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Artificial Intelligence is everywhere right now. Depending on who you listen to, AI is either the greatest business opportunity of the decade… or the thing that’s about to replace marketing departments entirely. The truth sits right in the middle. AI is not a marketing employee. AI is not a magic “do everything” button. And if you try to use it that way, it will actually hurt your marketing. But if you understand how to use it correctly, it becomes one of the most powerful business tools companies have ever had access to. This article is not about hype. It’s about how AI actually fits into real marketing.

First, AI is a tool, not a strategy. The biggest mistake business owners make is expecting AI to do the marketing for them. That’s not how it works. AI doesn’t know your customers, your reputation, your local market, your voice, or your expertise. You do. AI’s role is not to replace your thinking. Its role is to help you execute faster, clearer, and more consistently. Think of it this way, you are the architect. AI is the drafting assistant. If you don’t provide direction, you won’t get good results.

Let’s discuss how to use ChatGPT the right way for social media content. Yes, tools like ChatGPT are fantastic for helping write social posts, blogs, emails, and captions. But the people getting the best results are not asking: “Write me a Facebook post about my business.”

They are collaborating with it. AI needs context to be useful.

A weak prompt:

“Write a social media post for my dental office.”

You’ll get generic marketing fluff.

A strong prompt:

“Write a Facebook post for a family dental practice in a small town. We’re known for working well with nervous patients and kids. Our goal is to make people feel comfortable coming back to the dentist after years of avoiding it.”

Now AI can help you communicate something real.

Here’s the key idea: AI should help you express your expertise, not replace it.

The businesses winning with AI are the ones feeding it their knowledge, stories, and personality. The businesses losing with AI are copying and pasting whatever it spits out. People can tell the difference immediately (can we say ‘em dash’).

Why Google Cares About E-E-A-T (and Why You Should Too)

Google has quietly changed how it evaluates websites. It now prioritizes something called:

E-E-A-T
Experience
Expertise
Authoritativeness
Trustworthiness

This matters more now than traditional SEO tricks. Google is trying to answer one question, “Is this information coming from a real, credible business or just content written to rank?”. Here’s the important part, AI content alone does not build E-E-A-T. Human knowledge does. That’s why simply generating 200 blog articles with AI won’t help your rankings. In fact, it can hurt them. Google is looking for signals that a real business with real experience stands behind the content. So how do you prove that?

Your Google Business Profile Is More Important Than You Think.

Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is no longer just a listing.

It is one of the primary trust signals Google uses to validate your business online.

An active profile tells Google you are real, you are operating, customers interact with you, and your information is current. To strengthen this, post updates regularly, upload photos, respond to reviews, add services and FAQs, keep hours updated. You are not doing this for customers alone. You are doing it to train Google’s understanding of your business. An outdated profile weakens your authority online, even if your website looks perfect.

Why Blogging Still Matters (Even in the Age of AI)

Many business owners stopped blogging because they thought social media replaced it. It didn’t. Your website is the only digital property you actually own. Social media platforms are rented space.

A blog does three critical things:

• Shows Google your expertise
• Answers real customer questions
• Keeps your website “alive”

Important details most businesses miss when blogging:

• Include an author name
• Include a publish date
• Update older articles
• Write about actual client questions.

These details are crucial because Google evaluates who is saying something and when it was said. A dated article written by a real professional carries much more weight than anonymous AI text.

Video Content: The Most Underused Authority Builder

If written content proves expertise… video proves authenticity. YouTube is not just social media. It is the second largest search engine in the world and owned by Google. When you publish video content, Google connects your face to your business, customers build familiarity, and trust increases dramatically. Your videos do not need to be polished commercials. In fact, they shouldn’t be. The best business videos are simple. They answer common questions, explain mistakes customers make, clarify confusing topics and show how your service works.  A two-minute educational video often does more than a thousand-word ad. And here’s the important AI connection, you can use AI to help script the outline, organize talking points, and repurpose the video into blogs and social posts. Again, AI supports the expert. It does not replace the expert.

Where AI Actually Helps Your Marketing the Most

AI shines in three areas:

1. Speed: Drafts in minutes instead of hours.
2. Consistency: It helps businesses that struggle to post regularly and finally maintain a schedule.
3. Repurposing: One video can become a blog, 5 social posts, an email, FAQs, and website content. The knowledge still comes from you. AI simply multiplies how far it travels.

The businesses that will win with AI, will not be the businesses that automate everything. It will be the businesses that share real experience, document what they already know, teach their customers, and use AI as a communication assistant. AI rewards clarity. If you clearly understand your customer, your services, and your value, AI becomes incredibly powerful. If you don’t, AI exposes it.

When used properly, AI allows business owners to share what they already know in ways that were once time-consuming or difficult to execute. Video, educational content, blog posts, and social media no longer have to feel overwhelming. Instead, they become a structured way to capture expertise and make it accessible to the people who need it.

The most effective marketing does not happen in isolation. It happens in partnership. AI is not replacing marketing. It is removing excuses. Owners understand their customers, their industry, their challenges, and the real questions people ask every day. That knowledge is incredibly valuable, but many businesses struggle with how to communicate it consistently and effectively.

The business owner brings the experience, insight, and understanding of the industry. A marketing professional brings the structure, tools, and strategy to turn that knowledge into real communication that reaches the right audience.

After years of working alongside businesses on their marketing strategies, one thing has always remained true, marketing often becomes overwhelming or pushed to the bottom of the priority list, even when owners know how important it is.

Businesses do not need someone who speaks for them. They need someone who helps them be understood.

When that partnership works correctly, your expertise is no longer trapped in day-to-day conversations with customers. It becomes content, authority, visibility, and ultimately growth.

by Lisa Burline Roser
Chief Marketing Officer
Professional Media Services, Inc.