09 Jun Will ChatGPT Write Social Media Posts for CEOs?
Influential Executive and Spark Growth CEO Elissa Liu joins us for another insightful interview on emerging technology like ChatGPT, new social media trends, and more.
Jackie: Elissa, thanks for joining me for another executive social media quarterly update. I want to start off with the hottest topic of the year so far — ChatGPT. Before we dive into how you think it’ll impact the digital marketing and social media space, can you share your general thoughts on ChatGPT?
Elissa: Happy to be back! ChatGPT, and generative AI platforms in general, have been one of the most disruptive technologies over the past few years. It’s still in its infancy, but it’s rare to see an emerging platform make so much buzz across every single industry, not just the digital marketing space.
It’s not just businesses talking about ChatGPT — what makes this technology remarkable is that it’s already a household name.
J: Generative AI has certainly been a big point of discussion at our office!
E: It has! In March, we launched a half-day AI hackathon as a way to test different generative AI platforms to push their capabilities to the limit. The entire team, myself included, really found that exercise valuable for a number of reasons.
It allowed us to clearly see how generative AI can support our existing processes and in what capacity, but it also highlighted a lot of areas where AI doesn’t measure up when you compare its output to what a marketer would come up with.
J: Do you see tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney impacting the digital marketing industry?
E: Absolutely. I think the impact will be significant. At the same time, I don’t think the digital marketing space — and us as marketers — are going anywhere. Instead, I believe ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence technologies will help us be more strategic and ultimately provide better results for our clients.
In the coming years, what we’ll see is that successful digital marketing agencies are the ones that have been able to pivot and leverage generative AI while also ensuring that their experience and expertise are what sets them apart from other agencies.
J: ChatGPT’s ability to generate human-like responses has many discussing whether social media content could be fully written by AI in the future. Could we potentially see a future where not only are the company’s social media posts generated by AI, but the CEO’s posts as well?
E: No, I don’t think that will be the case, for both the company and its executives.
Our team has been putting these tools to work and testing their limits. And I don’t mean just ChatGPT; we’ve been testing image and video generators, as well. What we’ve found is that while these technologies generally perform well in retrieving factual information (though we are cognizant of issues like “AI hallucinations”), they are not able to clearly capture the tone and personality of an individual. This point is crucial for executive social media.
With online social media users expecting a more authentic social media presence, the content requires a more “human” touch. Generative AI can certainly help with content brainstorming, but ultimately, having that face-to-face kick-off interview with a CEO, spending time watching videos featuring them, or reading articles written by them — these are the types of exercises that help marketers like us get more aligned with an executive’s personality and voice.
We are paying close attention to the idea of creating a customized large language model with proprietary, client-specific data, including brand values, tone of voice, and other client data. We’re diving into this area to understand its potential for generating content, as well as for data analysis and insights, so stay tuned for updates on our experiences with these AI opportunities.
J: Before we wrap up, are there any final comments that you want to share in terms of executive social media or digital marketing overall?
E: ChatGPT is very much in its “honeymoon phase” right now, and there are certainly a lot of expectations, hopes, and even fears about its usage and how it could replace jobs. I think a more productive conversation isn’t about what generative AI will replace, but what it can enhance.
Marketers in the executive social media and digital marketing space stand to benefit a lot from these types of platforms that are only improving day by day. I’m interested in developing strategies that leverage these tools in a way that’s productive for my team and beneficial for our clients.
J: Thanks, Elissa!
If you missed our previous conversation where Elissa shared her 2023 social media predictions, click here to read the full interview. For digital marketers wondering how they can start their own executive social media program, click the button below to access our guide, “Start an Executive Social Media Presence in 7 Steps”!