In its early days, Reddit founders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman employed a “fake it ’til you make it” strategy by creating numerous fake accounts.
They used these phony accounts to submit content, upvote posts, and engage in conversations, essentially fabricating the appearance of a thriving community.
This tactic was crucial in attracting “real” users and fostering organic growth.
Reddit’s current valuation is $30 billion(!).
Zappos Founder Nick Swinmurn initially didn’t own any inventory; instead, he took photos of shoes in physical stores, uploaded them online, and purchased them after receiving orders.
Amazon later bought Zappos in 2009 for $1.2 billion.
The Key Lesson = Perception Drives Reality
In business, people’s decisions are heavily influenced by their perception of credibility, popularity, and success.
By strategically shaping initial perception – often called “fake it ’til you make it” – you create social proof, instill trust, and generate momentum.
This perception of success then attracts real customers, investors, or users, turning initial fiction into genuine growth.
However, this tactic comes with an important caution: You must rapidly deliver genuine value once you’ve established initial credibility – otherwise, you’ll lose trust and undermine long-term success.
Ethics and Business – Oh My!
But is (essentially) lying and “faking” a great way to build a business? How do you walk that fine line?
The key is intention, integrity, and speed.
When Reddit’s founders used fake accounts, their intention wasn’t deceit for profit, but rather demonstrating the potential of their idea, which genuinely offered value once the community grew organically.
Likewise, Zappos wasn’t looking to trick customers. Instead, Swinmurn’s early strategy validated demand before committing resources, ultimately creating an outstanding customer experience.
The bottom line: Initial perception can jumpstart growth, but sustainable success comes from quickly converting that perception into authentic value.
LinkedIn and AI – What’s Real Anymore?
We’re also seeing a lot of “faking” on LinkedIn – the biggest culprit right now being AI-generated comments and/or 1-on-1 messages.
In fact, someone recently messaged me about his LinkedIn messaging plugin that you can supposedly train to “talk” like you, and then unleash it inside your LinkedIn inbox, having it respond to people’s messages automatically as “you.”
That day could be coming, but what if the person wants to talk about my Zubaz pants? Can AI really handle that type of conversation?! 🤣
All kidding aside, it’s an intriguing and alluring idea – to dump your brain and conversational skills into a robot that can talk as “you” and save you time inside your LinkedIn inbox.
But the sheer amount of “if / then” situations you’d have to cook up to train the AI on, along with the “what if they ask about X?” type situations make my head hurt.
How To Use AI with LinkedIn
With all that in mind, right here, right now, what should you use AI for when it comes to LinkedIn?
For one, AI can (if used properly and “trained” properly) do a great job with certain creative tasks, such as writing, graphic design and more.
Here’s a simple example: Say you want to update your LinkedIn profile’s “About” section with a bullet-style list of the type of clients you work with.
Since, as of this writing, LinkedIn doesn’t allow you to do extra formatting (including bullet points) on your profile’s “About” section, you can use emojis in lieu of bullet points for each type of client. (It also adds a nice visual cue.)
Now, instead of spending the time searching for a unique emoji related to each of the 5 types of clients, you can simply use AI to do it in mere seconds.
WATCH: How To Use AI on Your LinkedIn Profile
Open up an AI tool, enter the list of the 5 client types and tell the AI to create a bullet-style list of these 5 types of clients, but instead of bullet points, use a unique emoji related to the type of client it represents.
If, as an example, one of your client types is “Construction CEOs”, the AI will know to put a construction-themed emoji in front of that client type.
It will do the same for all the others, and it will do it instantly.
You can then copy/paste that “emoji” bullet list straight into your LinkedIn profile page.
That’s just one example of the power of AI used right.
What AI Can NEVER Replace
One other observation about AI so far: While it’s great at content, it’s not so great at context.
As I’ve said many times before …
Your single biggest advantage in the marketplace is YOU.
It’s your unique story, your unique personality and your unique communication style.
It’s really hard to “fake” that with AI or anything else when it comes to creating content or sharing personalized messages on LinkedIn.
For example, can this guy’s AI conversation “bot” really go to someone else’s LinkedIn profile page, see they live in Chicago and then think of something you would say, based on your own life story, about Chicago as an ice breaker to that prospect on LinkedIn?
If you lose your personality and what makes you unique, you lose your edge in the marketplace.
To me, that’s the danger of relying too much on “outsourcing” yourself to AI or using fake AI comments / messages / etc. to “fake it until you make it” on LinkedIn.
While I’m sure AI will continue to improve and “sound” better, one thing will never change: Our desire as humans to have authentic connection and camaraderie.
Prefer to hand the work off entirely? Here’s how our LinkedIn lead generation works for established business owners.
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