In Episode 11 of the Trades Secret Podcast hosts Devon Hayes and Amanda Joyce chat about the do’s and don’ts of AI. We explore ChatGPT and how this wildly popular marketing resource can make or break your results depending on how it’s used. Jump in with us and learn more about the do’s and don’ts of AI and how to use it to benefit your business.
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Transcription:
Devon Hayes:
Hi, I’m Devon Hayes.
Amanda Joyce:
And I’m Amanda Joyce. Today’s topic is AI dos and don’ts. And here’s why you should care. AI is everywhere right now, and if used properly, it can really help your marketing efforts and if used improperly, it can tank your results.
Devon Hayes:
Welcome to Trades Secrets, where we demystify digital marketing to help contractors get the most bang for their marketing bucks.
Amanda Joyce:
This is for you if you’re a contractor looking for actionable marketing insights.
Devon Hayes:
Learn from home services industry experts to elevate your business through simplified marketing strategies.
Amanda Joyce:
Let’s dive into today’s trade secret.
Devon Hayes:
Oh my gosh. Hot topic.
Amanda Joyce:
Hot topic. Yeah, hot topic. It’s everywhere you can… Seriously, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. You’re reading about it, you’re hearing about it. Everyone’s freaking out, so we’re excited to talk about it.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah, yeah. So the biggest deal we’ve heard, I think most people have heard about ChatGPT at this point, which is a product of OpenAI, which has merged as of… Let’s see, I think February 8th maybe. I might have gotten that wrong, but they announced that they merged… not merged, but they’re on Bing. Microsoft had invested, I don’t know, a hundred billion or something, I think. Is that right?
Amanda Joyce:
Yeah.
Devon Hayes:
Fact check myself. 10 billion.
Amanda Joyce:
Oh wait, 10 billion. But yeah, 10 billion. Knowing that they didn’t even really know what they were going to get out of it, but they were just going all in to invest in it and make sure that they were at the front of this crazy technology.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah. So in case you don’t know what ChatGPT is, it is an open language processing tool that allows a human interaction with a chatbot and the interaction is crazy. It does not seem like you’re talking to a robot. You get clear, concise answers.
Amanda Joyce:
That build off of each other. You can ask a question and then ask a follow-up question, and the conversation continues. It’s not like in a search engine where you’re just refining and starting fresh every time you enter a new search.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah, it’s the fastest growing app of all time. This thing’s crazy. So in just two months, it acquired… Let’s see here, over a hundred million active users, tool users.
Amanda Joyce:
Yeah. And then now, even when you try, you can’t even use it if you try because everyone’s been trying to use it. It’s unavailable.
Devon Hayes:
So you just in the waiting room. Yeah. So then as of… I think it was February 8th, but so that ChatGPT is now integrated with Bing. When did you ever think Bing was going to be relevant again? We joke about it because we say nobody Bings anything. Nobody Yahoos anything. But now ChatGPT is integrated on the search feature on Bing.
Now there’s a wait list. There’s like over a million-person wait list to be able to use that feature within Bing.
Amanda Joyce:
Exactly.
Devon Hayes:
And the crazy thing about that is that being in Microsoft, I’m sure there’s going to be pricing tiers further down the road, but as of right now, they didn’t even do it to make money. They just did it to take market share from Google.
Amanda Joyce:
For spite.
Devon Hayes:
To get back.
Amanda Joyce:
Exactly. All this stuff I keep reading about how they’re even just getting 1% of that. What is it? We were just talking about this. I think there’s like 3 billion Google searches a day, so 1% of that is 30 million searches. So there’s so much on the table to be taken, and I think it’s really healthy that the goliath is actually getting beat up a little bit here. They run the market, and I think it’s awesome that there’s this shake-up.
Devon Hayes:
Definitely. So we’re definitely going to have to do another podcast on what we’re seeing in terms of how we have to optimize for Bing versus Google, how you rank on Google versus Bing. That will be another fun podcast. We’ve already started diving into that and strategically changing things for our SEO clients.
