By Steve Knutson
ChatGPT is a great tool for improving the productivity of content creators. Content creation is one of the most labour-intensive activities for Intranets. This often results in Intranet projects either taking additional time while content is completed, or descoping of content to allow the launch date to be reached. Once live, it can also be challenging to develop additional content, especially when authors have a day job!
ChatGPT won’t work for organisation specific topics. I am not suggesting using ChatGPT for all content, but it is a great tool for supporting content that is more generic in nature. For example, tips for new managers, best practices for running a project, how to run a meeting etc.
This content can supplement organisation specific content and it can be created in minutes rather than hours. It is still a good idea to review the output and make sure it aligns with your organisations standards, policies, and guidelines. The benefit is the bulk of the work can be done in a few moments not hours!
ChatGPT – The Interview Technique:
The simplest approach to creating basic content, is to ask ChatGPT questions, as if you are interviewing a person on the same topic.
- What are some tips for running meetings?
- Tell me three best practices for running a project?
- Why should meetings have agendas?
- Give me some tips for font sizes in presentations
This approach will generate a list of recommendations, that can be expanded on with introductory text, links to resources and further reading.
Getting more out of ChatGPT
To get more out of ChatGPT, ask more complex questions. Ask questions that challenge your thinking or common understanding of a topic.
- Why is reducing the number of meetings a bad idea?
- What are some disadvantages of using uber instead of taxis?
- Three reasons not to have a meeting
Asking questions that are the opposite of conventional wisdom, will help you check your thinking and may also highlight some pro’s and con’s for a topic. Having a list of reasons when not to do something is often as helpful of the cases for when you should. Be your own devil’s advocate!
Brainstorming topics
ChatGPT can also help with brainstorm other content ideas. For example, try using these phrases:
- Human resources content ideas for an Intranet
- Branch office information for an Intranet page
- CEO profile for the Intranet
- Ideas for making it easier to work remotely
Once again, you will get a good starter list of ideas to help you create additional content. Try asking another question based on the results of the brainstorming topic. This process will save a lot of time and can be done without organising a meeting with a lot of participants. There will be occasions where it is better to use real people, but if you are short on time, this is a good next best alternative.
There are two big benefits of using AI to create content:
- Author productivity is boosted significantly, allowing authors to create more, faster.
- Content that previously wasn’t economic to create, now is because it takes less effort.
Improving the results from ChatGPT
You can improve the results from ChatGPT by crafting your questions. Here are a few things to try:
- Ask “remove pretext and context”
- Don’t ask questions in a single chat session. Starting again means earlier answers don’t impact you next question/
- Give ChatGPT examples of the output you want e.g., “List 5 tips for improving employee engagement”
- AI has often misses “no” in a question. Try asking questions in a different way.
- Ask ChatGPT to reduce output by specifying an item count e.g., “3 tips for for rewarding employees”
- Ask for multiple things in one question e.g., “Format a short article about air travel, first explain what air travel is and then give 5 travel tips then give me a summary”
- Keep experimenting to find phrases that produce better results
AI generated content must be reviewed, like other content on your Intranet. I’ve noticed ChatGPT has a bias towards American terms and language, which is to be expected. I tried creating some employee guide content and ChatGPT suggested “401K package”, which is an American term, here in New Zealand, we would say retirement savings or Kiwisaver. This is minor effort generally and so the benefits of generating content are still there.
Now that you have basic content in place, you can measure and get feedback to identify if you should invest more time refining and improve specific content.
If you do want to generate content from your existing SharePoint content, try Viva Topics. This is a great tool for generating and enhancing content within your organisation.
This blog was inspired by Hassan Osman (Writer on the Side) who has an excellent Podcast and lots of great resources for writers.
