Introduction

Hi everyone, thanks for coming. Thanks Theo and Adi for the invitation.

Joro, you said at some point, this is a very simple concept, think about it. You know, I tried, I thought about it. It didn't sink in me. No, I'm kidding.

I guess is the technical difference in the levels of the presentations that you will see tonight.

AI Applications in Content Marketing

I'm going to dig into something very practical, into AI applications in content marketing.

The Turning Point: Realization and Utilization of AI

So in December, I was completely overwhelmed by the projects I was juggling with. And I just wished I had an assistant. And I was like, I dream of having an assistant, but it wasn't the right time.

And then I saw this meme, them, I want to be more than friends, me. You can be my assistant. But obviously this was not a, sustainable solution.

And I don't know if it has happened to you, but can you think of a moment when you dreamt of something and then you wake up and you realize, oh, wait, it's true. It's happened. I just didn't realize it.

Personal Anecdote: ChatGPT as an Assistant

This is the moment when I realized that I already had an assistant and it was ChatGPT. And now just a side note, a few months ago, I taught my mom how to use it. She has a very developed and very popular blog about parenting. She's a children's psychologist.

She's very deep in her stuff. She's very good at it. But one day she told me, that's it, I'm not gonna post about it. My Facebook posts, they do not work.

I said, wait a minute, let me take a look at it. We saw that, you know, she's not writing them in the right way. I showed her chat GPT, she fell in love. She bought a subscription.

A few days ago, I'm going to see her and she says, we came up with a great idea with Zsoro Petkov, but I need your help. And I'm like, who's Zsoro Petkov? And she says, ah, chat GPT. Yeah, she obviously felt like she needed to humanize it.

So she calls it Zsoro Petkov. So it has become her assistant as well.

Background: My Journey with AI and Marketing

And a few words about me before I show you my workflow. I do marketing for tech and deep tech. What does it mean? It means that I get to learn about cool technologies while doing my profession, which is marketing.

And in fact, I work with Joro Etimaga. on the marketing and content strategy. And my interest with AI has started years ago, I think maybe six or seven years ago.

There was a company called DataIQ, which back then released the first no-code, codeless predictive analytics model for marketing, which is something that is very useful for companies with big with like a big, large volume of transactions because it can predict the behavior of users. Anyways, it sounded like magic back then. I couldn't even imagine back then where we would be today.

I'm also a trainer at Larrick Academy in the digital marketing program and I run a podcast. It's called Mečka Strahmene and it studies courage and fears in the realm of technologies as well, because many of you in the audience are young and you're basically native to this AI world, while a lot of people, you know, older than you are very skeptical and even scared. So this is something I talk about in the podcast as well.

Practical Demonstration: Using ChatGPT for Content Creation

Today, I'm going to show you two applications. First is how I use ChatGPT for LinkedIn content creation. I'm going to be talking about LinkedIn as an example, but this exact workflow can be applied to any other channel or format.

I'm gonna talk briefly about authenticity of content because it's obviously an important topic and can AI assistant content still be authentic and and also I'm gonna show you a tool that I call text to wireframes and it's very helpful in communicating with clients or with other functional teams.

Workflow Overview: Creating Content with ChatGPT

I'm going to show you these five steps that I go through when I create content with ChatGPT. The first step is I feed ChatGPT with two posts that perform really well so that it can understand why do they perform well. Then I instructed to create a blueprint that we're going to later use for new post creation. And then I instructed to create the content outline, the content plan, which is basically the topics for the plan.

But of course, There's a very important element here, which is I feed it with the content strategy. I'll show you this in detail.

And then I ask it to create the first piece of content and then I edit it. You know, it looks very logical.

We're going to see at the end how the piece that is created by ChatGPT compares to the others, which are AI-free, created by yours truly. That would be me.

Analyzing Successful LinkedIn Posts

Okay, so that's the prompt, analyze this LinkedIn post and explain why it performs well from a LinkedIn content expert perspective. You know that it doesn't have a personality until we tell ChatGPT who he is, who she is. It explains why this piece of content is performing well.

The post that I chose, It wasn't necessarily the the post with the best engagement rate or most reaction But it was the post that got me a lot of direct messages which is a much stronger indicator of Content stickiness with the audience then would be just the likes or the comments and then

We're not going to go through it because it's not that important. It's more important to go through the logic and then maybe you'll share yours with the audience. It's going to be interesting to compare notes.

Okay, the next post that I ask ChatGPT to analyze is one that has significantly larger number of reactions. So my logic here is this one works really well with the audience. So this post is very strong in terms of engagement.

I'm gonna talk a little bit about marketing as well because obviously that's what I do. Which is good because this brings us let's say this could bring us virality this brings us new followers It's a credibility factor etc, but this is not necessarily a post that is going to position me in front of the audience that I care about.

My audience are tech founders. So that's why I chose two posts that have very different results and very different structure and content because I'm not going only after content that's good about engagement, let's say. So again, it's ChatGPT analyzes the reasons why this post is performing well.

