a caption that you then rewrite in your own words. Scheduling content so that consistency doesn’t depend entirely on you remembering to post on a Tuesday morning.

Used in that way – as a support for your voice rather than a replacement for it – AI tools are genuinely useful for time-poor SME owners. The question worth asking, every time, is: does this still sound like me? Does it say something I actually think? Would I be comfortable if a client read this and knew I’d written it?

If the answer to any of those is no, the tool has done too much of the work.

The connection that runs through this whole series

Looking back across these seven posts, there’s a thread that connects all of them – and the AI question makes it explicit.

The platforms that reward SMEs are the ones where genuine human presence is possible and sustained. Facebook Groups, where you show up and contribute to a community. Pinterest, where you create content that reflects real expertise and real aesthetic sense. TikTok, where you appear on camera as yourself. LinkedIn, where your thinking and your personality are visible over time. Even Reddit, where the community will see through anything that isn’t genuine.

The common denominator isn’t the platform. It’s the showing up. And showing up – really showing up, as a human being with something worth saying – is exactly what AI can’t do on your behalf.

A note on this series

We started seven posts ago with Facebook – the platform everyone had written off – and worked our way through Pinterest, TikTok, X, Reddit, LinkedIn, and now AI.

The question underneath all of it has been the same: is it worth your time? And the honest answer, in every case, has been: it depends on whether you’re prepared to actually show up.

Not to broadcast. Not to automate. Not to be everywhere. But to choose the platforms where your presence means something – and to be genuinely present there.

That takes more than a content calendar. It takes a point of view. A voice. And the consistency to use both, regularly, over time. If you’ve found this series useful and you’d like to think through what it means for your business specifically, I’d love to have that conversation.

A final thought 

AI isn’t going away. And it isn’t all bad.

Used well, it can help you show up more consistently – and consistency, as we’ve seen throughout this series, is what the platforms that matter actually reward.

But there’s a difference between using AI to support your voice and using it to replace it.

The feeds are full. The question is whether you’re actually in them. If the answer is yes – really yes, human and present and worth reading – that matters more now than it ever has.

Helping business owners in Oxfordshire work out where and how to show up – and finding the right support to make that sustainable – is exactly what I do. If anything in this series has resonated, I’d love to hear from you.

I’m Vicky McKenna, Regional Director for Get Ahead in Oxfordshire.

About the Author

Next in the series: This is the last in this current series, but I really recommend a recent series by my colleague Kristy Roff that looks at the power of community and connection. Links for the whole series are below:

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• TikTok
• X – and Threads
• Reddit
• LinkedIn – and the Metaverse

Is LinkedIn Worth It For Your Business? Yes! The Metaverse? Let’s Talk About That!

We’ve reached the penultimate post in this series, and for once the verdict comes quickly.

LinkedIn: yes. Unambiguously, for most business owners reading this, yes.

The Metaverse: no. And the story of why not is actually more useful than the verdict itself.

Let’s do LinkedIn properly first – because it deserves more than a one-word endorsement – and then we’ll take a brief, honest look at what the Metaverse hype cycle taught us, and why it matters for every platform decision you’ll make in the years ahead.

Why LinkedIn is different from every other platform in this series

Every other platform we’ve covered has come with a significant caveat. Facebook: yes, but only if your audience is there and you engage through Groups. Pinterest: yes, but only for visually aspirational businesses willing to invest long-term. TikTok: yes, but only if you’re genuinely prepared to show up on camera consistently. X: probably not, unless your business runs on real-time commentary. Reddit: possibly, but only with patience and zero promotional intent.

LinkedIn is the platform where, for most SME owners, the answer is simply yes – without a long list of conditions attached.

Your clients are on LinkedIn. Your referral partners are on LinkedIn. The people who might recommend you to others are on LinkedIn. It is the professional network, and for businesses that grow through relationships, reputation, and trust – which describes most of the SMEs I work with – there is no substitute for showing up there consistently.

What good LinkedIn presence actually looks like

The mistake most business owners make on LinkedIn is treating it like a CV. A static record of credentials and achievements, updated occasionally, used mainly to receive connection requests and occasionally browse job listings.

That’s not what LinkedIn rewards. What it rewards is consistent, personal, and useful presence. Posts that share genuine thinking. Commentary that demonstrates expertise. Responses to other people’s content that add something rather than just agreeing. The occasional personal post that reveals something human about who you are and how you work.

