February 27, 2025 • 23 mins
The Internet today is flooded with low-quality content, so it's critical to produce targeted, impactful writing that can cut through the noise.
In this episode, Ann Smith talks about the evolution of thought leadership content and the importance of crafting genuine, strategic narratives. She explains that simply churning out words isn't enough. The focus should be on impactful, well-researched pieces that that resonate with audiences in 2025,
Ann also discusses the role of AI in content generation, highlighting both its potential benefits and the inherent risks of losing the human touch. Overall, she stresses the need for a thoughtful approach to content strategy, ensuring that it aligns with organizational goals while engaging target audiences effectively.
Key Takeaways
- Thought leadership is a critical strategy that goes beyond simple content creation and requires careful planning and execution.
- Thought leadership should be strategically integrated into communications campaigns, encompassing varied content types such as white papers, long-form articles, and social media.
- Creating content should focus on quality over quantity, especially in an environment flooded with mediocre writing.
- AI has a role in content curation and trend analysis, but human input is essential for creating authentic, nuanced, and personalized content.
About the Guest
Ann Smith is founder and president of A.wordsmith, a boutique Portland-based firm specializing in writing services, public relations, branding and communications strategy. She is passionate about a lot of things, including her family, live country music and 49ers football. At work this energy centers on building strong partnerships with her clients, connecting them with their target audiences and delivering exceptional results. With more than two decades worth of strategic communications experience Ann has worked in both agency and corporate settings, providing a broad range of support to clients. Prior to founding A.wordsmith, Ann worked at PR agencies Weber Shandwick Worldwide and Standing Partnership—managing accounts for large global companies—and served as an internal marketing manager for an international consultancy. Yet it wasn’t until starting A.wordsmith that she realized her true passion in collaborating with successful growing businesses and serving as an extension of their team.
Ann holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations from the University of Oregon. She has served on the board of directors for Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, Portland’s iconic Hollywood Theatre, Girls on the Run of Portland Metro, Willowbrook Arts Camp, Business for Culture & the Arts and Abilities at Work. In addition to PRGN, Ann is an active member of Public Relations Society of America’s Counselors Academy and PDX Leadership Assembly. She founded and hosted the podcast "All Shine, No Flash®" and "Shine On!" a group of talented, fierce and fun women in Portland. She is a graduate of the Portland Business Alliance’s Leadership Portland program and the author of the first and second editions of the book "100 Things to Do in Portland Before You Die."
About the Host
Abbie Fink is president of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona and a founding member of PRGN. Her marketing communications background includes skills in media relations, digital communications, social media strategies, special event management, crisis communications, community...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
From the Public RelationsGlobal Network, this is PRGN Presents.
I'm Adrian McIntyre.
And I'm Abbie Fink, presidentof HMA Public Relations in Phoenix,
Arizona and a founding memberof PRGN. With public relations leaders
embedded into the fabric ofthe communities we serve, clients
hire our agencies for thelocal knowledge, expertise and connections
(00:24):
in markets spanning sixcontinents across the world.
Our guests on this bi-weeklypodcast series are all members of
the Public Relations GlobalNetwork. They will discuss such topics
as workplace culture, creativecompensation and succession planning,
the importance ofsustainability and environmental,
social and governanceprograms, crisis communications and
(00:45):
outside of the box thinkingfor growing your business.
For more information aboutPRGN and our members, please visit
prgn.com. And now let's meetour guest for this episode.
Hi, I'm Ann Smith, presidentand founder of A.wordsmith. We are
a boutique communications firmbased in Portland, Oregon. We really
(01:09):
specialize in writingservices, traditional PR, as well
as branding and communicationstrategy work. And we have been around
since spring of 20 09 and I'vebeen really looking forward to this
conversation.
You and I have been pals for awhile and interacted in other industry
(01:29):
organizations and so I'veknown that your agency focuses on
content and thought leadershipis certainly something that all of
us talk a lot about with ourclients and using their knowledge
and expertise to position themas an industry leader, as a thought
(01:54):
leader. But there's really areal strategy around that as a concept
and it's more than just 500words and off we go. I mean you've
really got to put some thoughtinto what that's going to look like.
So thinking about your journeyto that as your area of expertise.
(02:14):
But you know, what role isthought leadership or thought where
as you're referring to itreally playing now in our communication
strategies?
Yeah, I mean even just today Isaw a social media post just around
the power of owned contentright now and how important it is
becoming even in today's medialandscape which is shifting so much.
(02:39):
But we really started focusingon thought leadership as a core niche
very early on in the agency's,you know, lifespan. Sort of happened
by accident based on clientsthat we had who wanted to have their
people very much involved inbeing published and being out speaking
(03:00):
and winning awards. And thenby nature of that we started doing
a lot of bylined articlewriting which then, you know, kind
of parlayed into this wholewriting services area that our firm
really specializes in. And youknow, for us it goes hand in hand
(03:21):
with the earned media side.You know, if you're securing byline
Placements, then obviously youneed to have those things written.
