editor, Author at Mediastreet

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There Is a Bright Future for AI-Driven Integration

December 20, 2023 No Comments

A look at how an integration layer completes AI applications and how integrations can be done better with the help of AI.

AI is reshaping the enterprise landscape. Already, developer productivity, digital labour, email marketing, website creation, etc., seem ripe for a major transformation. It is also well understood that general AI foundation models like GPT4 and Falcon-40B need to be fine-tuned or prompt-tuned for enterprise-specific tasks, and therefore must be fed some curated data that allows for some subset of the parameters to be “adjusted,” or output changed based on new task information given in prompts.

However, training the models is one thing. Enterprise applications today live and die on access to current enterprise data. For example, an e-commerce website might return the status of the orders of a logged-in customer. Or a chat application might process the return of a product. In neither of these cases can anything useful be done without real connectivity to ( integration with) one or more enterprise applications. First, we’ll speak to how an integration layer completes AI applications.

In addition, these integrations do not magically appear. They have to be coded, and they have to be tested and maintained. Later, we’ll speak to how integrations can be done better with the help of AI.

AI Without Integration is Incomplete

How would an AI application return useful information? AI without integration is like fish without water.

In the above figure, a natural language question, “When will my package arrive?” will need to be parsed by a foundation model, and generate a GraphQL request that then accesses an enterprise data source (and in this case, third-party systems such as FedEx), and then the response needs to be used as the input to generate the output.

The above example, while simple, shows that AI foundation models must be complemented by integration and API technologies. As readers of articles from one of the authors know, we have a particular bias for GraphQL APIs. And in this case, they are especially useful since the AI application can be trained to call one universal GraphQL API, and not have to deal with the subtleties of formats and authorizations and sideways information passing if the application were to learn multiple backends.

Integration Without AI is Incomplete

However, the complement to the above is that the opposite is also true. For each of the personas and task sets in the integration space, there are benefits in the application of AI:

Integration personas in the API management domain

Developers are the primary focus of this effort in the industry today. Prior to the rise of AI, domains like API management and application integration have already evolved toward low code/no code tooling for creating integrations, enabling citizen developers with less skill and experience to use them. AI provides the ability to further augment and empower those developers in more advanced or historically specialist scenarios.
Administrators, operations folks and site reliability engineers (SREs) of integration deployments will also benefit from the application of AI. Anomaly detection on operational metrics such as API response codes, transaction rate, queue depth and on system logs are all scenarios that machine learning models are well evolved to support – and provide the administrator a sixth sense to observe and maintain the health of a system.
Product managers and business owners often being on the less technical end of the spectrum also benefit from the low-code and generative capabilities described above, supporting them to self-serve their needs for query and analysis of data to identify business trends and new revenue streams.

In all cases there are various aspects that require close watching as AI technology matures:

First, the models have to be trustworthy. The art and science of trust in AI is being created rapidly, but of course, the rate and pace of innovation in the core AI algorithms is moving even faster. At some point in time, the trust research will have to catch up with the model research.

Related to this is determinism and repeatability. In scenarios such as generating a mapping between two data objects, it is not desirable that a different mapping be created each time you ask the same question, and yet that is the case today for many foundation models as they balance probability between multiple competing options.

Critical to the effectiveness of AI capabilities is correctness. There are many well-known examples where content generated by AI is plausible at first glance, but flawed in practice. As such, today a skilled expert is often still needed to review, debug and rectify the AI-generated artefact, but as the technology matures, we expect to see growing confidence in the validity of the output that will reduce the need for human oversight.

Next, the cost of inferencing, which is often not talked about, will become the dominant OpEx, and enterprises will have to learn to trade off the size of the model and the size of the prompt (linear and quadratic influences respectively on the cost of inferencing) with the quality of the output (is it worth going from a 8B parameter model to 100B parameter model for a 2% lift in the quality of the output)?

Sensitivity of data ownership is also a key concern for many enterprises. Foundation models work most effectively when they can be trained using the largest corpus of available examples, but if those examples contain sensitive customer information or represent a competitive advantage to the enterprise, then care must be taken in how that data will be further used by the model owner.

Summary

There is a bright future for AI-driven integration, both in the application of integration to provide access to enterprise data for use by AI tools and also for application of AI to benefit the delivery of integration scenarios.

We will be publishing a whole series of articles on the topic of the influence of AI on APIs and integration, and as some of you might know, StepZen was acquired by IBM, so we will be bringing on some additional API and integration experts, such as Matt Roberts, the CTO for IBM’s Integration portfolio.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock.

By Anant Jhingran and Matt Roberts

Anant is the founder and CEO of StepZen, a startup with a new approach for simplifying the way developers access the data they need to power digital experiences. With a career that spans IBM Fellow, CTO of IBM’s Information Management…

Sourced from THENEWSTACK

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4 Ways To Use ChatGPT To Make Money on Twitter

December 19, 2023 No Comments

By Karen Doyle

Many tech and finance experts are talking about ChatGPT and how it is revolutionizing content creation. But can you actually use ChatGPT, or another AI tool, to make money on social media? You can, in fact, and here’s what you need to know about using ChatGPT to make money on Twitter (now X).

Affiliate Marketing

Companies use affiliate marketing to broaden their reach so they can get their message out to more consumers. If you have a lot of followers on Twitter (now X) you can sell other company’s products by promoting them on your feed. For every order the company gets through your tweets, they’ll pay you.

This arrangement requires that you choose a product or products to sell on Twitter, and every time a sale is made through one of your posts, you get a commission. To find products to sell, sign up for an affiliate marketplace like JVZoo or ClickBank. Then you can browse the available products and choose which one(s) you want to promote.

You can then use ChatGPT or another AI tool to create your posts. As with anything that you’re doing with AI, the key is to compose the prompt correctly. You want to be sure that your post sounds natural — like it’s actually coming from you — and that it represents the product accurately. You may have to try a few times to get it right.

Blogging

Successful bloggers know that it’s all about the volume of content — the more you can post, the more money you can earn. But writing all those posts yourself takes time. You can use ChatGPT to create blog posts much more quickly than you could write them yourself. You can ask ChatGPT to create a blog post and you can even ask for the post to be in your style or voice.

As a hypothetical example: If Chris Smith has a blog called “Cooking with Chris,” Smith could prompt ChatGPT to “write a blog post with instructions on how to bake sugar cookies from scratch in the style of Chris Smith of Cooking with Chris.” Plugins such as VoxScript allow ChatGPT to browse the internet to familiarize the model with Chris’ previous work, or several blogs can be fed to the AI manually to form a basis. Then, all Chris needs to do is verify that the recipe is accurate (trying it would be a good idea) and then post it.

E-Books

ChatGPT can help with writing e-books as well. When using AI to generate an e-book, it’s best to start with an outline. Determine the number of chapters or sections you want your e-book to have, and what each chapter or section should cover. You can write a detailed prompt for the entire e-book at once or break it up and do one section or chapter at a time. It is likely, due to current constraints, that several pieces will have be done separately and then assembled later down the line.

Be sure to review the copy carefully to make sure it flows properly and isn’t redundant, particularly if you’re using different prompts for each section. Once the copy is generated, you can write another prompt for an introduction and conclusion.

Promoting your e-book on Twitter requires that you have a following, of course, and that you are recognized as an authority in the subject you’re writing about. If that’s the case, you can use ChatGPT to write a post advertising your e-book and start selling!

All of these ways to make money on Twitter with ChatGPT come with the same caveat: any artificial intelligence tool is a data gathering tool. It’s up to you, as the owner of the Twitter account, to ensure that the content you are posting is accurate and doesn’t violate any of Twitter’s rules. Most importantly, it has to be content that you stand behind. Checking the sources is imperative, because you can lose your hard-earned credibility quickly by posting something without verifying the validity of information

feature image credit: Vertigo3d / Getty Images

By Karen Doyle

Sourced from GOBankingRates

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20 Tips For Mastering The Art Of The 60-Second Company Story

December 19, 2023 No Comments

Sourced from Forbes

The ability to convey your company’s essence and mission in 60 seconds or less is a skill that can make or break your success. The art of crafting a concise and compelling company story becomes invaluable when you only have a minute to capture someone’s attention.

