What is Share of Life and why is it changing how we measure brands?
Everything is moving so fast that it’s increasingly difficult to keep up. That’s why it’s a good idea to take a pit stop every now and then in this race toward the future. In this post, following the trend of many previous ones, I’ll share what 2026 has already made clear about branding, social media, and AI. and human behavior in this new digital age.
For years, many brands confused being present with being relevant. That has changed. And it’s not the only thing that has changed.
Before, posting was enough. They told you the more the better. Having followers seemed like a sign of strength. If you had a lot, you’d made it, you were a star. It didn’t matter if they were real followers, quality followers, or valuable ones. Few analyzed them; having a lot was cool.
But the digital ecosystem changed. And it changed profoundly.
It changes little each day, but the impact of each change disrupts plans and strategies. If you don’t keep up, the digital wave will sweep you away.
The interesting thing about these changes is that what was once a trend is now becoming a requirement.
In other words, what once seemed optional is now part of your competitive advantage. What was once measured solely in reach or quantity is now measured in trust . I recommend you read the post on “the credibility economy.”
This paradigm shift is a game-changer. Previously, if a brand saw a lot of people, marketers celebrated. Today, what matters, and will increasingly so, is: how many people believe in the brand?
On LinkedIn, authority matters more than visibility
LinkedIn has long since ceased to be merely a professional network . It is now one of the leading digital platforms of authority in the business, organizational, and educational worlds. At least for the time being. I will discuss in more detail the threats looming over this platform later.
The platform surpassed 1.2 billion users in 2025. During that time, comments grew by more than 30% and video uploads increased by more than 20% . The key takeaway, if you’re on LinkedIn or considering joining, is that the platform is starting to reward the kind of behavior it values: more conversation, more video, and more genuine interaction.
This is just one example—there are more to come—of how brands (including individuals) sought reach. Today, what’s starting to be recognized is quality engagement .
Because it’s not the same for someone to see a post as it is for someone to stop, think, comment, share, save, or recommend it. Reach measures exposure . Engagement measures relationship .
Reach tells you how many people walked past. Engagement tells you how many stopped.
And with billions of pieces of content available, stopping someone, capturing their attention, is already a form of value. We could add shared value.
YouTube understood that culture is being built in video
YouTube has become a cultural, educational, commercial, and entertainment infrastructure. YouTube is amazing.
Over 20 million videos are uploaded daily , and Shorts surpasses 200 billion daily views . Furthermore, it has been number one in streaming watch time in the United States for almost three years, according to Nielsen.
For many, YouTube is their view of the world, their classroom blackboard, their university bench, their entertainment… This forces brands to change their perspective.
Brands—personal, business, organizational—should understand that this isn’t just a channel for “uploading videos.” It’s a platform for building credibility, presence, relationships, and impact; to begin with.
It’s much more than entertainment. It’s research, learning, community, influence, culture, and commerce.
Many brands entering the YouTube market expect quick results. They believe that bombarding the stream with Shorts will achieve their goals. However, it’s essential to first define your objectives clearly to avoid frustration.
Those who understand it as an asset for three, five, or ten years will be building something much more powerful: cultural presence, community, being a voice that is taken into account, impacting, and transcending.
No brand becomes relevant by appearing once; it becomes relevant by appearing many times.
Ecommerce, social commerce, the store no longer starts in the store
digital commerce has long since ceased to be an extension of the business. For some, it’s part of the business. For others, it is the business.
Global e-commerce is estimated to reach $6.419 trillion in 2025 , growing at a rate of 6.8% year-on-year. Although the pace may moderate, its scale is already structural. E-commerce is an integral part of the normal functioning of the global economy (for those of us with access to the internet, 4G or 5G, infrastructure, online banking, etc.).
Of all the changes we are going through, the most interesting change is probably where the buying process begins .
As if anyone knew!
More and more purchases originate from a video, a recommendation, a live stream, a WhatsApp conversation, a DM, a review, a creator, a community, or a social platform.
The beginning can come from one place or a combination of them. Funnels are going to go crazy, and what’s fascinating is that this is pushing brands to see this as a huge opportunity.
Social commerce isn’t something that only happens in China or South Korea; it’s right around the corner for your business.
A little over $1.2 trillion globally in 2025 , driven especially by younger generations.
And here we return to reviews. The very same ones that marked the beginning of the digital age. About 62% of shoppers say that customer reviews on social media influence their purchasing decisions , and 66% are interested in live shopping events.
For brands, it’s time to understand and accept that the purchase is moving from the shopping cart to the conversation.
That’s why brands need to think less about isolated channels and more about connected journeys : content, trust, conversation, attention, purchase and after-sales service.
The store is no longer just a place. It’s a distributed experience . It’s a proprietary, earned, and third-party ecosystem that, combined, drives your conversion.