But there's a lot more contentthat we put under that thoughtware
content umbrella. You know,white papers, ebooks, blogs, long
form perspective pieces.There's, you know, things that maybe
(03:46):
are a little more traditionalmarketing, but whether it's impact
stories or you know, evensocial media posts. So, you know,
we really are coming toclients all the time and having very
strategic conversations withhow they can be building a real campaign
around thought leadership. Youknow, but that encompasses a variety
(04:06):
of different types ofmaterials we've all.
Been talking about and believestrongly in. You know, content is
king. We have to have a goodstory to tell, you know, we have
to have a good place to tellit. That's, you know, sort of the
bottom line for mostprofessional communicators is we
(04:26):
get that and we understandthat this concept of, you know, thought
leadership or, you know, beingindustry recognized, industry expert,
I think with at least my viewon it, is there because as you say,
there are so many things thatcan fall under that umbrella. There
are so many places for thatcontent to live and to have, you
(04:52):
know, a shelf life beyond theoriginal intent or the original placement.
It really is a strategy, it'snot a tactic any longer. It really
has to be developed in such away that gives it a long term approach
(05:12):
and that all the things thatwe expect from a campaign, measurable
results and is it hitting themark and are we reaching the target
audience is still in playhere, right?
Yeah, absolutely. It's,know,comingatitfrom astrategicstandpointishowit'sgoingtoreally
bemosteffectiveversusjustoneoff, youknow,writing
(05:33):
ablogoryouknow,evensecuringanarticleplacement. Thosethings aregreat.Butwithouthavingarealreasonbehind
why you'redoingthosethings,they'renotgoing tohave thesameimpactthatyou'rewanting,
youknow, andsoit's,it'sreallybest ifwe'reworkingwithanorganization
thatislookingtodo somefoundationalresearch. Maybethey'recomingin
(05:56):
withspecific,youknow,surveyfindingsorthey've gonethroughakindofasophisticatedresearchprocessonaparticularindustryoraparticulartopic,thenthey
have thosefindingswhichthentheirteaminconjunctionwith,youknow, ifit's,ifit'sourteam,we'reabletominethroughthoseandseewhatarekeythingsthat
(06:17):
arerisingtothetop,thatareuniqueorthathave,youknow,legsthatwecandiginonmoreandfromthere kindofthinkingabout,
well,whatisthe,youKnow,whatarethe differentpossibilitieswecanbe
lookingat when itcomestocontent? Andthen toyourpointaboutnot
justrecreatingthewheel,butlikeleveraging. Whenyouwriteawhite
(06:39):
paperandyougothroughalltheworkthatawhite paperrequires,which
isgoingtobe,youknow,actualresearch,itneedstobebased,infact,you'rehaving conversationwith
subjectmatterexperts,you'redoing alotof
stepsto createareallyhighquality piece,butthennotjustleavingitatthat,being
like, okay,great,nowwecanactually buildablogseriesoutofthis
(07:02):
whitepapercontent.Wecanalsobehavingsocialmediastrategyandpoststhatarecomingfrom someof
thiscontent.Wecanbegoingbacktothosesubjectmatterexpertsanddivingdeeperintotheirspecificopinionsandareasofexpertiseso thatwe
cancraftabstractsthatwecanthenpitchtoeditorsandhopefullysecurebylineplacements.Soitcreatesmuchmoreofa robust,youknow,campaignaroundaparticularthemethat,
(07:33):
youknow,startedwithsome,startedwithsomeresearch andsomefindings,butthat,youknow,takesit
alotfurtherandalso haslikereallifespan evenasfar asthetime.It'snotjustlike
aoneand done.
So I feel like we have to notignore AI when it comes to this.
(07:54):
You know, we've, I thinkthere's not a, a PR practitioner
today that hasn't beenapproached by a client or a prospect
that says, why can't we justlet AI do this? And we have our answers
about nuance and personalityand other things. But in a lot of
(08:14):
ways there is a role for AI incontent generation. And I'm wondering
your thoughts about... It'shere, it's not going goingtobeandwehaveanopportunity,
IthinkwithAIthatmaybewedidn'tpayasmuchattention to
withsocialandthetechnologythat,that gaveus
(08:37):
tobesmarterabouthowweuse itornotuseit,dependingontheapproach.Butwhat's yourviewon
it, depending on the approach.But what's your view on thisworkandwhatdoesthatmeanandhowdowe
useitornotwhen it comestoreallycreatingvalidand,and personalizedcontent?
(09:04):
Yes. So yes, it's something Iget asked about a lot. Interestingly
enough, I feel like I getasked about it most from more like
colleagues like, you know, youcoming and asking me versus honestly,
clients or prospects askingme. I will say about, you know, a
year and a half ago, thingsseemed to kind of be reaching. It
(09:25):
was like, okay, all of asudden, like this is here, this isn't
going away. Everyone wasexperimenting with ChatGPT. Everyone
was getting freaked out. Youknow, what jobs are being eliminated.
