Maximising AI for Content Strategy: My Process & Tips

Hello and welcome to the YouCan podcast. I'm your host Sarah Jolly Jarvis and today we're going to be talking around AI and how to structure and streamline your content using AI.
Now what the process that I tend to use, the software that I tend to use is ChatGPT and there are obviously other softwares out there and that's the one that I am most familiar with and have spent the time getting to know and sort of building my bank of words and phrases within. So you know I have so many ideas okay but structuring them into an effective piece of content for me is really challenging and so therefore using AI has been a real game changer for me.
Okay so what we're going to be doing in this episode is I'm going to talk you through with you exactly the process that I use, the process that I use to create this podcast itself, but also how I then use it onto social media and how you can adapt if you don't have a podcast, how you can adapt what I'm doing for social media. Now, it is worth saying at this point that I am one of those people who I am better at talking.
I might not be that structured with my talking, but I'm better talking. I don't overanalyze.
I just get the information out there than I am at writing things. If you are a writer, if you are really, really good at writing things, if you enjoy the process of writing things, then you might think, you know what, parts of this aren't for me.
But I do firmly believe that everybody can take something from this episode. Talking to clients, I wasn't the earliest adopter of AI.
I was a big fan of seeing how it panned out, see how people were using it. I've gone about quietly using it in my own time, in my own way, behind the scenes, because I didn't want to be sharing false information.
There were so many people sprung up overnight as like experts in AI it's like it's been around for 10 minutes guys how much of an expert can you be whereas you know once you've got to use it and you've got to know it I do feel now like I'm in a position where you know I've been using it for a solid eight nine months and adapting the way that I use it evolving the way that I use it and so now I thought was a great time to kind of share where I'm at with it and how I use it. So when and how do I use AI? Well, the when is really, for me, I have too many ideas, not enough structure.
That is my kind of challenge. So I've got a creative mind.
I come up with lots of ideas, but when I actually go to write that down, it tends to be scattered, it tends to lack direction, I'm trying to get four or five key kind of bits out of one go, and so for me, I wasn't being as effective as I could be with the content that I was creating, and that went for my podcast as well, I'd go off on all sorts of weird and wonderful tangents, less so with this podcast, because I've been more structured, because I have been using AI to help me. I'll come on to that in a minute.
But also with my previous podcast, I help you all over the place. So a lot of my clients face the same issue.
They know their expertise. They know what they're doing, but it's presenting it in a cohesive, usable way, really.
And so that is where AI has really come into play for me. So how do I use it to improve my content process? Well, in structuring content itself, AI helps me to organize things in a clear and a logical flow.
So for example, using this podcast as an example, I will go to my chat GPT. I'll open it up.
it's always my one and don't go and if and I'll come on to that in a little bit as it's some of my sort of tips on how when to use it and when not to use it and what to use but you know using the same system it helps it gets to know you so what I tend to do is go on to it and I will say create a 20 minute podcast episode or approximate 20 minute podcast episode, following these key things and focusing on this, explaining this, and then it will provide me with a structure. Okay.
So from there, I am then able to follow that logical flow and stick to the logical flow, which is what I'm doing now. I'm currently on point three of my logical flow.
The first one was the introduction. The second one was introducing the challenge.
The third one was how I use AI. The fourth one that I'm going to come on to is what not to do.
And then my final thoughts. And like that helps me give those structure.
And then I've got different key things that AI has suggested. And then I've inputted additional things or remove some of the AI stuff under each of those headings, but it helps me be structured.
I already failed at stage two and went straight into how I use it before talking more around my challenges. And so it really does help me stay on track.
This podcast episode in itself is proof of that. So when I'm generating, then I go on from structuring that content and producing the episode.
I will then generate episode descriptions so what I would do is I will use software and there's descript there's all sorts of different softwares out there which would take your podcast your audio and put it into a transcript and then what I will do is I will normally it's short enough to be able to put it into AI sometimes I have to shorten it a little bit myself before I can put it in there so that you can get the crux of what was going on. And the reason I use that and I don't use the structure is because it is my words.
It is able to take from there, from that structure, from that backbone of the process and structure of the podcast, it's able to take my own words from there to create the description. So it's much more accurate with what is in the podcast episode.
And I'm not sort of trying to bend and alter what I'm doing to reflect what is in a description, for example. So it will take my transcript and it will put a description in there.
From there, I can ask it to make that description more SEO optimized, so more on what people would be searching for so that my podcast comes up on that. It will then sometimes suggest keywords as well within that.
I will then ask it to create social media content from that transcript. So it's all my own words that are then being used to turn into social media posts what I do for social media posts is I will ask it for example for LinkedIn I tend to ask it for a more peer-to-peer observational kind of style of post so I'm talking to somebody at the same sort of level as me if you notice on LinkedIn there's lots of kind of it's a bit like the times there's lots of observations of things rather than the preaching and the telling in the same way um as other other platforms um with facebook i ask it to go with a more sociable conversational style and then from there i am able to develop those different pieces of content now they will all need editing and i'll come on what not to do in a little bit, but they will all need tweaking.
They will all need altering. And even though I have fed hours and hours and hours now of me into my chat GPT, I always go through and there's always changes to be made a lot less than there used to be, but absolutely I want it to be covering the information that I want to be covering and I want it to be in words that I would use.
So then, but what is really interesting with that is my husband, bless his little cotton socks, has actually said to me, Sarah, that sounds really AI. And I was like, actually, I wrote that.
And so there are bits that I still write myself. There are bits that I will take out and then I'll do massive alterations on.
I tend to use quite large words when I am writing. And so I can come across as a little bit like AI.
But if that is you, if that's where you talk, that's the way you talk. Embr embrace it.
But it is worth knowing that sometimes what it throws out actually is a very good reflection of you. And so there's been a number of times that I've read through and I've thought, yeah, okay, that comes across formal, but I am quite formal in the way that I speak.
And so that is absolutely fine. And the way that I communicate when I am writing.
So that's all really helpful.