The businesses and business owners that get the most from LinkedIn are not necessarily the most prolific. They’re the most consistent. They show up regularly enough that their name becomes familiar to the people they most want to reach – and familiarity, as we discussed in the context of community earlier in this series, is what shortens the sales cycle.

What to post about? Your expertise. Your observations. The questions your clients ask you repeatedly. The things you notice in your sector that others haven’t said yet. The occasional honest reflection on what running a business actually involves. None of it needs to be groundbreaking. It just needs to be genuinely yours.

The mistake that undermines LinkedIn for most SMEs

The single most common LinkedIn mistake I see from business owners is inconsistency. Posting intensively for a few weeks, then going quiet for a month, then posting again when something feels urgent. The algorithm notices. More importantly, your audience notices – or rather, they don’t notice, because you’ve disappeared from their feed.

LinkedIn’s algorithm strongly rewards regular, consistent engagement. An account that posts twice a week reliably will almost always outperform one that posts daily for a fortnight and then vanishes. Rhythm matters more than volume.

The practical implication for time-poor SME owners is that LinkedIn is one of the platforms where having consistent support – someone to help you maintain a presence even in your busiest weeks – delivers disproportionate returns. The content should still sound like you. But the consistency doesn’t have to depend entirely on you finding the time.

A brief reflection on my own approach

LinkedIn is where I do most of my own professional showing up. I post regularly – usually around the Get Ahead content I’m involved in, the conversations I’m having with business owners, and the things I notice about how businesses are using their time and resource. It’s not a polished strategy. It’s a habit. And the habit, more than anything else, is what builds the kind of presence that generates warm inbound rather than cold outreach. 

If there’s one thing I’d say to any business owner reading this: start smaller than you think you need to, but start consistently. Two posts a week, every week, that actually sound like you, will do more for your business than ten posts a week that sound like everyone else.

The Metaverse: what happened, and what it tells us

In 2021, Meta announced that the future of social connection was the Metaverse – a fully immersive virtual world where people would work, socialise, attend concerts, and conduct business through customisable avatars. Mark Zuckerberg showed the world his virtual office. Analysts predicted trillions in economic activity. Brands rushed to buy virtual land. Business owners were told they needed a Metaverse strategy.

By 2023, Meta had written down billions in losses on its Reality Labs division. The virtual world was largely empty. The avatars, which notoriously had no legs in early versions, became a meme. The urgency evaporated almost as quickly as it had arrived.

What went wrong? Fundamentally, the Metaverse proposition failed the most basic test: it didn’t solve a problem people actually had. People weren’t clamouring for a virtual office. They weren’t desperate to attend meetings as legless avatars. The technology existed before the need – and in the absence of genuine demand, even the most lavish investment couldn’t manufacture it.

For SME owners, the lesson isn’t really about the Metaverse specifically. It’s about the pattern. Every few years, a new platform or technology arrives with outsized promises and credible advocates. There’s pressure to act early, to stake out territory before the rush, to build a presence while the algorithm still favours early adopters. Sometimes those bets pay off. Often they don’t. The filter that cuts through most of the noise is simple: where are your customers, and what would it genuinely cost you in time and resource to reach them there? Applied honestly, that question would have saved most businesses their brief Metaverse anxiety. It will serve you just as well for whatever comes next.

A final thought 

LinkedIn is the one platform in this series where the answer is almost always yes.

Not because it’s fashionable – it isn’t, particularly. But because it’s where your clients, your referrers, and your peers actually are. And showing up there, consistently and genuinely, is one of the most reliable investments a business owner can make in their own visibility.

As for the Metaverse: it’s a useful reminder that not every bold prediction becomes reality. The filter is always the same – where are your customers, and what does it cost you to reach them? Apply that question to everything. Including whatever arrives next.

LinkedIn is a platform I use every day – and helping business owners in Oxfordshire show up consistently and confidently there is part of what I do. If you’d like to talk about what that could look like for your business, I’m always happy to.

I’m Vicky McKenna, Regional Director for Get Ahead in Oxfordshire.

Next in the series: And Then There’s AI.

If you missed Part 1 of this series discussing Facebook, you can find it here. Part 2 – on Pinterest – is here. Part 3 about Twitter is here. All things X in part 4 here. Read about Reddit here.