{"id":5868,"date":"2025-05-22T08:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T12:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beomniscient.com\/?p=5868"},"modified":"2026-03-19T10:05:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:05:28","slug":"how-to-create-credible-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beomniscient.com\/blog\/how-to-create-credible-content\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create Credible Content"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For most of human existence, information was rare<\/a>. Knowledge was localized, hoarded, and often expensive to access, encoded in oral traditions, gatekept by religious elites, copied painstakingly by hand. Scarcity conferred automatic credibility: if you had access to a book, a teacher, or a map, it was presumed valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The printing press upended<\/a> that. Suddenly, information could scale, which unlocked education, gave previously fringe voices a platform, and allowed for open knowledge sharing. And with scale came a new need: filtering. People needed mechanisms (brands, publishers, institutions) to decide what was trustworthy (or, rather, worth paying attention to). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 20th century, broadcasting (radio, television) concentrated distribution again, but in fewer hands. The constraint was still real estate: airwaves, primetime slots, publishing deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The internet broke that last bottleneck. Suddenly, anyone could publish anything (podcasts, art, even periphrastic newsletters like this one). Bye bye, information scarcity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curation, now, is done by and large by algorithms \u2013 which is a generic term for a process or set of rules to be followed. LinkedIn\u2019s algorithm works differently than TikTok\u2019s, Google’s, and Instagram\u2019s. But unless you have direct distribution (likely via email), then you\u2019re dealing with a platform intermediary<\/a>, which has algorithmic delivery mechanisms, if you want to reach your target audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, with AI entering the picture, we have tools that can produce infinite plausible content with near-zero marginal cost. It\u2019s likely we are moving into true post-scarcity information economics, at least in terms of information quantity (I make no claims on the quality of this deluge), as these tools are not only generative mechanisms to create content, but they are new intermediaries through which we discover and interact with information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re already seeing all sorts of insane system abuses with bots<\/a>, and even the more innocuous but annoying LinkedIn AI slop in your comments section, but if we\u2019re to make use out of this beautiful internet thing (and keep it \u201calive\u201d<\/a>), we\u2019ll need to develop (both as individuals and platforms) filtering signals to direct our attention. One of those, credibility, becomes a new form scarcity (or one form of new gold<\/a>, anyway)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credibility as a Filter<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s tempting, in a landscape of infinite supply, to double down on output. More articles. More posts. More campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you only focus on the first order effect (\u201cI can create much more content\u201d), that makes perfect sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are second order effects (your competitors realizing \u201cI can also create much more content\u201d), and thus, third order effects as well, which will be new ways of sorting, valuing, and delivering information to users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brands (and individuals) who win long-term won’t be those who publish more. They’ll be those who focus on the third order effects \u2013 emerging platform incentives and filtering signals. One of those, credibility (of source and information) is clearly effective today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter which platform you\u2019re optimizing for, brand awareness and trust augment your effectiveness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In search, you get higher click-through-rates as a known brand. This creates a virtuous cycle of higher rankings based on user engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In social media, you \u201cstop the scroll,\u201d in many cases, by being a known face. A voice whose point of view merits reading. And sometimes with a well-crafted “hook.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Content-wise, we\u2019ve got EEAT<\/a>, and new research on generative engine optimization<\/a> that suggests credibility signals like expert quotes, trustworthy citations, and statistics improve performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t imagine this trajectory changing course with increased content supply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And credibility itself bifurcates into two intertwined but distinct strands:<\/p>\n\n\n\n