Can you still reach your people on the same marketing channels?

Back when I started working on my writeups about AI search, I did some of the very same updates I recommended there for my own website. Within a couple of months, I had already started seeing referrals come through from sources like ChatGPT.

“Yessss, it’s working!” I thought. What happened after that, however, was… less exciting.

After one of those chatbot leads booked a social media consultation, I checked out their Instagram. It was filled with obviously-AI-generated content. One Reel even included print merch with AI gobbledygook typos on it. Yikes.

We reached out to them before their consultation to let them know that we’re an AI-free agency–if they wanted content like what was already on their feed, I definitely did not want to be the guy producing it. They cancelled their consultation, and I felt zero remorse about it.

I took this as a sign, though: online spaces are becoming even more siloed, and we need to be paying attention to the choices our audience is making with their tech.

Choosing the right online marketing channel is even harder

If you’ve tried social media marketing, you know that choosing the right social media platform is a major step in seeing results. You want to show up where your audience is, and you don’t want to waste energy on platforms they don’t use.

Now, however, concerns about privacy and AI have led to shifts in social media and other online spaces, with users abandoning or switching to different tech tools and platforms. Google rolling out its own chatbot search is just one of the many announcements since January 2025 that have pushed anti-capitalist, AI-fatigued audiences to leave platforms they once trusted.

With users peeling off into different spaces, there’s an even bigger need for us to know who our audience is, beyond the demographics. We need to have a firm grip on their values, and how their values inform their choices.

The biggest platforms aren’t always the right ones

When an entity gets known enough, it often becomes the default. We’ve seen that in everything from Band-Aids and Kleenexes, to Googling becoming a verb. 

The temptation when we choose online marketing channels is to go with the big guys: Google, Instagram, ChatGPT, and the like. As Big Tech has made its values and political alignments more known, however, more users are making conscious decisions to move away from the “default.”

Folks who used TikTok religiously deleted their accounts altogether. Privacy-focused audiences who might previously have found you via Google are looking at shifting to DuckDuckGo. Former Spotify or Apple Podcasts users moved to tools like Overcast.

It’s no longer a foregone conclusion that “everyone” uses a platform--especially if you’re seeking a more left-leaning, radical clientele.

Do you actually want these clients?

I admit: I decided to optimize for AI search partly for research and testing, but also because I felt that “keeping up with the Joneses” impulse. When I did that, however, I should have stopped to ask myself: do I even want these clients? 

This is where we need to think about what tools and platforms our audience is using, why they’re choosing that, and what habits or mindsets might come with that. Otherwise, we could end up with zero leads, or perhaps worse yet, a pile of bad-fit clients.

Using my experience as an example: do I want clients who use AI search?

I might accept a website client who uses an AI chatbot for search. I would guess that chatbot users are in the mindset of handing off tasks and labor that they don’t want to take on. However, they might also evaluate my work using off-base recommendations from said chatbots. I’d potentially have to do a lot of trust-building to feel comfortable.

Additionally, I probably wouldn’t want a social media or email marketing client who uses AI search. I can pretty safely assume that a client who posts AI slop on their social feeds won’t understand or agree with my reasons for 100%-human-created content and design.

If you haven’t thought about what channels you’re marketing on for a while, or you’re considering breaking into a new platform, take a pause and think about who’s using those platforms. Would you want to work with them? You might surprise yourself with the answer.