You know, there will be nomore journalists, there'll be no
more whatever. And we did havea client, techclient.Wewereinthemiddle
of acampaign, of a campaign, apretty large content campaign with
(09:50):
them. And she was like, "hey,we just ran this paper through blogs.Andit
asked it to spit out someblogs. ofcoursemyheart waslike, ohmy
God. pretty good." And ofcourse my heart was like, oh my God.
(10:10):
You teamcametogetherbecausewe'dobviouslybeenareourpoliciesandalsojustwhatareourtalkingpointsaround it.Socertainlythatpromptedthatconversation.Andtoyourpoint,likethereisvalueinitincertainways.Youknow,gathering.Likewe,we'vehadcontentcomingthrough.Likewehadaclientwho
(10:35):
to your point, like there isvalue in it in certain ways. You
know, gathering... Like we'vehad content coming through. We had
whowasgatheringsubmissionskeytrendsandfeedbackwithouthavingtolikeindividuallyminethroughit,you know,as,youknow,humanbeings.Butwhenitcomestotheactualwritingofthings,obviouslywehaveallheardaboutthethingswehavetobecarefulof...Imean,there'splagiarismissues,there'stoneofvoiceissues,there's,youknow,how,howit'sevenpositioningjustcertainpeopleincommunitiesthatcanbetakenoutofcontext.Sothere'salotofthingsthatareworrisome.AndIthinktoo,eventhatclientofoursthathadkindofshovedstuffthrough,likeonfirstpass,youreaditandyouthink,okay,that,thatreadsokay,thatreadsprettygood.Butthenifyoureallyreadit,you'resortoflike,wait,likesomething'ssortof
(11:38):
off.NowwhatIwillsayisobviouslyit'sonlygoingtogetbetter,youknow,andsothosethingsthatmightbelike,oh,thatseemsalittleoff,kindoflikeifyourunsomethingthroughatranscriptionservice,youknow,seemsfine onthefirstpassandthenyoulookcloser,you'relike,wait,noonewouldeversayitlikethat.SoIknowthatthose,thoseelementswillgetsmarterandbetter.Butyouknow,whenyou'retalkingaboutthoughtleadershipandyou'retrulytalkingabouthumanbeingsexpertiseandopinions,I'mpretty,IguessIjustfeelprettybullishon,likewestillneedtobehavingrealconversationswithrealpeopleandyouknow,writingonbehalfofthemaccordingly.BecausetheAItoolsareobviouslyminingfromwhat'scurrentlyoutthere.Soit'slessofliketrulycreatingauniquestandpointifyou'renotgoingtotheexpertthemselves.
(12:34):
Well, and as you said, it isgoing to get better because those
of us that create the contentare getting smarter. And how were
you, you know, and feeding itand all the things that, that happen
and, and you know, I, I was,had a conversation with, with the
library director at a, in a,at a high school district and he
(12:55):
was talking about AI. And youknow, I said, well, how do you, you
know, how are you bringing itinto the schools and what are you
doing? How are you keepingkids from, you know, using it for
term papers and all thesetypes of things? And we were of the
same age. Sosay,well,youdoremembergoingtoalibrary,right, andlooking
thingsupandtheencyclopediaandyou,youknow,youfoundinformationandthen ifyouwere
(13:19):
goingtogetanAon your paper,youhadtoputyourownideastogether,right?You,thisis what'soutthere,but
that'snot whatyoucouldturnin.Andhewould,andhewaslikeningAI.Themuch the
samewaywas let'steachhowtouseit,teachwhatitcangiveyou,butitis not
theendall.Withthat,youknow,youstill havetoput
(13:41):
your,as yousaid,thevoice,theidea,theemotioninto,into thecontent.AndI
thoughtit reallystuckwithmebecauseI,you know,I,Ijustsawitatthatparticularpoint
as,youknow,nottakingmyjob.Iknew thatwasnevergonnabethecase.Butitcertainlyhad
aplacefor,you know, thatarticularpointas,you beokaywithit,youknow,givingitbackto
(14:05):
that was never gonna be thecase. But it certainly had endall.