To help entrepreneurs do this effectively, 20 Forbes Business Council members share their best tips for captivating audiences, convey a brand’s unique identity and leave a lasting impression in those critical first moments of engagement. Here’s how they recommend condensing your narrative without sacrificing its impact.

1. Understand What Makes Your Company ‘Tick’

Spend as much time (with as much rigor at play) gaining clarity about not just your company, but also understanding what makes it really tick. What is at the core of the business or is central to it? Then, figure out what aspect of it will appeal to your target group the most effectively and how to convey that aspect in a particular manner. This makes it really easy to articulate the company’s story in as little time as possible. – Xavier Prabhu, PRHUB

2. Know Your Target Audience

When you’re trying to speak to everyone, you run the risk of not resonating with anyone. So, don’t be afraid to be specific—know your target audience, their pain points and the problem your company solves. You can craft your message from there and edit, edit, edit until you’ve got your pitch. – Erica Jain, Healthie

3. Avoid Sharing The Whole Story

Leave them wanting more. Everyone knows that a good story takes longer than 60 seconds to tell, but if you can focus on getting them hooked in those first 60 seconds, there’s a good chance you’ll get more time to tell your story. Don’t get too caught up in trying to cram everything into your elevator pitch. Instead, think about what will spark follow-up questions and curiosity. – Howard Makler, Innovation Refunds

4. Get To The Heart Of Your Story

When it comes to sharing your company’s tale in under a minute, my go-to advice is simple: Dive into the heart of your story. Bring out the values that drive your team, the passion fuelling your journey and the distinct issue your company tackles. Spin a narrative that tugs at the heartstrings with the aim of creating a memorable impact on everyone who listens. – Linda Obi, Afrihealth Ltd

5. Ensure Your Purpose Is Reflected In Your Brand

Your purpose as a founder needs to be reflected in the brand and company you have created. When those two are aligned, not only does the story become crystal clear, but it also grips the listener on a different level. If it is hard work creating the 60-second pitch, something does not align yet. – Barbara Wittmann, IT Zeitgeist LLC

6. Share Your Core Beliefs And Values

Discussing my core beliefs and values has always been a successful approach. I incorporate these principles into my elevator pitch, skillfully linking the conclusion back to the inherent essence of the brand or company DNA. This strategic alignment not only strengthens the impact of the narrative, but also emphasizes a deep connection between personal convictions and organizational identity. – Dr. Nimish G. Patel, HBS Investment Group

7. Be Authentic And Transparent

Be authentic and transparent about your intention while leading with your “why” and ending with your “how.’ People don’t remember what you say but they will remember how you say it. – Ariya Malek, Educational Awakening Center

8. Take Time To Explain Unclear Parts Of Your Story

Keep the obvious parts short and use your time to explain the nonobvious parts. What these parts are will depend on your specific business. For example, some businesses don’t need to spend a lot of time pitching their market size because everyone already knows the market is huge (e.g., food, health care, education, etc.). – Yanick Steinbeck, bilateralstimulation.io

9. Focus On The Facts

Stick to the facts and be authentic! It is very easy for someone to get engaged if the story is coming from an authentic place as opposed to someone trying to sell their company to someone. I also believe that if you stick to the facts, it will be easier to condense years of blood, sweat and tears of how and why an organization is the way it is in 60 seconds. – Jordan DeBrincat Mintzas, Altree Developments

10. Condense Your Key Benefits

Condense your key benefits concisely. Do it with a story by crafting a narrative that evokes tangible emotions. Don’t worry; 60 seconds is enough if you explain to them like they are fifth graders. – Nikola Minkov, Serpact

11. Focus On A Relatable Core Message

To convey your company’s story in 60 seconds, focus on a relatable core message. Emphasize unique value and problem-solving and use a compelling narrative delivered with a passion for a lasting impression. – Shashidhar Reddy Keshireddy, CEPTUA IT INC

12. Remember Why You Started The Business

I would advise people to not forget your purpose or why you started the business in the first place. If you can be clear on who and what you are and speak from the heart, it is a lot easier to tell your story. Don’t try and be everything to everyone; instead, know your purpose. – Cathleen Anthony, LifeSpring Home Nutrition

13. Articulate The Problem Your Company Solves

The first step has to be connecting emotionally to the brand to figure out the best way to share its story. Understand your audience in order to articulate the problem your company solves. Craft a concise narrative by finding a compelling story with an actionable takeaway. Be clear and leave your audience with no questions to ask. – Archer Chiang, Giftpack

14. Identify A Compelling Story Element That Resonates

Start by defining your target audience—potential investors, customers or partners. Once you know your audience, identify the single most compelling element of your story that will resonate with them. Craft your narrative around this core hook in plain, conversational language. Share just enough context to make your key point tangible and memorable. Leave your audience eager to engage further. – Chirali Jain, ByDesign

15. Ensure Your Story Evokes Empathy

Be authentic and ensure that the story resonates and invokes empathy by answering the following questions: What do you do? What problem do you solve? How do you help customers in a unique way? Clarify the help you need. Closely knitting the answers to the above questions combined with authenticity and empathy as core values will be a key tip I suggest for crafting a 60-second story. – Venkat Rao, Pitney Bowes

16. Focus On Key Company Aspects

Focus on the key aspects of your company, inclusing why you exist, the problem you solve, how you do it and your unique advantages. Condense and convey this essence succinctly in a 60-second narrative to engage your audience and make an impression. Your story should be clear, easily understandable and substantive to capture your audience’s interest and leave a lasting impact. – Jekaterina Beljankova, WALLACE s.r.o

17. Start With The Full Story

I would suggest starting with the full story. Then cut half the words, then again and again until you hit 60 seconds. That way, you are starting with the whole concept first rather than potentially cutting important information by worrying about the length of time you have. – Gary Romano, Civitas Strategies

18. Make It Personal

Nowadays, someone might say, “Ask ChatGPT.” While that’s going to be more and more common, it’s important that you are telling your story, not a generalization. People care when it’s personal and when it means something to you. So yes, feel free to brainstorm with AI, but know deep down the “why” and how to express it as a human. Avoid jargon and cliches and be concise. – Carl Holden, Zellus Marketing

19. Tell A Story That Comes From The Heart

While there are many variations to telling your company story in 60 seconds or less, they are all based on problem, solution and opportunity. So, my No. 1 tip to any entrepreneur would be to tell an authentic, honest story that comes from the heart, and master the storytelling to drive spontaneity and the ability to nuance the story around the audience. – Augustine Hong, Alexandria Capital | A Hightower Company

20. Share A Problem You Solve For Clients

Focus less on what you do and more on the problems of your ideal clients. People aren’t concerned with what you do, they are concerned with their problems. Instead of giving generic facts and benefits, give a problem you solve for clients. This will pique their interest and make them willing to listen for another 60 seconds! – Liz Haberberger, Dale Carnegie Missouri

Feature Image Credit: getty

Sourced from Forbes

Forbes Business Council is an invitation-only, fee-based organization for successful entrepreneurs and business leaders.

In News

Reach Solutions partners with B&Q TradePoint for Fantasy Football Campaign

December 19, 2023 No Comments

Reach, one of Ireland’s leading publishers, has proudly announced the acquisition of another impactful campaign with B&Q. This time, the focus is on the TradePoint League, catering to the Fantasy Football league enthusiasts. The campaign aims to heighten brand awareness among the target audience of tradespeople, with a specific emphasis on C1C2 males who are sports enthusiasts residing in the vicinity of B&Q stores. The initiative encourages readers to rally behind the TradePoint brand, which made its debut in Ireland in September 2022.

Promoting the league on the Irish Mirror through content, display, social, and print ads, Reach Solutions has already enlisted the participation of 2,500 players in the league.

Donal Ormsby, Ireland Pricing & Marketing Manager at B&Q commented:

“The TradePoint campaign with Reach has been a great success and is down to the brilliant collaboration and creativity of the B&Q, Reach and Dentsu teams”.

