I’ve been in the content marketing business for a long time. And as Wheels Up Collective’s Head of Content and Managing Editor, let’s just say my perspective on ChatGPT has been… evolving.
Listen, I know I have a tendency to resist new technologies longer than is actually useful.
When digital cameras first came out, I accused photographers using them of “cheating.” I did the same when Wacom released their first digital drawing pad. And again, when everyone started getting keyboardless iPhones, I held onto my Sidekick as long as I possibly could.
I’d like to think that as I get older, I get wiser—and that I learn from my mistakes. But I’ll admit, when everyone first started using ChatGPT, I felt that familiar bubbling of stubborn resistance. (Perhaps because everyone kept telling me it would take my job?)
I’m happy to report: I don’t feel as much of that resistance now. And, in some important ways, I’ve embraced ChatGPT as a daily tool.
Here’s a quick recap of my views.
Will ChatGPT Take My Job?
It’s a valid concern. After all, it’s the urgent headline appearing all across the news. And when I asked the tool itself what jobs it can take over, mine appeared first on its list. (Cocky @$$ robot.)
But after using the tool daily for about a year? I gotta say, to replace me, it’s got a long way to go.
Here’s why:
ChatGPT sucks at strategy
Its responses are predictable
The content it produces is homogeneous and will never stand out
It’s actually a really bad copy editor (it gives me wrong answers to grammatical questions all the time)
It sucks at citing sources
Oftentimes, it just makes stuff up
I do think ChatGPT will completely take over some basic writing tasks, especially where short, easy phrases are written in bulk. Think: social media captions, ad text, and the like.
But replacing the human work completely? It’s not happening any time soon.
Is ChatGPT Any Good at Writing?
As a writer, I find ChatGPT to be both immensely useful and tragically bad. It all depends on how you’re using it.
For full-length assets like blogs, articles, and such, I’m not a fan. ChatGPT’s writing style is overly poetic (flowery without adding intrigue or value), too passive, repetitive, and vague.
It’s “thrilled” to announce everything. You’re always “in the realm” of something. And it grossly overuses verbs like “unveil” and “dive into.”
If you let it, ChatGPT will use the following structure for every single sentence in your blog: “SUBJECT not only VERBs, but also VERBs, VERB-ING OBJECT OUTCOME.”
Robust product descriptions not only inform potential buyers, but also provide factual details buyers need, compelling them to make swifter purchase decisions.
It’s a fine sentence structure now and again. On the 8th sentence in a row? I want to scream.
You can overcome some of this by instructing ChatPT to be more direct, to keep the sentences short, and to use a more professional tone. But often, the tool just swings too hard the other way. Then you have to prompt it back the other direction. In the time it takes to get the right output and edit it for a human touch, I’m sure any writer worth their salt could’ve written 2 or 3 original pieces by themselves.
That said, ChatGPT does a really decent job at some stuff. It writes really stellar poetry, first of all. Didn’t see that coming.
It’s also good at subject lines, headlines, ad copy, and social media captions. It does a nice job of formulaic pieces like press releases and professional announcements. If you give it a bulleted list of facts, it can put them all together quite nicely.
So, it’s not completely without its skills.
What Is ChatGPT Most Useful For?
As much as I’ve thrown shade at ChatGPT today, I honestly do find the tool very useful. I often ask for the AI’s help with:
Brainstorming, like for an article I wrote on Manatees recently:
Organizing existing information, like I did with this bio:
It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing to start from.
Making quick, specific edits to short text:
Answering my random questions:
Sometimes, I just want to get ChatGPT’s take on things:
And often, I get ideas about how to convey something to a beginner audience by asking ChatGPT how it defines a super-familiar-to-me term:
Overall, I’d say ChatGPT and I have become friends. The always-open tab in my browser tells me this tool absolutely has its place. But we’re still working with real, human writers here at Wheels Up Collective. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Do you have content marketing ideas you’d like to discuss? Drop us a line. Karla is always game for a chat.
