Advertising educators face the problem of equipping college students with sensible expertise that mirror present trade developments. One pattern is the combination of generative synthetic intelligence (GenAI) into digital advertising practices. To handle this, I designed an project for my on-line, college-level Fundamentals of Advertising course that teaches enterprise college students the necessities of branding and social media technique and supplies hands-on expertise with GenAI instruments. The project, “Write a Fashion Information and Use GenAI to Write Social Media Posts,” is a fascinating method for college students to use advertising ideas in a real-world context. The educational goal for the project is for college students to generate participating social media posts that adhere to a method information, successfully aligning with a model’s identification whereas reflecting on the method of utilizing GenAI in content material creation.
Task Particulars
The scholars are tasked with creating an in depth type information for an actual firm, Health Method MN, a boutique private coaching, pilates coaching, and dietary teaching enterprise. I interviewed the house owners of Health Method MN and realized they had been combating how a lot time it takes to put in writing and publish social media content material. They sought help with participating their Fb and Instagram audiences and differentiating social media content material for every viewers. Health Method MN’s mission is to “assist actual individuals be robust, wholesome, really feel good, and remodel their life by bringing the non-public again into private coaching” (“Health Method”, 2024). The first objective of their social media technique is to extend their variety of private coaching purchasers.
The project created a bridge between academia and enterprise (Rohm, 2019), and emphasised lively studying by requiring college students to develop a method information (“Sprout Social”, 2024) and use GenAi instruments comparable to ChatGPT, an AI device owned by Open AI, to generate social media content material for an actual enterprise. Earlier than the scholars started engaged on their type guides, their textbook readings revolved round how social media retains altering, how social media can generate publicity, the position of social communities, and how you can use social media as a promotional advertising tactic (“Ideas of Advertising”, 2015). The project was divided into a number of parts. First, college students used Health Method’s web site, Fb, and Instagram to analysis and develop a method information that included emblem utilization, model colours, emoji utilization, typography, and model voice and tone (“Sprout Social”, 2024). Voice and tone needed to embody points comparable to whether or not the social media content material needs to be cheerful, upbeat, humorous, daring, or sarcastic. Then, they used their type information to immediate the GenAI device of their option to generate ten social media posts for the Health Method MN Fb. They had been requested to regenerate the ten Fb posts till they had been proud of them, and replica and paste the posts right into a Phrase doc. They had been requested to repeat the identical course of for Health Method MN’s Instagram. Lastly, they mirrored on the method, analyzing the effectiveness of GenAI-generated content material and its alignment with the model identification that they had established with the type information.
The second a part of the project requested them to put in writing 200-250 phrases describing insights into the method, effectiveness, and challenges confronted utilizing GenAI to put in writing social media posts. Moreover, they had been requested to research the effectiveness of GenAI in creating content material that aligned with Health Method MN’s model identification. Lastly, they had been requested to deal with the moral implications of utilizing GenAI in content material creation. They mirrored on how utilizing GenAI to create social media posts may change client engagement with social media and what moral issues may come up when shoppers develop into conscious that content material is AI-generated.
Grading
The scholars had been informed I’d select among the accomplished type guides and social media posts to ship to Health Method MN, with all names and identifiers deleted. Grading was based mostly on a number of guidelines grading standards, together with the comprehensiveness of the type information (30 factors), the creativity and engagement stage of the social media posts (15 factors for 10 Fb posts and 15 factors for 10 Instagram posts), and the depth of reflection of their essays (40 factors). The scholars and I had been shocked by how effectively GenAI differentiated Fb posts from Instagram posts, particularly the way it used completely different hashtags, completely different emoji’s, and completely different writing kinds. I individually informed college students when grading their assignments whether or not I despatched their type information and social media posts to Health Method MN. The house owners appreciated the completely different student-written type guides I despatched them, as that they had by no means used a method information, and had been amazed on the GenAI-created social media posts. They appreciated the breadth of subjects the social media posts lined that had been particular to their objective to extend the variety of private coaching purchasers.
Reflection and Subsequent Steps
Once I train this course once more, I’ll hold most points of the project, and make minor adjustments. Some college students informed me they don’t use GenAI of their every day work or lives and wish instruction on how you can use it. I overestimated their GenAI information base. Including instruction on immediate engineering, particularly particular immediate engineering for creating social media posts, might be essential. Secondly, I’ll ask college students to put in writing a draft of a method information, give them suggestions on it, after which ask them to put in writing a last type information. Creating the type information is an efficient method to have college students critically look at an present web site, particularly its voice and tone, language and grammar, use of hashtags, and the way the content material ought to or mustn’t point out opponents. Lastly, I’ll make clear that the type information needs to be written with no help with GenAI. I used to be not clear on my expectations that I need the type information to be utterly human-written.
General, college students gained sensible expertise with cutting-edge expertise that’s more and more utilized in advertising (Bruns & Meißner, 2024). College students may see for themselves how GenAI can be utilized to streamline content material creation, evaluate and distinction posts created for 2 completely different social media platforms, and grapple with the moral implications of utilizing GenAI to create social media content material. Moreover, the project allowed college students to decide on the GenAI device they felt most snug utilizing. Some college students had been shocked by the top quality of the AI-generated content material and in addition expressed issues concerning the potential for AI to depersonalize social media interactions. You will need to preserve authenticity in advertising (Bruns & Meißner, 2024) and prioritize GenAi as a device to help, slightly than substitute, human creativity (Pearce & Littlejohn, 2017).
Dr. Molly Wickam is a program director and professor of training & enterprise/management at Bethel College, St. Paul, MN.
References
Bruns, A. (2019). Social media: Key ideas for constructing model loyalty. Routledge.
Brüns, J. D., & Meißner, M. (2024). Do you create your content material your self? Utilizing generative synthetic intelligence for social media content material creation diminishes perceived model authenticity. Journal of Retailing and Shopper Providers, 79, 103790.
Health Method MN. (2024). Be wholesome. Be robust. Really feel good. https://www.fitnessformulamn.com/
Pearce, W. B., & Littlejohn, S. W. (1997). Ethical battle: When social worlds collide. Sage.
Ideas of selling. (2015). College of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/principles-of-marketing
Sprout Social. (2024). The best way to create a social media type information: 10 issues to incorporate. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-style-guide/
Rohm, A. J., Stefl, M., & Saint Clair, J. (2019). Time for a advertising curriculum overhaul: Growing a digital-first strategy. Journal of Advertising Schooling, 41(1), 47-59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475318798086
