The AI Revolution isn’t just about creating new tools – it’s about transforming how we learn, understand, and interact with information. And that’s exactly why NotebookLM has become the darling of the AI research community. As someone who’s spent decades observing how technology reshapes human behavior, it’s been fun for me to experiment with this new application.

Here’s what’s really going on: We’re drowning in information. Between podcasts, blog posts, and the endless stream of developments on social media, staying current is like drinking from a firehose. NotebookLM isn’t just another note-taking app – it’s an AI-powered research companion that actually understands context and helps connect the dots.

It’s as close to getting a brain extension as you’ll see (at least for now!).

What makes NotebookLM different is its ability to act as both a librarian and a study buddy. When you’re deep in research mode, it doesn’t just store your notes – it actively helps you understand them. It can summarize complex papers, explain difficult concepts, and even highlight connections between different pieces of research that you might have missed. This is game-changing for anyone navigating the complex world of AI development.

But there’s something even more profound happening here. In all my years of studying digital transformation, I’ve noticed that the tools that truly stick are the ones that feel natural – that work the way our brains work. NotebookLM gets this right. It’s not trying to force users into a rigid system. Instead, it adapts to your thinking style, helping you build knowledge in a way that feels organic and intuitive.

NotebookLM — But wait, there’s more!

A few months ago, NotebookLM users discovered they could use the voice mode to command the app to have a discussion with itself, something similar to a podcast episode. A few people have even produced AI-fueled podcasts with synthetic hosts!

While I have no plans to do this with The Marketing Companion, I did turn to NotebookLM to help me in a pinch this week. My podcast is now in its thirteenth year, and remarkably, I’ve never missed an episode. But this week was close!

My human co-host became too sick to record, and out of time, I turned to NotebookLM for help. The new episode provides extraordinary value in two ways: It’s a mesmerizing demonstration of AI voice capabilities. But what’s really cool is that I uploaded my upcoming new book “Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI World” and asked the “hosts” to review the book.

The result was more than I expected, and I think you’ll love this mind-bending podcast episode. If you haven’t experienced NotebookLM in action, this will get your head spinning. Ready? All you have to do is click here:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 304

Please support our sponsor, who brings you this amazing episode.

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This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

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Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post A mind-bending demonstration of AI and NotebookLM appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Threads.

Of course you know about it. It’s the hottest thing in social media since … Mastodon?

But I don’t think Meta’s Twitter killer will work as a social media platform because I’ve seen this song and dance before, and it didn’t work then, either. So let’s explore today the case against Threads.

What’s the problem with Threads?

For a new social media platform to succeed — or for any business to succeed— it has to solve a customer problem. Threads is the same as Twitter, with far less meaningful functionality. So I am truly struggling to see the business case here. What problem is solved by Threads?

Most people say it is the place for Twitter haters. But so was Mastadon and Bluesky. Are you going to Bluesky every day instead of Twitter? That’s what I thought.

Let’s not forget that Google Plus was the place for Facebook haters. I was the only blogger in the universe who predicted G+ would not work — on the very day it was launched.

Same reason — we already had a social network. It was called Facebook. G+ did not solve a unique problem. It was just a place for Facebook haters. I wrote at the time that it is far easier to move to a new house in another city than to move to a new social network and take your friends, your communities, your games, etc. along with you.

People only have the bandwidth for one social media function. We have one YouTube. We have one LinkedIn. We already have one Twitter. That’s all we need.

Google Plus was the fastest-adopted technology in history at the time. Once the novelty wore off, it crashed hard. The reason for the crash? Well, that’s a story for another day. Well … OK, if you really want the story, it’s here.

Twitter drama

Many early Thread advocates are relieved to be away from the Musk-induced Twitter drama. The currency of Twitter is conflict. Threads is the block party for Twitter haters, and there are lots of reasons to hate what has happened there. But being “not Twitter” is not a sustainable source of differentiation.

Twitter’s heaviest users, like journalists and activists, have built an audience and meaningful assets on the site. This is where they have their Lists, Twitter Chats, and breaking news. It’s their home. Will there be a mass exodus because they’re tired of the Twitter chaos, or are they immune to it by now?

One pundit said recently that Twitter was like a Chekhov play — everyone says they’re going to leave, but they never do.

Others have expressed a love for Threads because it’s less spammy and toxic. But what’s going to keep Threads from becoming spammy and toxic? It’s the same swamp, folks. Is Zuck and Meta more deserving of our trust than Twitter? Spoiler alert: NO.

I think curiosity and FOMO will drive early adoption, but what will keep us there? I don’t think there is a there there.

What’s a Fediverse?

When you sign up for Threads, Meta taunts you with the idea that the technology is all blockchain-y and that Threads is the lead component in a “Fediverse” that is a “new type of social network that allows people to follow and interact on different platforms such as Mastodon.”

Oooooh my. I get to connect to my zero friends on Mastodon?

Allow me to interpret what this really means (I speak fluent Meta). What Zuck wants to do is have access to all your friends and activity on every social network so he can sell you more targeted ads. I do not believe this solves any problem for us. The Fediverse solves a problem for Facebook.

Threads needs Gen Z

There are two wildcards that could torpedo all of the arguments in this post and make Threads a huge success.

