Buffer - Feeling Conflicted About AI as a Writer

Hey 👋🏽

Happy Friday everyone! Can you believe we’re already at the last week of January? I hope you all had a great first month of 2023 and were able to implement some of your New Year goals. And if you’re like me and have been procrastinating a bit 😬 — that’s ok too! We can make February resolutions 😀 

💌 In today’s email:

• 🧰 I open up about my hesitations with AI writing tools like ChatGPT as a content creator and discuss how Buffer is approaching this technology
• 📱 Mitra recommends a fun way to highlight your business on IG Reels
• 📣 What’s happening in social: Instagram is shifting their strategy for 2023, LinkedIn is adding a new feature for newsletter discovery, and TikTok just admitted employees can influence video popularity.
• +All The best content from the blog

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next Friday!

Warmly, 

Umber & the Buffer team

P.S. Have a social media related question? Use #AskBuffer and ask us on Twitter!

P.P.S. Tami will be back next week! 

🏊🏼 Deep dive: Feeling Conflicted About AI as a Content Writer 

I’ve been doing my best to ignore all of the discourse around ChatGPT and its capabilities because – to be quite honest – it scared me. As someone who identifies first and foremost as a writer, I couldn’t help but become defensive.

But, I’m finding that I can’t keep ignoring this discomfort. After all, Buffer is currently working to embed AI technology into our product, and as a content writer here, I’ve had to finally confront the elephant in the room.

Why I feel conflicted about AI 

To better understand my unwillingness to adapt to this technology, here’s some context. Ever since I could remember, storytelling has been an integral part of who I am.

Even when I switched over from my creative endeavors to journalism and content writing, the work has remained personal for me. When I write blog posts for Buffer, I talk to real people and use examples from actual small businesses and content creators. I’m always inserting myself and a human connection into every single piece of writing I produce. And that’s what makes it good.

You're telling me some computer chatbot can replicate that? Give me a break. I also feel like this technology is unethically pulling from other writers without proper approval or citation, feeling almost like plagiarism.

Buffer’s Approach to AI

 I spoke to two of my colleagues who are currently working on Buffer’s AI assistant – Diego and Ismail – about my personal hesitations. They both assured me Buffer’s main goal with AI is to help our users, mostly made up of creators and small and medium-sized businesses, who are running most or all of the operations by themselves and have limited resources.

Diego said his vision for the tool is that it, “never replaces human creativity but be a sidekick that assists you and that can actually – if done correctly – unlock a lot of potential.”

My thoughts on AI moving forward

Up until now, my resistance to this technology has been strong. Not only have I been avoiding all of the AI writing and photo tools on the market, I’ve even turned off Google Doc smart suggestions in protest.

But, after some reflection, I have decided to push past my reluctance and start utilizing these tools.

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👇🏽 The latest from the blog

• Personal Finance for Creators: What Creators Should Know About Managing Money: Making and managing money can be tricky to navigate, and as an online creator, your life is your business. In this article, Tami covers key tips to help you handle income generation, budgeting, investing, and taxes as a content creator.
• 4 Small Businesses on How They’re Changing Their Social Media Strategy in 2023: The start of a new year is a great time to reassess your marketing strategy. Here's how these 4 small business owners are doing marketing differently in 2023. 
• I Started Having Panic Attacks as a Business Owner — Here’s How I Reprioritized Mental Health While Still Growing:  Stress is a normal part of running a business—but there’s a point at which it goes too far. When Ted Browning started having panic attacks from running his restaurant, he knew something had to change. Here’s how he started taking better care of himself while keeping the business growing.

🎙️We revived The Science of Social Media!

The Science of Social Media is a weekly podcast exploring hot topics, best practices, and insights into social media from the Buffer team and top social media marketing experts.

📱 Social Tip of The Week from Mitra, Buffer’s Social Media Manager 

“This is what I get to do for a living” 🤩 

Take a moment to share the amazing work you get to do with this simple trend on Instagram Reels! You can just share a short clip of you working or your product.Use the caption to go a little deeper and share your story for any new followers who come across your video and also direct them to check out your link in bio (your Start Page link) so they can check out your products. Check out this example from @liz_poppin_balloons_llc, a balloon stylist who also teaches balloon classes on Zoom!

🤳 What's Happening in Social

• 🤔 So maybe viral TikToks aren’t as organic as we thought: TikTok recently spoke out about an internal feature known as “heating,” which allows employees to boost a post. 
• 📸 Instagram is going back to the basics and focusing on photos again as Adam Mosseri admits the app focused too much on video in 2022. 
• 📰 LinkedIn is adding a new feature that will allow users to see what newsletters people are subscribed to.

Thanks for reading! 💟

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