Caroline Christie, Agency Business Manager at Reach Solutions in Ireland, shared her excitement about partnering with B&Q and Dentsu to promote the TradePoint brand. She highlighted the openness of B&Q to innovative approaches, enabling the placement of their brand at the forefront of the online and print presence among the Tradespeople audience.

“We were thrilled with the opportunity to partner with B&Q & Dentsu again this year to promote their TradePoint product. It was amazing to partner with a client so open to trying something new and different enabling us to place their brand at the forefront of our Tradespeople audience online and in print and engage with them in an effective way.

The results speak for themselves and we were absolutely delighted to create and deliver such a successful partnership for B&Q TradePoint & Dentsu”.

Media Enquiries: Aimee Rourke. email: [email protected]

In News

How to master the basics of Google Bard

December 18, 2023 No Comments

By Roland Hutchinson

This guide is designed to show you how to master the basics of Google Bard.

Bard is a large language model (LLM) chatbot developed by Google AI, trained on a massive dataset of text and code. It can generate text, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way.

Bard is still under development, but it has learned to perform many kinds of tasks, including:

Following instructions and completing requests thoughtfully.
Using its knowledge to answer questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open-ended, challenging, or strange.
Generating different creative text formats of text content, like poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, email, letters, etc. It will try its best to fulfil all your requirements.

To master the basics of Google Bard, you need to understand its capabilities and limitations, and how to use it effectively. Here are some tips:

Understand what Bard can and cannot do

Bard is a powerful tool, but it is not perfect. It can sometimes generate inaccurate or misleading information, especially when asked about complex or controversial topics. It is important to be critical of Bard’s responses and to verify them with other sources.

Bard is also not a replacement for human creativity. It can generate new text formats, but it cannot come up with original ideas. It is important to provide Bard with clear and concise instructions on what you want it to do.

Use natural language prompts

Bard is trained on a massive dataset of text and code, so it can understand natural language prompts. When asking Bard a question or giving it a task, try to use the same kind of language that you would use when talking to a human.

For example, instead of saying “Write a poem about a cat,” try saying “Can you please write a poem about a cat?” This will help Bard to understand what you want and to generate a response that is relevant and informative.

Be specific in your instructions

When giving Bard a task, be as specific as possible. This will help Bard to generate a response that meets your expectations.

For example, instead of saying “Write a blog post about artificial intelligence,” try saying “Can you please write a 1000-word blog post about the ethical implications of artificial intelligence?” This will give Bard a better understanding of what you want and help it to generate a more comprehensive and informative response.

Use follow-up questions

If you are not satisfied with Bard’s response, you can ask it follow-up questions to clarify or refine its response. For example, if you ask Bard to write a poem about a cat and it generates a poem that is too short or too simple, you can ask it to write a longer or more complex poem.

Provide feedback

If you’d like to share your thoughts on the quality or relevance of Bard’s responses, you have the option to do so by utilizing the thumbs-up or thumbs-down buttons located near each answer. By offering this feedback, you’re contributing valuable data that enables Bard to continually refine its algorithms, thereby enhancing its performance and making it more effective in delivering accurate and helpful information over time

Experiment and have fun

Bard is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. Bard is still under development, so the more you use it, the better it will become at understanding and fulfilling your needs.

Here are some additional tips for mastering the basics of Google Bard:

Use Bard to learn new things. You can ask Bard questions about any topic, and it will try to provide you with a comprehensive and informative answer.
Use Bard to generate creative content. Bard can write poems, stories, code, scripts, musical pieces, and more. Just give it a clear and concise prompt, and it will do its best to fulfil your request.
Use Bard to help you with your work. Bard can help you to write reports, create presentations, generate marketing copy, and more. Just give it a clear and concise task, and it will do its best to help you.

Here are some examples of how you can use Bard:

Ask Bard to write a summary of a news article or research paper.
Ask Bard to generate a list of ideas for a new blog post or marketing campaign.
Ask Bard to translate a text from one language to another.
Ask Bard to write a poem or story in a specific style.
Ask Bard to help you to debug a piece of code.
Ask Bard to write a report or presentation on a specific topic.

Summary

Google Bard is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes. By following the tips in this article, you can learn how to master the basics of Bard and use it to improve your work, By following the tips in this article, you can learn how to master the basics of Bard and use it to be more productive and creative. We hope that you find this guide helpful and informative, if you have any comments, tips or questions, please leave a comment below and let us know.

Feature Image Credit: Mojahid Mottakin

By Roland Hutchinson

Sourced from Geeky Gadgets

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14 Content Marketing Examples With Strategy Breakdowns

December 18, 2023 No Comments

By Tim Stoddart

There were a lot of changes in content marketing over the past year, and the companies winning the content game aren’t just using the basic best practices that were commonplace a few years ago.

Today, the best content marketing strategy leverages a combination of multiple marketing channels and produces a high volume of quality content.

Many of the best content marketers now leverage AI to scale their content while making it more personal than ever before by incorporating elements of personal branding and user generated content into their content strategy.

It’s also important to remember that you can’t build a brand around a single content marketing campaign or viral video. So below, we’ll show you not only some of the best content marketing examples from the past year, but also break down the content strategy behind each of these highly successful brands.

Let’s jump into it.

Ocho Wealth

Ocho Wealth is a platform that allows business owners, creators, and people with side hustles to manage their finances.

They launched in 2022 and grew to over $200,000 in ARR in the first year with just 10 team members.

However, what’s most interesting is that their founder refuses to invest anything into paid ads. Instead, they’re relying entirely on organic marketing efforts (largely content marketing).

You can read his full content marketing playbook here, though here’s a brief summary of how they’re investing in content marketing:

SEO: They’ve already published hundreds of blog posts related to finances for business owners and have scaled traffic to nearly 20,000 monthly searches:

Creator Collaborations: They’re building multiple courses on financial education, like angel investing, setting up retirement accounts, and more. These collaborations also allow them to tap into the creators’ audience.

Personal Branding: The founder, Ankur, has built a significant Twitter audience (currently over 60k followers) and stated that most of his initial customers come from Twitter followers.
Newsletter: They recently launched a newsletter that provides various tips on personal finances for business owners and regularly features creators in the personal finance space.

This strategy has helped the company achieve impressive growth with a very lean team of just ten people and zero dollars on paid ads.

Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics is an excellent example of a B2B SaaS company that has scaled to millions of dollars in ARR through organic content marketing.

Founded by SEO expert Brian Dean, it’s no surprise that they invest heavily in blog content.

However, rather than just writing generic content targeting high volume and low difficulty keywords, they create content that showcases the product’s capabilities.

Exploding Topics is a trend discovery tool, so they create hundreds of list posts for various industry trends, and each blog post features trends discovered by Exploding Topics.

When readers see that the trends recommended in these blog posts are unique, under-the-radar trends, they immediately understand the product’s value, and if they want more similar trends, it’s a no-brainer to sign up for the product.

As a result most of their current users came from SEO traffic.

As an added benefit, these blog posts generate a lot of traffic (they currently drive over 200,000 monthly visits), which has helped the website gain authority and helped Exploding Topics earn a lot of brand awareness.

To earn backlinks, he created blog posts to answer individual statistic-based questions. For example, some of the top linked-to pages on Exploding Topics are blog posts targeting terms like:

How many people own Bitcoin?
How many cryptocurrencies are there?
How many gamers are there?

However, he also invests heavily in email marketing. In fact, he stated in a recent video that this is the single most valuable marketing channel for his business.

The Exploding Topics newsletter sends subscribers a list of five trending products and five trending companies so that users receive regular helpful trend recommendations and are reminded of the product’s value.

Finally, the team also publishes content very consistently. So create a content calendar and then be sure to stick to it. While it may seem obvious, the key difference that sets the most successful marketing strategies apart from the rest is usually just a matter of consistent execution.

SEMrush

SEMrush has a highly successful content marketing strategy that leverages various marketing channels.

In addition to their blog content, they also have a thriving social media content strategy and regularly post memes, templates, and snippets of content repurposed from their blog and YouTube channel. A quick glance at their LinkedIn account should give you some inspiration for your social content strategy.

Speaking of their YouTube channel, SEMrush regularly collaborates with SEO and general marketing thought leaders to host webinars and then the team repurposes the recording as video content. These collaborations help SEMrush tap into the influencers’ audience and allows the brand to create more high-quality content at scale.