1. Twitter dies
2. A young Instagram audience previously disconnected from Twitter discovers Threads and adopts it.

To win at strategy number 2, Threads has to be cool. I looked up the Gen Z word for cool, and it would be “fire,” “extra,” or “fit.” Yeah, that. It has to be fit.

I think that’s the only hope and the card Zuck needs to play — find the “tipping point,” a strategy chronicled by Malcolm Gladwell in his book of the same name.  If you attract a critical mass of the buzzy cool kids, the movement begins. There is some indication that this is exactly what Meta is trying to do when it provided early access to many A-List celebrities and brands.

Allowing Insta-fans to jump-start their Threads account by automatically adding current followers makes Threads at least an easy experiment because there is no “cold start.” This is less attractive for traditional Twitter users since there is probably not much overlap between the followers in these networks.

Lance R. Fletcher observed that the youth migration could already be happening:

“One of the biggest Instagram groups, Bookstagram, has migrated already. Artstagram and Poetrygram are also moving to Threads. It’s gaining ground on Twitter because of creator-centric and creator-friendly brands adopting the platform.

“That was a core weakness of Twitter — it’s focused on being business-forward. The lack of DM capability on Threads as of now, destroys the appeal for the people on Twitter who required it– MLMs and “coaching.”

“The older creator economy has been left out. Most of us don’t like making UGC for TikTok and Reels, and we liked the community of Twitter before it was taken over by MLM and hate speech.

“Instagram lacked the ease of direct engagement of Twitter. This fixes that problem. It also fixes the siloing problem of Mastodon, and the artifice of hashtag engagement in Twitter and BlueSky, something Gen Z does actually care about.”

Will GenZ care about having a new public square? That’s not why they are Instagram in the first place. Instagram is a place to avoid the public square.

The last wildcard

There is another factor in this battle: ego.

Musk and Zuckerberg have titanic egos. Musk already came out swinging with a lawsuit against Meta. There are sure to be surprises in store. Musk is not going to go down with swatting back. Could this be the jolt Twitter needed all along?

Get out the popcorn!

Any way, my job is to connect the dots and see where the path might lead for all you wonderful marketers. May your dots be connected, your threads be bright, and your FOMO at zero as we surge onto yet another social media platform.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

The post Why Threads won’t work without Gen Z appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I founded a community of marketing geeks called RISE and we just unleashed something wild and wonderful. In fact, it is astonishing, unique, surprising, and, well … amazing! It is The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever.

Before I PROVE to you that this is the most amazing marketing book, let me tell you how we got here. It’s an amazing story in itself!

The seed of amazing

The RISE community is dedicated to learning about the future of marketing and it’s populated by many global subject matter experts.  Anything you want to know, there is probably somebody in the community who has an answer — podcasting, advertising, strategy, video, social media … we have it covered by people out there in the world doing the work.

Within the community, an idea was floated to co-create a book together. This was intriguing, but it was also pretty scary, to be honest. Could I rely on dozens of busy people from 15 different time zones to come together and create a book that will be part of my brand? This could be great, or it could become a disaster.

But ultimately, I loved the idea of helping people in my community realize a dream of becoming the co-author of a book. I’m a teacher, and it energized me to think of all these friends coming along on a journey to be an author. Seemed like a worthy legacy, so I sponsored the project. And I was right. It was a bit scary, but it was also one of the most inspiring projects I’ve ever participated in.

We created something extraordinary. We created something brave. And maybe it’s even a little crazy!

Yes, it is amazing

Amazing is something that makes you go WOW. This is why I think this book is a wow:

As far as I know, this is the first book created entirely by a Web3 community. The RISE community was brought together by a tokenized cryptocurrency, held together with NFTs, coordinated over Discord, and created by a decentralized global team that is benefiting equally from the success of their work. Even the book cover was created, in part, with generative artificial intelligence. So you’re witnessing a new era in book writing!

Second, the people who contributed to this book have more than 750 years of accumulated marketing experience. That’s a wow, right?

Third, this book breaks content barriers. Unfortunately, most business books these days are nothing more than a blog post with 240 pages of fluff. Not this one!

Every page is filled with original and helpful ideas from passionate professionals. I challenged my community friends to create insights, not just rehashed information you can find in a blog post somewhere. They delivered.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a small business owner trying to establish your first marketing strategy, get out your highlight marker. You’ll find some new ideas here! And it’s 100% human content. No ChatGPT or other AI was used to create the content of this book.

Finally, this is a book made with heart. There are many reasons to write a book. An author might want to make money, seek fame, or achieve a personal dream. This book is a celebration of the spirit of our community.

A fun book for every marketer …

There is so much knowledge jammed into this little book, you’re sure to find great ideas no matter where you are in your career. Here are a few of the nuggets you can discover in the Amazing book:

• Why you need to focus on the first hour after posting content on LinkedIn
• The importance of trigger-based lead nurturing
• Why the highest customer lifetime value might be associated with direct to consumer marketing
• The reason using words like “check out our deal” repels consumers.
• How obsession with metrics can actually undermine your business
• Why Google loves 2,000-word blog posts.
• How “purpose” can make or break a podcast
• The ideal length of videos for every social media channel
• The best formula for copywriting
• How to build a future-proof social media strategy
• TikTok’s most common recording errors
• The unexpected power of Twitter threads
• The traditional marketing channel that consistently delivers an ROI of 112%
• How word of mouth marketing is driven by 10% of the population
• How brands are already integrating into metaverse games and experiences
• Basic steps to integrate AI into your everyday marketing tasks.