Yeah, and it does do someamazing things. I mean, if you're
looking to create like atheme, you know, a conference theme
or an event theme, and you canbrainstorm all day and you can come
up with a list of thingsyou're like, I feel pretty good about
these. And then you could runsomething through ChatGPT and it's
(14:29):
probably going to come up withthings that you're like, well, those
are way better. And thatinlikeaminute.So,youknow,those thingsI'm
like,yeah,that'ssmart.Wealsoareusingit,as I'msure
alotofPRpractitionersare,youcanevenbeidentifyingsources out
there,youknow,mediasourcesandinfluencersandthingslikethat, whichis
kindofinteresting.That'sdifferentthan onthe
(14:50):
writing side.Butyeah,obviouslythere'sa. There's atimeandplaceforit.Somepeoplearebigon
theidea of itcreatinglikeafirstdraftof things.AndIdon't are
big on the idea of it creatinglike a first draft of things. And
I don't love that because Idon't know for me personally, like,
(15:10):
if I'm starting with somethingthat's already written down, know,samething.Iflikeaclientsendsyousomething,they'relike,justmassagethis.Youknow,forme,that'salmostharderthanjuststartingfromscratch.So,youknow,Ithinkitsoundsgreat,liketouseitasastartingpoint,butwhoknows?
And I'm curious aboutsomething and maybe this is a devil's
(15:32):
advocate sort of a position.I'm not really sure. But my practice
focuses on verbalcommunication. We're a spoken word
agency. And that's in largepart because, as I sometimes joke,
I'm a copy talker, not acopywriter. And I actually really
struggle with writing and twomaster's degrees and a PhD. And even
(15:54):
having worked as a journalist,I struggled...
Well, let me introduce you toAnn, who's great writer.
Exactly. And so this is kindof where I'm going with this. It
seems to me--but again, thisis a very biased point of view. It
seems to me that there's justso much many words now and the Internet
has been flooded with lowquality written pieces, not just
(16:18):
because of AI, although thisisn't helping, but because of, you
know, SEO strategies from 10years ago that people are still using.
And I just wonder at whatpoint does it just become too much
and we aren't cutting throughbecause there is so much noise and
you know, you can do greatwork, but to get that work seen in
(16:41):
the. Through the sludge, youknow, is just really, really hard.
So I guess the question isthis. How do you make the case for
more and better writing in anenvironment where there's so much
that people don't really careabout the quality of and it's just
meh. And it's out thereeverywhere, right?
(17:01):
Oh, it's such a good point. Ihate SEO. Sorry for everyone who's
out there. I mean, I love SEOif it brings people to our website.
I hate the idea of writing forSEO. It creates the worst writing,
in my opinion. You'reliterally putting words down for
the sake of putting wordsdown, you're going in circles, you're
(17:23):
just adding in keywords. It'sto me so not impactful. So I hear
you that there, there is likethis proliferation of words out there
on the Internet. And to mesometimes it is amazing how corporations
are still putting such aninvestment in long form pieces like
a white paper, like an ebook,things that are very substantial
(17:44):
and oftentimes quitetechnical. You know, and so you're
counting on a sophisticatedand specialized reader to, you know,
embrace that sort of piece. Ithink it just does come down to that,
to impact and to being smartand to having it be very targeted
on who the audience is for. Soif you're a tech company and you're
(18:05):
needing to really connectwith, you know, a buyer within a
healthcare industry or, youknow, a very targeted, specialized
audience, creating contentthat is geared straight to them,
whether it's informing themand educating them, or if it's more
of a sales piece, you know,needs to feel like it's really worth
their time. And I also thinkon the the media side, why I know
(18:31):
so many firms see success withcontributed content like bylines
is because publications arehungry for good writing and for good
content. And so, you know, forus, we get excited when we're working
with a client that is reallyjust wanting to have, you know, their
opinion out there. And maybethey have a wealth of subject matter
(18:53):
experts who have varyingopinions. And so we can target different
types of publications andwrite different types of content
on their behalf. Or maybeit's, you know, one leader who again
is just like really wanting tobe out there. But I think that results
in interest from again,whoever in that case the target is
a media publication andultimately their reader. So, yeah,
(19:18):
I don't know, I think it'sjust about, I think it's about the
impact and being smart and notjust feeling like you're spewing
things and trying to writesomething for everyone.
So as we're, you know, theidea around, you know, campaigns
and thinking about all the,you know, the different opportunities
that exist and as Adrian said,you know, cutting through the clutter
(19:40):
and you know, coming, youknow, really with what's relevant,
you know, content still isgoing to remain, you know, top of
mind. The strategy behind itcertainly is top of mind. So, you
know, how do we plan forbuilding a content strategy? What
(20:01):
are some of the key things forus to consider if this is going to
be a strategy that we want toundertake? And then what are some
of the expectations when yougo through this effort?
Yeah, So I think first kind ofgetting, getting clear on what your,
(20:21):
your goal is. So if your goalis, you know, that you're wanting
to do like I was sayingbefore, like the research piece and
come in with like substantialkind of ground based information
that you're building from, youknow, to, to get ready to commit
to that sort of effort. Andfrom that you can gain a wealth of
(20:44):
opportunities as far as far asthe types of content you can create.
If you're wanting to beshowcasing thought leaders and maybe
you're wanting, you know, tohave more of like a traditional PR
program but built on thoughtleaders, then that's great too. You
don't have to be worryingabout writing white papers necessarily
(21:04):
for them. You could have justa very strategic earned media campaign
that's based on contributedmedia placements. Earned media, but
it could also involve speakingprograms, award programs, LinkedIn.
