CleanStart Perspectives – Build Better Content Using AI
I recently had the opportunity to give a presentation for CleanStart’s Perspectives podcast series. The topic was “Build Better Content Using AI,” and it was a fantastic discussion with an audience of startups, creatives, marketers, and nonprofit professionals. During the session, we explored how to use AI to develop content that resonates with your audience and drives real results for your organization. We focused on strategies for amplifying your brand voice in a way that remains authentic and human-centered. The goal was to provide tools, tips, and AI strategies that can help you: – Build content that connects with the right people – Grow your brand or organization with intention – Save time with AI without losing your authentic voice – Turn your message into momentum – In this presentation I shared some of our favorite tools and resources for generating AI content. Below is the infographic I created and walked through during our talk. Here is our MKTNG In the Loop, AI-generated podcast. We use and recommend JellyPod for creating AI podcasting in lieu of NotebookLM. Podcastle is our preferred platform for long form podcast recording and editing. Opus Clip is our preferred tool for our short clip editing It was an inspiring session, and a great chance to connect with the greater Sacramento clean tech community. I’m excited to see how everyone uses these insights to create impactful content that sticks. Connect with CleanStart for more events and information on the clean tech community in the Sacramento Region.
Build Better Content Using AI – CleanStart Perspectives Conversation
AI for Authentic Content: An Interactive Guide 🎙️ Authentic AI Core Idea Toolkit in Action Human Touchpoints Idea Generation Expanding Reach Accessibility & Community Case Study Ethics & Transparency An interactive guide to using AI for authentic content creation. AI for Authentic Content Strategies for Impactful, Human-Centered Creation The Core Idea: AI as an Authenticity Amplifier The goal isn’t to replace your unique voice with AI, but to use AI as a powerful assistant. By automating repetitive tasks, you free up valuable time to focus on what truly defines your authentic brand: developing deeper insights, crafting personal stories, and fostering genuine connections with your audience. Think of AI as the tool, but you are always the artist. 🤖 AI is an Assistant, Not a Replacement It handles the tedious work, freeing you to focus on high-level strategy and creativity. 🗣️ Amplify Your Voice AI’s efficiency allows you to produce more content, giving you increased opportunities to infuse your unique human elements and distinct perspectives. 🎯 Focus on the “Why” Your core message, values, and purpose remain entirely human-driven and authentic. Conceptual Effort Distribution Your Toolkit in Action Practical tools can transform one piece of core content into multiple formats, expanding your reach while maintaining your authentic message. Here’s how you can use tools like JellyPod and Opus Clip to repurpose content effectively. JellyPod: Blog Posts to Podcasts Process: Converts your well-researched written content into an engaging audio format, perfect for listeners on the go. Authenticity Check: Maintain your narrative style by carefully selecting AI voices. For maximum authenticity, record your own intros and outros to frame the AI-generated content. Benefit: Instantly tap into the growing podcast audience without creating a new script from scratch. Opus Clip: Long Video to Digestible Shorts Process: Analyzes long-form video content (like interviews or webinars) and extracts short, viral-ready clips. Authenticity Check: AI identifies potentially engaging moments, but *you* are the final curator. Choose the segments that best represent your message and add your unique context or flair. Benefit: Maximize your reach on short-form video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Strategic Human Touchpoints Authenticity isn’t accidental; it’s intentional. Using AI effectively means knowing exactly where and when to apply your human touch. This workflow ensures your final product is polished by technology but perfected by you. 👤 1. Pre-Prompting Feed the AI your brand voice, tone, and persona. → 🤖 2. AI Generation AI creates the initial draft, outline, or media. → ✍️ 3. Human Polish You edit, refine, and add personal anecdotes. → 🌐 4. Ethical Disclosure Transparently share AI’s role with your audience. Beyond Repurposing: Idea Generation AI can be a powerful brainstorming partner, helping you break through creative blocks and discover new content avenues that resonate with your audience. Brainstorming Content Ideas Use tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to generate fresh ideas based on keywords, current trends, or your audience’s pain points. This provides a quick jumpstart for your content calendar. Outlines & First Drafts AI can rapidly create structured outlines or initial drafts for articles and scripts, saving significant time in the initial creation phase and letting you focus on adding depth and detail. Expanding Reach: Diverse Media Formats Move beyond simple repurposing and use AI to create entirely new media formats, expanding your content ecosystem without needing a massive production team. AI for Video Creation from Text Tools such as Descript or Fliki can transform your written content, like blog posts or detailed scripts, into full-fledged videos. These tools often include AI voices, access to stock footage libraries, and automated captioning, making video production accessible and efficient. AI Image Generators Generate unique and on-brand visuals for all your content needs using advanced AI image generators like Canva AI, DALL-E, or Midjourney. This capability enhances the visual appeal of your blogs, social media posts, and presentations, ensuring a consistent and professional aesthetic across all platforms. Accessibility & Community Engagement Authenticity extends to serving your entire audience. AI provides powerful tools to make your content more inclusive and to scale your personal engagement, demonstrating that you genuinely value and listen to your community. Enhanced Accessibility Automated Captions: AI-powered tools generate highly accurate captions for your