What I have said within this and a big tip for you here is the transcript side of things. Feeding it, if you want it to sound like you, then feed it with you.
Feed it information, feed it reams and reams of you. And people have said about that whole, oh, ask ChatGPT what um what I don't know about myself or what it would say about me or you know what my ambitions and all this kind of stuff is and you're doing that because you've actually put that information in it is able to make observations and assumptions about you based on the information you have fed it once that is a really nice fun pastime and then people go on social media and they share it, it can actually be used in a really effective way to write bios.
For example, I wanted to write an updated bio the other day and I couldn't find my previous one and I actually went on and I said, write me a bio. And literally the only thing it missed out on was my book, my best-selling book.
Other than that, it had all the key things in there and it had the key things in there because i fed it with that information and so it can be such such a useful tool and you can see how that could look to replace um human elements and human support um that some of us are already receiving with va's and things like that um so you know know, it has, it definitely has a place. So moving on from creating social media content, repurposing that content.
I talk to clients and I'm going to do more on this within the podcast around how to make a bank of podcast episodes, how to make a bank of content, not to go mad and create things for the year. I'm not a fan of that.
I've got a client though, who is going to be going off on maternity leave towards the end of this year, well, middle of this year. And so, you know, we are banking content with her.
We are getting ahead of the game and we are using AI to help us with that. That doesn't mean it's not going to be personalized.
It doesn't mean that it's not going to be you. It's not going to have your pearls of wisdom in there.
You aren't going to be lazy and just go create me a course. and it creates some sort of bog standard rubbish that it's not going to be personalized it doesn't mean that it's not going to be you it's not going to have your pearls of wisdom in there you aren't going to be lazy and just go create me a course and it creates some sort of bog standard rubbish that it's pulled um it's going to be stuff that comes from you because you're going to feed it with that information and it's going to structure it for you in the right way and an efficient way but you know repurposing a bit of content for example if you want to write around um i don't know news resolutions so you're a weight loss coach and you want to talk about why news resolutions don't work you would go on and you could actually dictate onto otter onto one of you can even do onto notes um on your if you've got if you're appled like me so you can dictate onto your notes that will transcribe it from that transcription.
You can then go on to your AI and you can ask it to take that information and put it into a social media piece of content. So I would say, make this a sociable and conversational for Facebook.
It would then create that. You can then edit it.
You can then put it back in and then you can go convert this in a peer-to-peer observational style for LinkedIn. And it can do that.
You can say shorten this and provide me with hashtags for Instagram. And so straight away, you're getting it onto those different platforms.
You're not having to spend hours doing it. It's your words.
They tend to keep with your words when they're redoing it and adjusting its structure and and the words within it they tend to keep with the same key things but you have to go through and you know you need to check what your sociable conversational style is versus somebody else's but again over time it learns and so the whole process is speeded up you can also use ai to extract key snippets and rework them into different formats so if you're talking around for example news resolutions and weight loss and why they don't work you can also then pull out you know probably what you're going to be talking around is the fact that it's short-lived and you're trying to make too many changes so then you can ask it to write another piece of content focusing on why changing too many things at once won't help you to keep a habit and to make it maintained in the long term. And so you can start to repurpose that in different formats with different bits of information, with different takes on it really, from the same key core bit of transcript that you put in.
I actually now with my posts I have links to my posts that I put out. I have a bit of a resource bank.
I look at my posts. I look at the ones which are popular and then I look to build on that.
So I might look at that piece of content and think okay how can I work that in a different way? How can I say that in a different way? I will then keep the original and I will alter it and

