| Letter From the Editor: Stop Trying To Make "Fetch" Happen | | "I'll let you in on a secret: Your team is just as savvy as you are (if not more so), especially when it comes to their own projects, experiences, and challenges."
I wrote those words a few weeks ago, but I'm reminded of them daily.
They feel especially resonant today after meeting with SEJ's staff-led AI committee, which we recently formed to discover ways to work with AI.
Note that I said "with." Not "against," not "for," and certainly not "to develop our own." It was that last part that I found myself discussing with them today.
Watching how everyone – from industry subject matter experts to my not-terribly-tech-savvy parents – has reacted to AI fascinates me. The depth! The range! It's been everything from "This is the end of the world" to "We absolutely must, at all costs, win the race to beat ChatGPT build the best LLM, immediately."
Folks, we have a problem: Whenever there's a big new tech frontier, we all try to make 'fetch' happen. | | My colleague, Jennifer McDonald, explained this much better than I could:
"A lot of VPs and C-suite [execs are] so far removed from the day-to-day processes, they just hear buzzwords in their circles of what's making other companies successful. And without any research, without any knowledge, they just run into their company and say, 'We need to do X!' because that's the next big thing, right?"
Ding ding ding!
Last week, I wrote that much of our work involves solving for the unknown, a.k.a. "X" (in mathematics, anyway). But as Jennifer pointed out, that can create a pattern of too many players trying to jump onto "tHe NeXt BiG tHiNg," without adequately evaluating our place in the market share created by it.
It can make things too formulaic. When we're all trying to come up with the same solution to the same newly-created "problem," we ultimately solve nothing. (I mean, hello. Look at what happened when everyone tried to create the coolest AR glasses. Just saying.)
So what's an SEO professional or digital marketer bursting with innovative ideas to do, then? For starters: When the urge strikes to jump onto a trend, no matter how much you feel your business must get on board to keep up – please, I beg of you, give it a minute. Don't rush to make "fetch" happen.
But the even better, more tactical advice – which I've gathered only with the help of my aforementioned colleagues and team – is to use that pause to lean into what you already know, what you already do well, and what you could be doing better. That's the starting point for determining if and how AI fits into your business model.
It might mean something other than creating your own external-facing LLM. And it probably won't look like what everyone else is building. But if done correctly, it could mean leveraging "the next big thing" to make the most out of your bona fide original ideas – something I insist AI still does not have – by optimizing the often tedious legwork between those ideas and the end product. And that's how we solve for X. Or Y. Or Z.
In other words: Your best use case with AI or LLMs doesn't have to be the next big thing for the whole world to be the next big thing for your business. And that, my friends, will get you further than you think.
Until the next one,
AZW | | | Amanda is the Editor-in-Chief of SEJ. A writer, editor, marketer, and "Golden Girls" superfan, she joined SEJ from HubSpot, where she ran the company's News & Trends program. Her byline has appeared in Thrillist, EcoSalon, and Fast Company. Find more of her work at amandazw.com. | | | P.S. Hey, you. Yeah, you, behind the screen. I'd love to know what you think of these letters. Did you love it, like it, or not really your cup of tea?
If you've got a second, let me know. | | | | |
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