Why AI could be good for your content strategy
It's probably not why you think...
Hey you!
Have you had a look at or been using Chat GPT to create content for your business and creative work? I have and I am amazed frankly at some of the things that it can do.
One of the best things myself and my clients have done with it is to ask it to write a new instagram bio, it really does seem to be VERY good at this and it allows you to see yourself in a different light, as someone else would perhaps. Still needs a tweak or two but yes. Smart.
When you start to play around with it, at first you feel this might be the answer to all your content marketing prayers. After all, you spend a minute or two feeding it what you want it to do and create and within almost as little time or in fact usually a lot less, it has put back to you a fully formed article or blog, a series of social media posts, a sales page - all of which you might ordinarily have slaved over for hours.
Once you get over this excitement though, and start to notice what’s going on with other people’s content, it doesn’t look so great.
I have started to play ‘spot the AI generated post’ on all the platforms I am on - it’s fairly easy to do.
Because whilst AI generated articles etc are competent, well written even, they lack authenticity and a true connection back to that person or their brand.
They all have the same flavour to them. Similar structure and format. They just don’t FEEL like they are being written by something that understands and can communicate, human to human, the point that is being made.
There’s no story to hook you in, no personal touch.
FYI, I did ask Chat GPT to tell me a story about someone setting boundaries in their work life and it was… laughable! It started like this:
“Once upon a time, in a bustling city, lived Sarah, a talented marketing professional in her mid-thirties. She was passionate about her work but found herself overwhelmed and stressed due to the constant demands from her team and superiors.”
I mean! This will hook no one in! Nice that it used my name though ;)
So back to the point of this. If AI is, in fact, falling short of creating truly good, inspiring and attractive content, how can this help YOU?
Well, the fact is that many of your competitors will fall into the Chat GPT rabbit hole, if they haven’t already, deep and hard and will start to create content at speed, possibly upping the amount of times they show up online and in people’s in boxes - but with no great effect.
Because without a more unique approach, an authentic voice and some powerful storytelling, their content will mainly fall flat.
Without an ability to really connect to the specific audience or target market that they need to, or to truly find and use their own unique voice, their AI generated content will somehow miss the mark.
Which is useful to you, because, YOU will not fall into the same trap and your authentic, brilliant content and voice will shine brighter still amongst all of this auto generated mush.
By all means, use AI as a content ideas generation tool, use it to give you a framework and a starting point if you like, it really is great for this, but then continue to write your own social posts, articles and newsletters just as you always have, but with some of the initial work done for you.
AI can give you some great ideas and is brilliant for getting you unstuck or helping you out when you feel a bit flat and uninspired. But it’s not there to do the whole job.
A huge part of communicating and persuading - and selling - is in making an emotional connection with those reading our words and following our story.
All those listicles and instagram carousels of tips and advice can look nice on the surface, but leave people feeling empty. When people are hungry or ideas, knowledge and solutions, they want a sense of nourishment. And posts like this just offer the content equivalent of candy floss. Eye catching, initially enticing, but ultimately devoid of anything good or substantial.
So sure, cut some of the research process, jump start your ideas and creativity with AI generated content but then take a step back, regroup, and create content that feels like it’s written and created by you, for your people. Because it is!
BTW, I asked Chat GPT about the limitations of using AI for generating content, and even they had to agree;
“AI should be viewed as a tool to enhance human creativity rather than replace it. Collaborating with AI tools can augment the creative process, providing inspiration, generating ideas, and handling repetitive tasks, allowing human creators to focus on higher-level creative aspects.”
So focus on those higher level creative aspects people, because whilst others take the easy route, you’ll be there, authentically creating and connecting, drawing people into your world with the content equivalent of a bowl of warm soup whilst everyone else is offering candy.
With love,
I've tried it as a way of coming up with snappy headlines, titles etc - my personal nemesis. I rarely choose any of the suggestions but I find it helpful in terms of getting my own creativity flowing and it sometimes throws out suggestions that spark other ideas in my brain.
Yes! AI is great as an ideas generator, but its copy is dubious at best. So easy to spot the copy that has been written by AI and not edited by a human!