How ChatGPT is disrupting the way we create content (advantages & pitfalls)
Note from Taughnee: In the following blog post, I used ChatGPT to help me research the limitations and advantages of using it for content creation in combination with our “Big News Announcement” template from the Blog Post Vault. The final post is 100% original content using my own voice, unique perspectives, and personal insights. But, using these tools helped me stay focused so I could write, edit, and format over 2,800 words for this post in less than 2 hours (about ½ the time it would have normally taken me). 2023 is wild!
Have you heard the buzz about ChatGPT? If so, you’re probably wondering how it’s going to disrupt just about everything – including creating content for your business.
If you’re like us, you’re probably feeling a mix of emotions about it: incredibly excited about the potential of ChatGPT and the ways it can be used to increase productivity… but also a bit concerned about the fact that the robots 🤖🤖🤖 are finally taking over. 😂
All over the world right now, content creators, copywriters, and content marketing businesses like ours are wondering how this new technology is going to impact them.
Some creators see dollar signs: “Cool, I can sell content services and have ChatGPT do all the work!” (which we strongly believe will lead to customer mistrust).
Some are fearful they’ll need to adapt, learn new skills, or even become obsolete.
Here at ConversionMinded, we’re super excited about the ways ChatGPT is already helping us create content more efficiently and take time-consuming, costly, and mundane tasks off our plates.
As for our concerns, ChatGPT seems to be on our side so that’s something. 😉
In this post, I’m going to share my insights and thoughts so far on the best ways to use ChatGPT to speed up content creation and some limitations to be aware of too.
But first…
What is ChatGPT and how can it help with content creation tasks?
ChatGPT is a language model that can generate human-like language. Ask it questions or provide it with “seed text” and it will respond to you as if you’re talking to a real person.
What’s “seed text” you ask? Well, let’s ask ChatGPT!
Think of it this way: it’s like having an assistant who’s read every article and discussion on the internet about your topic and can now give you a “best guess” answer to any question you have.
The applications are vast, but for now, I’m just going to keep things focused on using ChatGPT for content creation since that’s what you’re here for. 😉
You can use ChatGPT to help you with all kinds of content for your business, including:
- Headlines and alternative headlines
- Product and services summaries
- Customer service responses
- Social media posts
- Ad copy
- Emails
- Blog posts
- Translations
- Scripts for videos and podcasts
- And much more!
And the language it produces actually sounds just like a human wrote it!
Mind. Blown. 🤯
But before you get too excited, keep reading because there are some limitations you need to be aware of before diving in…
The Pitfalls: 2 Ways ChatGPT Actually Slows Down Content Creation
You’ll find that your role using ChatGPT will be to provide it with lots and lots of input and really good prompts – otherwise known as “prompt engineering.”
In other words, you’ll have to train ChatGPT how to give you results you’re happy with (which is a new task and a new skill you’ll need to learn and it can easily eat up even more of your time if you’re not careful).
Way #1: It often returns inaccurate or unhelpful responses
ChatGPT was trained using billions of text data found on the internet, but, it only has information up until 2021, which means it doesn’t know anything about the world after that point.
Right now, it can only generate responses based on the information it was trained on and heads up – it’s very often inaccurate (it generates lots of stuff you can’t use).
To get more meaningful and useful responses, you need to teach it about your brand, offerings, and audience and by providing it with seed text so it can learn from you. Not only that, but you’ll have to start from scratch with every new chat session. This process takes time.
Keep in mind…
- ChatGPT does not have information about current events
- It can’t access the internet on its own to get up-to-date information
- It wants to be helpful so it’ll give you information as if it’s accurate and it will sound very convincing
- It can tell you something is possible to do with ChatGPT but it may not actually be possible
- It will often contradict itself when you ask follow-up questions
For example, I tried to get it to help me create a product summary, so I asked it if I could link to our sales page to give it all the information.
Note: It said yes.
I already knew it wouldn’t be able to read this web page as it was created in 2023, but watch as ChatGPT tries to be helpful and “guesses” what this product is about…
I asked it to tell me the specific number of templates mentioned on the sales page as a test. (Spoiler alert: there are 52 templates, not 50.)
When I prompted it to tell me where it got the inaccurate information it finally ‘fessed up…
It wasn’t reading the sales page at all, it was just “faking it” in an attempt to be helpful.
