Why bother to blog in the age of AI?
Hello,
I made a joke at the weekend that ChatGPT has come along and ruined my pension plan but in researching this week’s newsletter, there is still hope.
It’s easy to get swept up in what *everybody* is saying online. Whether that’s the latest app to be on or that you need this proven process or that template. We’re all so eager to be early adopters and get in before it gets big that we don’t always look at it from all angles.
Yes, AI might take down whole creative industries. Then again, it might not. According to this article by The Honest Broker, not all is as it seems in the emerging world of AI. And I absolutely love this tweet (shamelessly stolen from Harry Dry’s newsletter):
And so with that, I give you a compelling argument about why you still need to learn blogging skills in the age of AI.
(FYI - I am launching the final live round of Blog Confidence in September. I’ll be sending out more info on this soon but if you want the details now, reply to this email as I’ve got to update the sales page with new info).
Why bother to blog in the age of AI?
“What kind of moron sits on a blogging course for years and then launches it at the same time as ChatGPT?”
I asked this of my friend earlier this year. Friend who had done chunks of the blogging course through the PIMP My Content programme.
“People need it more now than ever,” was her hopeful reply. “How do they know what’s good when everything starts looking the same?”
A fair point but I was still a bit unconvinced. Even if you don’t fancy learning core writing skills with me (because that’s what it is really) understanding why you need to know what good looks like is going to be more helpful if AI writing become ubiquitous.
So here are five big reasons why you need some writing foundations in place. Plus, the list that ChatGPT gave me when I asked the same question of Skynet.
1. You need to know the fundamentals of blogging
Blogging fundamentals are things like best practice when it comes to research, blog structure, and the purpose of your blog. You can churn out hundreds of AI blogs but if you’re not clear on why you’re publishing those blogs in the first place, then how are you going to know if they are working for your business?
In case it’s not clear, your blog needs to exist for a reason like attracting an audience, answering questions, reassuring people who might want to buy from you. You don’t chuck up a load of blogs because “that’s what you’re supposed to do”.
Likewise, you don’t link your blogs together willy-nilly or stick in any old research. And there is a fundamental basic structure to a blog that doesn’t mean working to a template.
I’ve read a lot of ChatGPT guff that doesn’t even come close to getting these fundamentals right. Yes, it could be down to doing the right prompt but it’s also because AI scrapes from a lot of utter rubbish on the internet. So if you want a blog that reflects well on your brand, you need to know the basics so you can spot when the AI isn’t getting it right.
2. Your business is unique so you need unique content
Yes, yes, I know a thousand monkeys and a thousand typewriters for infinity would eventually write Shakespeare. But we’re not talking about the likelihood of someone else having the same content as you online here, we’re talking about AI taking from what is out there already and re-working it for whatever prompt you put in.
Instead, you need to be writing for your particular audience, for their very specific needs and from your unique insights. No one else has lived your life, done your work, had your experience and background any more than you have the same exact perspectives as anyone else.
You have an opportunity here to make sure that your content doesn’t sound like everybody else’s. And by everybody else, I mean your competitors.
If everyone in your industry is saying the same thing, then you want to be looking at what they’re missing because they will be missing something. I’m not sure I’ve met another content person whose answer is to create less content but many of my clients hear those words coming out of my mouth.
What is your unique perspective? Where is your evidence to back up that it works? And why aren’t you talking about it more?
Knowing what to write and what to leave out is a skill. Understanding how to write for your audience in a way that demonstrates your expertise is a skill. Doing it in a way that’s entertaining is also something that you can learn (and funnily enough, is something I teach on Blog Confidence).
3. Fact checking (and other basic journalistic standards)
You might not be writing for a publication but you are representing your business and brand with words so you need to make sure that everything you put out is correct. This means fact checking everything that AI spews out at you.
There are cases where AI has made up studies or simply got things factually incorrect. This is because there is a lot of factually incorrect guff on the internet. There is also a lot of interesting, evidence-based information out there as well, if you know where to look.
Plus, you can also go old school and talk to people who have a reputation for knowing their stuff or have experienced that which you’re writing about. It’s basic journalism to fact check what you’re putting out and it shouldn’t be left out because you’re writing a blog about a product or service.
It also means looking at the many other sides of the argument. You can pretty much cherry pick any information to support your blogging point but those can often be undermined by some eager-eyed reader who likes to stick a spoon in any pot to give it a stir.
So, learning about the different perspectives and ways of approaching a blog subject can give you an armour for your AI starting point.
4. Getting your brand voice right
One of the nuances of blogging is that you attract people through your brand tone of voice. You also repel people this way as well. And while I don’t outright teach tone of voice on the course, I do look at ways you can adapt what you’re writing to be more “you” or more of your brand.
Putting tone of voice into your work is a big reason why you need to get blogging write when you’ve got AI to do the work for you. AI is never going to say it how you’d say it. And much like giving your own perspective, the tone of your blogs are important for building that connection with your readers.
5. Blogs are more than words
Sorry to anyone who now has Boyzone stuck in their heads. I didn’t mean it and it’s stuck in mine. But blogs are more than their words. They also need to work hard by pulling people into your website. Plus, you’ve got to think about the SEO, the images, the page furniture. All those little bits aren’t yet done for you by AI.
Knowing how to do these can often give your blogs an edge over all the other ones out there.
Using AI For Blogs
Alright, there is no getting away from the fact that many businesses are now using AI to create their blogs. And it’s a tool that can help you but at the moment, it’s not really writing it for you.
There aren’t many businesses that are simply sticking up what AI gives them and those that do are a bit daft. There are too many issues with what you get for it to be risk-free. I once described it to a client as a very new copywriter doing some very cringe-worthy mistakes.
But AI can support your writing and it’s not going to go away so we shouldn’t be ignoring it. Remember when you were in school and the teachers could never work the video player? You don’t want to become that person.
Out of curiosity, I prompted ChatGPT to outline this blog for me. I wanted to see if its ideas matched the ones I’d already discussed with people. Out of the eight points it came up with, it matched two of mine. The other six I didn’t think were compelling enough (mastery of communication skills, anyone?).
But it did have this to say at the end: “While AI can assist in generating content, personal blogging offers a unique and irreplaceable human touch, fostering creativity, personal growth, and connection.”
Bless its little cotton socks trying to reassure everyone that it’s not really Skynet.
How I help:
Get your content reviewed with a Content Clinic.
Have me write all your sales content with my Kick-Ass Sales Bundle
Get a whole year of me helping you with content on my PIMP Your Content Programme
I’m on countdown for the end of the school holidays now. There are lots of great things coming in September. Just on the lookout for those extra 10 hours in the day.
Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next Thursday!
Fiona