As MarComm leaders, we drive change. Given tight resources, stretched budgets, and increasing expectations, one way I’m leading change is using AI to help enhance our capacity to do more and to work more efficiently.
The hardest part of the tool, for me, isn’t the usage itself but taking the time to find creative approaches. Good news for you! I’ve done the hard work.
In the second part of this blog series, I’ve created 10 more use cases for higher education marketing leaders to use AI to help us in our work.
For each of the ideas, I’ve provided a little about the use case and more specific details of how I’m thinking about the work.
Also — if you missed the first 10 ideas for MarComm leaders, they are worth a read too.
10 Ideas for MarComm Leaders
1. Data analysis – If you have focus group answers, student reports (without personal identification), or geographic data, ChatGPT is phenomenal at reviewing the data and providing a few key action items or themes. I also find that sometimes I’m more distracted by outliers that resonate with me, and ChatGPT is better at avoiding over focusing on outliers and is more disciplined at looking at themes.
I have friends working on their dissertation who are using ChatGPT to help in the analysis phase of their research. Additionally, I’ve used ChatGPT to help sort focus group information and to look at current student data and to help assess opportunities for growth in tertiary markets. While I wouldn’t trust it entirely, it does help me quickly explore possibilities.
2. Turn Newsletter Content into a Podcast – As a MarComm leader, resources are always stretched thin, and I like the idea of repurposing content for different audiences. The “Audience Overview” feature of Notebook LM allows you to turn a written newsletter into a podcast read by the AI voice of your choosing with just a few clicks.
I haven’t used this one yet, but I really think it’s smart. I have received several of these podcasts, and they are strikingly authentic sounding, complete with dialect, verbal stutters, etc. If you’re under pressure to explore campus podcasting, I think this offers a reasonable solution without much additional investment. If you have a monthly newsletter, this is a must-do tactic for engaging your audiences.
3. Create Graphics for News Stories – Sometimes we don’t have a great picture to go with a story, or we need a graphical representation. I have found that MidJourney can reasonably create strong graphics for stories.
I have used MidJourney for about a year (pre-interface days) to create graphics for my website. The more descriptive I can be with the graphics, the better results I get. With MidJourney’s new personalization tool, I believe that it’s getting even better at matching your aesthetic and creating branded content. My one caveat is be sure to cite your photo as an AI creation.
4. Creating Job Descriptions – ChatGPT does a great job of crafting job descriptions for roles at your organization. For me, it’s also important to have the descriptions align with a particular salary grade. I’ve worked with ChatGPT to draft descriptions that align with entry-level, mid-career, or senior roles.
Because of attrition, we’ve had some reorganization opportunities at UA Little Rock. As such, I’ve used ChatGPT to create new job descriptions for the positions we needed to fill. Adding these positions and creating the job descriptions used to take hours, but now I’m able to get something to HR for review in a matter of minutes, helping keep the process moving.
5. Salary Research – ChatGPT can help conduct research on what is reasonable for a position and can help determine salary expectations by region as well. If you’re trying to better understand broad pay bands to make salary adjustments, this is a particularly beneficial use case.
Having worked at several universities, salaries are always an issue. Despite this, I’ve used ChatGPT to help me explore where new positions should fall but also how current rates current roles should be compensated. This research has helped me to make more informed decisions when thinking about ways to work on salaries.
6. Confidence Boost – Sometimes, we all need to hear “great job”, and ChatGPT does this well. It can take things it knows about you and praising you and your work, when you need a bit of a confidence boost.
Having struggled with imposter syndrome, I have used ChatGPT to give me pep talks. Leadership can be really lonely, and it’s nice having someone who says, “I see you and am proud of you”. I encourage you, if you’re having a rough day, to ask ChatGPT to give you positive feedback based on what it knows about you.
7. Polite Feedback – Similarly, ChatGPT is pretty adept at giving constructive feedback, while still remaining polite. The feedback can be structured more on particular situations or as overall critiques, depending on what is most beneficial to you.
I have used this around evaluation time to help me assess my blind spots in my self-review. Additionally, I’ve found it can give feedback on how I handled a particular situation and how I might improve. The thing to note when giving it information about a situation is to ensure you are leaving personal information out of it.
8. Conference Session Suggestions – If you’re traveling to a conference, ChatGPT can make session recommendations based on what it knows about you. This helps me when I’m tight on time, or the conference programming is extensive.
Sometimes when I look at all the sessions in the app, I get overwhelmed by the choices, and ChatGPT helps me in selecting decisions. I find the justification it provides helps me to determine if the session is what I’m looking for. One thing to note, how well this works depends on how the conference organizer lay out the website that ChatGPT scans.
9. Reverse engineer a successful moment – Use ChatGPT to review what made a campaign, event, media moment, or social post work well and achieve the desired outcomes, Then have ChatGPT provide suggestions on replicating it for the future.
I try to think of this as the starting point to build your Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). If the strategies I used worked really well for that particular project, how can I use those same strategies for future projects to see similar results.
10. Giveaways – Our team is regularly asked to brainstorm giveaway ideas. ChatGPT does a good job coming up with some creative ideas if you can help narrow the audience or provide something specific about the audience.
As we do several events and host key donors on campus, it can be challenging to come up with gifts that are unique yet personal to the university. I really like how ChatGPT helps us brainstorm creative options that go beyond simply buying a particular item. I’ve also used it to help identify fun and meaningful options for student swag as well.
What Else?
Are there great strategies you’re exploring? If so, be sure to comment on the post.
Also, I’ll have another post in this series next month, be sure to subscribe so you get the insights in your inbox!
Carry On!
And Carrie On 