Similar to Ocho, they also take video content to the next level by collaborating with a handful of select influencers to create free courses for their audience.

SEMrush is also a large company with a substantial content marketing budget, so they often deploy that capital to simply acquire existing blogs that their target audience already reads and loves. In fact, they recently acquired the Backlinko blog for an estimated $15 million.

AIOSEO

AIOSEO is an SEO plugin for WordPress that makes optimizing your website for search engines easy.

This company is also operated by a relatively small team, and therefore has a lean, yet highly effective, content strategy.

Instead of trying to dominate every marketing channel, they doubled down on SEO content. Like

Exploding Topics, most of their blog content targets keywords that their product solves, and they showcase how the product solves it inside the blog post. For example, this blog post targets the pain point “How to Generate A Robots.txt File In WordPress.”

Then, they walk the user through how to do so with their tool:

This blog post answers the reader’s question and effectively demonstrates the product’s value, making it an outstanding content marketing example.

It’s also worth noting that AIOSEO is part of the Awesome Motive portfolio, a group of various WordPress plugins.

Therefore, other brands within the portfolio also create content about AIOSEO on other blogs.

For example, here’s a blog post on “Best WordPress SEO Plugins” on the WPBeginner blog (another member of the Awesome Motive portfolio), and you can see that AIOSEO is first on the list:

Best wordpress plugins blog post on WPBeginner

Finally, they also have a thriving affiliate program, which helps them further scale their content marketing strategy at minimal additional cost as their affiliates create content for them. The affiliate content also helps increase the brand’s general credibility.

These combined content marketing efforts have been incredibly effective as they have scaled traffic from 20,000 to nearly 60,000 monthly visitors in just a year.

Hampton

Hampton is a newer company founded by Sam Parr, and its success is mostly thanks to Sam Parr’s personal brand.

Sam built his personal brand on Twitter and through the popular business podcast he co-hosts, My First Million.

So, when he launched the company, it’s no surprise that he had an overwhelming response. It’s already doing over eight figures and the team is still relatively small.

Therefore, personal branding is proving to be a highly effective content marketing strategy – even for B2B brands.

However, Hampton also has an interesting strategy for their blog content. Rather than targeting SEO keywords, they write stories about the members of their community.

As the product the business is selling is essentially access to high-level entrepreneurs, these stories are actually very effective at selling the value of the business.

Hampton blog post featuring entrepreneurs

Source

Finally, they also leverage email marketing to capture and retarget interested top of funnel audiences.

AppSumo

AppSumo is an affiliate brand that partners with software companies offering tools to small business owners and freelancers.

The company generates over $85 million in revenue annually, and it relies heavily on content marketing.

First, AppSumo has a thriving SEO strategy that consists largely of listicle posts and guides targeting pain points solopreneurs and small business owners experience.

They’ve also stated that their email marketing strategy is arguably their most effective marketing strategy. Since their business model is selling limited-time deals, email marketing makes sense as customers will want to stay up-to-date with the latest offers.

In addition to traditional marketing strategies, they rely heavily on the founder, Noah Kagan’s, personal brand to attract customers. Noah has a podcast and a YouTube channel that covers topics relevant to solopreneurs, creators, and freelancers.

His YouTube channel tends to focus on topics that could potentially go viral. For example, he has plenty of videos of himself asking owners of fancy cars, homes, yachts, and even private jets how to make money:

While these videos are primarily designed to generate brand awareness, they still attract his ideal audience (people who have small businesses or want to start a business) and therefore contribute to AppSumo’s growth.

In addition, he created a $10 course on earning your first $1,000 and includes a link to it in the description of each video:

This course is part of their content marketing strategy as it allows them to retarget students who join with various affiliate products.

Noah also regularly interviews solopreneurs and other interesting entrepreneurs on his podcast. By interviewing other entrepreneurs, he can tap into their audience to generate more awareness. In addition, he includes ads for AppSumo inside the podcast rather than selling ad slots to other brands.

eWebinar

eWebinar is a webinar platform that serial entrepreneur Melissa Kwan founded.

Like several other companies on this list, eWebinar is more or less a solopreneur business with only a handful of contractors helping her run the company.

Therefore, she also has a very lean content team yet relies almost exclusively on content marketing to drive signups.

Her content marketing strategy consists mainly of bottom of the funnel SEO content, social media posts on her personal LinkedIn profile, and webinars.

Looking at the SEO strategy, you can see that most of the content is pain point focused content that their webinar platform solves. For example, this post targeting the keyword “how to make a pre-recorded webinar” clearly outlines how to create a pre-recorded webinar using the eWebinar platform:

You can also see that almost all of the CTAs across the website drive visitors to sign up for one of the pre-recorded webinars hosted on the eWebinar platform. This is a clever content marketing strategy as potential customers can experience the product the same way their users would experience it if they use eWebinar on their own website.

Finally, Melissa has built a substantial following on LinkedIn.

Therefore, she occasionally also uses her own personal brand to promote the product.

Her personal brand has also made her an attractive guest for podcasters, so she’s been able to further amplify her presence by appearing on podcasts like Traction.

SparkToro

SparkToro is a SaaS company that makes it easy for marketers to do audience research.

Founded by Rand Fishkin, who was previously regarded as an SEO expert, you might think they rely heavily on search engine traffic. However, he has openly stated that SEO content is not a priority for their brand.

Instead, they tend to rely heavily on social media content. He and CMO Amanda Natividad have substantial personal brands, and most of their audience comes from social media content.

However, like most brands on this list, he regularly creates content discussing specific pain points that the product solves. Here’s a great example of this:

Rand Fishkin product walkthrough social media post

In fact, he’s a master of video content marketing. At Moz, he popularized Whiteboard Fridays, quick video SEO tutorials with actionable information.

Now he’s using a similar strategy at SparkToro.

Here is just one of these outstanding video content marketing examples:

Seeing the founder’s face also builds trust with the audience more effectively than exclusively using text-based content.

Acquisition.com

Acquisition.com is a holding company that consists primarily of service-based businesses. Founder Alex Hormozi is the face of the brand and relies heavily on content marketing to generate leads for both their portfolio and talent acquisition.

He has grown the brand from zero to millions of followers in a few short years, and a key secret to his success is his content repurposing framework, which allows him to publish hundreds of high quality pieces of content each week.

He typically begins by recording a video or podcast interview. Then, his team takes the long-form content and cuts it into shorter clips they can repurpose across social media platforms.

For example, he recorded this video, and then his team repurposed it into social media and podcast content:

Alex Hormozi's content repurposing framework

This is an outstanding content marketing strategy as he only has to create the content once, yet he still reaps the same benefits as if he created multiple pieces of content for each platform.

The best part is that you can do this with a relatively lean content team. They currently have fewer than ten people on their content team per month, and as of October 2022, they were only spending approximately $100,000 per month on content.

So rather than trying to create multiple different types of content, master just one channel and then hire someone to repurpose it across other platforms.

Beehiiv

The newsletter platform, Beehiiv, is one of the trendiest new startups, and they’ve grown mostly through organic marketing efforts.

First, they invest heavily in SEO content and regularly publish case studies and customer stories showcasing interesting newsletter growth strategies.

The customer stories and case studies are particularly excellent examples of content marketing as they tap into the personal story element that most SEO-style content lacks. These stories are also original content that hasn’t been published elsewhere, making Beehiiv an authority on the topic.

However, they also happen to be very savvy social media content marketers.

First, their employees are highly engaged brand advocates and consistently publish content around what they love about the brand, new product updates, and other news.

For example, this post helps communicate a key pain point that the product solves:

You can also tell from these posts by their business development leader that employees genuinely love and believe in the brand:

Beehiiv also has a thriving affiliate program and is one of the few B2B brands that has truly mastered user generated content.

When someone (often an affiliate, though occasionally a random customer) publishes a social media post mentioning Beehiiv, they always republish it to the branded account. Here’s a great example:

Resharing this content on the brand’s social media pages builds Beehiiv’s credibility and encourages more customers to share content around the brand as they know Beehiiv will reshare it with their audience.

