Did AI finally kill blogging?

Steve Milne Group Director of Strategy Contact

Digital Futures

1st November 2024

1 minute

The B2B blogging landscape has shifted dramatically in recent months. AI makes it easier than ever to create content, so the volume of content has leapt in even the smallest B2B niche.

Oh – I should mention – writing LinkedIn posts is blogging. Posting on threads is blogging. Sending your weekly company marketing email is blogging. Even writing articles to post on an actual blog is blogging. All are being over-run by the machines.

This sea of machine generated … stuff … makes your hand-crafted content harder to find. But it makes it easier to stand out, if you avoid writing like the machine. People are tired of the machine already. The machine is dull. Often correct, but wow, can it be dull.

How do you stand out?

Step 1 – this stays the same as ever. Have something to say. Have an idea. The idea is key. Interesting ideas are the heart of all effective content.

Step 2 – ask AI to write a post about your idea. This is your template for what NOT to write. Seriously. It’ll be ‘fine’, but forgettable. Don’t be forgettable.

Step 3 - repeat step 2 five or six times. Truly understand what ‘the machine’ says about this topic.

Step 4 – write a post that is the opposite of the machine generated versions.

This may test your writing skills, but it will ensure that you have a chance to stand out.

If the machine always writes 500 words, you should write 100, or 1000.
If the machine uses a strict structure, you should write more loosely.
If (when) the machine leaps to cliché, you hunt for fresh language.
If the machine build a cohesive argument that is easy to follow, you should surprise the reader and leap to conclusions too early.
If (definitely when) the AI closes with an ‘in summary’ paragraph you most certainly should not close in that way. Or use ‘in the realm of’, ‘tapestry’ or ‘multifaceted’. AI loves those.

This is simply a new version of very old advice for writing good content, cynically updated for the AI age.

What is that old advice? It’s very simple. It’s just four words. But four words do not a blog post make!

Make

Interesting.

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