Using ChatGPT in your content and marketing

I don’t watch many movies, but one of my favorite quotes from Jurassic Park is when Dr. Ian Malcolm tells park founder John Hammond, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

As I continue to scan headline after headline praising its capabilities, I’ve asked a similar question of about ChatGPT. 

As a spoiler, I’ll let you know that I’m not against artificial intelligence (AI) tools and use them regularly. ChatGPT and other AI tools show incredible potential to improve how we create content and marketing assets, and how we interact with machines. But these tools should be used properly and prudently to ensure success without compromising the quality of your content or your brand.

ChatGPT is a shiny object with a bright future

In case you’re not familiar with it, ChatGPT is a chat-style AI bot that generates text in response to your prompts. Five days after its launch in 2022, ChatGPT crossed 1 million users. For sake of comparison, the record holders for the shortest timeframe to cross this same threshold were Instagram (2.5 months), Spotify (5 months), and Dropbox (7 months).

Bill Gates explained that ChatGPT is growing rapidly because, unlike previous artificial intelligence, it can understand the content and information it is trained on, and can provide responses that are of higher quality. As a result, ChatGPT’s generated content rivals the output of many human writers in all types of contexts, including LinkedIn comments, short stories, language translations, and even math problems. Here are some other examples:

• CPA Jason Staats is tinkering with using ChatGPT for tax advice and even has a list of predictions about how ChatGPT and other AI tools will transform the accounting industry.
• Albusi CEO Al Anany discovered his blog writers use ChatGPT to produce dozens of well-written articles.
• Adrian Holovaty used ChatGPT to compose sheet music for blues, jazz, and polka music, and was surprised at the quality of its compositions, besides a few minor errors.
• Matthew Mayo used ChatGPT to write a simple program in the Python programming language.

The dull side of the shiny object

ChatGPT shows great promise as a content creation and marketing tool, so when it came time to create content for our website, I scoured the internet for commentary and insights into people’s experiences so far with AI models, including ChatGPT. Being in the marketing world, I’ve long been an early adopter of most software products. I’m definitely not against technological advancement.

As I’ve become more familiar with ChatGPT’s features and limitations, I’ve uncovered some of its less attractive features that you should consider as you start using it:

• ChatGPT doesn’t curate facts; it creates them. If you search “none of these papers exist” on Twitter, you’ll get a list of tweets and threads by researchers who asked ChatGPT to curate research for them and later discovered it was entirely made up.
• Many companies are using ChatGPT as a crutch. As copywriter Nick Ward pointed out, companies are using ChatGPT and other AI tools to produce dizzying amounts of content that increases their rank in search engines—but offers little value to readers.
• ChatGPT fabricates information, apologizes for it, then does it again: As Fio of contentfolks.com found, AI is great at sounding confident, even when it’s completely wrong. This makes fact checking a critical step when writing with AI tools.
• It’s great for writers, but horrible for readers: As Logan Brown said, “Everyone wants to write content using AI but nobody wants to read AI-written content.” ChatGPT’s responses look substantial at first glance, but closer inspection shows its replies to be repetitive and bland.

Despite these flaws in the current ChatGPT model, I believe this tool will transform our content creation and marketing workflows for the better. We just need to evolve our workflows so they allow for the strengths of ChatGPT, without being overtaken by its limitations or flaws.

The right way to use ChatGPT in your content and marketing

Without a doubt, too many companies already are rushing to use ChatGPT to fill their blogs with content that improves their search engine optimization, but kills their connection with their readers.

There is a better way.

Use it as a sparring partner, not a substitute

I’ve followed hundreds of ChatGPT experiments done by other writers, and tested ChatGPT in my own side projects. I’ve found that ChatGPT excels at generating ideas, outlines, and short-form content about well-known topics, but struggles to write about brands, products, or obscure topics. While ChatGPT is very advanced and will continue to improve, it is still just software. It can’t show empathy, develop strategies, or tell the unique story of your company.

For this reason, Andrew Tate, head of product development and engineering at a content marketing agency, says that AI tools such as GPT-3 and ChatGPT are best used as creative sparring partners, not human replacements. In his words, “Help comes from your teammates, including an API. We’re going to be using GPT-3 at [our agency]. Not to write full articles so we can sit back … but to give us new ideas for articles, new perspectives on old opinions, and to drive us forward.” As the Mandalorian would say, “This is the way.”

Be like Spiderman, not Superman

While Superman has long been described as too overpowered to be believable and relatable, Stan Lee described Spiderman as one of his favorite characters because “[h]e soliloquizes, and he worries, and he agonizes and wonders why things don’t turn out better for him. He’s always got money problems and allergies and dandruff.” For Stan Lee, vulnerability is key to a character’s believability and connection with fans. The same could be said for brands.

Be more vulnerable and less “super” in your marketing and content. Sure, you can show your skill and expertise. Just remember to show your human side too. Your fans are more likely to appreciate your amazing web slinging when they know you’ve dealt with unrequited love and bad days like them.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it

Retired boxer and influencer Ed Latimore wisely noted, “If your writing can be stolen without changing a word and no one can tell the difference, you ain’t gonna make it. You need personal stories and experiences to stand out.” Tired of being sold semi-authenticity for decades, people are increasingly seeking branding that is human, vulnerable, and relatable. AI can create amazing things, but it cannot replicate the nuanced fabric of our existence as humans.

As I like to tell the team at MBS Accountancy, “People connect with faces, not logos.” In your content marketing and SEO efforts, don’t produce drivel in some frenetic effort to own the top spots in Google. Instead, uncover your company’s unique story and stick to it (for all of you Collin Raye fans).

Use ChatGPT and other AI tools to ignite your creative spark

While AI is still too glitchy and nascent to replace the output of high-quality human creators, I think it can and should be used as a complement alongside human marketers and creators. Aside of ChatGPT, here are several other tools you can use to improve your content and marketing workflows:

• DALL-E: An AI system that creates realistic images and art based on your prompts.
• ‌ChatSonic: This tool works like ChatGPT with one difference; it can connect to Google and extract information in real-time for better responses.
• Character AI: This is another chat-style bot that lets you create preset characters such as Mario or Tony Stark, or you can create your own.
• Synthesia: This AI tool allows you to create videos from text, complete with human avatars.
• ‌Lovo.ai: This is an AI text-to-speech software that lets you create realistic voiceovers and audio clips with human-like voices.

As AI tools continue to improve, savvy marketers and content creators will learn to use them to improve their workflows, automate lesser-value tasks, and support their storytelling. Where does your business want to be?