Cafe Lola

There aren’t many donut shops with great content marketing strategies, but Cafe Lola is an exception.

Founder Alexandra Lordes grew the donut shop’s account to over 50,000 followers, but her personal account really carries the brand’s content strategy.

She personally has over a million TikTok followers, and rather than just posting about her life and kids, she also incorporates updates on the donut shop, like new flavours available and other updates. For example, in this video, she has her kids rate the new products:

So unlike many creators that have many followers but few conversions, this content strategy likely drives plenty of sales as it showcases the products themselves. In fact, people regularly make Cafe Lola a top destination on their list when visiting Las Vegas:

In fact, her viral videos have helped her earn orders from celebrities like Karol G, Maluma, and other stars.

So even if you just have a brick and mortar store, creating content about your daily life as the owner and building a personal brand can help you drive customers.

GoPro

GoPro is an outstanding example of a brand that has mastered user generated content. Rather than paying to create their own marketing content and then investing more to promote it across their social media channels, they just run contests and let customers create the content and promote it for them.

Here are just a few of the challenges they’re currently running:

Here’s just one example of the outstanding content their creators submit regularly:

GoPro user generated content post on Instagram

As a result, GoPro doesn’t have to spend any money creating content because they can simply repurpose the creators’ content.

In addition, GoPro is essentially getting free influencer marketing, as the creators must include the GoPro hashtags in their posts to enter the challenge. These creators often have thousands, if not millions, of followers, significantly boosting GoPro’s brand awareness.

For example, the creator that recently won a Photo of The Day challenge above has over 100,000 followers:

Epic Gardening

Epic Gardening is an ecommerce brand that sells gardening supplies.

Like many D2C brands on this list, it was built on the founder’s personal brand.

In fact, founder Kevin Espiritu started the brand as a blog that provided helpful gardening tips and advice and later turned it into a thriving YouTube channel.

Today, Kevin has the largest YouTube channel on gardening, though most importantly, he’s turned it into a business that generates over $59 million in revenue annually.

The content he creates is designed primarily for entertainment, and he is still largely the face of the brand:

He publishes roughly 3-5 times per week, and while he currently doesn’t have a robust content repurposing strategy, this might be on the roadmap as his marketing team grows.

Blogilates

Blogilates is another creator-first business that was founded by Pilates instructor turned entrepreneur, Cassy Ho.

She began posting Pilates workouts on YouTube over a decade ago and has since grown her channel to over nine million subscribers.

She has built an athleisure brand, POPFLEX, and she also has a partnership with Target, where she sells workout equipment, clothing, and even supplements.

Today, she doesn’t post many workout videos on YouTube, though she is still active on Instagram, YouTube shorts, and TikTok.

She’s also a great example of a content creator who prioritizes repurposing content rather than creating brand-new content across multiple channels.

For example, she reposted this same piece of content across multiple platforms:

The takeaway from this content marketing example is that consistency is key. If you consistently produce high quality content for over a decade on the same topic, you’ll probably be successful.

How To Use These Content Marketing Examples

Now that you’ve seen these content marketing examples, take action.

If you’re unsure where to start or if you don’t have time to create content yourself – let the digital marketing experts behind Copyblogger’s content strategy create it for you — Digital Commerce Partners.

They can design and execute a content marketing strategy that drives organic leads and establishes your brand as an industry authority. Reach out to them today to learn more.

By Tim Stoddart

Tim Stoddart is CEO of Copyblogger. In 2011, Tim founded Stodzy Internet Marketing. He currently lives in Nashville with his wife, his son, and their pitbull named Alice. Follow Tim on Twitter.

Sourced from copyblogger

In News

Meta debuts generative AI features for advertisers

December 15, 2023 No Comments

By Sarah Perez

Meta announced it’s rolling out its first generative AI features for advertisers, allowing them to use AI to create backgrounds, expand images and generate multiple versions of ad text based on their original copy. The launch of the new tools follows the company’s Meta Connect event last week where the social media giant debuted its Quest 3 mixed-reality headset and a host of other generative AI products, including stickers and editing tools, as well as AI-powered smart glasses.

In the case of AI tools for the ad industry, the new products may not be as wild as the celebrity AIs that let you chat with virtual versions of people like MrBeast or Paris Hilton, but they showcase how Meta believes generative AI can assist the brands and businesses that are responsible for delivering the majority of Meta’s revenue.

The first among the trio of new features allows an advertiser to customize their creative assets by generating multiple different backgrounds to change the look of their product images. This is similar to the technology that Meta used to create the consumer-facing tool Backdrop, which allows users to change the scene or the background of their image by using prompts. However, in the ad toolkit, the backgrounds are generated for the advertiser based on their original product images and will tend to be “simple backgrounds with colours and patterns,” Meta explains. The feature is available to those advertisers using the company’s Advantage+ catalogue to create their sales ads.

Another feature, image expansion, allows advertisers to adjust their assets to fit different aspect ratios required across various products, like Feed or Reels, for example. Also available to Advantage+ creative in Meta’s Mads Manager, the AI feature would allow advertisers to spend less time repurposing their creative assets, including images and video, for different surfaces, Meta claims.

With the text variations feature in Meta Ads Manager, the AI can generate up to six different variations of text based on the advertiser’s original copy. These variations can highlight specific keywords and input phrases the advertiser wants to emphasize, and advertisers can edit the generated output or simply choose the best one or ones that fit their goals. During the campaign, Meta can also display different combinations of text to different people to see which ones drive better responses. However, Meta won’t showcase the performance details for each specific text variation, it says, as the reporting is currently based on a single ad. However, the more options the advertiser selects to run, the more opportunities they’ll have to improve their ad performance, Meta informs them.

Meta says it’s already tested these AI features with a small but diverse set of advertisers earlier this year, and their early results indicate that generative AI will save them five or more hours per week, or a total of one month per year. However, the company admits that there’s still work ahead to better customize the generative AI output to match each advertiser’s style.

In addition, Meta says there are more AI features to come, noting it’s working on new ways to generate ad copy to highlight selling points or generative backgrounds with tailored themes. Plus, as it announced at Meta Connect, businesses will be able to use AI for messaging on WhatsApp and Messenger to chat with customers for e-commerce, engagement and support.

Feature Image Credit: Meta

By Sarah Perez

Sourced from TechCrunch

In News

6 Ways to Ace Social Media Branding for Your Startup

December 15, 2023 No Comments

By Vikas Agrawal

Social media offers a level playing field for startups to build their brand presence, but the high competition necessitates a strategic and streamlined social media branding approach.

Did you know that there are over 4.62 billion active social media users worldwide? With such a massive audience, it’s no wonder that startups are leveraging social media branding to create a strong online presence and grow their businesses. But the competition is steep, and you must apply a strategic approach to stand out and make heads turn! So, let’s delve into the world of social media branding for startups. We’ll explore how to build a strong image and thrive in the digital landscape.

The power of social media branding for startups

Social media branding offers numerous benefits for budding startups. It’s not just about creating a logo or a catchy tagline; it’s about creating a unique recognition and following online that resonates with your audience.

First, increased brand awareness is surely one of its biggest benefits. Startups can harness social media platforms for branding by actively responding to customer feedback, initiating meaningful conversations through targeted content and hosting interactive sessions like Q&As or live streams to engage directly with their audience. This proactive approach fosters trust and builds a loyal community around the brand.

Enhanced customer engagement is another unique advantage of social branding. Platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn provide a unique opportunity for startups to interact directly with their customers and build lasting relationships. On Twitter, startups can engage in real-time conversations, respond to feedback, and address concerns, while LinkedIn allows for professional networking, sharing industry insights and fostering community discussions.

Similarly, startups can create community groups, host live sessions and run targeted ads to foster engagement on Facebook. With its visual-centric approach, Instagram allows brands to showcase their products, share behind-the-scenes content, and collaborate with influencers for wider reach.

But it’s not just about engagement and awareness. Effective social media branding can drive more traffic to a startup’s website through quality content, increasing sales and revenue. This is especially effective with video content, as 61% of customers are convinced to purchase based on the brand’s video.

