3 ways to make ChatGPT work for you
Who else is sick of hearing about ChatGPT?
“It’s great.”
“It’s terrible.”
“It makes life easier for business owners.”
“It makes all businesses sound boring and robotic.”
“It’s going to put all copywriters out of work.”
“It can never replace the authenticity of a human being.”
The debate just goes on and on.
One thing is for certain, though, AI is here to stay. However, when up against a human, the writing it churns out usually lacks personality, voice and style — no matter how specific the prompt. It simply doesn’t understand the nuances of tone and tinges of emotion that goes into many types of writing. Sure, it can give you 500 words on any given subject, but will the reader feel a connection to that piece?
Not convinced? Here’s what one of our clients had to say:
“I turned to AI to try and save money to condense my message on my website, only to come up with content that I never truly connected with…[Luminate] took the time to deeply understand what I was trying to communicate and gave me the words to do it effectively, something that AI failed to do because of the superficial nature of its capacity.” – Jennifer Bloch, Touchpoint Leadership Coaching
Now, that doesn’t mean that ChatGPT is completely useless for non-profit organizations and purpose-driven small businesses. It can be useful if, and only if, it is used correctly.
Use it right, and you’ve got another great tool in your marketing toolbox; use it wrong and it is not going to do your organization any favours. Here are three ways ChatGPT can support your marketing and communications efforts.
As a brainstorming tool
Sometimes, the most difficult part about writing is finding good ideas to get started. Writing, after all, is a creative process and all good creative processes start with a brainstorming prompt. Why not prompt ChatGPT to get the creative juices flowing? For example, asking it for title suggestions on a specific topic gives you a jumping off point.
Just like any brainstorming session, some of the ideas it churns out will have potential and some may be just plain weird. Don’t be afraid to follow up on the fascinating ones by asking it to dig deeper.
As a first-draft writer
Author Jodi Picoult once said: “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” It is no secret that copywriters often start by writing a bad first draft to break through writer’s block. Ask ChatGPT to write that bad first draft.
But remember, as good as it may seem on first read, it is a first draft. Unless you feed it absolutely everything it needs to know in the prompt, ChatGPT doesn’t cite the sources of its information; you have to apply your own knowledge and experience to weed out biases and inaccuracies. And, because of its superficial nature, it will need editing for language, style and tone to result in something that truly connects with audiences.
As a way to repurpose content
Storytelling allows non-profits to directly show impact on someone’s life. It’s an intimate approach and often involves taking the time to gain a person’s trust in an interview before writing their powerful story.
AI can’t do that. But what it can do is take that professionally written impact article and condense or summarize it for other marketing purposes. We tried this out by asking it to summarize into two sentences a 600-word story we once wrote about a woman who lived at a gender-based violence shelter. The results weren’t bad, and with some tweaking it could be a social media post or a newsletter intro.
As the technology world continues to evolve, it’s important to grasp how tools like ChatGPT can be used to enhance, not replace, human efforts. Have you used AI to get started and now need professional help? Get in touch.