But anyway, okay, so we know ChatGPT, that thing has brought AI to the dinner table and everyone’s talking about it, but then Google was like, “All right, we’re ready. We’re going to launch ours. We’ve got a chatbot too, and its name is Bard.” Great name, Google, but Amanda…
Amanda Joyce:
Yeah.
Devon Hayes:
Oh my God, that product launch. Let’s talk about that.
Amanda Joyce:
Oh my God. Oh my God. Seriously, I can’t even… What was the search? It was something like, “How do I explain a satellite to my nine-year-old?” And it shot back an image and said that that particular satellite had taken the first photo of Planet Earth and it was inaccurate, and the internet went crazy.
Devon Hayes:
What? My gosh.
Amanda Joyce:
It was their one shot. I mean, even if the technology was broken and wasn’t ready to come to market yet, it was their one shot to get it right and they failed miserably.
Devon Hayes:
Oh.
Amanda Joyce:
It’s crazy.
Devon Hayes:
Oh gosh.
Amanda Joyce:
It’s crazy. And I was looking yesterday at how much the CEO makes. That man’s base salary is 20 million dollars. There is no room for failure.
Devon Hayes:
Oh, Google or the product launch manager?
Amanda Joyce:
The CEO.
Devon Hayes:
Okay, the CEO of Google.
Amanda Joyce:
The CEO of Google, he’s just being torn apart on the internet because this is their time to shine.
Devon Hayes:
Well, yeah. So first of all, they’re getting made fun of because they’re like, “Hey, hey guys, this is a terrible product launch.” So their product launch team is like… I feel bad for them because-
Amanda Joyce:
I know.
Devon Hayes:
You know that hurts. But then on top of that, their parent company Alphabet lost a hundred billion dollars.
Amanda Joyce:
Billion overnight in stock shares, I mean in stock prices. And then you just think about the long term reverberation of this with Bard. How long is it going to take for your average American or anyone for that matter, any consumer to trust it? It’s definitely going to have a black mark on it for a long time.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah. Well, and you bring up a really good point, too. So the product launch was a failure for sure. So if you think about it, even with ChatGPT, that product, I mean, everybody’s just been super impressed with it. But it’s using information from up to 2021. So it’s kind of dated information, but something else that’s been going on in our little SEO chatrooms is that there is programmer bias.
So while you can ask it a question and you’re delivered one answer versus a bunch of links, programmer bias, that programmer is putting the answer into the program, ChatGPT. So the answer that you get, I mean, I’m sure they have some sort of ethical guidelines and there’s a whole process before selecting what that one answer will be when you ask it. But you got to think still, somebody’s typing that in there and writing what it should be, which is kind of crazy.
So number one, there’s inaccurate information, questionable info, and then number two, there’s, you got to think of programmer bias if you’re depending on just that one answer delivered from ChatGPT or Bard, whatever.
Amanda Joyce:
Bard.
Devon Hayes:
Bard, I know.
Amanda Joyce:
I just think-
Devon Hayes:
No holds barred. I don’t know. I know that’s a different spelling, but puns, we like puns. Anyways.
Amanda Joyce:
Yeah. But I think that you make a really good point there, too. Because I feel like when we really do dive into these dos and don’ts, at the end of the day, it is a technology, it’s a tool, but you still have to use your brain. Just how you have to keep in mind that there could be bias with the response you’re getting. So you can’t just assume it’s… Just hold it. You need to use a little bit of critical thinking when you are using it.
And and as you’re applying it in your business and in your marketing, you also need to use your brain and don’t just assume that it’s the one right answer and the internet gave it to me and it’s “God has spoken, and this is the answer.”
Devon Hayes:
Just because you’re following your Apple Maps on directions and you see a road closure, it doesn’t mean you should keep driving straight, even though she’s telling you to drive straight.
