Why it issues
Beginning a brand new advertising function often means spending your first few weeks studying methods, understanding processes, and making an attempt to not break something.
I did the other.
Lower than two weeks into becoming a member of Oktopost as Content material & Group Advertising Supervisor, I linked Claude to our Oktopost account and began utilizing it to construct our Employee Advocacy program and company social calendar.
That in all probability feels like a horrible thought.
I barely discovered the place every little thing lived, I wasn’t but an knowledgeable within the platform, and I used to be trusting AI to assist with work that might usually take days and even weeks. It turned out to be one of many quickest productiveness wins I’ve skilled.
The very best half is that nothing I did required something past what an Oktopost buyer already has entry to.
This isn’t a refined success story written six months later. It’s what occurred throughout my first couple of weeks, together with the components that labored instantly and the components I had to determine alongside the best way.
Key takeaways
- Turned 12 printed weblog posts into 36 Employee Advocacy posts with three distinctive variations every and printed them on to our Advocacy Board, a activity that might usually take round two weeks
- Constructed and scheduled a month’s price of corporate LinkedIn content material immediately into the Oktopost calendar from a easy planning doc in round an hour as a substitute of a few days
- Crammed our Advocacy Board by the top of September with out creating any new supply content material
Getting Claude and Oktopost speaking to one another
Right here’s what that truly appears to be like like day after day: I transient Claude. For instance, who’s attending an occasion, when it’s occurring, examples of the tone and angle I need, what to emphasise, what to go away out. Claude drafts it. Typically it will get it mistaken, and I repair it. That half hasn’t modified in any respect. I nonetheless plan, nonetheless direct, nonetheless make the ultimate name. What modified is how briskly I can transfer as soon as I approve and tweak the content material till it says what I need.
The technical setup turned out to be the straightforward half.
Our IT group (thanks Julius!) had Claude linked to Oktopost in lower than 20 minutes.
The larger problem wasn’t connecting the methods. It was educating Claude how I wished it to work.
Like most individuals experimenting with AI, my first prompts weren’t particularly good. Some had been too imprecise. Others had been so particular that the output grew to become repetitive. Technically they labored, however they didn’t sound like one thing I’d really need our workers sharing in our advocacy posts.
My supervisor, Colin, spent a while serving to me suppose otherwise about prompting and learn how to construction the agent. As soon as that clicked, every little thing began transferring a lot quicker.
The setup was measured in minutes. Studying learn how to get persistently good outcomes was the place I spent most of my time, however that’s an funding you solely make as soon as.
Turning current weblog posts into worker advocacy content material
The primary actual challenge was filling our Advocacy Board.
We already had loads of printed weblog posts on our web site, so as a substitute of making model new advocacy content material from scratch, I gave Claude the supply articles and directed it to generate three genuinely totally different worker sharing choices for every one.
Not three variations with barely totally different wording.
Three totally different views that workers might select from relying on what felt genuine to them.
Throughout 12 weblog posts, that grew to become 36 able to share advocacy posts, which I had printed immediately into Oktopost relatively than left sitting in a Phrase doc ready for somebody to repeat and paste them later.
Doing that manually would in all probability have taken me shut to 2 weeks.
As an alternative, by the top of my second week, our Advocacy Board was already deliberate by the top of September.
That was the second I spotted this wasn’t merely serving to me write quicker. I had to return and edit the posts regardless to make them sound human.
It was serving to me execute quicker.
In case you’ve already constructed a library of weblog content material, chances are high you’re sitting on months of Worker Advocacy content material with out realizing it.
Constructing the company LinkedIn calendar
The second workflow was our company LinkedIn calendar.
I created a planning doc with six publish concepts and the dates they need to be printed.
Nothing sophisticated.
I uploaded the doc into Claude and had it generate the posts and place them immediately onto the right dates inside our Oktopost calendar.
The primary time it occurred, I genuinely refreshed the calendar as a result of I assumed I’d misunderstood what had occurred.
Usually that course of includes formatting, copying, checking dates, pasting, then checking every little thing once more.
This time it was merely there.
A activity that might often take me a few days was completed in round an hour.
Even higher, the planning doc itself wasn’t something particular. It means we are able to proceed utilizing the planning course of we have already got with out creating completely new workflows for AI.
What AI doesn’t do
One factor I don’t need this text to recommend is that AI is changing entrepreneurs.
It isn’t.
Claude isn’t doing planning, strategizing, or deciding what we should always publish.
It isn’t modifying, tweaking, or approving content material, neither is it making it sound like an actual particular person is writing it. Solely actual folks can do this. 🙂
It isn’t making editorial choices.
What it’s doing is eradicating repetitive work that usually sits between having a good suggestion and getting that concept into the arms of workers, rapidly, or onto our social calendar, quick.
Each publish nonetheless will get reviewed.
Every bit of copy nonetheless will get permitted.
Every thing is fact-checked.
I’m nonetheless answerable for ensuring every little thing displays our model and is one thing I’d be joyful to publish.
AI merely will get me there a lot quicker.
Two weeks in
Once I accepted this function, I anticipated to spend my first few weeks studying methods, understanding processes, and regularly discovering my rhythm.
I didn’t count on AI to vary how I labored fairly this rapidly.
Two weeks in the past, I used to be studying the place every little thing lived inside Oktopost.
At the moment our Worker Advocacy Board is deliberate by the top of September, our LinkedIn calendar is full, and I’m spending much more time fascinated by contemporary new content material and sparking my creativity than transferring content material between methods.
That, to me, is the true alternative AI creates.
Not as a result of it writes.
Not as a result of it schedules.
Not as a result of it replaces entrepreneurs.
As a result of it quietly removes the repetitive work that will get in the best way of the work entrepreneurs really take pleasure in doing.
Much less copying.
Much less formatting.
Much less administration.
Extra pondering.
Extra creativity.
Extra technique.
Extra advertising.
That’s what shocked me most.
I assumed AI would save me time.
I didn’t count on it to vary how I spend my time.
In case you’re already utilizing Oktopost, it is a workflow you can begin experimenting with immediately.
And in the event you’re curious to see what it appears to be like like in follow, we’d love to show you!
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