That’s just a taste of the interesting morsels in the book. You’ll want to read it cover to cover!

But there’s more …

Not only did the community write and edit the book, they recorded a narrated chapter for an audiobook. My audio editor proclaimed that this was the most ambitious project she had ever tackled. 36 narrators? Insane.

But it worked! The result is singularly unique. Be prepared for a chapter from Ireland, Italy, Australia, and more. Each chapter is like the proverbial box of chocolates — you never know what you’re going to get!

This is not another book created by one voice, one mind. This is 36 people giving you their best effort and most unique ideas. Here are the authors and subjects covered:

• Marion Abrams (Podcasting)
• Lisa Apolinski (Customer experience)
• Larry Aronson (SEO)
• Victoria Bennion (Blogging)
• Joeri Billast (Web3 and NFTs)
• David Bisek (Branding)
• Richard Bliss (LinkedIn)
• Al Boyle (Copywriting)
• Julia Bramble (Twitter)
• Anna Bravington (Experiential Marketing)
• PepperBrooks (Inclusive Marketing)
• Marci Cornett (Marketing Research)
• Mandy Edwards (Facebook Strategy)
• Laura Vendeland Doman (YouTube and video)
• Robbie Fitzwater (eMail Marketing)
• Giuseppe Fratoni (Copywriting)
• M Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez, MBA (Instagram)
• Ian Anderson Gray (Livestreaming)
• Kami Huyse (Social Media Strategy)
• Mary Kathryn Johnson (Artificial Intelligence)
• Rob LeLacheur (Traditional advertising)
• Fiona Lucas (Community Building)
• Jules Morris (Digital Advertising)
• Scott Murray (Consumer Behavior)
• Daniel Nestle (Strategic Communications)
• Chad Parizman (Podcasting)
• Brian Piper (Metaverse)
• Frank Prendergast (Marketing Research)
• Sandee Rodriguez (Promotional Products)
• Mark Schaefer (Personal Branding)
• Bruce Scheer (Marketing Measurement)
• Zack Seipert (Influencer Marketing)
• Samantha Stone, (Marketing Strategy)
• Jeff Tarran (Direct Mail)
• Joanne Taylor (TikTok)

… like I said, something for everyone!

But it gets better

I guarantee this is one of the most useful and unusual books you will ever own!

I am extraordinarily proud of this book. I think it represents a breakthrough in community productivity and publishing. And please check out the RISE community. We have many other exciting projects and activities going on. Maybe you’ll be the star of our next event or project!

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

The post This is the Most Amazing Marketing Book. And I can prove it. appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

On the latest episode of The Marketing Companion, I decided to take a deep dive into the nooks and crannies of social media marketing, and there’s nobody better to accompany me than marketing genius Dennis Yu.

Dennis studies the art and science of social media success to the Nth degree and we get into some fascinating discussions that include:

• The ROI of a blue check mark
• The viral power of feel-good stories
• A social media platform that is killing it right now
• How social media platforms are using facial and image recognition to elevate content
• Why replay rate is the key to success on TikTok
• Insights into what’s happening with Meta and the metaverse

Dennis also shares a unique perspective on how search engines and social platforms are turning over information to the US government. But TikTok doesn’t have to … which could be influencing the government’s position with that platform.

Click here to listen to episode 270

Resources mentioned in this show

TikTok Advertising book

Blog post: Why hate is good for business

Ocean Spray cranberry juice case study

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post What is the ROI of a blue check mark? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

A the urging of my website advisor, I did some housekeeping here on the blog. It was time to sweep out some older blog posts that were either irrelevant or ignored by the world. But I came across a gem — An old list of marketing predictions!

In 2009, I made 12 marketing predictions about the future of social media. There wasn’t any timeframe specified … they were just predictions about “the future.” I thought it would be fun to give myself a report card and see how I did on the predictions.

To set the stage, in 2009, social media marketing was just creeping into the mainstream. There weren’t any big social media marketing conferences, nothing like “content marketing,” and nobody was using the term “influencers.” Measurement was almost impossible, blogging was a new rage, and Twitter was just building steam.

So as you read my marketing predictions, you’ll have to imagine a world where most companies didn’t even have a Twitter account yet! I summarized some of the marketing predictions to keep this article short, but you can see the original prediction post here.

The 2009 marketing predictions … and my “grade!”

1. “Hyper social measurement”

Back in 2009, social media marketing measurement was a huge problem. The metrics coming out of the newly-emerging social media platforms were terrible. I predicted that Google would become the gold standard for social media monitoring since they could see data and interactions across all channels. They would put social listening platforms out of business.

My grade: D

Google and Google Analytics did become an important source of marketing measurement, so my prediction is not quite a fail. However, today we rely on a mix of platform dashboards and third-party social listening platforms like the AI-powered Sprinklr to let us know what’s happening in the social media world.

