It may have been the undeniably human Philip Oakey – of The Human League – who sung in the 1980s that he was “only human, of flesh and blood I’m made”, but that was then… and this is now. It can seem at times during the 2020s that the boundaries between man and machine have become almost irretrievably blurred.
We are, of course, referring to the swift recent onset of the artificial intelligence (AI) age, epitomised by such culture-upending developments as ChatGPT. The profound reshaping of the digital marketing landscape over the last few years has led some people to ask whether human business blogging might well be… well, dead.
Far from “dead”, in fact, human business blogging continues to play a vital role in building trust and loyalty among the right audiences. Indeed, certain AI-enabled developments might have helped make this statement as true as it has ever been.
Below, we have set out a few of the reasons why human-written, rather than AI-generated blog posts should still be regarded as imperative by your brand.
AI is changing how we search for products, services, and information online
You might already be familiar with the “People also ask” feature that frequently pops up on Google search engine results pages (SERPs) for various queries.
For example, in the process of researching this article, we Googled “what is business blogging”. Sure enough, the “People also ask” section appeared, displaying such queries as “Do business blogs make money?” and “How is blogging used for business?” When one of these queries is clicked on, a snippet of information is shown, drawn from a relevant webpage.
A sign of Google’s ever-bolder strides into AI in recent times, though, is the “AI Overview” feature, which also now shows up on many SERPs. To refer back to our “what is business blogging” search, the “AI Overview” generated text that defined blogging for business as “a content marketing strategy where a company creates content related to its products or services to improve its online visibility.”
This functionality, too, harnesses existing information originally put online by humans, in order to provide insights that are genuinely useful for human users. So, even in an increasingly AI-oriented world, human-made content – including blog posts – still provides a vital “bedrock”.
Who knows… maybe your brand could soon be providing the high-quality, human-composed content that generative AI search tools will draw upon to assist human users for years to come?
The fundamental benefits of human-written content remain strong
One thing that no generative AI tool can yet provide, is its own direct knowledge and experience of a particular topic or industry.
When people know that the source of certain information and insights is a human being who has acquired such knowledge and experience directly – even if a professional writer has been hired to put together that content for widespread consumption – they are likelier to link to and share that content.
In this sense, human-written content further helps build the authority and reputation of your business in its field. As a consequence, your target audiences will be likely to place greater trust in your organisation.
Then, there is simply the fact that human-written blog content is the perfect way to show the “human” side of your brand. Your site’s blog isn’t simply an “about us” or “services” page that may remain relatively static for years; it is a living journal that can be constantly updated with new and interesting insights that feel relatable to human readers.
We could go on and on about how human-written blog posts continue to hold power and relevance in an “AI world”… but we think you’ve probably got the gist by now. Contact the Jumping Spider Media team today, to discuss how we could work with you to help bring your brand the benefit of great-quality content.