So I think, you know, startingwith like, well, obviously, what
are your goals? You know,what, what type of organization are
(21:27):
you? What are the goals? Andthen getting clear from there on
what types of outputs aregoing to really be most beneficial
and then maximizing like onceyou have those things like we talked
about before, not recreatingthe wheel, but even with like earned
media placements, you know, ifyou're getting published, making
(21:48):
sure that those things areshowing up on LinkedIn, that you're
grabbing sound but you know,grabbing even pull quotes, that you're
putting things out, thatyou're having it on your newsroom,
that the individual subjectmatter experts who are, you know,
the authors are sharing thingsin their own way or if it's geared
very specifically to a targetclient industry to be sending things
(22:11):
through to them. So just thewhole idea of amplifying so, you
know, amplification assets aresomething that we create for clients
if they're, you know,developing different types of materials.
And then it's like, okay,great, we developed this, but now
what? So like little thingsthat you can hopefully use to. Okay,
(22:32):
now we got to take it to the masses.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of PRGN Presents, brought
to you by the Public RelationsGlobal Network.
We publish new episodes everyother week, so subscribe now in your
favorite podcast app. Episodesare also available on our website,
along with more informationabout PRGN and our members, at PRGN.com
From the Public RelationsGlobal Network, this is PRGN Presents.
I'm Adrian McIntyre.
And I'm Abbie Fink, presidentof HMA Public Relations in Phoenix,
Arizona and a founding memberof PRGN. With public relations leaders
embedded into the fabric ofthe communities we serve, clients
hire our agencies for thelocal knowledge, expertise and connections
(00:24):
in markets spanning sixcontinents across the world.
Our guests on this bi-weeklypodcast series are all members of
the Public Relations GlobalNetwork. They will discuss such topics
as workplace culture, creativecompensation and succession planning,
the importance ofsustainability and environmental,
social and governanceprograms, crisis communications and
(00:45):
outside of the box thinkingfor growing your business.
For more information aboutPRGN and our members, please visit
prgn.com. And now let's meetour guest for this episode.
Hi, I'm Ann Smith, presidentand founder of A.wordsmith. We are
a boutique communications firmbased in Portland, Oregon. We really
(01:09):
specialize in writingservices, traditional PR, as well
as branding and communicationstrategy work. And we have been around
since spring of 20 09 and I'vebeen really looking forward to this
conversation.
You and I have been pals for awhile and interacted in other industry
(01:29):
organizations and so I'veknown that your agency focuses on
content and thought leadershipis certainly something that all of
us talk a lot about with ourclients and using their knowledge
and expertise to position themas an industry leader, as a thought
(01:54):
leader. But there's really areal strategy around that as a concept
and it's more than just 500words and off we go. I mean you've
really got to put some thoughtinto what that's going to look like.
So thinking about your journeyto that as your area of expertise.
(02:14):
But you know, what role isthought leadership or thought where
as you're referring to itreally playing now in our communication
strategies?
Yeah, I mean even just today Isaw a social media post just around
the power of owned contentright now and how important it is
becoming even in today's medialandscape which is shifting so much.
(02:39):
But we really started focusingon thought leadership as a core niche
very early on in the agency's,you know, lifespan. Sort of happened
by accident based on clientsthat we had who wanted to have their
people very much involved inbeing published and being out speaking
(03:00):
and winning awards. And thenby nature of that we started doing
a lot of bylined articlewriting which then, you know, kind
of parlayed into this wholewriting services area that our firm
really specializes in. And youknow, for us it goes hand in hand
(03:21):
with the earned media side.You know, if you're securing byline
Placements, then obviously youneed to have those things written.
But there's a lot more contentthat we put under that thoughtware
content umbrella. You know,white papers, ebooks, blogs, long
form perspective pieces.There's, you know, things that maybe
(03:46):
are a little more traditionalmarketing, but whether it's impact
stories or you know, evensocial media posts. So, you know,
we really are coming toclients all the time and having very
strategic conversations withhow they can be building a real campaign
around thought leadership. Youknow, but that encompasses a variety
(04:06):
of different types ofmaterials we've all.
Been talking about and believestrongly in. You know, content is
king. We have to have a goodstory to tell, you know, we have
to have a good place to tellit. That's, you know, sort of the
bottom line for mostprofessional communicators is we
(04:26):
get that and we understandthat this concept of, you know, thought
leadership or, you know, beingindustry recognized, industry expert,
I think with at least my viewon it, is there because as you say,
there are so many things thatcan fall under that umbrella. There
are so many places for thatcontent to live and to have, you
(04:52):
know, a shelf life beyond theoriginal intent or the original placement.
