How to Use AI Authentically for your Small Business: Content Optimization, Market Research, and Automation (Yes, It's Possible)

I think it's safe to say that we're all familiar with AI at this point, especially if you've been in the online space over the past few years. What I think most people aren't familiar with though is how to utilize AI to automate and optimize your business processes.

As someone who's been in the social media marketing space for 4+ years now, I've had a tab open with ChatGPT or Claude at least every week for the past couple of years, and in this video I want to show you how to authentically use these tools so that you can save time in your business, while not having to sacrifice your business's personality that you're known for.

In this video I'm also going to walk you through the specific ways I've been using AI for years as a content specialist. I know that most of you will want to utilize specific prompts outside of watching this video so if you head to the link in the description titled ChatGPT Prompts for Content Marketing, you'll receive a downloadable list of the exact prompts I use to optimize content marketing for my business! You can basically copy and paste these prompts (with some tweaking personalized to your business) into ChatGPT for your own business needs and processes.

Before we get into the video, welcome back to Essence Presents YouTube channel! If you're new here, Hi! My name is Liz, I'm the head photographer and content strategist here at Essence Presents. We serve wellness businesses, craft artisans and creative solopreneurs through authentic brand photography and videography services, as well as content marketing resources to ultimately help you streamline content creation off of your plate so that you can live the authentic business owner life that you dream of. Your time, your energy, and your efforts as a leader are VALUABLE, and creating content should only add to your growth, not take away from it. So my goal on this channel (always) is to let you in on the tactics, strategies and tips that have helped me on my journey as a business owner of 2 completely different businesses for 4+ years. Let's dive in!

Think of AI as a search engine with personalized intellect

When you think of it this way, it's less creepy! AI is still very new to our society as a whole, and it's an important disclaimer to mention that we still have no idea about the real capabilities of AI. We can only expect that it will become more and more advanced as time goes on. But at least in 2024, there has been talks about the fears of AI and how it could potential take away certain jobs that have an automated nature.

My opinion? I believe that authenticity is only becoming a bigger deal to people (in every industry) and the human-to-human connection has taken a hit ever since 2020, and in this era of connecting with others digitally rather than in person. I think as a species, we're actually craving personalized, deeper, more authentic connections with others– not the other way around. I do believe that AI has the potential to take away certain things that can be automated completely but I don't believe that this means the job market as a whole is going to suffer. The personal touch is a real thing that people value and pay for, and with that, I don't think we have a reason to be scared of AI. I think it's exactly the reason why we should embrace its capabilities that can make our lives easier and more streamlined!

So, this is where changing our belief about AI comes in. When you think of AI as a search engine with personalized intellect, it then becomes WAY more interesting and exciting to think about when it comes to optimizing and automating our business processes. We have the ability to update ChatGPT's memory of what are business is, who it serves, etc. This is a beautiful thing because when we understand that this machine is ultimately tapped in to the internet as a whole, we can understand that this machine has instantaneous mechanisms that can truly make our processes simply faster. The intellect piece is also something to consider as well, because on top of being basically the fastest search engine we've seen to date, it can also tell us information about certain subjects. It's good to remember that at this point in time, AI is not insufferable– it can make mistakes. But that doesn't mean it can't guide us in the right direction of information we want to know.

Pick your favorite AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc) and update its memory of you through these prompts

Once you pick which AI tool you feel most comfortable with, you like the way it's answering your prompts, etc. This is when you want to update its memory so that it knows you. NOW I know that sounds creepy. Obviously don't give it any information that you wouldn't want anyone to know, but that point is exactly why it works well when you use AI for your business and marketing efforts. What we are really doing in this step is setting the stage for the CONTEXT it will have in it's results. With AI, it truly is all about context. The more of the "big picture" you can paint for these machines, the better. Think of the context you provide for AI as multiple doors that lead to more information it can provide for you in return.

Here are the AI prompts I've used to allow it to know my business goals, mission, target audience, etc.

• Give me 3 questions to help you understand my business completely.

  • Once you answer the questions that it gives you, you can then ask: What do you know about my business?

• Give me 10 questions to help you understand my business completely so that you're able to help me with backend processes. I want you to understand my business goals, mission, and target audience.

  • Once you answer the questions that it gives you, you can then ask: What do you know about my business?

Keep it authentic by having boundaries

The way you can utilize these amazing AI tools while still prioritizing your authenticity in your business is by only using AI for the tasks that don't require your authenticity. For instance, if you already wrote a blog and it came straight from your heart, but you want to make sure your grammar is correct and that it's optimized for SEO, you can copy your written blog into ChatGPT and ask it to correct any spelling errors and incorporate new edits that include specific keywords that my target audience (which it should know from memory) may be searching for.

Here's a list of what I utilize AI for in my business to give you an idea of the way I hold boundaries with it for my business. When you download the ChatGPT Prompts for Content Marketing in the description, you'll get 3 specific, written out prompts that I use for each of these sections:

• General questions about my industry

  • Target audience struggles (these turn into blog topics)

  • Understanding searchable keywords for your niche

  • Market research (keeping in mind that ChatGPT is not updated with current (2024) information)

• Blog Optimization (example I provided above)

  • Blog meta description: copying my personally written blog and asking AI to develop a meta description summarizing the main takeaway from this blog

  • Blog summary

• Social Media Optimization

  • Content ideation to use as inspiration based on your niche, target audience, etc

  • Creating a social media caption for a post that outlines a subject I wrote about in a blog

  • Indicate content genre for backend organization purposes based on definitions from memory

• Misc

  • Optimizing ad/promotional copy I create to make it more precise and speak to XYZ audience more specifically

  • Backend frameworks: digital product development outlines based on an authentic idea

Thank you all for being here and supporting my blog and YouTube channel. I hope this video helped you immensely!

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Hi, I'm Liz! I'm so BEYOND grateful to be serving you - wellness business leaders, creative solopreneurs and artisan crafters- in streamlining the content creation process off of your plate so that you can get back to doing more of what you love. If you're interested in learning more about what we do at Essence Presents, or your really looking to get your content creation process under control in your business, take your pick below:

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