AI Amps Up Article Headlines

Crafting a concise SEO-friendly headline that captures attention and conveys a clear benefit to the reader is challenging. What if you could tap Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve almost any headline you write?

Google's Bard (renamed Gemini in February 2024) is your always-available headline-writing assistant. In this article, you will learn how to tap into Bard to improve your headlines using a surprising variety of approaches.

To test Bard's capabilities, I pitted myself against Google's AI in a "Man vs. Machine" headline-writing test. I asked Bard to improve three of my all-time best headlines with the added challenge of using a difficult-to-execute literary technique. The results surprised me.

What is Bard?

Bard is audaciously named after the English playwright William Shakespeare, "The Bard of Avon."

Bard is what Google calls "conversational AI." Released in 2023 as an "experiment," the artificial intelligence bot is built on Google's #AI language model for dialogue applications (LaMDA). It is the ideal editorial assistant for content marketers ready to try AI.

This may be a good place to point out that at the bottom of every Bard page, Google warns,

"Bard may display inaccurate info, including about people, so double-check its responses."

You've been duly warned, but please don't be afraid. Google has added its logo at the bottom of the Bard page. Click it, and "double-check response" will pop up. Click it again, and Google will take you to more conventional searches of the subject, which you can check for accuracy.

What Bard can do for you

Bard can be your headline rewrite editor, character counter, audience targeter and SEO copywriter, among many other things.

After trying several AI and ChatGPT products- including OpenAI's ChatGPT, Copilot (formerly Bing Chat), Grammarly Generative AI, and Jasper- I highly recommend Bard, especially if you're new to using AI for content development.

One of Bard's little-known features is that it enables writers to conduct low-risk experiments with different writing styles and literary techniques.

You can ask Bard to employ devices such as alliteration, humor, and even shock value, then take your pick. If you don't like anything you see, ask Bard to do it again, then again, getting different results. If you still need to be happier, ask with a slightly different prompt, perhaps defining your audience, the platform you plan to publish on, or your hoped-for outcome.

For example, I asked Bard to rewrite the headline of the LinkedIn article you are reading but with "shock value." I got five options in less than 5 seconds, including this jaw-dropper worthy of a supermarket tabloid:

Is Google's Bard the END of Human Content Creators?

Test: Is Bard a better headline writer than me?

Here is how my quasi-scientific contest worked.

I took the headlines from three of my most viewed articles on Medium, a social publishing platform that allows users to share blog-like content. I knew these were winners.

I asked Bard to rewrite my headlines using a communications technique called "apophasis," derived from the Greek word for denial.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary , apophasis is "describing something by stating which characteristics it does not have, especially because human thought or language is believed to be insufficient to describe it fully or accurately."

I explain the method in more detail in this article.

Effective apophasis relies on creating intrigue and curiosity by defining something by what it is not. The negation should create an anticipation for the unexpected. It's hard to execute but can provide headline pizazz if you succeed.

I stacked the deck against #Bard by taking my most successful headlines and asking Bard to beat them using this obscure apophasis technique. This is the equivalent of playing one-on-one against me while wearing ballet slippers.

My simple Bard prompt:

"Rewrite this headling utilizing apophasis: (my original headline inserted)"

(For more detailed instructions on the mechanics of using Bard, search for articles on LinkedIn, including How to Use Google Bard Chat by Priyank Gada .)

With my prompt, Bard gave me three "playful" headlines, three "intriguing" headlines and three "provocative" headlines. Some seemed silly. Some distorted the meaning of my original headline, which is understandable because I didn't provide the entire article for Bard.

To give Bard a fighting chance against my enshrined GOATs, I subjectively chose Bard's best headlines among the nine it churned out.

The impartial judge of this contest is The Sharethrough Headline Analyzer.

Sharethrough creates a "Quality Score" on a 1-100 scale based on "a multivariate linguistic algorithm built on the principles of Behavior Model theory."

A good score is 40-60.

Greatness is 70 and above.

Man vs. Machine

The results are in:

Me: “How Popular History Distorts Churchill’s ‘Never Give up’ Speech" -- Score: 74.

Bard: “Churchill’s ‘Never Give Up’: Not the Battle Cry You Think It Is” -- Score: 71.

I win!

Me: "Puritans Drank Beer, Loved Sex and Didn’t Burn Witches" -- Score: 63.

Bard: “Rethinking the Puritans: Forget Bonfires, Embrace Breweries and Bedroom” -- Score: 67.

Bard wins.

Me: "The Truth About Your Need for External Validation" -- Score: 67.

Bard: "Forget the Gold Stars: The Path to Fulfillment Starts with Internal Validation" -- Score: 71.

Bard wins again.

Bard wins the headline-writing match, 2-1.

The cumulative score is 209-204, with Bard on top.

Winner or loser?

Some might say the results of my contest make technology the "winner" and me the "loser."

But I prefer to look at it another way. Bard is the "improver," and I'm the "winner." Using AI this way made my Hall-of-Fame headlines even better. Looking ahead, AI will save me time. It will make my headlines and other editorial services more compelling and cost-effective, increasing my value to those who pay for my writing and other content.

To Bard or not to Bard? That is your question.

If you are a content writer with the courage to embrace this brave new world of AI, try Bard (now called #Gemini) as your junior assistant, ready at a moment's notice to respond to every prompt you give it. Keep experimenting with what works and what doesn't, and you will harness the power of AI as a #contentwriter.

Soon, you can share your newfound #contentmarketing success with your work colleagues. That will put you on a path to Becoming an AI Champion in your organization, as Karan Sachdeva explains in his helpful how-to article on LinkedIn.

If all this sounds intimidating, take a deep breath. Look at the changing world around you. It's time to face reality. The AI locomotive is steaming down society's high-speed track whether you like it or not. You can use the technology before it uses you.

As the original Bard put it in Julius Caesar,

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Bard won't kill you if you make it your friend.

Full disclosure: This article was written with assistance from Bard ," Google's conversational AI, now renamed Gemini. #Gemini #contentwriter #AI