It really is a strategy, it'snot a tactic any longer. It really
has to be developed in such away that gives it a long term approach
(05:12):
and that all the things thatwe expect from a campaign, measurable
results and is it hitting themark and are we reaching the target
audience is still in playhere, right?
Yeah, absolutely. It's,know,comingatitfrom astrategicstandpointishowit'sgoingtoreally
bemosteffectiveversusjustoneoff, youknow,writing
(05:33):
ablogoryouknow,evensecuringanarticleplacement. Thosethings aregreat.Butwithouthavingarealreasonbehind
why you'redoingthosethings,they'renotgoing tohave thesameimpactthatyou'rewanting,
youknow, andsoit's,it'sreallybest ifwe'reworkingwithanorganization
thatislookingtodo somefoundationalresearch. Maybethey'recomingin
(05:56):
withspecific,youknow,surveyfindingsorthey've gonethroughakindofasophisticatedresearchprocessonaparticularindustryoraparticulartopic,thenthey
have thosefindingswhichthentheirteaminconjunctionwith,youknow, ifit's,ifit'sourteam,we'reabletominethroughthoseandseewhatarekeythingsthat
(06:17):
arerisingtothetop,thatareuniqueorthathave,youknow,legsthatwecandiginonmoreandfromthere kindofthinkingabout,
well,whatisthe,youKnow,whatarethe differentpossibilitieswecanbe
lookingat when itcomestocontent? Andthen toyourpointaboutnot
justrecreatingthewheel,butlikeleveraging. Whenyouwriteawhite
(06:39):
paperandyougothroughalltheworkthatawhite paperrequires,which
isgoingtobe,youknow,actualresearch,itneedstobebased,infact,you'rehaving conversationwith
subjectmatterexperts,you'redoing alotof
stepsto createareallyhighquality piece,butthennotjustleavingitatthat,being
like, okay,great,nowwecanactually buildablogseriesoutofthis
(07:02):
whitepapercontent.Wecanalsobehavingsocialmediastrategyandpoststhatarecomingfrom someof
thiscontent.Wecanbegoingbacktothosesubjectmatterexpertsanddivingdeeperintotheirspecificopinionsandareasofexpertiseso thatwe
cancraftabstractsthatwecanthenpitchtoeditorsandhopefullysecurebylineplacements.Soitcreatesmuchmoreofa robust,youknow,campaignaroundaparticularthemethat,
(07:33):
youknow,startedwithsome,startedwithsomeresearch andsomefindings,butthat,youknow,takesit
alotfurtherandalso haslikereallifespan evenasfar asthetime.It'snotjustlike
aoneand done.
So I feel like we have to notignore AI when it comes to this.
(07:54):
You know, we've, I thinkthere's not a, a PR practitioner
today that hasn't beenapproached by a client or a prospect
that says, why can't we justlet AI do this? And we have our answers
about nuance and personalityand other things. But in a lot of
(08:14):
ways there is a role for AI incontent generation. And I'm wondering
your thoughts about... It'shere, it's not going goingtobeandwehaveanopportunity,
IthinkwithAIthatmaybewedidn'tpayasmuchattention to
withsocialandthetechnologythat,that gaveus
(08:37):
tobesmarterabouthowweuse itornotuseit,dependingontheapproach.Butwhat's yourviewon
it, depending on the approach.But what's your view on thisworkandwhatdoesthatmeanandhowdowe
useitornotwhen it comestoreallycreatingvalidand,and personalizedcontent?
(09:04):
Yes. So yes, it's something Iget asked about a lot. Interestingly
enough, I feel like I getasked about it most from more like
colleagues like, you know, youcoming and asking me versus honestly,
clients or prospects askingme. I will say about, you know, a
year and a half ago, thingsseemed to kind of be reaching. It
(09:25):
was like, okay, all of asudden, like this is here, this isn't
going away. Everyone wasexperimenting with ChatGPT. Everyone
was getting freaked out. Youknow, what jobs are being eliminated.
You know, there will be nomore journalists, there'll be no
more whatever. And we did havea client, techclient.Wewereinthemiddle
of acampaign, of a campaign, apretty large content campaign with
(09:50):
them. And she was like, "hey,we just ran this paper through blogs.Andit
asked it to spit out someblogs. ofcoursemyheart waslike, ohmy
God. pretty good." And ofcourse my heart was like, oh my God.
