“Authenticity is our most valuable asset today.”

Quality content – ​​authentic, relatable, credible – is more important than ever with and through AI.
Therefore curated SCRIBERS[HUB] First-class copywriters, authors and journalists for every niche and media channel.
In the interview series “Content-Buzzer”, Sabine Fäth – Founder of SCRIBERS[HUB] – Communication professionals ask these questions every two weeks…

Sandra Schink, Head of Corporate Communication ESSMANN | Scales & Automation

What does content mean for you?

Content only has meaning for me if it is helpful.
Many things can be helpful: informative, inspiring, or entertaining – each of these facets fulfills its purpose.

But if content is clearly only a means to a technical end, if it's written solely for search engines or created as rage bait or clickbait, then it's nothing more than a data dump. No one wants to, or can, seriously read that kind of thing. Content created solely for machines and algorithms not only clogs up the internet, but also minds.

I want to reach real people with our content.

What was the worst content you met?

The era of pure SEO texts has driven me crazy. When agencies send me a meaningless string of paragraphs and subheadings that simply cram in the desired keyword as often as possible, without conveying even the slightest informative value to people, it makes me furious.

Artificial intelligence helps us today, for example in ESSMANN Scales Shop, formulating purchase recommendations in such a way that they are understandable to people and offer them guidance – while at the same time being SEO-optimized and usable for AI search queries.

How does good content succeed from person to person with AI?

First, the AI ​​needs to know its parameters. For texts, I primarily work with an in-house version of Claude, which I've trained with various knowledge skills about us and our products. This includes strict rules for researching in high-quality and reputable sources, and instructions to point out any errors I might have introduced myself during the text development process. Furthermore, it must always append the source list to the end of its research. For example, it's not allowed to use Springer Media or Grokipedia as sources, and it must avoid forums and social media channels.

The first steps in developing a text always involve asking: What do I want to communicate to whom and why? What is the goal of my text? How should a person feel after taking the time to read my text? Informed? Entertained? Inspired? Motivated to buy?

Especially in our complex industry of scale manufacturing, it's crucial to clearly explain the differences between scale models, communicate and clarify essential requirements like calibration, and outline applications and possibilities. Weighing technology is used in virtually every sector: from ultramicro balances in laboratories to load cells in production lines, all the way to large scales that weigh entire train sets, for example, in steel mills. Therefore, I need to know my target audience.

Once I have answered these questions for myself and know my target audience, I can brief the AI ​​so that it prepares my text: researching subject- and industry-specific background information, formulating complex information in an understandable way, and providing suggestions and advice that I, as the author, should consider.

What Claude then gives me, I first revise and then pass on to the specialist department. Ultimately, there always needs to be someone with expertise who checks all the technical information in the article and corrects it if necessary. And that's almost always necessary – although less and less often.

The absurdity of the errors that AI so readily incorporates is particularly evident in illustrations; I create these with ChatGPT. Anyone who has ever seen that a dwarf with very long arms apparently lives in the footwell of a truck, operating the driver's self-service controls from the outside, can begin to imagine the inconsistencies that AI introduces into texts or even code.

This is how to create good content with AI:

• Know their capabilities.
• Know their limits.
• Use them only as assistants.
• Always remember that YOU are the expert – and responsible for the publication.

What mix of talents and skills should a content team have today?

Every member of a content team should bring as much curiosity and openness to AI technology as they do mistrust and skepticism. Everyone needs to understand that AI can be very helpful: it can take over research and data preparation tasks in a very short time and, if it is well briefed, does a great deal of preliminary work.

We can't rely on it completely, though. It's a new tool, nothing more. That makes it all the more important that we master our craft – especially since AI could fail at any time. AI systems are sometimes unavailable, and their use will likely become so expensive at some point that we, as SMEs, can only use them sparingly. We should be prepared for that. That's why it's so important to continue understanding our craft and passing that knowledge on to the next generation.

Complete the sentence: Content is always…

… relevant if it was conceived and made by people for people.

The dancer Pina Bausch said in an interview: "It's all one language. You can actually read everything."

This is especially true for what's implied. Anyone who notices right from the start that a text wasn't written by a human, that the photo of the supposed employee is a stock photo, and that the infographic is completely overloaded and doesn't fit into the overall picture, will lose us halfway through.

When people feel that careful work has been done and that this was written with them in mind, it contributes to the brand's authenticity. And authenticity is our most valuable asset these days.