Category: content

Why are you so scared of AI?

The word 'intelligence' chiselled into a boulder
CC image via flickr: David Bruce

You could be forgiven for thinking we currently live in an Issac Asimov-inspired world, given the recent headlines about how artificial intelligence (AI) is going to take over your job.

And, it’s true that some jobs will be replaced by new technology – but that’s nothing new. For centuries, something else has arrived and upset the existing order.

I’m not even talking about the past 50 years – do you think the invention of the spinning jenny in the 18th century was greeted warmly by those who were manually employed to spin cotton?

I work in an industry where, theoretically, I should be worried this time. The arrival of ChatGPT seems to spell the death knell for people who play with words for a living. After all, enter the prompt: “write a 500-word blog post about the threat of artificial intelligence to those working in the creative industries” and it spits out a coherent, fairly well-written piece. Continue reading “Why are you so scared of AI?”

Do you know what’s going on in the world – and how do you find out?

Sunday newspapers
CC image via flickr: Bernard Goldbach

If I told you that Burkina Faso has just seen its second military coup in eight months, would that be a surprise?

Did you know that Finland and Sweden have recently applied to join NATO, as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

And how about the fact that Egypt and Mexico are both bidding to hold the 2036 Olympics?

Without wishing to throw shade on your global knowledge, I’d be hugely surprised if you knew about all three (or possibly any) of those stories, despite the fact they’re big news for the nations concerned.

And that’s because we all live in news or filter bubbles. Some of those are of our own making and some are constructed without us knowing about it. Continue reading “Do you know what’s going on in the world – and how do you find out?”

How to make your evergreen content work for you

This Tuesday I spoke at the Marketing Week Content Strategy 2.0 Conference about the power of evergreen content and why you need to make more of it.

The Italian polymath Vilfredo Pareto came up with his famous principle in 1906 that says that 80% of your output comes from just 20% of the effort.

In content terms, on your website there will be those key pages or sections that make up the bulk of your traffic.

And yet many of us ignore them and fail to sanity check them or try to optimise them, preferring to focus on ‘shiny’ new campaigns.
Continue reading “How to make your evergreen content work for you”