The Confusion of Misrepresentation
“You’re the most performative male I know.” The words didn’t sting, but I didn’t love hearing them. The funny thing is, I know that he meant it as a compliment.
If you’re a parent of a teenager, you’ve no doubt heard the term “performative male” bandied about lately. We’re well past “skibidi” and “rizz,” and in a new era of “six-seven” and the performative male.
Essentially, the performative male is a stereotype, a description of a kind of guy that wears chunky sweaters, buys vinyl records, and, you’re not gonna believe this one, reads books.
On two separate occasions, I was having one-on-one conversations with my children, and they started talking about this phenomenon. “These guys, they listen to Radiohead and go to coffee shops, and…”
In both conversations, I had to butt in to say, “You know that I do all of these things, right? Like, this is kind of describing me.”
And their responses? “Well, yeah, but that’s just who you are. It’s different. These guys are doing it for attention.”
Maybe. The greater likelihood is that people just like what they like, and sometimes these interests are sincere and sometimes they’re performative — the labels are slapped on by people trying to make sense of it all.
I guess I’m the template. (But to be clear: I do not care for green tea matcha lattes. Or labubu. But I digress.)
Marketing Generalizes Before It Specifies
As much as I bristle at the idea of lumping people into broad categories, it is a core tenet of marketing. Gender. Age. Income. Geography. They all create a baseline with which we can develop messaging that, over time, will help us better understand the nuances contained within.
But sometimes people can get put into the wrong category. It happens to businesses, too.
Recently, one of our clients discovered that ChatGPT search was doing something strange in regard to their business. They kept categorizing the business as “boutique.” They’ve never described themselves as such. Never created content using this term. It’s not a part of their brand. So, what gives?
Unfortunately, this issue is not specific to ChatGPT search. Platforms like Google AI are also misrepresenting businesses online.
Typically, what’s happening is that Large Language Models (LLMs) and similar platforms are aggregating outdated data, such as online directories, and using that incorrect information to create business descriptions.
Clearly, this is bad for consumers, and it’s bad for businesses.
And it’s not just search. Rogue AI chatbots — designed to support consumers, increase efficiency for businesses, and even dole out health or financial advice — are raising concerns about data privacy, safety, and more.
What Can Be Done About AI Search Misrepresentation? Start with an Audit
In terms of what is happening with our client and this forced categorization, it could be a matter of inaccurate, outdated content (unlikely), an AI hallucination (possible, but also unlikely), or simply a case of doing what it is designed to do: Making sense of large data sets.
The issue is, who is it making sense for? It’s taken the autonomy away from the business, and its results are often confusing to consumers.
In the larger, global world of this business’s industry, they’re not one of the biggest players, but “boutique” feels reductive, and it’s certainly not an accurate representation of how they choose to portray themselves.
So, what’s the solution? In this particular instance, it’s ongoing. We’re providing support so that the business can be represented accurately, and in accordance with their brand goals.
What we recommend for businesses who are concerned about how their businesses are (or are not) showing up in AI-assisted searches, the best first step is by doing an audit.
- Ask Google AI or ChatGPT search what your specific business does
- Review the citations that these platforms used in order to
- Assess where they came from
- Review them directly for any outdated or inaccurate information
- Update these resources with the latest information regarding your business (These will often be online directories
- Audit your website and make sure to keep all products, services, and contact information up to date
- Recheck AI search resources to see if your business info has been updated or if there are any outstanding citation sources that still need to be refreshed
- Conduct regular (quarterly or biannually) audits of your business’s AI search results to make certain that consumers are getting the most accurate information about your brand
Choose the Right Partner and Your Brand will Evolve as Technology Does
Sometimes, we have very little control about how we’re perceived. (And for the sake of our mental health, we probably shouldn’t pay it too much mind to begin with.)
But when it comes to our businesses, when it comes to how we can best connect with the folks who would best benefit from our products or services, we’ve found ourselves in a very unique space.
There’s more information and more personalization available to us than we could have ever imagined, but the floor is shifting underneath our feet. Google, inarguably a monopoly, was never perfect, but we learned to work within what felt like a minimum amount of control for our brands.
AI-powered search represents a potentially revolutionary way in which consumers and brands can connect and grow, but like many things in tech, the plane is being built while we’re flying it. Every ascent is a marvel, but it’s filled with a laundry list of newly discovered challenges.
Sometimes you’ve been misrepresented. Sometimes there are aspects that are out of your control. But no matter what, it’s important to remember that with the right partner, there are always creative solutions to the challenges you’re facing.
You don’t have to be a boutique agency. And you certainly don’t have to be the performative male. You can be precisely who you want to be, and precisely what your customers are looking for. (Even if it’s an iced green tea matcha latte.)
To learn more about AI audits for your business, contact us today!