then I would do like the second version third version fourth version and then you can put those

out it is very very easy particularly when you've got key things you're going to be talking around

all the time I talk call it beating the drum to clients when you're beating the drum on the same

things it is very easy to create a bank of resources a bank of content that you can use

over a period of time and without worrying about your audience getting bored or anything like that

Thank you. create a bank of resources, a bank of content that you can use over a period of time and without worrying about your audience getting bored or anything like that.
What I would say though is when you're new to the content is there's no point in totally changing tack, for example, pivoting on your business, creating a load of content on a new approach, on a new message and then, yes, I've got six months worth of content and actually you put out your first few bits of content and you realize that it absolutely it's just tumbleweed though it's there's it tanks there's no there's no energy behind it people aren't resonating with it you're gonna have to change it up so don't go creating loads and loads of content on something that is untested but once it's tested and you know people like it then it's about just creating more you can ask it ask it to create it in the same style. You can take inspiration from somebody else's style, but don't copy their posts.
They're not you. They're not going to have the same priorities, opinions.
You are enough. You do not have to go out there and start plagiarizing other people.
What you can do though is you can look for the structure, the inspiration, the kind of take on things. and you can ask ask chat gpt to help you to structure your content in a similar way but remember that it is better to be original there is no point repurposing somebody else's post that did well okay because it's already done well and it's already been done by that person be you find original stuff that comes from you um and then you know share that with the world express it in a in a structured way that people are going to engage with um and then you know you can use that momentum to build you up because personalization it really matters you are the crux of this okay you are your you are your brand.
So you want to make sure that it is what you would say, how you would say it. It is you.
It sounds like you because it is you, because it is words that you've said and pearls of wisdom that you have shared. And so the more you feed your AI with your own content, transcripts, previous posts, et cetera, et cetera, It helps it learn.
So putting your posts in and going, create more something like this, create this in the style of this, use this word, focus on this, can really help it to learn. And that leads me on to what not to do.
Okay. The not to's with this are don't copy and paste AI generated text because it's not going to sound like you because it's not you particularly right in the beginning okay if it feels robotic is it because the ai doesn't know you well enough or do you normally sound that formal the likelihood is is that it's actually if you think it's robotic it's because it doesn't know you well enough and so refine that output by you know tweaking it personalizing it putting it back in um you know asking it to structure it differently or or um or format it differently so that you can um it will also be learning at the same time i have found the fastest way for it to better understand me is to feed it my podcast episodes like this one so to kind of conclude you know you want to be feeding your ai as much as possible with you with authentic bits of information that are genuinely you genuinely your thoughts generally genuinely who you are and what you stand for so that it can better understand you the more words you provide it with that you use on a regular basis, the more it's going to sound like you, the less of the editing it's going to have to do because it is you.
Okay. And that's the thing is, is it's like, oh, I want it to sound like me.
It is you. It's just repurposing you.
It's just using the information you've already added. It's pulling it out.
So it's like having a VA who has taken notes on you and then put resources and information together from that that's what it's doing okay experiment with your AI for content creation okay but make sure you refine it to match your style and let it know what's your style try dictating your next post or podcast outline okay into your AI and ask to structure it and see how it helps see what what it comes up with okay and let me know how you get on because i would really really like to know so thank you so much guys for listening please do share your thoughts on ai and content creation and you can do that on comments on the podcast you can message me sarah jolly jarvis um on any of the social platforms uh alternatively you can email me at sarah at you can dot online if you have enjoyed this episode or any of the other

episodes please do rate this podcast please do follow this podcast and support me by sharing

this podcast with anybody you think would enjoy it so that's it for me this week guys