💡 Finding Inspiration in Artificial Intelligence ⚡

How are you feeling about artificial intelligence, ?

Let me tell you how AI helped me prepare for an upcoming project.

I’m planning an in-person class to teach online marketing basics for small businesses. First, I checked in with one of my coaches. He liked the idea and gave me a list of things to consider. He also asked me to make a plan and send it to him in a week.

Five days go by …

And although I had thought about my plan, I had not put pen to paper (figuratively, of course. I hadn’t actually put fingertips to keyboard).

On day six, the staring contest began. Me vs. the solitary, blinking cursor floating on the white sea of an empty Google Doc.

The Inspiration I Needed

Then, finally, an unexpected inspiration. ChatGPT, my current writing AI of choice, could help.

Here’s what I asked it to do (my prompt):

“You are an expert digital marketer focused on helping small businesses with many facets on online marketing, including directory listings, search optimization, search advertising, website content, social media content and social media advertising. You want to create an introductory series of 3 classes to help small businesses understand and get started with online marketing. Please create an outline of topics that you would cover in these classes.”

In less than a minute, I had a serviceable outline, broken into three sessions with each session covering four different topics, plus a list of bonus resources.

Drilling Deeper

But I wanted a little more, so my next prompt was:

“Please review the outline and suggest additional topics that might be missing.”

Seconds later, I had lots more topics that went more in-depth than the first outline.

So far, my outline was comprehensive but focused on people just starting with online marketing. I wanted to hone the audience a little, and I gave it a third prompt:

“Please add additional topics that would be relevant to small businesses that have attempted some of these online marketing tactics but grew frustrated because of lack of time or lack of information.”

Polite as ever, ChatGPT answered, “Certainly! For businesses that have tried and faced challenges, it's essential to approach the subject from both a strategic and a troubleshooting perspective. We'll weave in topics that address common pain points and how to overcome them.”

Seeing A Different Angle

This time it listed topics like time management, using scheduling tools, overcoming writer’s block, and understanding why ads might not be working. It was just enough of a shift to help me see the other topics from a slightly different angle.

Am I going to use everything ChatGPT assembled for me? No. But it got my creative juices flowing by giving me a structure to work with. Once I wrote my own version of the outline, I asked ChatGPT to review it and write a landing page. I revised it and asked a couple of mentors for advice. The final result is here, “Recharge Your Online Marketing.”

Using ChatGPT this way did not create new ideas for class topics. Instead, it quickly and efficiently pulled together a bunch of common topics, giving me a chance to kick-start my thinking without worrying about what I might be missing.

It saved me time and helped me hit the day seven deadline.

Check Your Jargon: Alt Text

Alt Text (Alternative Text) is an oft-overlooked website element that helps make your site more accessible to the visually impaired and helps make it more search-engine friendly.
Alt text is a description you should include with every image on a website. Screen readers used by the blind and visually impaired read alt text aloud.

Search engines like Google also use alt text to understand image content. In both cases, you can understand why detailed, succinct alt text is important.

Include Some Details

For example, the alt text description “sunset” doesn’t tell us much. “Sunset over a lake” tells us a little more, but “sunset over Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park” is best.
Alt text is something you add to the HTML code of your website. It’s OK if you don’t know what that means.

Most website content management systems, like WordPress, Squarespace or Wix, provide an alt text field whenever you add a photo to your site. Always write an image description there, and include relevant search keywords.

Until Next Time

The next newsletter arrives Sept. 12. Monday is Labor Day in the U.S. I hope you can enjoy the long weekend!

Some other upcoming “holidays:”
Sept. 6: National Read A Book Day
Sept. 8: International Literacy Day
Sept. 10: National Grandparents Day

Until next time, be grateful. Be generous. Be patient. Love.

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Thanks for spending some of your time with me,. I appreciate you.

Mark

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