Amanda Joyce:
It’s like on the episode of The Office when it tells Michael to drive into a pond and he just does it because it tells him to.
Devon Hayes:
Maybe there’s a road under there. I don’t know.
Amanda Joyce:
Yeah, yeah. Don’t, don’t be Michael Scott in this case.
Devon Hayes:
Oh my gosh, that’s hilarious. You know it’s a good day anytime you can use an Office reference.
Amanda Joyce:
Exactly.
Devon Hayes:
Okay, so AI dos and don’ts. So this idea came about because while we’re trying to be early adapters of this AI technology, and it’s been around, there’s been AI content writing tools for the past couple of years. Nothing has really been able to compete with I think the natural language used in ChatGPT. But anyway, these AI writers have been there and they’ve taken a lot of zhuzhing and finessing and correcting.
But with that we’re going to see more and more people start to use AI. And so we wanted to lay out some easy dos and don’ts for using it. Of course, we all want to be more efficient, we all want to save money, but as we’re studying at what cost, in terms of your positioning on Google or now Bing, we’ve come up with ka short list of dos and don’ts when using AI for business.
Amanda Joyce:
Yeah, absolutely. So this is an exciting tool, let’s use it, but let’s use it smart and let’s not make mistakes that could end up maybe making you lose your search rankings that you’ve worked so hard to gain, things like that.
So let’s hop in on the dos.
Devon Hayes:
Yes.
Amanda Joyce:
Do use AI to outline your content. This is a great opportunity to just get the bones of it laid out, and then you can hop back in and zhuzh it and add your own IP and your own thought processes and stuff. But it’s a really great way to just maybe sit down if you’re somebody that has trouble diving in and getting started writing something. Use AI to outline it, but know that at the end of the day, you’re going to take that outline and make it your own.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah. And then outlining it, that’s great. But even coming up with new content ideas, I mean, you can use AI for that too. So I would put that on the dos list too, coming up with new content ideas. And then, as you just discussed, outlining what you’re going to write. Yeah, use AI to outline your article. That’s brilliant.
Amanda Joyce:
Absolutely. Or to outline a content plan. That’s another great one that I’ve seen a ton of examples of too, of people interacting with ChatGPT and asking it to help them really lay things out. So it’s another great way to get the bones. Bless you.
Devon Hayes:
I’m sorry. That was huge.
Amanda Joyce:
It’s another great way to just get the bones of the plan and where you’re going with it, and then step back and look at it. Put your expert hat on and remember you’re going to add in your own thought leadership to it.
Devon Hayes:
Definitely. I love that. And that’s an internal process. And that leads me to another point is do use it to write internal things. Are you having to build out SOPs for your company or a welcome letter for a new hire? I mean, I would use it for all kind of… I don’t know, internal things or something that is going to be printed. Obviously, please edit and customize, but I think that would be a great use for some of those, because starting an… I don’t know, an onboarding package or something, I know there’s a lot of information that goes into those, so…
Amanda Joyce:
Huge time sucks. So yeah, that’s a great one as well. Your new employee is not going to go run it through a plagiarism checker and find out that it’s very similar to another company. That’s a great place to use it, for sure.
Another one I love is using it to break up writer’s block as someone who writes content and has written content for contractors and a lot of verticals over the years, sometimes it is just like, “Ah, I got to break the mold and get out of what I have written in the past. What am I missing here?” It’s a great way to come up with really cool new ideas and just break up that writer’s block.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I think there’s some… And breaking up the writer’s block for sure, but I think I saw an example of an obituary that was written by a bot versus one that was written by a human. So breaking up writer’s block is really good. This goes for any AI content, but if you look at it, just think about applying your human touch to any of this stuff that’s going to be forward-facing.
Amanda Joyce:
Absolutely.
Devon Hayes:
Anyways. Okay. Sorry, squirrel got us off track.
Amanda Joyce:
Yeah.
