I greatly enjoyed my chat with Mike Allton, who, like me, wears many hats. Mike is Chief Storyteller at Agorapulse and also a speaker, author, and podcast runner who publishes a weekly newsletter titled “AI in Marketing.” You can get an excellent sample of Mike’s teachings over at his YouTube channel.
As his LinkedIn bio explains, “Mike has become a trusted voice in leveraging AI and data analytics to not only predict market trends but to craft marketing strategies that resonate deeply with audiences. His expertise is not just in understanding the tools of the trade but in applying them in innovative ways that ensure businesses stand out in an increasingly crowded digital landscape.”
Our talk begins with a discussion of the importance of storytelling in social media marketing and then takes a deep dive into best practices for using AI in marketing. Discussion topics include:
– Best practices for repurposing and reusing content.
– Why it’s often smart to repost articles that one has posted before on social media (given that only a fraction of one’s followers are likely to have seen it in the past because of social media algorithmic restrictions).
– The importance of understanding how LLMs work and how they can be used in content generation.
– How using AI can vastly reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks in marketing.
– Legal concerns around AI-generated content.
– How future LLMs will likely reduce the rate of hallucinations.
– Why one should train AI systems “as interns” and not ask too much of them without training them beforehand.
– The potential of AI agents to revolutionize consumer behavior.
– Whether enthusiasm for AI is waning or increasing in the marketing community.
– The potential for “artificial influencers” to influence consumer behavior.
– The importance of marketers becoming familiar with AI now and the career risks of failing to do so.
