Misinformation needs a vacuum. Don’t give it one.
Silence is not protection. Here’s what brands must build now to safeguard trust.
Silence is a strategy, and it’s failing.
It is 2025, and the internet is not new. It’s messy, often exhausting, and, for many businesses big and small, openly hostile territory. The reflex to disengage, to “just focus on the work” and let the noise pass, is understandable.
“If someone misunderstood, misrepresented, or lied about your company tomorrow, would your real story be easy to find?”
But choosing not to have a public, findable, validated company voice is not neutral. It leaves the field open to others, from industry commentators to opportunistic competitors (and, yes, bots), to define you.
The danger is rarely outright impersonation, it’s mischaracterization. In a landscape where disinformation and manufactured narratives circulate with algorithmic indifference, the most persistent, loudest, or best-funded voice, not the most accurate, shapes public perception.
More than ever, brands are at risk of being defined by others who may be ill-informed, opportunistic, or simply louder
The paradox of presence
For some, the reality is paralyzing: social platforms skew negative, “viral” often means out of control, and every word online can be twisted. So silence feels safe, until you need your own platform, your own words, and your own community the most.
Yet every brand needs a credible, easily validated place to communicate.
When New York’s Con Edison faced a major blackout in 2019, they lacked a ready, unified online presence to answer the public, and misinformation, rumours, and frustration spread far faster than the company could respond. By the time an official voice appeared, much of the damage to reputation and trust was already done. The lesson: without a discoverable, validated communications platform, even the best technical fix won’t rescue your brand from a crisis that’s already become someone else’s story. (New York Times coverage)
This isn’t a call for relentless posting or performing across platforms. It’s about building a modest but durable foundation, a domain, a channel, a space, that's yours alone. When the narrative begins to escape you, or when questions inevitably arise, your voice is ready, official, and standing by.
When your presence can be found and validated, even infrequently, rumour stands little chance next to reality confirmed by your own words and your own digital home.
Your real risk, and your best defence
According to the 2025 Digital News Report, trust in brands and information sources continues to decline, as AI-powered misinformation surges and facts are gamed by actors with more motives than morals. Bots and bad actors are increasingly the ones shaping the story.
But the persistent human element in all of this is the community, those with a stake in your reputation, who know what you stand for, who can vouch for you long before you’re forced to vouch for yourself.
That’s the difference between being an audience’s afterthought and a community’s shared cause.
Minimum viable reputation management
If you’re not present, you’re not neutral, you’re at the mercy of anyone who chooses to tell your story for you. Here’s what the bare minimum looks like if you want to avoid becoming the cautionary tale at your next industry conference:
Build your own base: One branded website, one blog. Your truth, your rules.
Control the source: Every official message, every value, every position live here first.
Feed networks, don’t chase them: Share out only what fits your brand strategy. No scattershot.
Invest before you need it: Reputations aren’t emergency buttons, they’re ongoing insurance.
Speak enough, not constantly: Consistency builds trust, panic feeds chaos.
Most advice about reputation management is aimed at big brands or ultra-visible influencers. But if you’re running a utility, mid-sized company, or specialized service, you don’t have (and don’t need) a content team or weekly social campaign.
“you don’t need to be everywhere, but you absolutely can’t be nowhere”
The uncomfortable reality no one wants to say out loud: you don’t need to be everywhere, but you absolutely can’t be nowhere. The less you want to shout, the more you need a discoverable, credible home for your story.
Silence may feel safe in today’s environment. In practice, it’s permission for others to define you with their facts, their spin, their agenda. The minimum presence you maintain, one unmistakably and verifiably your own, is the difference between having a fighting chance and watching, powerless, as the story unfolds without you.
A final question
If you had to tell your side of the story tomorrow, how would you do it?
It’s not about reaching everyone, everywhere. That’s impossible as media and audiences are too fragmented now. What matters is being discoverable by anyone who cares enough to look for your side of the story, when it counts most.
Broadcasts and media hits are fleeting and fragmented. But if your customers, partners, or even critics go searching for the truth, only an official, credible home for your story will give them what they, and you, need most: facts, in your words, in one credible place.
If your clients, customers, or partners went searching online for your side of the story tomorrow, would they find your voice, or someone else’s version?
In a world shaped by algorithms and hearsay, the only thing riskier than being talked about is being unfindable when it matters most. Start building your foundation before someone else builds a story for you.
If someone’s ever wondering, “What does Sociallogical actually stand for?” I hope they Google us and land right here. This blog isn’t just for clicks or thought leadership, it's here for the day anyone needs to check the receipts, see our advice in context, or understand the thinking behind what we do.