When in doubt about whether the responses are accurate, you can ask it to tell you its sources or where it got the information from so you can make sure it’s not leading you astray.
But bottom line: all of these limitations and detours can create its own kind of time suck.
It’s easy to wind up with content that sounds super helpful but actually isn’t and ChatGPT will tell you so itself:
If you’re not super familiar with a topic you’re writing about, you may not even be aware that ChatGPT is just “best guessing” – ultimately, you’re responsible for making sure what it creates for you is on target.
Way #2: Beware the “ChatGPT Rabbit Hole”
The first thing I learned when experimenting with ChatGPT is that it’s suuuuuper easy to go down a rabbit hole.
Feeding ChatGPT with more and more “seed text,” context, and information about our customers in order to get more meaningful responses can quickly become overwhelming.
As I was playing around with it to help me with various content tasks, I kept feeding it more inputs to see if it would…
- Create something catchier
- Make it more exciting to read
- Change it up to be more engaging
- Write it so I really want to buy it
- Put it in a friendlier tone
- Less formal and more conversational
- I don’t like any of these, try again
And it does! What you can ask it to do is endless. You can keep asking and asking and it will keep answering and answering (turns out, that’s a blessing and a curse).
Along the way, I’d ask it tangential questions because why not? You’re having a chat and it’s fun!
- “What are some target markets who would be interested in buying this product?”
- “What is their biggest problem?”
- “What are some blog post topics they’d be interested in reading?”
- “By the way, what are some ways ChatGPT can help me learn a language?”
- “What are some suggestions for easy vegetarian meals I can make tonight?”
All of this is great but… well, you can probably guess where this is going.
After hours and hours of this I realized that while it feels productive, my conversations with ChatGPT were not the same thing as actually finishing a piece of content and getting it out there.
And even after you’ve spent lots and lots of time “training” it, ChatGPT will still use cheesy language patterns and marketing and sales copy cliches that you may not want to use for your brand. Expect to spend some time editing so you can put it in your voice.
By the end of my first experiences using it, I was absolutely overwhelmed with the pages and pages of text it generated and all the options, revisions, alternatives, suggestions, and information it had given me that I didn’t know what to do with it all.
So I asked it what to do with it all…
… we talked about that for a while too.
While using ChatGPT is incredibly useful for lots of different types of content projects, there’s no doubt in my mind it’ll create more work in the long run for others.
Said another way…
If it takes you an hour to get ChatGPT to write an email you’re happy with but you could have written it in 30 minutes, it’s creating more work and eating up more time, not less.
So, mind the rabbit hole. You’ve been warned. 😉
The Advantages: 5 Ways We’re Using ChatGPT to Create Content
After my initiation with ChatGPT, I made some decisions about how to best use it to speed up my content creation tasks.
Right now, I plan on considering it my “writing assistant” whose job it is to keep me on track and prevent me from getting stuck or getting distracted.
My job is to stay focused and get into the “flow” so I can complete my tasks in the most efficient way possible. That means closing out ChatGPT at a reasonable point in the process.
So here are some of my favorite ways so far that I’ll continue to make good use of ChatGPT to work more efficiently:
Way #1: Get ideas or inspiration
ChatGPT is perfect for getting a nudge of help while staying in the “flow” of your tasks. Rather than going out on Google or social media looking for inspiration, you can just ask ChatGPT instead.
- Tell it your topic and ask it to generate some ideas for you
- Ask it what the most common questions people have about this topic
- Tell it a bit about your target audience and ask them what their biggest frustration are around a topic
Way #2: Improve your content
Rather than scratching your head when editing your text, have ChatGPT help you out. Ask it to…
- Proofread it for you (giving it small passages at a time works best!)
- Provide you with alternatives or variations on a section of your content
- Put it in a different tone of voice (friendlier, more exciting, conversational, etc.)
Pro-tip: learn from the AI whenever you ask it to make improvements by asking them a follow-up question like, “what specific ways did you improve this content?”
Way #3. Ask it to summarize your long-form content for you
When you’re done writing a blog post, for example, your next step is usually to optimize it for search with meta descriptions and so on, and summarize it so you can create a post for social media or Pinterest to promote it.
Take this routine task off your plate by asking it to summarize your post and create a meta description for you.