Devon Hayes:
But okay. Ooh, I like what you have here. Using it to help write ad copy. That’s brilliant.
Amanda Joyce:
Yeah, absolutely. And especially because ad copy, you’re typically working with small amounts of characters, so that’s another good one that it can spit back really good compelling, really strong headlines and things. And again, you’re going to need to tweak it. You don’t want it to sound like every other ad that’s above and below you, but you can definitely come up with some cool ideas that maybe you wouldn’t have come up with on your own.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah, definitely. Because yeah, if everyone used it to write ad copy, we all have the same ads. But that’s brilliant because you do have to have such a concise number of characters in those different types of… Whether it’s display or I don’t know, search or whatever.
Amanda Joyce:
Traditional search ads. Yeah, absolutely.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah.
Amanda Joyce:
One of them that I also wanted to hit on was make sure that you are running your stuff through Copyscape if you use AI. It’s imperfect, but you can put it in there and see if it’s picking up on it and saying, “It sounds like AI.” We’re hearing some people say that their content’s being kicked back. They’re being told that it sounds like AI and they wrote it, and they’re human, so it’s an imperfect technology.
But if you’re throwing it through there, you can just make sure that if you’re new to this and you’re zhuzhing some AI content and you’re like, “Did I change enough?” And it spits back and tells you, “This is most definitely written by a bot.” You haven’t done enough work and you need to get back in there and keep zhuzhing it. Your homework’s not done yet.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah. Keep working on it. Well, and then in terms of the implications on search, in some of our SEO forums, we have people that are monitoring their sites and we’re monitoring it too. And while we’re not sure Google has… They have said, “We’re not going to penalize content written by a bot. Our whole goal is to provide the best user experience. So if it’s written by a bot and it’s better than what a human wrote, then great.” But as of now, that’s typically not the case, but it doesn’t mean it couldn’t be.
So we’re getting that question a lot. And we’re wondering too what we’re going to see. But there was a guy in our Google SEO mastermind group, and he actually hopped on with Search Engine Journal, which is a great reputable SEO source if you want to talk to experts who have a ton of data that they’re analyzing across hundreds of websites so they can come up with some good analysis. And what they were seeing is, yeah, absolutely, AI content was being penalized in terms of ranking.
So while it’s not written in stone, yes, every piece of AI content is not going to rank, it’s still competing with humans and delivering the best user experience. So as long as your content is focused on delivering the best user experience, which again, Copyscape is a great tool to check for that because probably, it’s like, “Are you making a human connection here or is it just too…”
Amanda Joyce:
“You sound like a bot.” Exactly. “You sound like a bot.” And it can also check for plagiarism too. So you can figure out, if it’s AI, that you’re basically just stealing content from the web. Because you want to make sure that that’s not happening either, because you will get penalized for that. So yeah, it’s a great way to just test and see if you sound human and if your content is unique, which is at the end of the day, what we’re all trying to do.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah. So overall, the dos… Use it to outline things, use it to break writer’s block, definitely use it for internal writing that needs to be done and use it to help create ad copy. And again, all with the caveat of humanize it, touch it up a bit. Let’s dive into the don’ts.
Amanda Joyce:
Yes, yes. Don’t use it to completely write your content. Don’t just throw it in there, slap it up on your website and move on with your day, or it’ll hurt you across the board. It’ll hurt you from a user experience. Google will hate it, all the things. So just do not do that.
Devon Hayes:
Even if you think it ranks okay initially, the algorithm is going to catch up to you. It’s going to get you. There’s the spam algorithm update that happened, I don’t know, between August and October last year. And it is going to get you. They have over 4,000 algorithm updates each year. So keep that in mind. If you’re like, “Oh, I’m going to put some lipstick on this pig and call her done,” you’re not done.
Amanda Joyce:
You’re not done. You’re not done.
Devon Hayes:
No.