Crafting a Blueprint for Future Posts

And then step two is I instructed to create a blueprint that we're going to use for future LinkedIn posts based on the insights of the two posts that I gave it earlier. Yeah, now it creates the blueprints, which which also comes in in this form. which is useful by itself because it shows us the...

Developing a Content Strategy Aligned with ChatGPT

Yes, step number three now is I instructed to create the content calendar, which would be the different titles and topics that it will suggest. But the trick here is that I want this content plan to be aligned with my content strategy. And I highlighted it in pink. because the content strategy here is really the other trick.

So one is the logic that I'm following, but then you know that the more context ChatGPT has, the better output it provides. So the content strategy can be a very short and simple text, but it needs to capture the essence, which would be like in this case, This is a personal brand. I'm creating content for my personal brand in LinkedIn.

So it would be important to tell ChatGPT who I am. What do I do? I'm an experienced marketer with focus on B2B products. I have a holistic view over the marketing process.

I work with companies in different industries. Etc etc. So the more context we give it the better.

What are my content goals? It's important to know that who's my target audience in this case for the sake of this eggs for the sake of this exercise. Oh Yeah, so

In this case, I give my marketers as a target audience. I have actually two personas, two target audiences. One is marketers and the other is tech founders, but I'm not a super structured person.

So instead of giving it all the other audiences and all the topics in a table or something, I run it once for marketers, once for tech founders, because I don't think ChatGPT will get confused. Most probably I will get confused.

So I gave it the major topics and subtopics. the channel, the posting frequency, and one last thing, type of posts. I've highlighted this.

Content Marketing Insights: Types of Posts and Their Purposes

Now, this is strictly, on the next slide, we're moving away from, it's an AI-free zone, this slide. It's strictly content marketing thing. So, on one side, we have the different

Themes, we write about different sub-themes or sub-topics and different personas. But on the other hand, we want our content to be different in format, in tone of voice if you want, in goals it's serving. So planning your content,

with this matrix and you can pick any of these types uh if if these are too many but you wanna you wanna have a well-balanced mixture of content that's let's say analytical or observational or um or just curation just sharing other people content probably And contrarian, contrarian would be when we say something people do not generally agree with us. And all of these content types, they serve different purpose, they attract different people to your content.

So I also instructed to create a mix of this type of content. Then what happens is it gives me the content plan. As you can see, so I said four per week, I think, yeah?

Executing the Content Plan: Crafting Individual Posts

And it mixes observational with lists, with analytical, with contrarian. Okay, so now I'm going to pick one and ask ChatGPT to create the post.

These are just the topics, right? Just the themes.

So what do you think about... about Friday Analytical, the role of marketing strategy in navigating the complex tech landscape. Do we want this?

Yes? Someone thinks something else?

No, Friday is okay, but yeah, well, memes generally work better, but... um i don't like it because i see all the dirty words um all the charge i call them i have a list of chat gpt dirty words i forgot to include them in the presentation uh but navigating and landscape are just chat gpt words and i mean i mean they're beautiful words don't get me wrong i i used to love them uh before before chat gpt came along So, yeah, whenever we're using it for creating content, we want to edit it and remove all the words that we associate with ChatGPT and that do not sound like us.

So the one I picked is, I think... Hmm. Storytelling versus specs. What truly sells the tech product?

Let's see if that's the one. The contrarian, because these are the ones I really like. Yes. I picked this one and let's see how it performs.

So I instruct ChatGPT to create a post using this topic that it suggested. and to follow the blueprint that we established earlier.

Remember, we gave it two posts, we created a blueprint, and now we instructed to write a post on this topic using the blueprint and to keep it under 360 words. This is what it gives me following the blueprint.

Editing ChatGPT's Suggestions for Authenticity

Now I'm going to switch to this slide. It's the same thing, but it has something very important.

Now I'm going to show you which parts of the original proposal I kept intact and which parts of it I changed. So the first sentence, the compelling opening or the scroll stopper is, does your tech product have a story or is it just a list of specs? Here's why the narrative could be your secret sales weapon. I like it, so I keep it this way.

I just remove secret. Now, this sounds a little cheesy, to me for my taste, but that's another reason I'm using ChatGPT because whatever my taste is and whatever my style is, it is working fairly well. if I'm managing to keep my stuff going.

But it has its limitations and I'm in this head of mine. So it's important for me to get its perspective and just take its suggestions and see how it goes.

I didn't like the proposal for the image. However, I liked very much features tell, but stories sell. I mean, it's a great tagline, the third thing. So I decided to use it for the image. because it's really a great tagline.

I wouldn't have come with this idea and I find it great. And then even in the B2B tech world, a narrative can transform your product.

I kept this part. Then the next one, human connection, emotional engagement and simplicity and complexity and all the other words. This is very generic and very chat GPT-ish, so I removed it. But instead, I just included a few examples from companies, from tech companies that are good in storytelling. It took me like five minutes of, not five, well, 10 minutes of Googling and some ideas that I already had in my head.

I kept This one, I ditched this one, I kept this one, this one, I ditched this one, 15 or 20 minutes to write the post versus probably two or three hours writing the, well, no, the first one I showed you because it was 14 predictions for marketing, it was like a day work. And the second one was probably three hours. And here's how the post look.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. I managed to plug in a client because it just makes perfect sense in the context of the post. How do you think this post compared to the other AI-free uh posts of mine what would you say in in top like top i don't know 30 in the middle bottom in the middle yeah Yeah, that's what I thought.