Are you ready to leverage the power of social media platforms to elevate your new brand? Here are some tips to help you apply social media branding for your business effectively.

1. Establish a consistent brand identity

A strong brand identity is crucial for a startup’s success on social media. To create a consistent brand identity, define your brand’s mission, vision, values and target audience. Next, develop a unique brand voice and visual identity that resonates with your target audience.

Consistency is key, so ensure that your logo, colours, fonts and messaging are uniform across all social media platforms. Most importantly, always ensure your brand’s messaging is laser-focused on your target audience.

2. Choose the right platforms

Not all social media platforms are created equal. Each platform has unique features, demographics, and content formats; understanding these nuances is the first step in mastering social media branding. For example, LinkedIn is a hub for professionals and B2B marketing, while Instagram thrives on visual content, making it ideal for lifestyle and fashion brands.

To ace social media branding, it’s essential to identify the platforms that align with your startup’s target audience and objectives. Researching and understanding the demographics of each platform will guide you in selecting the ones that resonate with your brand’s voice and goals.

3. Create engaging and valuable content

Content is the backbone of social media branding. To create a strong brand presence, producing engaging and valuable content that addresses your audience’s needs and interests is crucial. Share a mix of informative, entertaining, and promotional content regularly to keep your audience engaged and showcase your brand’s expertise. And don’t forget to use eye-catching visuals and incorporate your brand’s unique voice and identity in all content. The final aim is to perform effective social media storytelling to build a loyal audience and customer base for your brand.

4. Leveraging user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool for social media branding. You can foster trust, credibility, and engagement by encouraging your audience to share their experiences with your brand. Feature customer reviews, testimonials, and user-generated photos or videos on your social media profiles to showcase your startup’s success and create a sense of community among your followers. UGC not only amplifies your brand’s voice but also adds authenticity. When potential customers see real people enjoying your products or services, it creates a more relatable and trustworthy image for your brand.

5. Implementing hashtags and influencer marketing

Hashtags and influencer marketing can significantly boost your startup’s social media branding efforts. Use relevant and branded hashtags to increase your content’s visibility and reach. For example, creating a unique hashtag for a specific campaign can help you track its success and engagement. Collaborate with influencers who align with your brand values and have a strong following among your target audience. Influencer partnerships can help you reach new customers, increase brand awareness, and drive conversions. By choosing the right influencers, you can tap into their established trust and credibility, making your brand more appealing to their followers.

6. Tracking and analysing performance

For effective social media branding, it’s essential to monitor and analyse your startup’s performance on each platform. Use social media analytics tools to track key metrics, such as engagement, reach and conversions. Analysing this data will help you identify trends, measure the success of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize your social media branding efforts. Regularly reviewing these insights allows you to understand what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t. It’s not just about numbers; it’s about understanding the behaviour and preferences of your audience, enabling you to tailor your content and strategies for maximum impact.

Applying effective social media branding for startups in the competitive online space requires a strategic approach and consistent effort. It’s not just about crafting creative campaigns but understanding your audience deeply and making data-driven decisions catering to their needs. By establishing a strong brand identity, choosing the right platforms, creating engaging content, leveraging user-generated branding content, implementing hashtags and influencer marketing and tracking performance, you can create a powerful online presence that drives growth and success for your startup.

By Vikas Agrawal

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor

CEO of Infobrandz.com

Vikas Agrawal is a Strategic Marketing Consultant, and Crypto Advocate. With a passion for visual marketing and branding, data privacy and emerging technologies, Vikas leads Infobrandz.com and empowers companies to thrive in the digital era.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Why are cafes, restaurants, and even towns banning influencers?

December 14, 2023 No Comments

By Meera Navlakha

From a picturesque town to a Brooklyn cafe, popular destinations are closing their doors to influencers.

Nowadays, it seems like every place “worth” frequenting is deemed that way by influencers. Lifestyle TikTokkers and Instagram foodies inform the world of which restaurants to choose, the pop-ups currently open, and where to eat when travelling.

But some spots are closing their doors on influencers, raising questions. Take Dae, a design shop and cafe in Brooklyn. As reported by Curbed, the space was inundated by influencers carrying tripods, to the point where the owners decided to ban them entirely. The issue was addressed on the cafe’s Instagram account, permitting visitors to take “quick snaps” at their own tables, but firmly adding their new in-store, no photos-and-videos policy: “We love food and drink photos (clearly) … but the TikToks and Instagram photoshoots have gotten a bit out of control for us.”

Just weeks earlier, a Vermont town came under the spotlight for invoking similar rules. Known for its picturesque autumn landscape, Pomfret closed its most visited and photographed spots to influencers and tourists. The town’s board voted to shutter these areas between Sept. 23 and Oct. 15, citing “significant safety, environmental, aesthetic, and quality of life issues.”

In July, some residents of the town created a public GoFundMe page to save Cloudland Road, a bucolic strip of land that served as a popular backdrop to fall-focused social media content. The fundraiser’s organizers allege that determined visitors, intent on capturing perfect photographs, “have changed the neighbourhood landscape to the point that it is untenable.”

Two TikTok screenshots of Dae Cafe and a spot in Vermont.

Both spots were highly recorded and featured on social media. Credit: TikTok: @euginanoh / @richardkrisak.

These are just two more recent incidents of this nature. In Jan. 2018, a hotel in Ireland banned all “bloggers”, after an influencer asked the owner for a free stay in exchange for content. In Feb. 2020, a cafe in Taiwan “strictly banned” influencers, frustrated by Instagrammers going to great lengths to obtain their perfect shot within the store.

For some, banning content creators in 2023 seems like an interesting choice. It’s hard to look past the rise of influencer marketing, and the subsequent reliance on influencers for promotion. That reliance comes from both businesses, wanting to promote products and places, and consumers, seeking suggestions from internet voices they trust.

One reason for such bans is simply logistical. Viral videos may be conducive to growth but oftentimes, the subjects of these videos aren’t prepared for a surge in popularity. Dr. Marcus Collins, marketing professor at the University of Michigan, says that some restaurants and local attractions “can’t handle the new demand” and do not hold the infrastructure for it, therefore feeling “a physical strain”. Sarah Blocksidge, a marketing director, agrees: “The reality is that some businesses just aren’t suited for the influx of people an influencer can attract, which can wind up hurting the business more than helping it.”

“The reality is that some businesses just aren’t suited for the influx of people an influencer can attract, which can wind up hurting the business more than helping it.”

But it seems the era of being disillusioned by some influencers, and their choices, has also dawned. Earlier this year, de-influencing became a craze (somewhat ironically). Over the summer, TikTokkers expressed outrage at the influx of micro-trends that not only have a ridiculously short lifespan, but also lack meaning. A growing faction of the internet seems fatigued by influencing, especially when it entails a constant barrage of capitalist content or a lack of self-awareness.

The same concept can be applied to the leisure industry. Sam Shaw, strategy director at consumer insights firm Canvas8, says that some influencers are perceived as having “a superficial relationship with the places they visit.”

“Most places want sustainable customer-bases, not just swarms of people who are there ‘for the gram’ and then onto the next place,” says Shaw. “This an extension of the earlier banning of phones and taking pictures in certain restaurants and clubs, in order to protect the “presence” of the experience for those who are there for the substance.”

“Most places want sustainable customer-bases, not just swarms of people who are there ‘for the gram’ and then onto the next place.”

It’s true that no-camera rules are not a new phenomenon: as early as 2013, major restaurants began to enforce stricter regulations for those intent on documenting meals. The New York Times described these diners as the “legions of amateur iPhone-wielding food lovers, who say what they do is a tribute — not to mention free advertising for the restaurants.”

Over a decade later, the act of taking food pics has evolved into full-fledged careers for many. While this has revolutionized the hospitality and F&B industries to some extent, there is another side to be considered. As Dae’s recent move illustrates, some spaces don’t feel that they require social media promotion from others to boost their own sales. Joe Karasin, owner of a digital PR and SEO agency, says that sometimes influencers are “greatly misguided in the value they bring to brands.”

“Sure, Kim Kardashian can help a brand sell products, but the overwhelming majority of micro-influencers bring little value,” says Karasin.