2. Tapping into text messaging

In 2009, the one communication mode largely untouched by real-time search was text messaging. Text messages were a goldmine of information too big to ignore, especially if you’re a “cool-hunting” consumer products company.  I predicted that somehow companies would tap into this data, perhaps by incentivizing users to opt-in to rewards programs for their anonymized data.

My grade: B+

In fact, Facebook (Meta) did find a way to own much of the world’s private messaging through Messenger and WhatsApp.

Messenger was introduced in 2011, and WhatsApp in 2010. Another big cache of private messaging is occurring on Instagram (Meta) and TikTok.

Meta does not completely own the market on private messaging — we still send text messages — but the company is capturing data on 200 billion messages a day on Messenger and WhatsApp combined!

3. Real-time geo-sensitive coupons

In 2009, the idea that relevant ads would show up when you were in a certain location was still science fiction. I predicted that RFID technology, combined with GPS, would enable convenient, real-time deals, right down to the store shelf.

For example, if you pick up a blouse off of a rack, a message will direct you to the precise area of the store where you can find a matching skirt … on sale just for you.

My grade: B+

We’re not exactly at that “shelf-level” yet, but we will be. And we certainly have real-time, geo-appropriate ads coming to us based on the city we’re in or a road we’re driving on, so my prediction more or less came true.

4. Radical privacy movement

I predicted that the intense data gathering by Big Tech would result in privacy regulations, including the right to be excluded from Internet data-gathering mechanisms like cookies. I thought that there would be a backlash against Google because the company would eventually abuse its power.

My grade: A

Almost every country in the world has privacy regulations in place. We all have the ability to control privacy settings by law. With the eventual demise of cookies, this trend will continue. I would not say Google is the most hated company. That title would probably go to Facebook, but my reasoning was sound.

5. Man-machine interface.

Medical advances and social media platforms would converge.  We would be able to engage on social media with our thoughts. Humans will have markings like tattoos to display the premium, designer brand of devices embedded in their bodies. This will give new meaning to the tagline “Intel Inside.”

My grade: Too soon to tell

Remember, I wasn’t predicting something 10 or 20 years into the future. It was just something that would happen at some time. There have been incredible breakthroughs in tapping into brainwaves, so my prediction is certainly directionally correct.

6. We become the Internet.

Building on the last idea, as the ubiquity of the social web literally becomes part of our existence, we will no longer distinguish between listening, talking, and electronic communications. In our minds, there will be no more web. It will just be.

My grade: A

Look at how young people communicate today. They never think about logging into the internet. They are probably texting each other, even if they are in the same room. Lines of communication have blurred.

7. National ID validation.

The social web will become the exclusive source of consumer information, political research/policy development, and education systems. Because of the increasingly critical importance of this feedback and the opportunity for corruption, complex systems to prevent fraud will be needed, including a broadly-implemented government validation program that extends across all platforms.

My grade: C

Let’s put it this way. I correctly identified the problem, and we still need some kind of validation to prevent corruption and misinformation. Some countries have implemented a system like this, most notably India, but I’m not sure it could ever happen in the U.S.

8. Micro politics

Politicians will use real-time sentiment analysis to craft and re-craft voter appeals right up until the moment they enter a polling station. Political messaging will be nearly-instantaneous and tailored to individuals based on their private data.

My grade: A

I was 100% correct, unfortunately.

9. Extreme content

Journalism, film-making, and advertising agencies will thrive, much to the surprise of nearly everyone. The need for content on the social web will drive the digital evolution of these traditional professions, and “Content development and management” will become a popular career and college major. Salaries for the very best and most creative content providers will skyrocket as corporations raise the creative bar to cut through the clutter.

My grade: A

As every significant organization on earth competes for attention on the web, the need for quality creative content is insatiable. In fact, there is a content arms race. The sad and unsettling fact is that 90 percent of these jobs are now jeopardized by AI.

10. The “loner workforce.”

The cultural impact of the social web will have radical implications for managing the workforce of the future. We will have a dramatic increase in remote working. This will provide significant challenges for the managers of the future.

My grade A

Got an assist from the pandemic on this one, but a move to a remote workforce would have happened eventually.

11. Growing digital divide.

I predicted in 2009 that for many parts of the world, access to free, global communications will be the equalizer between rich and poor nations, especially as web-based translation services improve and encompass local dialects.

However, in countries where people cannot access the web, either for economic or political reasons, the digital divide will not only grow, it will become permanent because they will fall so far behind the technology curve they’ll never catch up. Digital commerce, innovation, and technology will be permanently dominated by those nations in the game NOW.

My grade: C

I don’t know about this one.

I was correct in predicting that many countries that were poor in 2009 would still be poor today due to corruption, oppression, and lack of free access to the web.

On the other hand, I’m not sure “ownership” and being a homebase for tech development matter to an individual’s freedom and opportunity in the long run.

In the early days of the web, France tried to create its own internet. It flopped, of course, but has the nation been disadvantaged because it didn’t own its own digital backbone? No.

There have been tech successes and innovations in almost every corner of the world.

Putting military advantages aside, most technological building blocks that help people become healthier, wealthier, wiser, and more creative are eventually available to everyone with an internet connection. At least for now, the hurdles to adoption might be language, education, and disabilities.

12. Pay for play

The 2009 prediction said: “Social media is free, but the cost of attracting consumer attention will become increasingly expensive, especially with the ability to skip ads. At some point, the cost per impression will be so high it will be less expensive to simply pay people to watch an ad.”