Amanda Joyce:
No. Yeah. And I’m sure they have an entire team over there that’s dedicated to specifically updating the algorithm for this. And they’re smart. They’re Google engineers, they’re going to figure it out.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
Amanda Joyce:
Don’t forget to introduce your expertise into it. That’s what matters. Like yeah, sure, have it help you write it. But if you are an electrician who is an expert at EV-charging installations and you know a lot about rebates, make sure you put that in there because the AI’s probably not going to be smart enough to even pull that because it’s also pulling from all your competitors. Think about what you know that your competitors don’t, that’s not out there existing in their content and introduce that into it. If it means you have to write a couple full paragraph blocks all on your own, aside from just zhuzhing what was already spit back to you, put that in there. And that’s what’s going to make the huge difference in your content and everyone else who used an AI tool to write theirs.
Devon Hayes:
Brilliant. Brilliant per usual. And yeah, then something else, don’t just write more of the same generic AI-based content. And this is something we’re talking about if you’ve listened to our other podcasts, when we talk about content in general. This goes along with more storytelling and AI is not going to be able to do that, and those are the more compelling, engaging pieces of content anyways. So I really love this point. Don’t just write generic content.
Amanda Joyce:
Yeah, exactly. If you don’t go out there and look at the search results and find that the top 15 results all basically say the same thing and then try to write your own version of that same thing and think you’re going to rank. Maybe you will, but you probably won’t. The best way to get up to climb those search ranks is to look at what everyone else is saying and realize what hole is missing, and write for that and use AI to help you write it.
But a lot of those tools go out and just pull from the top. A lot of the true content-writing AI tools will just go pull, “Oh, Google likes this, Google likes this, Google likes this.” Look at everything Google likes and then see what’s missing there and write for that. And that’s how you’re going to stand out amongst all this copy that everyone’s basically just copying each other’s homework. That’s not even benefiting anyone.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah. And when you do that, when you’re searching for the hole, again, you’re using your expertise, but that means you’re also using critical thinking and really coming up with a different perspective on a lot of the same content. So being able to position yourself a little bit differently and not just be strictly informational. But if you can give examples from, again, your experience and pull that in there, then you’re going to create something that’s that’s going to garner more engagement as it is, which is going to help you climb in rankings. Both because socially that’s the kind of content people engage with, but also that’s what’s going to keep the reader on page when they’re actually reading the blog. It’s not like, “This is how you install an EV charger.” You can do some storytelling on a project specifically about EV chargers. And that’s how you’re going to compete with just a plain service overview page.
Amanda Joyce:
Exactly. Exactly. And lastly, our pro-tip. It really plays into everything we’ve just said, but just don’t lose sight of “E Eats.” At the end of the day, this is what Google’s looking for. They’re looking for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. So if you’re keeping that in mind as you’re zhuzhing this content, you’re going to naturally rise up the search rankings. You’re going to sound like the smartest guy in the room. Your content’s going to be better, and you’re going to win the AI race.
Devon Hayes:
You know what, I think we need to rerecord the intro to this and just say, every time we say “zhuzh” take a sip of your beverage. But yeah, absolutely. Sticking to, just remember Little John and E eat A, E eat… There’s a meme in there somewhere. But thanks for picking up on that. But yeah, absolutely. I think that’s a great pro-tip. Always use your expertise when writing and zhuzhing content.
Amanda Joyce:
Zhuzh it.
Devon Hayes:
Thank you so much for listening. Always, always hit us up with any questions or anything else you’d like to see. We’re here for it. We’d love to know what you think. Tell us your thoughts and all that good stuff. Yeah.
Amanda Joyce:
Did we miss something? Is there something you’re using it for that’s just a slam dunk? Let us know.
Devon Hayes:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And we’ll see you next time.
Amanda Joyce:
Thanks, guys.
That was today’s trade secret. Thanks for listening.
Devon Hayes:
Did you find this helpful? We’re just getting started.
Amanda Joyce:
Subscribe, and don’t miss our next reveal.
Devon Hayes:
Until next time.