He adds that there’s a recent trend of influencers feeling a sense of misplaced ownership over both private and public spaces, also sometimes demanding free goods in exchange for content (as noted in the case of the B&B in Dublin). Baruch Labunski, founder of a digital marketing company, concurs, saying that “private businesses have grown tired of influencers because many go to cafes, venues, and even businesses like boat rentals to get items or services for free in exchange for a mention.”

This may not be a consensus – and let’s face it, influencers aren’t going anywhere – but there is a tangible backlash around algorithms and their ruling power. As Shaw says, many are asking for a return for “protecting ‘offline’ experiences”. Banning or limiting influencers seems like a way to offer this — even if the brands and businesses doing so have Instagram pages of their own.

Feature Image Credit: Vicky Leta / Mashable

By Meera Navlakha

Meera is a Culture Reporter at Mashable, joining the UK team in 2021. She writes about digital culture, mental health, big tech, entertainment, and more. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, Vice, Vogue India, and others.

Sourced from Mashable

In News

How to Use AI to Get Your Next Job, According to Career Experts

December 14, 2023 No Comments

By Jaime Stathis

Using AI job search tools can help optimize the hunt—and get you hired. Here’s how to make artificial intelligence work for you.

Sometimes, things seem to escalate quickly, and this was certainly the case with artificial intelligence (AI), which very swiftly transformed from a cool, futuristic idea to a tool that has infiltrated our daily lives. In fact, many of us use AI and don’t even realize it. When you use facial recognition to unlock your iPhone, Google Maps to navigate to your next destination or ask Alexa to play a song, that’s all AI. You might have mixed feelings about robots operating among us, but the future of AI is here—and there’s no going back. The latest technology can even help you level up your career with an AI job search.

Despite concerns about privacy and cybersecurity or whether ChatGPT will eliminate jobs, the benefits are real, and many job seekers are using AI tools to their advantage. Whether you’re considering changing careers or career cushioning, tap into the power of AI to help land your next big job.

How AI can offer opportunity in the job market

“Navigating the job market with AI remains a topic of considerable uncertainty, but also immense opportunity,” says Ozden Onder, chief people officer at Stability AI, a leading open generative AI company. “It’s true that we don’t fully know yet how AI will affect the types of jobs available in the future. But by learning and using the tools we have available now, you can set yourself apart from other candidates and find the right next step for your career.”

There’s no doubt that some jobs will become more automated and potentially disappear, but Ozden says to take advantage of the technology. “If history is our guide, then I believe it’s more accurate to say that in the future, it won’t be AI that replaces people. Instead, people who are enabled by AI will find more ways of doing interesting and creative work. AI is a net positive for the workplace and helping people achieve their fullest potential.” Here’s how to use AI to your advantage, according to our career experts.

Update your LinkedIn profile

Many hiring managers and recruiters look at your LinkedIn profile before they even look at your résumé, so it’s essential that your profile is in tip-top shape—that includes fixing common misspelled words on LinkedIn. “You really want to be sure to make a good first impression,” says Andrew McCaskill, LinkedIn career expert and creator of The Black Guy in Marketing newsletter. Use your profile to highlight every skill that can make you more discoverable to hiring managers, and if you hit mental roadblocks when trying to write about yourself, turn to AI to develop attractive headlines and “About Me” sections that you can then customize to your expertise. “Consider AI to provide a helping hand in helping you stand out,” McCaskill says.

Best AI tool: Get your creativity flowing during your AI job search with LinkedIn’s new AI-powered writing tools. To use the feature, simply open your “About” section and click “Get AI-Powered Suggestions” at the bottom of the text field.

Optimize your résumé for AI filters

Boris SV/Getty Images

Are résumé mistakes the reason why you’re not getting hired? Potentially. “Remember that many résumés are either machine-read or only glanced at for 10 seconds by a recruiter,” says Onder, which means learning how to optimize your résumé for AI is essential.

Bridget Lohrius, founder and CEO of career coaching company Sandwina, says that 98% of Fortune 500 companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS), which means if the key skills aren’t included in your résumé, you don’t make it through the system. “[That means] never getting the chance to dazzle a human being,” she says, adding that it’s estimated these systems reject 75% of résumés before a recruiter ever sees them.

Don’t use intricate Canva templates to build your résumé (they tend to be riddled with unique graphics, icons and fonts), and never include a photo, because ATS programs can’t read them, Lohrius says. “A clean, basic text-only design is best.”

Best AI tool: Lohrius recommends Jobscan for résumé optimization. Their proprietary AI technology analyzes your résumé and compares it with the job listing.

Find the right fit

It’s not just about finding a great job with a terrific compensation package, it’s about finding the right job that suits your skill set and your personality. “Landing a job that makes you miserable is often worse than not getting the job in the first place,” says William Vanderbloemen, founder and CEO of executive staffing company Vanderbloemen Search Group. “If you know a bit about yourself, then you can match yourself with the right job using AI.”

For example, Vanderbloemen knows he’s an Enneagram 7, so he asked an AI assistance bot, such as ChatGPT, “What are ideal jobs for an Enneagram 7?” He learned that career paths that may align well with the traits of an Enneagram 7 include photographer, event planner and sales representative. Your AI job search is only as good as your curiosity about yourself.

Best AI tool: Vanderbloemen recommends ChatGPT to help find the right fit. Simply type in your question or prompt in the message box on the ChatGPT home page. Once you receive a response, you can ask it to elaborate, regenerate a new response or more responses, or take it as it is.

Learn about company culture

There’s finding the right job, and then there’s finding a workplace culture to match your needs. Use AI job search tools to learn more about the company you’re interested in. For example, Vanderbloemen asked ChatGPT about the company culture at Google and which personality types might thrive there. He found out that Google, like many large tech companies, values a diverse workforce with a wide range of skills and personalities.

“There is no single personality type that thrives at Google, as they look for individuals who can contribute to a collaborative and innovative work environment,” Vanderbloemen says. “However, some common traits and characteristics that may be well suited for working at Google include creativity, adaptability and analytical thinking. Google is known for its data-driven approach to decision making, so individuals who are comfortable with analysing data and drawing insights from it can be successful,” he says.

Best AI tool: Vanderbloemen recommends ChatGPT to help with researching company culture.

Personalize cover letters

The job search process can be tedious and repetitive, but personalizing cover letters and creating industry-specific résumés is vital. To help your time management during the job search, tap AI to create an outline for your cover letters. “AI can save you time during that process by creating first drafts or formatting templates, so you don’t have to worry about the busywork,” says Akhila Satish, an award-winning career expert, scientist and CEO of Meseekna. Just make sure you’re personalizing and reviewing any content before submitting an application—not only will hiring managers notice AI-generated cover letters, AI can make some funny mistakes.

Lohrius points out that the cover letter is an opportunity to showcase your personality, your legitimate interest in a role or company, your understanding of their business and above all, how you—and only you—are the best fit. “AI can do the heavy lifting for you, but the most important thing to remember when using AI is that the technology generates a basic letter, so you don’t have to start from scratch, but you still need to dedicate time and energy into the content and voice to make your letter an interview-grabbing magnet,” she says.

Best AI tool: Satish recommends ChatGPT to help organize cover letter structure before you personalize it with your own voice. Lohrius likes the cover letter feature on ResumeGenius. “It takes the user through a series of questions to customize the cover letter, making the process simple and straightforward,” she says. “Once the questionnaire is completed, you add some personal information and a bit about the job you’re applying for, and the cover letter builder gets to work, creating a solid letter that you can then customize to sound like you.”

Identify the best interview questions

Guillaume/getty images

It’s important to remember that when interviewing, you have the best chance to ask questions about the job and the company, and you can use AI to identify the best inverview questions to ask. “After interviewing over 30,000 top candidates at Vanderbloemen, we are convinced that candidates who ask the best questions often gain the winning advantage in landing the job,” Vanderbloemen says.

As an experiment, he asked ChatGPT “What are the best questions to ask when interviewing for an ER nursing job?” A list popped up right away, he says, and included questions about the nurse-to-patient ratio in the ER and how it changes during peak times; how the hospital supports continuing education and professional development for ER nurses; what team dynamics and collaboration among ER staff looks like; and how the hospital manages the influx of patients during its busiest times.