My grade: C

I think the wisdom here is that traditional ads (newspaper, radio, etc.) would decline, and companies would rush into digital, dramatically driving up the cost of online ads (true).

While paying people to watch ads isn’t a “thing” yet, there are certainly options like watching ads inside a game that earn points or exclusive content.

From an economic perspective, it probably makes no sense to actually pay people to watch ads all day, so the specific idea was silly, even though I got the trend right.

Final thoughts

First, thanks for obliging me with this walk down memory lane. I know the marketing predictions commentary was not the typical content you expect from me, and I’d love to hear your comments on it.

I did learn something from this exercise, and perhaps it’s something for you to think about, too.

Making a marketing prediction is merely a process of thinking through the implications of what I know to be true.

For example, I knew in 2009 that more and more work tasks could be completed on the internet. At some point, certain knowledge workers would not have to leave their homes for work, presenting new management challenges. Makes sense.

But here’s the problem I’m sensing with the world now. The rate of change is so fast and unpredictable compared to 2009, I don’t know how to know what is true.

Arguably the three biggest impacts on global business in the last two years have been a pandemic, a war, and a ship getting stuck in the Suez canal. Nobody saw this coming. Did anybody see ChatGPT coming? Even many analysts were surprised.

Last week I read that an analyst had predicted in December that it would take about seven years to cross a certain AI milestone. That milestone was crossed in three months! Yes, the speed of innovation is crazy right now! How do you make forecasts in a world like that?

My point is, so much change in the world is not only coming at us fast, it’s also unpredictable. While many of my marketing predictions from 2009 earned a B or above, I don’t know if I would have that track record going forward.

I suppose time will tell. You’ll just have to keep reading my next marketing predictions posts to find out!

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy Graphics Fairy

The post Grading 12 marketing predictions about the future appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Too short for a blog post, too cool to ignore, here are ten short observations on the marketing world worthy of your attention. Starting with … my first revenue from ChatGPT!

1. Revenue from ChatGPT

I just earned my first revenue from ChatGPT when a new client found me by searching for “top 10 marketing experts.” I tried this myself, and the list would shuffle on each query, but I was usually in the top ten. Also, I had friends try this in Europe, and the same names came up, all of them Americans by the way.

Why is this first revenue from ChatGPT significant?

1. Not only was this the first revenue from ChatGPT, but this might also be the first business that came to me via a search engine other than Google! It makes you reconsider the role of SEO in the ChatGPT world.
2. Microsoft is investing $10 billion in OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT. Microsoft owns Bing. Remember Bing?
3. Google has its own AI — perhaps the most powerful in the world — waiting in the wings. When will they unleash it on the world?

By the way, I assure you that I am NOT one of the top ten marketing experts in the world. Just in my own circle of friends, I can easily name ten people smarter than me. However, I have an effective personal brand, and that is everything in this world.

2. Building on that idea …

ChatGPT and other AI bots present an existential threat to many creators. I have shouted from the rooftops for years that working on your personal brand and the meaningful, emotional connection with your audience is the ONLY thing that can save you.

Here’s another lesson in personal branding.

One of the things I teach about in my Personal Branding Master Class is the importance of paying attention to qualitative data as a measure of your progress.

How do you know you are becoming “known?” This is an essential question, and the answer is not always found in a quantitative measure like revenue.

Keep a sharp eye on qualitative measures of success like:

• People finding you and asking questions
• Invitations to be a guest on a podcast or video
• Kind words about your content in a social media post or tweet
• Higher levels of engagement and social shares of your content

These are all signs you are becoming “known.” As long as this is happening, keep going!

It’s the same for me. I watch for qualitative signs of success. This week, I was mentioned in an article on The Drum alongside luminaries like Scott Galloway and Martin Lindstrom. I was asked to be on a Pew Research Futurist Panel with several Internet Hall of Fame pioneers. Could that have happened five years ago? No. These are important signposts of progress and leading indicators of future commercial success.

The personal branding journey is never over for any of us.

3. Evil uses of ChatGPT

A common “black hat” SEO technique was to scrape excellent content from other websites and re-publish without permission to drive ad sales on a crappy site. As Google improved, it detected these frauds and penalized the culprits.

I recently discovered a tricky new use of AI. The bots scrape original content and then use ChatGPT to re-write the copy just enough to make it seem like it’s original! Here’s a screenshot of my original post:

And here’s the AI-modified version:

The AI re-write is not very good, but it doesn’t have to be. It only has to be Google-sufficient to build authority and attract eyeballs to this site. The only way I discovered this is because my friend John Espirian was mentioned in the article and he got an alert that his name was being used in an article.

Where corruption can occur, corruption will occur!

4. The story of my life

5. My go-to application

When people ask about the best apps I use on my job, I have a boring answer: Excel spreadsheets and WordPress!

However, I am also a huge fan of SEMrush. I am NOT a paid “influencer” for the platform, but I just honestly love it because it saves me time and money. Three ways I use it nearly every day:

1. Detailed competitive research for my clients
2. Reports on content and keywords that inspire content plans
3. Analysis of my website performance with detailed action plans. Years ago, I used to pay $500/month to a person just for this one report!

