How to Stand Out Online When Everyone Is Using AI

AI has made competent content cheap.

You can generate a tidy LinkedIn post, newsletter or article in seconds. The grammar works. The structure works. It may even sound professional.

So if everyone can create competent content, what makes yours recognisable?

I don't think the answer is another prompt.

It's specificity.

Your stories, opinions, phrases, lived experience and the weird examples only you would use.

I think of them as digital crumbs.

Over time, those crumbs form your digital signature.

Your footprint and your signature do different jobs

Your digital footprint is what exists about you online: profiles, articles, interviews, podcasts, videos and mentions.

I've deliberately built mine over years. Google String Nguyen and you'll find me talking about content creation, personal branding and LinkedIn across different places.

That footprint helps people find me.

But being findable isn't the same as being recognisable.

The little pieces inside that footprint matter too.

For me, one of those pieces is fried chicken. 🍗

Fried chicken isn't my brand. It's a crumb.

So are the ideas I repeat, the stories I tell, my humour, my experiences and the way I explain something.

Put enough of those crumbs together and a pattern starts forming.

Your digital footprint helps people find you.

Your digital signature helps people recognise you.

Our article on being an expert offline but invisible online goes deeper into building the footprint itself.

AI tends toward familiar patterns

Give AI:

"Write me a LinkedIn post about why personal branding matters."

and you'll probably get something usable.

That's also the limitation.

The prompt contains nothing about what you've seen across clients, what annoys you, what happened yesterday or what you believe that someone else might challenge.

AI can work with the material you give it. If the material is generic, the result has very little reason to sound specifically like you.

That's why the AI Slop Survival Guide starts with a premise and human material rather than asking AI to invent the thinking.

Leave digital crumbs

Digital crumbs can be professional or personal:

• A phrase you keep using
• An opinion you've held for years
• A client pattern you notice
• A story from your life
• A cultural reference
• A framework you teach
• A strange analogy
• A hobby or interest that keeps appearing
• A way of explaining something that sounds like you

You don't need to manufacture quirks.

Notice what already repeats.

If people regularly say, "That's such a you thing to say," pay attention.

Give AI more of you to work with

Instead of:

"Give me 20 thought-leadership ideas."

try giving it the actual observation:

"An IVF doctor with 25 years of experience told me he's a ghost online. I think there's something here about offline reputation not automatically becoming online visibility."

Now there's material.

AI can research, challenge and structure the idea, but the observation came from a conversation I had.

That's the difference.

Repetition helps create the signature

One crumb doesn't create a signature.

Over time, recurring ideas and stories become associations.

I've repeated ideas around showing up, improving 1% at a time and PACE for years. I've also somehow left fried-chicken crumbs across the internet.

You may feel like you're repeating yourself.

Someone else may finally be learning what you stand for.

That's why ideas worth repeating matter more than endlessly inventing new topics.

Find your crumbs

Look at your last 20 posts, interviews or articles.

Ask:

• What stories keep appearing?
• Which phrases sound like me?
• What opinions repeat?
• What examples do I naturally use?
• What do people associate with me?
• What would be difficult for somebody else to copy because they haven't lived it?

You may already have a digital signature.

You just haven't named it.

AI can make your footprint bigger very quickly.

Your job is to make sure there's still enough of you in it to be recognised.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between a digital footprint and a digital signature?

A digital footprint is everything that exists about you online and helps people find you. A digital signature is the recurring stories, phrases and opinions inside that footprint that help people recognise you specifically.

Does using AI to write make my content less recognisable?

Not automatically. AI can only work with the material you give it, so generic prompts produce generic results, while feeding it your real observations, client patterns and opinions keeps your signature intact.

What counts as a "digital crumb"?

A phrase you keep using, an opinion you've held for years, a client pattern you notice, a story from your life, or a strange analogy only you would use, the small recurring details that make content feel like you wrote it.

How do I find my own digital signature?

Look back at your last 20 posts, interviews or articles and notice what stories, phrases and opinions keep repeating. You likely already have a signature, you just haven't named it yet.

Not sure which brand direction is yours?
Take the free 2-minute Personal Brand Compass quiz → and find out whether you're an Authority, Rainmaker, Creator, or Professional. 🍗