video content, making it fully accessible to hearing-impaired audiences and those watching in sound-sensitive environments. Multilingual Content: Utilize AI translation services for a rapid first pass at converting your core content into various languages, significantly broadening your global reach. Alt Text Generation: Improve the inclusivity of your visual content by using AI to generate descriptive alternative text for images and videos, crucial for visually impaired users relying on screen readers. Fostering Community Summarize Feedback: AI can quickly analyze and summarize key themes from extensive comments or audience feedback, allowing you to grasp sentiment and respond more thoughtfully and efficiently. Draft Personalized Replies: Scale your engagement efforts by having AI draft personalized responses to common questions or comments, which you then review and refine to ensure they maintain your authentic voice. Content Gap Analysis: Leverage AI to analyze recurring questions and discussions from your audience, identifying new content ideas that directly address their needs and interests, proving you’re truly listening. Case Study: My AI Podcast Series This section is for your personal story. Explain your workflow, how you ensure your voice remains authentic, and the benefits you’ve seen. Use the prompts below to structure your narrative. The Process: [Briefly explain your workflow – e.g., “Starting with my blog posts, I use JellyPod to generate initial audio. I then…”] Maintaining Authenticity: [How do you ensure it sounds like *you*? E.g., “I record my own intros/outros,” “I heavily edit the AI-generated script for my specific tone and anecdotes.”] Benefits Achieved: [Faster production, consistent output, reaching new listeners, etc.] Key Takeaway: AI is a powerful enabler for consistency and reach, but human oversight ensures the soul of the content remains intact. Ethics & Transparency Using AI responsibly is the foundation of authentic creation. Building trust with your audience requires a commitment to ethical practices and clear communication.
MKTNG 10th Anniversary Special: A Decade of Public Relations Changes– An Interview with Laura Braden
Laura Braden, a veteran in marketing and strategic communications with 20 years of experience, joins the MKTNG 10 Year Podcast to discuss the evolution of the PR and marketing landscape. She shares insights from her extensive career, including her roles as Director of Communications for the Campaign on Trauma Informed Policy and Practice, Senior Director of Communications for the Sacramento Kings, and Deputy Communications Director for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Laura also founded Girls on the Grid, a prominent Sacramento social scene hub. The conversation covers significant shifts in communication practices, the principles of effective communication, challenges and opportunities in infrastructure project communications, and unique considerations for trauma-informed organizations. The episode concludes with a discussion on the impact of AI and the decentralization of media on the future of strategic communications. Key Topics: MKTNG’s 10th Anniversary Evolution of PR and Marketing Early Social Media Adoption Principles of Effective Communication Infrastructure Project Communications Trauma-Informed Communication Impact of AI on Strategic Communications Decentralization of Media Future of Communications Ethical Considerations of AI Transcript: Scott: All right. Welcome to a special episode of our podcast and MKTNG10, marking our ten year anniversary of MKTNG. Our marketing and PR agency that’s been crafting strategies for brands that care for over a decade. Today, I’m excited to chat with Laura Braden, a valuable team member at MKTNG, and a long time friend whose 20 years of expertise in marketing and strategic communications has made a huge impact in our field. Laura’s career is full of incredible highlights here in in Sacramento and beyond. She currently serves as the Director of Communications for the Campaign on Trauma Informed Policy and Practice. Well, that aligns very closely with our mission here at MKTNG to drive meaningful change through strategic communications. Laura has also left her mark on some pretty defining chapters and the Sacramento region. She served as senior Director of communications for the Sacramento Kings, where she steered all the PR and media for business operations. She also served as deputy communications director for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, crafting state, national and international campaigns on economics, infrastructure, energy, agricultural policies. You know that she also founded girls on the grid, once the preeminent hub for Sacramento social scene. Laura has worked for fortune ten companies, political campaigns, state agencies like California medical associations, nonprofits. And she remains a go to consultant for organizations and individuals, often in a time of crisis. I first connected with Laura through my role as president of the Social Media Club a long time ago here in Sacramento. This was when Laura was helping to organize a grassroots effort to keep the Kings here in Sacramento. We’ve remained friends since, and Laura has always remained a source of sharp insights with thoughtful and impactful intentions, which I’ve always valued. Today we’re diving into how marketing and PR well, the landscape has evolved over the past decade and the trends that are shaping our work now and what we see on the horizon. Laura, it’s great to have you here. So let’s jump in. Laura: Thanks for having me. Lovely intro. Yeah. Well, thanks. Scott: All right. So, uh, how are you doing today? Laura: Good. Good. Really ready to dive into some of the things that you and I have been chatting on offline about for a couple of years now. So. Yeah, let’s do it. Scott: Yeah, absolutely. So this is, uh, you know, uh, ten, ten and ten year anniversary for MKTNG, which is, uh, just recently passed. So we’re we’re kind of looking back, right? We want to talk about what’s happened in ten years. And because kind of our careers in general. Right. You both go back a ways. Um, and I wanted to we’ll get to sort of some new tools, right, that are shaping communications. But what’s something, uh, like what’s a relic of your