6. But I LIKE my dance moves …

This week I had a great conversation with Dana Malstaff. Dana is a true business visionary and I devoted an entire chapter to her in my book Belonging to the Brand.

She was talking to me about where she publishes content and in regard to TikTok said, “I want to be known for my brains, not my dance moves.”

Now Dana knows there are deep layers to TikTok and it is an important social media channel. But she is just one person creating content for her entrepreneurial business and she knows that WHERE you show up and HOW you show up are important.

Similarly, my Marketing Companion co-host Jay Acunzo announced this week that he is leaving Instagram. I hate that because Jay is an entertaining storyteller, but he explained it is taking too much time and distracting from his core business.

To have an effective online presence, you have to be great, and you can’t be great in five places. Be intentional about where you spend your time.

7. An important lesson in one photo

Carrying the “where you show up” discussion even further, this ad should inspire discussions on several levels.

I think this is amazing. Sir Elton is creating relevance within a new generation.

8. What happened to voice marketing?

A few years ago, many were claiming that voice-activated bots were the next big commerce platform, emphasizing the importance of Amazon’s Alexa and Echo.

This is one of the big mysteries of the marketing universe: Why Alexa and other voice assistants never rose above the level of voice-activated clock radios. I mean, Siri still spells everything wrong, and I haven’t used Alexa in two years. I recently just remembered that I had one.

Amazon just announced a 10,000-person layoff, and apparently, this has hit the Alexa team heavily. News accounts reported that Alexa has little developer activity or commerce usage any more.

There is SO MUCH progress on AI and audio applications. How did this fail so badly? Is this a case of bad timing? Bad marketing? Or was Alexa just a bad idea? Would love to hear your views on that.

9. Keeping in touch with all of you!

Last month I opened up my calendar for any blog reader who wanted to talk to me. For two days, I met amazing people in back-to-back 20-minute meetings. It was SO MUCH fun!

If I had to point to one theme of these discussions, it would be “relevance.” How do we stay relevant amid this hurricane of change? Keeping up with this crazy rate of change is on a lot of minds.

I loved spending time with so many interesting people from around the world, and I will probably open up my calendar again in the summer. In the meantime, anybody can sign up for an hour to talk to me about their business problems. I’m always accessible to you.

10. An insight on viral

I’ve been blogging every week since 2009 and had my most significant “viral hit” last month. Although I first posted this article on my blog, for some reason, it really took off on when I posted it on Medium. The article:

20 Entertaining Uses of ChatGPT you never knew were possible

Here is the lesson. This work was created by a collaboration of friends from my RISE community, not an AI bot. I am certain this post would never have achieved its viral status if I had written it alone or composed it with ChatGPT prompts.

Humans for the win!

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration generated by MidJourney

The post I just earned my first revenue from ChatGPT and other observations appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

The other day a friend told me how she was planning to fight the encroachment of artificial intelligence tools replacing writing, graphic design, and other human creator skills. “It’s taking the heart and soul out of our work,” she proclaimed. “This is nothing less than an existential crisis presented by AI.”

It took me an hour to talk her off her cliff.

But perhaps you’re feeling some of this anxiety and sadness, too. I’ve thought about this a lot. HUMAN skills are being effortlessly replaced by AI. If you’re a creator, you’d have to be a sponge-like creature at the bottom of the Mariana Trench NOT to have an emotional reaction to what’s going in.

So let me share some calming thoughts with you today. Yes, there is an existential crisis presented by AI. Let’s deal with it in a rational and productive way and come out stronger on the other side. Today I will put our challenge in the context of three lessons … and provide a solution at the end.

Lesson one: The story of the calculator.

I’m old enough to remember the profound controversy that erupted when low-cost personal calculators became adopted in the 1980s. Suddenly, any person could solve complex math problems, even if they were terrible at math.

The educational system was the first battleground for this new threat. Teachers asked questions like:

• Is it fair to let students use this technology on homework? In the classroom? On tests?
• If we assign a project, how will we know if students are “cheating” by using the calculator?
• Do students still need to learn math?

Those questions probably sound familiar because they are the same questions posed about technologies like ChatGPT and DALL-E today.

So what happened with the calculators? They took over the math scene.

1. Everyone became a competent mathematician.
2. Calculating technology has become integrated into our daily lives. We don’t even need calculators. The math is done for us on websites and spreadsheets.
3. In a way, calculators became a second brain for us. Instead of math, we could spend that time doing something more productive. I haven’t done long-form math to solve a problem in more than 20 years. I am perfectly happy with that.

Lesson one: Content-generating AI is here to stay … and it’s going to become exponentially better. It’s incredibly useful. It’s already being integrated into everything. You have no choice but to embrace it and use it to your advantage.

Lesson two: An industry disrupted.

When ChatGPT was released, I immediately called my friend Shelly Palmer, an acclaimed tech analyst.

I published our discussion as a podcast episode and blog post, and he explained how this development paralleled disruption in the music industry. Before 1986, recording music required a band, singers, and perhaps an orchestra. Within a year of the advent of digital music production, half of all professional musicians lost their jobs.

“People claim this AI development isn’t like that,” he said. “No, it’s EXACTLY like that. This will replace a lot of content creator jobs.”

But there’s also a lesson about personal survival here.

