AI is revolutionizing the field of communications, and few understand this better than Rowan Toffoli, the executive communications lead and social media writer at Lockheed Martin.
Supporting the company’s top executives, Toffoli coordinates social engagement while spearheading efforts on the communications team’s Gen AI adoption. “It’s so incredible to play a big part in driving our strategy for adopting generative AI tools,” said Toffoli.
Lockheed Martin’s culture of curiosity and experimentation is evident as it leverages AI to expedite the creation of executive communications, allowing more time for refining key messages and fostering creativity.
Isis Simpson-Mersha: Do you usually work from home or in an office, and what is it like?
Toffoli: I’m 100% remote! I travel for work occasionally, but most of the time, I’m at home. I have a cozy, quiet office so I can focus during the workday. Every so often, one of my cats joins a video call. They’re honorary team members.
ISM: Can you share an example of how ChatGPT and/or custom GPTs have been used to generate ideas for pitches or other content?
Toffoli: One of the ways I like to use ChatGPT for content ideation is to give it a prompt like, “Act as a seasoned journalist and ask me five challenging questions about [topic].” This (prompt) has the tool to generate questions from the perspective of a journalist about whatever I’m writing. For example, I might ask questions about the importance of interoperability in defense technologies. ChatGPT can help me see this topic in new and different ways, which helps me write better, more original, engaging content.
ISM: In what ways have Gen AI tools pushed the creative boundaries for content creation and engagement strategies at Lockheed Martin?
Toffoli: Our goal with Gen AI is to get to a first draft faster. These tools, like custom GPTs, help us get to a viable draft quickly so we can focus our energy on honing key messaging and creative storytelling. As we’re exploring how to best implement these tools in our team, we’re finding new ways to use them all the time. I’ve gotten so many messages from colleagues throughout the business telling me all the interesting, creative ways they’re leveraging Gen AI to support their work. For example, one colleague shared how they were able to cut their speechwriting time in half by augmenting their process with Gen AI!
ISM: Can you briefly explain the process of crafting brand personas using AI and how it streamlines communication across various platforms?
Toffoli: To develop a brand persona using a Custom GPT, you need to train the tool on relevant, strong data. Your bot is only as good as the data you’ve trained it on. For a brand, this might include giving it data about your company, the industry, your intended audience/customer and key messaging or goals. Once the tool understands your brand, you can use engineered prompts to start generating content. Make sure to give the tool feedback on how to improve if it isn’t capturing your brand voice/tone effectively. Remember, your goal isn’t a perfect piece of content. Your goal is to get a workable first draft quickly that you can easily edit for final brand voice, tone and messaging. Putting the work in upfront by creating a Custom GPT saves you time in the content creation process. As an example, once you’ve got the “template” (the Custom GPT that’s trained on your brand’s voice/tone), you can use an engineered prompt to create a piece of media — let’s say a feature website article on the release of a new product. From there, you can ask the tool to:
- Create a LinkedIn post that uses an enticing hook and captures the most important key message of this article. Use a call to action to drive readers to click the link to read more.
- To the best of your ability, summarize this article into a single sentence, no more than 280 characters. This copy is for X and should capture the attention of viewers. Suggest one relevant hashtag.
- Using the article copy as inspiration, draft a script for a short explainer video about [article topic]. The maximum length for the final video will be no more than 60 seconds, so the script must be succinct, attention grabbing and entice viewers to keep watching.
ISM: What are some practical steps PR professionals can take to start leveraging AI technologies in their own workflows?
Toffoli: Here are three things you can do right now to start using Gen AI in your workflows:
This is Delilah, My Content Creator GPT. She helps me draft thought leadership content for myself. Right now, she’s focused on LinkedIn content, but I’ve trained her to know that she’ll also write newsletters, blogs, articles, and more.
Understand prompt engineering: Prompt engineering is the art of asking a Gen AI tool for what you need in an effective way so that you can get the best output. You do this by being specific and communicating clearly, by setting goals and limitations in your request, and by providing feedback and examples to the tool.
Use ChatGPT for sentiment analysis: If you want to quickly understand the sentiment of a piece of media — say, an article — give the copy to ChatGPT and ask it for the following: “Please give me a brief summary of this article and provide me with an analysis of the key messaging, sentiment and intended audience.” ChatGPT will then summarize the article, key messages, sentiment and audience to the best of its ability. This can help you quickly understand a piece of media coverage, a web article or any long-form content you want.
Get to the first draft faster: By leveraging these tools to rapidly draft content, we’re able to spend time where it matters most: on honing key messages and thinking creatively to uncover new stories. It’s so much easier to edit a workable first draft than it is to start from nothing. Gen AI can help you skip the dreaded blank page.
ISM: How do you foresee the role of AI evolving in media relations over the next five years?
Toffoli: I believe that Gen AI will revolutionize the entire communications field. Tools like ChatGPT can be used to analyze vast amounts of data and content for sentiment and key messaging. When communicators have a deeper understanding of these things, they can iterate more content that is more effective and enticing — all augmented with the help of AI.
Rowan Toffoli shares tips and tricks for adopting Gen AI on her LinkedIn and you can follow her here. She will take the stage during PR Daily’s Media Relations Conference, June 5-6 in Washington, D.C. Learn more.
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