This is the fact that should make brands uncomfortable
Authenticity has become one of the most used and least practiced words in marketing .
Stackla/Nosto already pointed out that 90% of consumers consider authenticity important when deciding which brands they like and support.
And it’s somewhat the same with CX. 80% of executives believe they provide a great experience for their customers, while only 8% of customers say the same.
In this ecosystem, 92% of marketers believed their content was authentic, while 51% of consumers said that less than half of brands created content that truly felt authentic. Therein lies the gap. A huge gap. An opportunity to embrace immediately.
Many brands believe they are being authentic. Most people don’t feel that way.
And in branding, what the brand believes matters less than what people perceive. Because, as I’ve been saying: customer perception is the reality of your brand.
That’s why the value of UGC , user-generated content, is growing.
Not because it’s perfect, but because it feels more real. Consumers are 2.4 times more likely to consider user-generated content authentic than content created by the brand itself.
This doesn’t mean brands should stop creating content. It means they should stop thinking they’re the only ones who can tell their story.
A brand is no longer built solely on what the company says. It’s also built on what people experience, say, and share.
Brand content informs. People’s content confirms.
WhatsApp is the brand’s new storefront
For years, brands have focused almost all their energy on the public feed . From Instagram to Facebook, from LinkedIn to TikTok and YouTube.
But a huge part of the decision-making happens in private spaces. It’s something so obvious and evident that it was initially overlooked precisely by them. Today, “private” is hardly private anymore and is now an integral part of the strategy of brands that have understood the importance of relationships . Spaces ignored or undervalued in the past are now fundamental. From WhatsApp to DMs, from chats and communities to newsletters and groups.
WhatsApp has surpassed 3 billion monthly active users. And 93.6 % of online adults use chat or messaging apps like WhatsApp or WeChat every month.
This also pushes for a change in the traditional logic of brands. The changes I referred to at the beginning of the post.
Simply put, social media is the shop window . Messaging is the counter.
A brand can have a brilliant campaign and still lose a sale because it didn’t respond to a message.
You can have an impeccable visual identity and still lose trust because your customer service is slow, cold, or inconsistent. You can invest in brand awareness and ruin the chat experience.
The digital future won’t just be about publishing more. It will be about conversing better, interacting better, and connecting better.
Visible AI or invisible AI
Artificial intelligence is already transforming content, processes, attention, analysis, personalization, research, and creativity.
But there is a fundamental difference between using AI to improve an experience and using AI so obviously that the brand seems to have lost its humanity .
Visible AI can impress, but it can also generate rejection: cold texts, artificial images, automatic responses without context, avatars without credibility, content that seems mass-produced.
Invisible AI , on the other hand, works behind the scenes: it helps to respond better, organize data, detect patterns, personalize recommendations, accelerate processes, understand needs, and free up human time for higher-value tasks .
The best AI for many brands will be the one the customer doesn’t see, but does feel. We don’t yet know if AI that doesn’t feel will be able to make people feel.
The point here isn’t to use artificial intelligence . It’s impossible not to. The point is that the brand appears artificial by letting AI do all the work while humans disengage or become indifferent.
The dilemma will not come from AI, but from the new trust.
The new branding in this new digital era
And here we get to the heart of it all. Everything mentioned above is the tangible embodiment of who your brand is. It’s the channels, the tools, the ecosystems, the platforms where the brand communicates, engages in dialogue, interacts, sells, makes an impact, and all the rest.
In this increasingly complex, segmented, and expanding digital ecosystem, branding is n’t about being everywhere. It’s about being consistent in every aspect.
The big transition, the major change for brands is (at least for now):
Produce more quality content. Produce more meaningful content.
Analyze data more thoroughly. Understand people better. People aren’t data; they’re emotion.
Embrace technology. Don’t outsource humanization through it.
Identify which trends benefit you and which don’t. Distinguish which changes are structural and shouldn’t be ignored.
And we return to the very essence of branding: people. Everything changes, but what is essential transcends. Therefore, it’s crucial to remember that behind every platform, every algorithm, every dashboard, every video, every chatbot, and every metric, there is still a person.
A person who decides whether to believe or not. Whether to stay or leave. Whether to buy or wait. Whether to recommend or ignore. Whether to love or hate you. Whether to reward or punish you. Whether to feel that the brand speaks to them or simply sells to them.
And that’s where branding comes in again. Because branding never goes away, because branding transcends changes, transformations, innovations, and the digital world.
It returns as trust . As culture . As reputation . As relationships . As values . As community . As the visible soul of an organization .
Remember that today everyone can create and share content. The tools, the apps, the platforms, the networks are all there… The difference will be in who deserves to be believed. That—credibility—will be the new competitive advantage.
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