(10:10):
You teamcametogetherbecausewe'dobviouslybeenareourpoliciesandalsojustwhatareourtalkingpointsaround it.Socertainlythatpromptedthatconversation.Andtoyourpoint,likethereisvalueinitincertainways.Youknow,gathering.Likewe,we'vehadcontentcomingthrough.Likewehadaclientwho
(10:35):
to your point, like there isvalue in it in certain ways. You
know, gathering... Like we'vehad content coming through. We had
whowasgatheringsubmissionskeytrendsandfeedbackwithouthavingtolikeindividuallyminethroughit,you know,as,youknow,humanbeings.Butwhenitcomestotheactualwritingofthings,obviouslywehaveallheardaboutthethingswehavetobecarefulof...Imean,there'splagiarismissues,there'stoneofvoiceissues,there's,youknow,how,howit'sevenpositioningjustcertainpeopleincommunitiesthatcanbetakenoutofcontext.Sothere'salotofthingsthatareworrisome.AndIthinktoo,eventhatclientofoursthathadkindofshovedstuffthrough,likeonfirstpass,youreaditandyouthink,okay,that,thatreadsokay,thatreadsprettygood.Butthenifyoureallyreadit,you'resortoflike,wait,likesomething'ssortof
(11:38):
off.NowwhatIwillsayisobviouslyit'sonlygoingtogetbetter,youknow,andsothosethingsthatmightbelike,oh,thatseemsalittleoff,kindoflikeifyourunsomethingthroughatranscriptionservice,youknow,seemsfine onthefirstpassandthenyoulookcloser,you'relike,wait,noonewouldeversayitlikethat.SoIknowthatthose,thoseelementswillgetsmarterandbetter.Butyouknow,whenyou'retalkingaboutthoughtleadershipandyou'retrulytalkingabouthumanbeingsexpertiseandopinions,I'mpretty,IguessIjustfeelprettybullishon,likewestillneedtobehavingrealconversationswithrealpeopleandyouknow,writingonbehalfofthemaccordingly.BecausetheAItoolsareobviouslyminingfromwhat'scurrentlyoutthere.Soit'slessofliketrulycreatingauniquestandpointifyou'renotgoingtotheexpertthemselves.
(12:34):
Well, and as you said, it isgoing to get better because those
of us that create the contentare getting smarter. And how were
you, you know, and feeding itand all the things that, that happen
and, and you know, I, I was,had a conversation with, with the
library director at a, in a,at a high school district and he
(12:55):
was talking about AI. And youknow, I said, well, how do you, you
know, how are you bringing itinto the schools and what are you
doing? How are you keepingkids from, you know, using it for
term papers and all thesetypes of things? And we were of the
same age. Sosay,well,youdoremembergoingtoalibrary,right, andlooking
thingsupandtheencyclopediaandyou,youknow,youfoundinformationandthen ifyouwere
(13:19):
goingtogetanAon your paper,youhadtoputyourownideastogether,right?You,thisis what'soutthere,but
that'snot whatyoucouldturnin.Andhewould,andhewaslikeningAI.Themuch the
samewaywas let'steachhowtouseit,teachwhatitcangiveyou,butitis not
theendall.Withthat,youknow,youstill havetoput
(13:41):
your,as yousaid,thevoice,theidea,theemotioninto,into thecontent.AndI
thoughtit reallystuckwithmebecauseI,you know,I,Ijustsawitatthatparticularpoint
as,youknow,nottakingmyjob.Iknew thatwasnevergonnabethecase.Butitcertainlyhad
aplacefor,you know, thatarticularpointas,you beokaywithit,youknow,givingitbackto
(14:05):
that was never gonna be thecase. But it certainly had endall.
Yeah, and it does do someamazing things. I mean, if you're
looking to create like atheme, you know, a conference theme
or an event theme, and you canbrainstorm all day and you can come
up with a list of thingsyou're like, I feel pretty good about
these. And then you could runsomething through ChatGPT and it's
(14:29):
probably going to come up withthings that you're like, well, those
are way better. And thatinlikeaminute.So,youknow,those thingsI'm
like,yeah,that'ssmart.Wealsoareusingit,as I'msure
alotofPRpractitionersare,youcanevenbeidentifyingsources out
there,youknow,mediasourcesandinfluencersandthingslikethat, whichis
kindofinteresting.That'sdifferentthan onthe
(14:50):
writing side.Butyeah,obviouslythere'sa. There's atimeandplaceforit.Somepeoplearebigon
theidea of itcreatinglikeafirstdraftof things.AndIdon't are
big on the idea of it creatinglike a first draft of things. And
I don't love that because Idon't know for me personally, like,
(15:10):
if I'm starting with somethingthat's already written down, know,samething.Iflikeaclientsendsyousomething,they'relike,justmassagethis.Youknow,forme,that'salmostharderthanjuststartingfromscratch.So,youknow,Ithinkitsoundsgreat,liketouseitasastartingpoint,butwhoknows?
And I'm curious aboutsomething and maybe this is a devil's
(15:32):
advocate sort of a position.I'm not really sure. But my practice
focuses on verbalcommunication. We're a spoken word
agency. And that's in largepart because, as I sometimes joke,
I'm a copy talker, not acopywriter. And I actually really
struggle with writing and twomaster's degrees and a PhD. And even
(15:54):
having worked as a journalist,I struggled...
Well, let me introduce you toAnn, who's great writer.
