Original Thought in the Age of AI
With artificial intelligence's widespread availability, I've been intrigued by its potential impact on B2G marketing. In an industry already suffering from a good bit of 'me-tooism,' could AI exacerbate this issue? Or could it, in fact, amplify the value of truly original insights for thought leadership? Perhaps it could do both.
In a recent article, Tom Fishburne, also known as The Marketoonist, delves into this question. While his focus is on SEO, the underlying question remains the same. His piece,' Writing and SEO Word Soup,' discusses how using large language models (LLMs) to generate 'new' content can quickly lead to a sea of 'word soup.' Heno Alderson, former head of SEO at Yoast:
"You are recursively optimizing a very small corpus until it's all just word soup."
Fishburne calls the temptation to turn your content development over to AI a "race to the bottom." Unfortunately, I can see too many companies falling into this trap, humorously represented below:
领英推荐
While Fishburne's article highlights the risk of the word soup and 'infinite words nobody wants,' I believe this presents a significant opportunity for true insight and commentary. As the saying goes,' In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.' Similarly, B2G companies that dare to say something new and different can truly stand out in a landscape where everyone else is recycling existing content.
Not every piece of content has to be a heavy lift. Plenty of content created for customers and prospects is straightforward in nature, like contract vehicles, partner information, and awards. Thought-leadership content requires some time and effort, but the payoff will be magnified in the age of AI if your competitors take the path of least resistance.
There are ways AI can support your content development strategy. My friend Janet Waring and her StoryTech partner agency ArtForm recently shared a video on the topic that is time well spent. But you can't take humans out of the equation. If your SMEs don't have valuable insights, your efforts to differentiate your company will fail.
Thanks to my old friend Mark Amtower for suggesting I subscribe to the Marketoonist newsletter. I signed up for the cartoons and stayed for the commentary. Maybe you will too.
If you're interested in these topics please consider joining me, Janet and Mark for our weekly GovCon Ideators call. Information and registration link here.
Editor
7 个月Thanks for sharing, Christopher Parente. The real challenge with thought leadership isn't the writing - that's the easy part. The hard part is the thought -- the creative vision itself. Content is king because it conveys ideas and makes them accessible to others. But it all starts with the ideas, and if you don't have them, you can't do thought leadership.
Brand Ambassador Extraordinaire | Sales & Partner Marketing Traffic Cop | B2B / B2G & Channel Partner Marketing Director | 25+ Years in BD & Corp Communications | Content Marketer | Creating Influential Visibility
7 个月Strong point about SMEs driving relevant content. How do we leverage tools such as Apollo.io (to track & measure buyer intent) with SEO efforts to determine the best content to spend our time creating? Maybe this can be a new topic to explore.
Federal Government Sales
7 个月CP, a great insightful read. Love the comic strip??
?? Founder & CEO | Boosting Revenue with AI-Enhanced Marketing | Expert in SEO, UX/CX | Speaker and Trainer | Co-Author: Gov't Marketing Best Practices 2.0
7 个月Great insight Christopher Parente. And thank you for the shout out! ??
Strategic Communications Consultant for the Public Sector // Workforce, Education, Health, Environment, Security
7 个月Thanks for sharing!! I cringe everytime I hear someone say “writers will be out of work with AI”. Generative AI for generic content is one thing, but if you are trying to position yourself as a differentiator (aka marketing), then how are you doing that with generic AI content? If you need AI to write something, then you are not a thought leader!