Social Matter — the (dis)control of the narrative: influencing in a world where others already speak for you – Vol. 07

The corporate monologue is dead. For decades, brands built their reputation from the comfort of a one-way sender: they broadcast a message, controlled the channel, and measured the impact. Today, that model is obsolete. Companies no longer dictate what they are; they continuously negotiate it in a saturated environment where absolute control is an illusion and attention is the most valuable asset in the market.

This March’s trends reveal a structural shift in how influence is built and elevated: whether transforming a financial report into an entertainment format, pushing the CEO into new social spaces, or assuming the “cost” of brands entering spaces where the audience has already defined you or shaping content alongside AI about you.

The public, content creators, and now generative agents are the ones who build perceptions. The strategic question is no longer what we want to say, but how we manage to influence, fascinate, and participate in what is already being said about us. Because more than 90% of a brand’s conversations happen without the brand being present.
 

01. CORPORATE ENTERTAINMENT: THE END OF THE INVISIBLE REPORT

When financial results also want your attention.

Corporate transparency has ceased to be a mere data exercise to become a narrative resource. The traditional annual report, buried in a PDF on the corporate website and intended to be a press conference, is an outdated format. Today, companies face an audience, both internal and external, that demands stories and transparency. And these milestones are rewarded when translated into current digital codes.

Some brands are already understanding this: IKEA has integrated its annual results through real stories and experiences from its staff (humanizing the brand at the same time). The same happens with Apple, which elevates its sustainability report to the category of a high-level audiovisual piece, or Tony’s Chocolonely reporting its progress firmly anchored in its social purpose.

Corporate communication also needs its moment of attention. To make these high-value communications reach and resonate, it is interesting to dress them with the same consumption or entertainment codes as native content, thus managing to become part of the cultural conversation.
 

02. THE LEADER’S EXPOSURE: FROM THE OFFICE TO THE FEED

The CEO as the main influence asset.

The demand for humanization has pushed executives out of their offices to enter the algorithmic arena. This public exposure is a double-edged sword: it generates unprecedented trust and reach when executed with closeness, but acts as a crisis accelerator when internal reality cannot support the weight of the projected persona.

The fast food sector has given us this month a masterclass in leadership exposure. That the CEO of Burger King publishes his personal phone number to receive direct feedback is an exercise in radical vulnerability that shortens the distance between the corporation and the customer.

At the same time, we witnessed the CEO of McDonald’s recording himself trying his new product, unleashing a domino effect where the leaders of Burger King and Wendy’s replicated the action, consolidating a true “Burger Battle” in the C-Suite. However, this hypervisibility is relentless with inconsistency. The severe reputational crisis caused by the downfall of the chef from Noma after his mistreatment of the team went viral reminds us that authenticity does not tolerate cracks.

The leader today is a media channel because every action communicates: silence, aesthetics, how they speak, tone, the way they explain themselves… Consistency is mandatory. If everything communicates, any gap between what the brand says and what it does can become a reputation crisis.
 

03. THE EMPTY CHAIR SYNDROME: BEING LATE TO YOUR OWN CONVERSATION

The opportunity cost when the audience defines your identity in your absence.

In the digital ecosystem, if you do not define your brand, the community will do it for you (often with a conversation and tone you cannot control). 99% of conversations about a brand happen without the brand being present. Users, through their participation, shape the narrative known about the brand on social media.

The false sense of corporate security granted by “not being present in digital environments to avoid risks” has proven to be a profound strategic mistake. Giving up space is giving up control of your narrative.

The recent move by Mercadona opening its own channel on TikTok Spain and Portugal is the perfect example of a brand trying to regain the reins of its identity. Before its official arrival, the brand’s hashtag had accumulated over 291K posts. There were thousands of reviews, trendsetters of new products, complaints, and memes building the supermarket chain’s imagery without the company itself having a direct voice on this channel.

This affirms a fundamental reflection: your company’s image is not the slogan of your latest campaign, but the sum of what users generate around your product.

Absence is not neutrality. However, being present does not necessarily mean managing your own channel; it can also be done through third-party voices aligned with the brand’s message. What is non-negotiable is the need to listen constantly: only those who understand the codes and tensions of the conversation can influence their own narrative, even from the shadows.
 

04. GEO AND DUAL MARKETING: CAPTIVATING THE HUMAN HEART, CONQUERING THE LOGIC OF MACHINES

Generative optimization as the new horizon of editorial influence.

It’s official. We no longer influence only human beings. The scenario has changed, and today we address two audiences with different logics: the user seeking connection (heart) and the Artificial Intelligence that proposes.

The traditional search gives way to the synthesized answer: “22% of Spaniards have already replaced traditional search engines with generative AI chatbots most of the time.” This forces us to rethink our authority: it is no longer enough to appear in searches; we must be the source that AI chooses to build its answer.

While traditional SEO has focused on gaining visibility by fighting for ranking in a list of links, today the battle is fought in the differences between SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), where pure editorial authority weighs more than tactics. The strategic challenge is to build authority in the era of generative search so that large language models (LLMs) process our messages as the “official truth” and prescribe the brand in their synthesized answers. We no longer try to position a URL; we try to inject context and semantics into the synthetic brains that guide consumption.

Therefore, GEO is not an exclusively technical discipline; it is a current lever of influence and Public Relations at an algorithmic scale that has entered our homes. “Dual marketing” gives us the opportunity to be more relevant than ever. But that requires structuring content to be magnetic to the human mind, clear enough, dense, and referenced so that AIs adopt it as the definitive answer to your question.