Best AI tool: ChatGPT is a good choice here for your AI job search, but McCaskill also suggests LinkedIn’s Interview Prep tools that help prepare you for commonly asked interview questions with videos of tips and sample responses from real hiring managers and recruiters. “You can also get instant AI-powered feedback to your recorded interview practice session on pacing, how many times you’re using filler words and sensitive phrases to avoid,” McCaskill says.

Stay ahead of the AI curve

No matter your industry, staying ahead of emerging technology can help you stand out. Currently, that’s voice technology. “Voice technology is a rapidly growing field that focuses on natural interactions between humans and machines, requiring employees with highly specialized skills,” says Tobias Dengel, author of The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology.

“As popularity increases in many industries, such as health care, customer service, e-commerce, financial services, education and automotive, employees with voice technology experience can stand out from other candidates, position themselves as valuable assets and demonstrate the ability to learn and adapt to emerging technologies and industry trends.”

Best AI tool: Ozden recommends Ben’s Bites, which is an excellent daily summary and essential reading on what’s trending in AI.

Create a website

Satish recommends supplementing your résumé and job application with a personal website to boost your AI job search success. “Your résumé is only a snapshot of you as a candidate, so showcasing examples of your best work and sharing more details on your bio can help you stand out in a pool of applications,” she says. Because building a website can take a lot of time and experience, she recommends AI website-building tools to help streamline the process. “That technology will help you navigate the nuances of website building so that you can focus on fine-tuning and polishing before sending it off to a potential job lead.”

Best AI tool: SquareSpace, Wix and web.com are all user-friendly website builders that use AI.

Show that you’ve done your research

Tailor your interview answers based on knowledge about the company. To get that information, use AI for research. “Interviewers love to see that candidates have done their homework,” Vanderbloemen says. He asked ChatGPT, “What are the traits of the best young analysts at Deloitte?” and he learned that strong analytical skills, technical proficiency and problem-solving ability are all traits that Deloitte looks for in its analysts. With this info, alter your answers accordingly.

Interviewing for a job in a new city? “AI can give you a trove of local knowledge you can drop in your interview to show your interest in the job,” says Vanderbloemen. Doing this shows your interest in relocating and that you’re already looking for ways to fit into the local culture. You might even reference local universities, sports teams or museums.

Best AI tool: ChatGPT is a great AI tool for this research. If you’re not sure it works on a local level, use the town you’re in now and see how accurate it is.

Experiment with AI tools

Unless you’re fresh out of college, most of us are just now learning to implement AI job search strategies. But Ozden recommends familiarizing yourself with the tools, even job search. “Experimentation is the best way to get comfortable with AI tools,” he says. Learning by doing is the best way to pick up any new skill, after all.

“We are just getting started with this new world of AI, and you should take time to learn every modality of AI—there is a lot more to AI than language models like ChatGPT,” Ozden says. We now have image, video, audio and so many other areas for experimentation.

Best AI tool: If you want to move beyond ChatGPT, Dengel suggests expanding your skill set to SDXL, which is AI image generation, especially if you’re in the creative fields or you ever need to present.

About the experts

Ozden Onder is the chief people officer at Stability AI, a leading open generative AI company.
Andrew McCaskill is a LinkedIn career expert and creator of The Black Guy in Marketing newsletter.
William Vanderbloemen is the author of Be the Unicorn: 12 Data-Driven Habits That Separate the Best Leaders from the Rest. He is also the founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group.
Tobias Dengel is the author of The Sound of the Future: The Coming Age of Voice Technology. He is president of WillowTree, a leader in digital product design and development. Dengel understands the wide-ranging implications voice technology will have for every industry, and he counsels leaders and employees on adaptation. He has worked with T. Mobile, Mastercard, Capital One and more on their voice interfaces.
Bridget Lohrius is the founder and CEO of career coaching company Sandwina, a platform built to close the gender gap faster by making career coaching more affordable and accessible for all women.
Akhila Satish is an award-winning career expert, scientist and CEO of Meseekna, where she works to assess and improve employee performance. Satish has worked with employers including the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, Eli Lilly and Credit Suisse, and her work has been featured in publications such as Forbes and The Wall Street Journal.

Sources:

New York Times: “The New ChatGPT Can ‘See’ and ‘Talk.’ Here’s What It’s Like.”
LinkedIn: “LinkedIn’s new AI tool will help you write posts: ChatGPT Impact”
Jobscan: “Optimize your resume to get more interviews”
Resume Genius: “Make Your Professional Resume in Minutes”
Ben’s Bites: “What’s trending in AI”

Feature Image Credit: roberthyrons/getty images

By Jaime Stathis

Jaime Alexis Stathis writes about health, wellness, technology, nutrition, careers and everything related to being a human being on a constantly evolving planet. In addition to Reader’s Digest and The Healthy, her work has been published in Self, Wired, Parade, Bon Appétit, The Independent, Women’s Health, HuffPost and more. She is also a licensed massage therapist. Jaime is working on a novel about a heroine who saves herself and a memoir about caring for her grandmother through the dark stages of dementia.

Sourced from Reader’s Digest

editor

A look at how an integration layer completes AI applications and how integrations can be done better with the help of AI.

AI Without Integration is Incomplete

Integration Without AI is Incomplete

Summary

By Anant Jhingran and Matt Roberts

Sourced from THENEWSTACK

Sponsored Tweets

Affiliate Marketing

Blogging

E-Books

By Karen Doyle

Sourced from GOBankingRates

The ability to convey your company’s essence and mission in 60 seconds or less is a skill that can make or break your success. The art of crafting a concise and compelling company story becomes invaluable when you only have a minute to capture someone’s attention.

1. Understand What Makes Your Company ‘Tick’

2. Know Your Target Audience

3. Avoid Sharing The Whole Story

4. Get To The Heart Of Your Story

5. Ensure Your Purpose Is Reflected In Your Brand

6. Share Your Core Beliefs And Values

7. Be Authentic And Transparent

8. Take Time To Explain Unclear Parts Of Your Story

9. Focus On The Facts

10. Condense Your Key Benefits

11. Focus On A Relatable Core Message

12. Remember Why You Started The Business

13. Articulate The Problem Your Company Solves

14. Identify A Compelling Story Element That Resonates

15. Ensure Your Story Evokes Empathy

16. Focus On Key Company Aspects

17. Start With The Full Story

18. Make It Personal

19. Tell A Story That Comes From The Heart

20. Share A Problem You Solve For Clients

Sourced from Forbes

This guide is designed to show you how to master the basics of Google Bard.

Understand what Bard can and cannot do

Use natural language prompts

Be specific in your instructions

Use follow-up questions

Provide feedback

Experiment and have fun

Here are some additional tips for mastering the basics of Google Bard:

Here are some examples of how you can use Bard:

Summary

By Roland Hutchinson

Sourced from Geeky Gadgets

There were a lot of changes in content marketing over the past year, and the companies winning the content game aren’t just using the basic best practices that were commonplace a few years ago.

Let’s jump into it.

How To Use These Content Marketing Examples

By Tim Stoddart

Sourced from copyblogger

By Sarah Perez

Sourced from TechCrunch

Social media offers a level playing field for startups to build their brand presence, but the high competition necessitates a strategic and streamlined social media branding approach.

The power of social media branding for startups

1. Establish a consistent brand identity

2. Choose the right platforms

3. Create engaging and valuable content

4. Leveraging user-generated content

5. Implementing hashtags and influencer marketing

6. Tracking and analysing performance

By Vikas Agrawal

Sourced from Entrepreneur

From a picturesque town to a Brooklyn cafe, popular destinations are closing their doors to influencers.

By Meera Navlakha

Sourced from Mashable

Using AI job search tools can help optimize the hunt—and get you hired. Here’s how to make artificial intelligence work for you.

How AI can offer opportunity in the job market

Update your LinkedIn profile

Optimize your résumé for AI filters

Find the right fit

Learn about company culture

Personalize cover letters

Identify the best interview questions

Stay ahead of the AI curve

Create a website

Show that you’ve done your research

Experiment with AI tools

About the experts