past? Like, what’s a tool you remember using back when, when you were first, uh, starting in public relations? Laura: Well, as you were so kind to say, I am. Yes, almost. I’m approaching my 25th anniversary of being in this world, which is just. Well, that’s an entire lifetime that I’ve been doing this now. So that’s pretty surreal. So as you can imagine, you know, back in, gosh, 2000, 2001 when I got started, one of my favorite things to highlight for folks, especially the younger folks who, you know, don’t really use fax machines and that sort of thing. But, uh, one major thing that has changed is the way that we even distribute press releases and all that. So way back in the day, early 2000, we would fax press releases to newsrooms one by one. We would, um, we would take this was sort of before the internet was ubiquitous. Um, and it was really hard for newspapers, didn’t quite know what the others were covering necessarily. So you could take one off then and we would pitch it at the same time to the Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, all the bigs. And then we would wait for our service to send us in the mail a three ring binder, uh, that op ed placement, as well as any other, uh, you know, media placements for the client. Um, And it would be the actual hard copy from the newspaper cut out posted. And then we would take that three ring binder and make copies of it, and then find it again, and then get it to the client. So as you can imagine, I mean, that’s a lot of jobs, a lot of cottage, you know, little small businesses that it’s supporting because there were probably like four different vendors in that process. But it would take weeks, would take forever. And nowadays, you know, you can’t get away with that. Everybody wants their own unique content exclusivity, especially when it comes to things like
Empowering Voices: The Crucial Role of Trauma-Informed Communications in Survivor Storytelling
As communications and marketing professionals, we can amplify voices, shape narratives, and drive social change. But with that power comes a profound responsibility—especially when working with trauma survivors. By adopting trauma-informed approaches, we can ensure our storytelling empowers rather than exploits and heals rather than harms. Why Trauma-Informed Communications Matter Trauma is pervasive in our society. Studies show that 70% of U.S. adults have experienced at least one traumatic event. For many, sharing their story can lead to healing and positive change. However, if done carelessly, it risks re-traumatization. Traditional journalistic approaches often prioritize getting “the scoop” over survivor well-being. As communicators, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard. Trauma-informed communications shift the paradigm from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” and then to “What’s strong with you?” It views survivors as whole people deserving of dignity, not just sources for dramatic quotes. This approach leads to more accurate, nuanced storytelling. Trauma impacts memory and perception. By creating safe, supportive environments for survivors to share at their own pace, we get fuller, more reliable accounts without causing further harm. Concrete Steps for Trauma-Informed Storytelling Prioritize Informed Consent: Clearly explain how you’ll use their story, what questions you’ll ask, and their rights in the process. Give them time to consider before agreeing. Collaborate, Don’t Dictate: Share questions in advance. Let survivors choose what they’re comfortable answering. Allow them to review and approve their quotes. Create a Safe Environment: Let them choose the interview location. Explain the logistics in advance (duration, recording methods, etc.). Offer breaks. Ask Open-Ended Questions: Instead of “How do you feel?”, try “How are you today?” or “How did you experience that?” Respect Boundaries: Don’t pressure them if they decline or seem hesitant. Provide your contact info in case they change their mind later. Focus on Strength and Resilience: While acknowledging pain, highlight growth, coping strategies, and hopes for the future. Give Them Control: Ask what they hope to achieve by sharing their story. Shape your piece around their goals. Avoid Sensationalism: Avoid unnecessary graphic details that could trigger readers or the survivor upon publication. Follow-up: Stay in touch about how their story is used. If you plan future coverage, always inform them first. Care for Yourself: Secondary trauma is real for communicators, too. Practice self-care and seek support when needed. Embracing trauma-informed communications requires a shift in mindset throughout our organization: Educate all staff on trauma basics and its impacts on memory, behavior, and healing. Develop clear policies on ethical storytelling and survivor interactions. Prioritize long-term relationships with survivors over “one and done” stories. Measure success beyond clicks and views. Consider how our work impacts survivors and communities. Create space for reflection and learning. Debrief challenging stories as a team. The Impact of Trauma-Informed Storytelling When we approach survivor stories with empathy, respect, and collaboration, remarkable things happen: Survivors feel empowered, not exploited. Our stories become richer, more nuanced, and ultimately more impactful. We build trust with vulnerable communities, opening doors for future partnerships. Our work actively contributes to healing, both for individuals and society. By embracing trauma-informed practices, we don’t just avoid harm—we become agents of positive change. We shift from merely telling stories to facilitating healing and transformation. This requires more time, care, and intention, but the impact is immeasurable. Ready to get started? Contact us today—Call 855-MKTNGCO or click here!! GO DEEPER: Trauma-Informed Journalism (CTIPP) Survivor Storytelling (National Survivor Network) Whose story, whose benefit? Returning (to) the power of authentic narrative (University of Liverpool) The Power of Trauma-Informed Communications & Marketing: Why CEOs Must Embrace This Approach (MKTNG) Integrating Trauma-Informed Principles Into Your Internal Communications & Workplace Culture (MKTNG) (AI Disclaimer: proofed by Grammarly and lightly edited using Claude)