In Shelly’s example, the “commodity” studio musicians lost their jobs. But the most-respected songwriters, producers, and technicians thrived. So did the elite musicians whose improvisational talent and technical acuity were always in demand.

If you’re providing “information” in your job, you will probably be replaced. If you’re providing valuable “insight” and improvisation like those star musicians, you’ll still have a bright future.

Information loses. Insights win.

Lesson three: Everybody writes. Literally.

I recently reviewed Ann Handley’s wonderful new edition of her book “Everybody Writes.” Ann launched this just days before ChatGPT took over the world (two million subscribers in 10 days!). She probably had no idea that with AI, literally everybody writes!

Just as the calculator made everybody competent at math, artificial intelligence makes everybody competent — perhaps even excellent — at writing, art, and video production. One friend posted online: “I don’t have a creative bone in my body. Now I’m creating fantastic art.” He is selling his art as an NFT collection.

Similarly, a busy friend who never had time to write now finds her thoughts are being expressed beautifully through ChatGPT in mere seconds. “I am going to write a blog post every day!” she said. “I’m going to write a book!”

Creativity has been unleashed everywhere. This is life-changing stuff.

And then … there is me. I worked for decades to become an excellent writer. I was a journalism major, a communications professional, a blogger since 2009, an author of 10 books. I put in the work to be an effective and respected writer.

Then came the shock of my career: I asked ChatGPT to write a specific essay that would have been appropriate for my new book Belonging to the Brand, complete with academic references. And, oh yeah, write it in the voice of Mark Schaefer.

The darn thing did it. It did it very well. In five seconds.

I felt depressed thinking about the months I spent writing that new book. While the bot could not have come up with the vision and insights that form the book’s thesis, and it can’t pepper the narrative with meaningful childhood stories, ChatGPT could have done much of the heavy lifting and saved me weeks of time — weeks of my life!

Sure, people will find dumb AI mistakes, create funny posts about it, and we’ll all have a laugh. They probably laughed about the first cars and telephones, too. But let’s not lose sight that ChatGPT is damn near miraculous in its ability to create effective content (and so much more!)

We need to be intellectually honest, swallow our pride, use this tool boldly, and then leverage the new time savings to build new greatness for our businesses.

While there is an existential crisis presented by AI to professional writers like me, I’m not too worried. There is hope for you and me …

This is what saves us.

As far as I can tell, there are three strategies to help us survive the existential crisis presented by AI.

1. The personal brand is everything.

For nearly a decade, I’ve been screaming from the rooftops that you need to be working on your personal brand.

I’m not worried about my place in the changing world because I have an emotional connection with you. You read this blog because you presumably know me, trust me, and like my ideas. Some of you have been reading this blog for more than a decade and will continue to do so no matter what happens with our robotic overlords.

My personal brand will save me. It will save you too. In fact, I think it is the ONLY thing that can protect you in an environment where important life skills are commoditized.

If you have not taken your personal brand seriously, you must. As you may know, I have a popular course that can get you started in the right direction. It’s the best course of its kind anywhere:

2. Pivot now.

I talked to a guy the other day trying to start a new career as a corporate blogger. In fact, he spent quite a bit of time and $10,000 on some course promising to teach him how to become a professional blogger (whatever that is). He is unknown in his profession and has no special expertise.

I gave him a demonstration of ChatGPT by creating a post on a topic of his choice — in five seconds. Of course he was amazed. I then had to explain to him that he was probably unemployable. That was really, really hard to do. I’ve never said those words to anybody before in my life.

His next question was, “but where can I get a job?”

He’s not accepting reality. He needs to pivot into something else. Maybe you do, too.

Even if this fellow is an excellent writer, most companies don’t need excellent writers. They need Google-sufficient writers. ChatGPT is Google-sufficient.

I know, I know. Corporate storytelling, epic content, and blah blah blah. Sure, we need some of that. But 95 percent of corporate content is simply Google-sufficient.

I urge you to have a clear-eyed view of what is happening. If you think the emerging AI tools will not impact your career (for better or worse), you’re wrong. Learn enough to know what you need to do next.

A resource to help you would be the book Cumulative Advantage, which discusses strategies to become newly relevant against all odds.

3. Own it.

I’m guessing there were thousands of people in calculator denial in the 1980s. They embarked on a Sisyphean struggle to hold the line on long-form math. Resistance was futile. Or, maybe it’s still happening on a Reddit thread somewhere!

The point is, the people and institutions that integrated mathematical automation into their business were so far ahead of the resisters.

For the first time, AI has poked its head out of secretive laboratories and made a home in our lives. It’s fun and easy. With a little practice and creativity, you can develop exciting new ideas. I talked a lot about writing in this post, but ChatGPT can help unclog marketing bottlenecks in customer service, research, data analysis, engagement, and planning, to name a few areas.

Resource that can help — This site catalogs unexpected and amazing uses of ChatGPT. You’ll learn something new here and maybe reimagine how you create content and tackle everyday marketing tasks!

And here is a very short and basic tutorial on Dall-E image generation.

BTW, the image at the top of the post today was created using the prompt: “friendly robot helping a smiling black woman who is working on a laptop computer, style of disney.”

I really like the image on this post and AI has helped me make this content more fun and interesting for you. In 10 seconds!