Exactly. And so this is kindof where I'm going with this. It
seems to me--but again, thisis a very biased point of view. It
seems to me that there's justso much many words now and the Internet
has been flooded with lowquality written pieces, not just
(16:18):
because of AI, although thisisn't helping, but because of, you
know, SEO strategies from 10years ago that people are still using.
And I just wonder at whatpoint does it just become too much
and we aren't cutting throughbecause there is so much noise and
you know, you can do greatwork, but to get that work seen in
(16:41):
the. Through the sludge, youknow, is just really, really hard.
So I guess the question isthis. How do you make the case for
more and better writing in anenvironment where there's so much
that people don't really careabout the quality of and it's just
meh. And it's out thereeverywhere, right?
(17:01):
Oh, it's such a good point. Ihate SEO. Sorry for everyone who's
out there. I mean, I love SEOif it brings people to our website.
I hate the idea of writing forSEO. It creates the worst writing,
in my opinion. You'reliterally putting words down for
the sake of putting wordsdown, you're going in circles, you're
(17:23):
just adding in keywords. It'sto me so not impactful. So I hear
you that there, there is likethis proliferation of words out there
on the Internet. And to mesometimes it is amazing how corporations
are still putting such aninvestment in long form pieces like
a white paper, like an ebook,things that are very substantial
(17:44):
and oftentimes quitetechnical. You know, and so you're
counting on a sophisticatedand specialized reader to, you know,
embrace that sort of piece. Ithink it just does come down to that,
to impact and to being smartand to having it be very targeted
on who the audience is for. Soif you're a tech company and you're
(18:05):
needing to really connectwith, you know, a buyer within a
healthcare industry or, youknow, a very targeted, specialized
audience, creating contentthat is geared straight to them,
whether it's informing themand educating them, or if it's more
of a sales piece, you know,needs to feel like it's really worth
their time. And I also thinkon the the media side, why I know
(18:31):
so many firms see success withcontributed content like bylines
is because publications arehungry for good writing and for good
content. And so, you know, forus, we get excited when we're working
with a client that is reallyjust wanting to have, you know, their
opinion out there. And maybethey have a wealth of subject matter
(18:53):
experts who have varyingopinions. And so we can target different
types of publications andwrite different types of content
on their behalf. Or maybeit's, you know, one leader who again
is just like really wanting tobe out there. But I think that results
in interest from again,whoever in that case the target is
a media publication andultimately their reader. So, yeah,
(19:18):
I don't know, I think it'sjust about, I think it's about the
impact and being smart and notjust feeling like you're spewing
things and trying to writesomething for everyone.
So as we're, you know, theidea around, you know, campaigns
and thinking about all the,you know, the different opportunities
that exist and as Adrian said,you know, cutting through the clutter
(19:40):
and you know, coming, youknow, really with what's relevant,
you know, content still isgoing to remain, you know, top of
mind. The strategy behind itcertainly is top of mind. So, you
know, how do we plan forbuilding a content strategy? What
(20:01):
are some of the key things forus to consider if this is going to
be a strategy that we want toundertake? And then what are some
of the expectations when yougo through this effort?
Yeah, So I think first kind ofgetting, getting clear on what your,
(20:21):
your goal is. So if your goalis, you know, that you're wanting
to do like I was sayingbefore, like the research piece and
come in with like substantialkind of ground based information
that you're building from, youknow, to, to get ready to commit
to that sort of effort. Andfrom that you can gain a wealth of
(20:44):
opportunities as far as far asthe types of content you can create.
If you're wanting to beshowcasing thought leaders and maybe
you're wanting, you know, tohave more of like a traditional PR
program but built on thoughtleaders, then that's great too. You
don't have to be worryingabout writing white papers necessarily
(21:04):
for them. You could have justa very strategic earned media campaign
that's based on contributedmedia placements. Earned media, but
it could also involve speakingprograms, award programs, LinkedIn.
So I think, you know, startingwith like, well, obviously, what
are your goals? You know,what, what type of organization are
(21:27):
you? What are the goals? Andthen getting clear from there on
what types of outputs aregoing to really be most beneficial
and then maximizing like onceyou have those things like we talked
about before, not recreatingthe wheel, but even with like earned
media placements, you know, ifyou're getting published, making
(21:48):
sure that those things areshowing up on LinkedIn, that you're
grabbing sound but you know,grabbing even pull quotes, that you're
putting things out, thatyou're having it on your newsroom,
that the individual subjectmatter experts who are, you know,
the authors are sharing thingsin their own way or if it's geared
very specifically to a targetclient industry to be sending things
(22:11):
through to them. So just thewhole idea of amplifying so, you
know, amplification assets aresomething that we create for clients
if they're, you know,developing different types of materials.
And then it's like, okay,great, we developed this, but now
what? So like little thingsthat you can hopefully use to. Okay,
(22:32):
now we got to take it to the masses.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of PRGN Presents, brought
to you by the Public RelationsGlobal Network.
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