Evaluating the Performance of AI-Created Content

And again, you know, it's a bit cheesy for my taste, but I was like, what the hell? Let's see what happens. It's the second best performing post. Yes. I mean, compared to others. This is the statistics from a few months ago. But I don't think it has changed too much. Yeah, it performed very well.

For me, probably the biggest takeaway was that why did I do it? Not just because I want to get things done faster. I mean, I'd like to.

but for me the most important yeah just second for me the most important benefit was that it gives me fresh ideas and fresh perspective and then i and afterwards just let me see what's next yeah afterwards i applied this uh this process many times so it it does uh save time it does uh gives ideas you wanted to ask me something yeah well in terms of

Yeah, in terms of engagement and also in terms of reach, it was performing also very well. Yeah, engagement. Because number of views and likes is... Yes, but we don't care that much about likes because likes as an absolute number doesn't mean anything because that's why we usually use engagement rate to compare social media posts because engagement rate takes into account the reach, how many people saw it and how many people liked it out of the people who saw it.

So yeah, if there's one, I would normally look at more than just engagement rates. However, if there's one metric for social media that is most representative, it's this one.

Conclusion: Authenticity and Efficiency in AI-Assisted Content

Why does this workflow work? It's because the blueprint is based on strong performing posts, which is the result of two months experimentation and 15 years of writing, basically. Because the edits of the final piece are very important. Because I'm pretty sure that if I've kept the generic thing and haven't included the real world examples, the results would have been different. And because the content strategy is an important piece of the puzzle as well. And if any of these inputs was mediocre, so would be the final result.

A friend, an acquaintance of mine told me once, now that we know that you use ChatGPT, how do we trust your content? How do I know if it's you or it's ChatGPT? And that's a very valid question.

Can AI-assisted content be authentic? I say it can, because as I said in the previous slide, It's trained with my content and my tone of voice and my view of things which carries my whole history. It's aligned with the strategy that I gave it and it's edited by me.

The Value of AI in Streamlining Content Creation

Again, I don't think... The reason I'm walking you through this workflow is not because I think that's the future of AI in marketing. No, that's just... And the reason I'm using it is because it's a way to be in touch with what's happening and how this technology is advancing. But yeah, honestly, it does save...

hell lot of time and something that's not in the presentation but I told you that I work in tech and deep tech and now truth be told whenever I have to work on a new technology I don't know anything about it like nothing like I have some you know literacy from previous work and previous clients And ChatGPT is my first like go-to source and companion to start learning about the thing. Like to start learning about I'm not going to get so specific, but today I had to do research about emotions in game avatars. You know, and just instead of going through so many articles and reading, you know, it was just a 15 minutes discussion with chat GPT, which Which took me to a whole new place in my understanding and saved so much time.

Questions and Clarifications on the Process

Yeah, so this was about the workflow about the content creation. Do you have a question? Do you want to stop me now? Yeah?

Just a clarification. Is the step where you ask a kid to analyze the successful posts mandatory? Yeah, I mean... To state what the reasons are so that it uses them for the blueprint or that's just for your confidence? No, it's important because we want ChatGPT to establish the blueprint which it will use to write the post. So it's mandatory for the process.

The blueprint is mandatory, but can you do the blueprint without asking it explicitly, tell me why this post is successful or not? Maybe it can. Try it.

Another question that I get asked at this point is can I train it with other people's content? Like, what do you think? Yes, you can. But do you want to, really? It would be somebody else's trail of thoughts, tone of voice, and that would be maybe bad in the end. Maybe as an experimentation it could be helpful or it could be helpful when again when you're not very familiar. In this case I'm writing about a topic that I'm very confident about and I know a lot about but what about when I write about stuff I don't know much, then it could be useful or it could be useful, I guess, just to compare, just to experiment and see what's going to happen. But for my personal use, I haven't used other people content, you know, to train and then create, yeah. Maybe a person should be very mindful of the fact that they're using somebody else's content because, yes, they can use the information, but then they must take care of editing it well. Yeah, I agree. It's a personal decision. But you can do it and try and see how it goes.

Additional Tools: Text to Wireframes for Better Communication

I'm going to show you something very quick.

Durable is a text to website. It's a tool that creates websites out of templates and basically a few words. You just type a few words and it creates a website.

I haven't done a website with it, but I use it to create landing pages. So I write this copy and I don't know if how many of you have used the wireframing tool. It takes a lot of time for me because I'm not proficient with it. I use it rarely and a lot of cursing is involved in the process.

Yeah, but it's helpful because the client cannot always imagine how this will look like on a page and they like to you know they like to have a visual idea so with with the help of this of this tool i created this landing page for like five minutes um literally

You type the type of business you're building. It suggests you plenty of templates. You type something else, something else. You edit, and you're done. Well, I skipped a few steps. But really, if you need to come up with quick and dirty mockups of not just pages, but websites, it's a great resource.