poseycorp helps innovators become great communicators. (Sometimes by sending out helpful stuff in a newsletter.)
ISSUE 171
Originality shines
“To write is human, to edit divine.”
-- Stephen King
Would you rather read: “We leverage existing resources and enable best-in-class IP to optimize your daily hygiene comfort” or “You need that hot shower! We’ll fix your water heater today!”?
Soulless copy has been written by humans for decades, long before we had AI to help.
Now that we have AI, the slop is being served daily. In 2024, Originality.AI found that 54 percent of LinkedIn’s long form posts (over 100 words) "are estimated to be AI-generated." Here’s the story on LinkedIn. There are already billions (trillions?) of words on the internet, some of which are magnificent, some not so much.
Today, neither writer’s block nor time are barriers to creating billions more useless words.
Useful, interesting, delightful content that will stand out like a kumquat in a bushel of apples requires a point of view, a distinctive voice, good taste, and, most importantly, deep empathy with your audience.
Whether you use an AI model or slave over the keyboard yourself isn’t as important as the judgment you apply as you edit and evaluate drafts. For now, most AI models write relatively generic copy. This will not always be so. A lot of humans write generic copy too. In either case, it’s editing with judgment and taste that transforms human or AI-generated slop into something worth reading.
When you’re editing your own or an AI-generated draft, consider: Does the copy address your readers’ biggest problems? Does it explain your fundamental insights in your readers’ terms, not yours? Is it relatable? Incisive? Short? “You need that hot shower!” satisfies all the criteria.
In the future (you know, like three months from now), it’s not who or what drafted the content that will matter. It’s who edited and published it. Let’s edit and publish great words. Let’s be kumquats that stand out from barrels and barrels of mushy apples.
“All the advice was super relevant, super practical,” said a relieved senior executive after an hour of presentation coaching.
If you’d like great results, schedule a conversation with me! It’s easy! Reach me at inquiries@poseycorp.com.
Not sure how to crush your next presentation? Persuade that difficult customer or team member? Navigate tough questions from regulators, press, your boss? How about some pragmatic, actionable communications advice?
If you are a startup founder, an intrapreneur at a company, or a leader looking to grow, consider Office Hours with Lisa, a great way to get bite-sized, personalized communications coaching. Because your business must scale and you must scale with it. Because it’s the great communicators who create change!