Final thoughts: The existential crisis presented by AI

I do not have all the answers to the existential crisis presented by AI. I have a feeling this is going to be a topic on this blog for a long time. As always, I may not be an expert, but I will take you along on my learning journey.

You might have noticed a new tag I used on the blog today that says “100% Human Content.” I’m trying it out as an assurance that everything on this blog was written by me. If I use AI, I will be transparent about it. I’ll eventually integrate AI content into my work (taking my own medicine!) once I get over the guilt of employing a machine to do my work.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration generated by MidJourney

The post How to deal with the existential crisis presented by AI appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

In the latest episode of The Marketing Companion, Mark Schaefer and Mathew Sweezey of Salesforce select the most impactful marketing moments of 2022 and peer into what’s ahead for 2023.

Highlights include:

• The best commercial of the year
• What the crypto collapse means to marketing
• Will AR overwhelm VR as the metaverse champion?
• The phenomenal impact of having 2 million people on ChatGPT
• The best interactive experiences of the year
• Why social media will be reimagined in 2023

Join the fun!

Click on this link to listen to hear Episode 262

Other ways to enjoy our podcast

• Try this! “Alexa, play the latest episode of The Marketing Companion.”
• Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe on iTunes
• Listen to us on iHeart Radio
• Find us on Google Play
• Find the podcast on Stitcher
• Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide

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The post Big Marketing Ideas for 2023 and Beyond appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

A few short items for you today. Too short for a blog post, too big to ignore. Let’s start with a news item showing that we could be heading into a golden age for freelance content creators.

Digiday reported that more agencies are outsourcing their content needs to freelance creators as the work becomes more challenging.

A research report showed that 71 percent of in-house marketers and 68 percent of agencies are outsourcing their content needs to freelance creators. They also reported that the most effective type of content for driving results seems to be blog posts (!). They pointed to these freelance advantages:

• Flexible resources
• Specific industry knowledge
• Lower cost
• Metrics to connect content to sales

The demand for content is rising, with 86 percent of agencies agreeing that there is an increasing need, and the majority of them are further investing in content marketing in the long run. With economic pressures in 2023 and the threat of bot content, this is good news indeed for the freelance crowd.

Creators for the win

YouTube creator Jimmy Donaldson (Mr. Beast) is raising $150 mm at a $1.5 billion valuation. He has 108 mm subscribers and his latest video had 47 million views, which would make him 25 times bigger than Fox News. If that doesn’t speak to the power of the personal brand, I don’t know what does.

Book learning

I learned something interesting this week. I’ve often said that writing a book is like getting a master’s degree — at least the way I approach it! Now that I’m nearing the end of the writing journey for my next book, when I look back at the first chapters, they need an upgrade. I’m smarter now than I was at the beginning of the process!

Another slap in the Face … book

Surprising precisely no one, Facebook will shut down its invite-only newsletter service, which was started in the great newsletter hype/panic moment last year. You might recall they were paying influencers and artists to write essays through their subscription service.

No company on earth has jerked creators around more than Facebook. And they wonder why young people are abandoning the platform.

Solid advice.

Always learning!

Gave the closing keynote address at a conference in Suriname, a small and lovely country in South America. The audience was so wired and enthusiastic! Truly a ton of fun. However, I made a big mistake.

I searched Google for an image of the Suriname football (soccer) team in action to add some local flavor to a slide. I picked the best action picture and thought this would create a great reaction. But the crowd sat there a little stunned.

It was a picture of the US team.

The front of the jersey was not visible in the photo. Apparently, Google was delivering USA photos to me even though I was sitting in Suriname and searching for Suriname!

It was embarrassing but I made fun of myself and announced “Damn you Google!” to the audience. This ended up as one of the most popular parts of my speech! People commented that it was nice to see somebody vulnerable on stage. Many people even thought it was purposeful!

Something ALWAYS goes wrong at a speech and the more you speak, the more you learn about handling adversity with grace.

Tok power

In my classes, I’ve stated that TikTok is the most significant addition to the social media scene since Facebook. There are layers of depth to the platform that make it significant. Here’s another piece of proof: Pew Research reports that a small but growing share of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on TikTok.

This is in contrast with many other social media sites, where news consumption has either declined or stayed about the same in recent years.

In just two years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has roughly tripled, from 3 percent in 2020 to 10 percent in 2022. Also bigger than Fox News!

A lot of people are worried about how China is collecting data through TikTok. Shouldn’t we be more worried that millions of people are getting their news through TikTok?

Ah, Twitter

I have always loved Twitter. But it is becoming clear that Elon Musk spent $44 billion without a plan. Unless his plan has been to destroy it.

Of all the mistakes he has made, perhaps the worst is the clumsy firing of key employees. The capacity of Twitter’s engineering team to keep it alive and safe has been savaged. Even if he wanted to re-build, who would work in that toxic culture of fear?

Useful nugget

Did you know that Google’s PageSpeed Insights page pagespeed.web.dev will give you a free and near-instant score for the mobile and desktop versions of your website? Thank you to John Espirian for this reminder.

Sort of my personal code:

Have a great week everyone!

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. 

Illustration generated by AI courtesy MidJourney

The post Could this be the golden age of freelance (and other timely observations) appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.