Innovation

The biggest ChatGPT mistakes you’re making in your business

12 months ago, many business owners couldn’t tell you what AI stands for (Artificial Intelligence). Now, we’ve been thrown into the ChatGPT era, revolutionising the way we do everything, but most business owners have jumped on the bandwagon without fully understanding the generative AI ropes.

Sure, ChatGPT and other generative AI sources can save us a lot of time and make us a lot of money, but it won’t work for you long term if you’re making these two big mistakes:

1. Failing to learn how to train your generative AI using your brand voice.
2. Copying and pasting without editing the outputs.

Why it matters

The stakes are high in today’s digital marketplace. Failing to properly train and edit your AI tools can lead to content that feels impersonal, generic, or disconnected from your brand’s core values. This not only risks alienating your audience but can also dilute your brand’s unique voice in a sea of sameness.
On the flipside, well-trained and finely-tuned AI content can be a powerful asset. It can speed up your content creation process, maintain high quality and consistency across platforms, and most importantly, resonate deeply with your audience by reflecting the unique essence of your brand.

Training ChatGPT with your brand voice

The essence of your brand will get lost in translation if ChatGPT isn’t trained on your unique voice. Every brand has its quirks, values, and tone that set it apart from the competition. If your AI-generated content lacks this personal touch, it could come off as generic or, worse, unprofessional.

This is particularly true when the AI fails to capture the nuanced language or specialised jargon of your industry, making it glaringly obvious to your audience that the content lacks a human touch.

Training ChatGPT involves a few key steps, such as defining your brand’s tone of voice, understanding your target audience, and setting clear brand rules. For instance, you might want your content to always sound upbeat and professional while avoiding certain industry jargon or phrases that don’t align with your brand image.

This meticulous customisation ensures that ChatGPT’s outputs resonate with your brand’s ethos and appeal directly to your target audience, maintaining a consistent and professional image across all your content channels.

Editing AI outputs

ChatGPT, despite its advanced capabilities, often produces very wordy and repetitive content. From using words you would never use, to having analogies in every sentence, and giving every single noun three adjectives. Every single audience that exists has a short attention span, so excess words and description will simply make your readers tune out and scroll on.

Effective editing involves several key practices:

1. Trimming the Fat: AI generated content can be over the top. Look for and eliminate unnecessary words or phrases that don’t add value to the message.
2. Avoiding Redundancy: AI might use repetitive language. Identify and remove duplicate ideas or expressions to enhance readability.
3. Ensuring Brand Alignment: Make sure the content reflects your brand’s voice and values. Adjust any tonal discrepancies to maintain consistency.
4. Reading Aloud: This old-school technique is gold for catching awkward phrasing or tone that doesn’t sound like your brand voice.

By incorporating these editing strategies, you ensure that the content not only avoids the pitfalls of sounding “AI-generated” but also stands out in an increasingly crowded digital landscape.

While ChatGPT and similar AI tools offer huge opportunities for content creation, they are not a set-and-forget solution. They require careful training to capture your brand’s unique voice and meticulous editing to polish their outputs. By investing the time to train ChatGPT properly and edit its outputs with a fine-tooth comb, you ensure that your content remains high-quality, consistent, and, most importantly, unmistakably yours.

This story was originally published on Inside Small Business.