No "I" in Team - But There Is in Authentic

To counter two G-forces - Google and GenAI - it's imperative to create a strong point of view.

Like most content marketers, I studied writing in college, and my professors beat the “I” out of me. “Are you the expert?” they would ask (in a sneering voice to imply unequivocally - no you are not).

Over the last 30 or so years, 98.9% of drafts I have edited relied solely on the second person you-the reader narration, or the third person, external narration with the pronoun “They.” 

I started my career in a newsroom, and newsrooms didn’t like the You any more than academics did. As a reporter my role was fly on the wall, so I embraced the They. The only writers who had the privilege of first person perspective were those who wrote opinions. 

And now I need to unlearn all of that.

While, second and third narrations are terrific devices, to be impactful and credible in high-tech, we have to elevate ourselves to opinion writers - and embrace the first person narration. I can see a lot of side eyes coming my way. But here’s why it is important : Generative AI and Google. 

Those two G forces have changed the information landscape. One allows for the rapid creation of prose - whether or not it’s accurate, and the other wants proof that the prose created is credible. 

How Generative AI Changes the Writing Landscape

Let’s talk about the first G, Generative AI. 

GenAI is terrific for parroting information that was written (past tense - sorry for all the grammar references). It can’t offer human interjections and metaphors. It creates relatively bland prose. I prompted ChatGPT to provide me with reasoning on why writing in the first person is better.

Writing in the first person, where the narrator or protagonist refers to themselves as "I" and shares their personal experiences and thoughts, has its advantages and can be better suited for certain types of storytelling and communication. However, it's not universally "better" than other perspectives (such as third person or second person) and depends on the specific goals and context of your writing. Here are some reasons why writing in the first person can be beneficial:

And then rattles off: 

Personal Connection

Authentic Voice

Engaging Storytelling and so on. 

And it offers the limitations: Limited perspective and Biased narrations being two of them. 

But ChatGPT cannot provide compelling examples of each pro and con – precisely because it is not human.

Google Is Looking for First Person and POV

Now let’s turn to the other G. In a nod to human-created work, Google’s updated search rater guidelines emphasizes E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust). Any content created should check all of these boxes. 

And while the standards don’t explicitly call for first person narration, here is why I think the “I” and having a point of view is important. 

The path to writing for E-E-A-T starts with the pronoun “I”

In high tech storytelling, the most authoritative articles come from unlikely sources, what I call non-traditional writers: developers, sales engineers, system integrators. My guidance to someone nervous about writing is: think in terms of communicating to a single person - a colleague they respect. In this way, they will share expertise - through a personal journey. 

Writing in this way is not boastful, but vulnerable. 

Here’s an example. 

I could state, “Writing was my calling and I never ever felt insecure about it. Here’s why you should feel confident, too.” 

It might be a truthful statement – but I doubt you would trust any suggestions I give you. 

On the other hand, if I say, “When I first started writing I struggled with imposter syndrome, and never felt anything was good enough. Here’s how I overcame it.” 

This is a truthful statement - that inspires trust. 

How to Guide the Non-Traditional Writer

So how might you guide a non-traditional writer? Most likely they will submit something that looks fairly close to documentation - sprinkled with marketing messages. Here’s how to make that copy sing. They are bright people, they will get the hang of it quickly. 

Give them prompts to get them to explore how they felt when they first played with the technology. 

When I first started working with this technology I was [concerned, a bit nervous, elated …]

Now ask, Because, why? - you had a built-in bias? Figured it was too unsophisticated? Hate change?

All of these admissions are opportunities for human connection. You don’t need all of them, you just need one. 

What was the turning point … I saw an opportunity for promotion, I lost my job, our costs skyrocketed and we had to do something besides the status quo. 

This exercise will help the writer flush out their experience, which will result in a stronger connection with readers. There is no way for ChatGPT to replicate this.

I and You Pairing

Should every piece then be in the first person? It really depends on your brand publication style. 

An influencer – internal or not – is analogous to an opinion writer. This person can get away with a Top of funnel (TOFU) piece in the first person. 

But as a rule of thumb, TOFU content should resemble more traditional news pieces - because you are likely writing about the industry at large. Stick with the They and use facts, stats, and citations to present views (and establish authority).

Your middle of funnel (MOFU) content however, is the validation stage. People want to know what is the best. This is where you can show the intricacies of your product. Pepper in the “I” instead of falling back on vague messaging. 

Here are phrases that are ripe for replacements:

Easy to use

“I didn’t believe it was easy to use, but instead of it taking us three weeks and two staffers to deploy, we did it in a day.”

Powered by AI 

“Everyone says ‘powered by AI,’ so I was skeptical. But the machine learning was tuned to our data so we saw the content gaps at the touch of a button. It would have taken two people a week to pull that together.”

By giving a human reaction to a claim (skepticism), the followup offers a quantitative validation. 

What Makes an Expert?

Don’t get hung up on Google’s use of the word Expertise. You don’t have to be listed in some database. You can be the expert for people who are in a similar place. 

A Prompt Engineer is a role that’s been around for about 10 minutes. But you can easily be an expert on Beginners in Prompt Engineering - just state your limitations. For example, “I’ve only been doing this for the last three months, but this is what I have noticed.” 

One of the ways we’ve helped teams become experts is by creating research-backed content. We use third surveyors to do the primary data gathering, then analyze the data and create industry reports. When you ask questions about the wider industry at large (versus just your solution) it becomes much easier to create a unique Point of View (POV). And this is what makes an expert.  

Each statistic can become a stand alone blog, social post or email. You own the data so you can repurpose it in multiple ways. 

In a Generative AI world, research-backed content stands out. GenAI is terrific for helping create outlines, getting a gist of a subject, and, I think GenAI is a terrific tool for creating summaries. But it is not - and never will be - an expert. 

By selling every available piece of white space on its search engine results page, Google has made it harder to rely on SEO. But you can win long-tail, middle of funnel content that is specific - and authentic.  

I have no proof that Google’s machine learning is counting up all the first-person instances. But my bet is, if you want to win with Google, embrace the I.