Way #3 Use it for research instead of Google
ChatGPT can answer just about any question you have about a topic, which puts it in direct competition with Google. Especially for answers to simple fact-based questions like “What are the 3 largest cities in New Mexico?”
This way, you won’t be tempted to go out on the internet where you might get distracted.
Way #4 Ask it to edit for clarity when you get stuck on a phrase
A lot of times when we’re writing content we spin around in circles trying to make a phrase work. This is a perfect task for your new “writing assistant” – just copy and paste the phrase and ask it to provide you with alternatives.
Not bad, but I’ll stick to the original. While ChatGPT is great at creating clear and concise language, always remember it’s not a human.
Remember that your greatest competitive advantage is that there’s only one you. Don’t second guess yourself if you think what you come up with is better than ChatGPT. What you write may not be as “perfect” but that’s… okay. 🙂
Think about the way Autotune changed the music industry. Sure, artists can use it to hit pitch-perfect notes now, but there’s something even more wonderful when listening to authentic and imperfectly-perfect voices like Elvis, Aretha Franklin, Prince, Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Whitney Houston…
So even if your language is not as clear or concise as ChatGPT, remember that you are a unique and original being with your own voice and personality – and that’s something a robot will never have.
I think. Maybe. I don’t know. You get it.
Way #5 Use ChatGPT in combination with content templates to stay focused
Right now, I’m using one of our Blog Post Vault templates in combination with ChatGPT. I’m finding that using a content template as a starting point provides me with the structure I need to stay focused on the task.
With the templates, all the formatting is done for me and the writing prompts guide me through all the ways I should be sharing my personal insights, lessons learned, and so on.
This way, I can focus without distractions, work faster with the help of ChatGPT, and create original content that’s not robotic (I hope you’ll agree!).
Having a structure to follow means I don’t have to worry about cobbling all responses from the chatbot together into something cohesive.
I must say, it really takes the stress out of the unpleasant side of content creation like all the stuck points and knowledge gaps you run into that slows you down. I just keep ChatGPT open in a new tab and it’s there to help me, but the templates guide me through from start to finish (which is the goal).
Yesterday, I used it in combination with our Content Calendar System for the first time to create social media posts, and it was the most fun I’ve had creating content in a good, long while.
I was able to spend my time telling personal stories and sharing my expertise and experience rather than struggling with coming up with ideas or wondering what to share.
I can’t remember the last time I felt this productive and it’s inspiring me to create more content!
The verdict? ChatGPT is incredibly helpful for creating just about any kind of content you can think of, and what’s even more exciting is that it’s just in its infancy. Expect it to get exponentially more powerful in the not-so-distant future.
But for right now, if your goal is to work faster, just be mindful of the time you spend interacting with it and make sure it’s not slowing you down by providing you with endless options and inaccurate information.
Key Takeaways:
Yes, you should use ChatGPT to speed up content creation, and no, it will not replace human content creators
ChatGPT is taking the world by storm right now and we’re all just beginning to grasp what we can achieve with it (and the potential downsides too).
As things change – when a new disruptive technology comes on the scene – we need to be willing to change and adapt and try to find opportunities rather than feeling fearful about the things we can’t control.
So we encourage you to play around with ChatGPT too. If you’re using the ConversionMinded Content Calendar System, Blog Post Vault, or any of our other content templates, try using it as a content sidekick and writing assistant!
Let it help you proofread your content, research questions your audience may have about your topics, and even generate ideas for you.
Just remember that it’s not a substitute for telling your story or sharing your human experiences. As we move into the future of content marketing, your unique voice will only become more and more valuable.
Ready to get started with ChatGPT?
Are you ready to drop what you’re doing and head on over to OpenAI to get started with ChatGPT?
Be sure to take away these top tips (unless you have a couple of days to kill down a rabbit hole):
- Work on one content task per chat session (don’t ask it all the things!)
- Know what specific things you want it to help you with before you start a chat
- Set a timer
- Work on your actual content in a separate tab/document so you don’t get overwhelmed
- Ask it follow-up questions so you can learn from the AI (e.g., “how did you improve this?”)
- Double-check accuracy before you publish
- Close out ChatGPT so you can finish your task!
Please let us know how it goes by leaving us a comment! We want to know how everyone is using this exciting new tool.
And please let us know if you have any questions you have about ChatGPT, we’ll be sharing what we learn as we go.
Have fun!
