AI is changing how marketers create content, but that doesn’t mean every use of AI is treated the same. In this episode of the Hit Record Podcast, Meredith Olmstead and FI GROW Social Media Strategist Sophie Bawany break down the difference between AI-assisted and AI-generated content, what Instagram’s changes mean for reach and recommendations, and why banks and credit unions should keep real people at the center of their social media strategy.
1. AI-assisted and AI-generated content are not the same. Using AI to brainstorm ideas, help with captions, or improve efficiency is different from publishing fully AI-generated people, images, or videos.
2. Trust still matters more than efficiency. AI can make content creation easier, but financial institutions need to consider whether members will trust an AI-generated spokesperson as much as a real employee or local lending expert.
3. Your content needs to get to the point faster. Instagram is paying closer attention to what content is actually about when determining recommendations, making clear topics, keywords, and strong opening hooks even more important
Transcription:
Meredith Olmstead:
Hi there. I'm Meredith Olmstead, CEO and founder of FIGROW Solutions. We are a digital marketing and sales consulting agency. We work exclusively with credit unions and community banks. And I am here with Sophie Bawany, and I like to call her our social media guru, but that's not really her official title, but say hi, Sophie.
Sophie Bawany:
Hi guys.
Meredith Olmstead:
So Sophie and I were just talking about... Well, we were talking about different podcast topics, and one of them that came up was AI or what's going on with artificial intelligence and AI on social media. Specifically, she started sharing with me a bunch of changes that Instagram has just rolled out. And this is really key for our clients, obviously, because we are helping with social media strategy for many of them. And so I said, "You know what, Sophie, let's hit record and talk about this." So basically Instagram has created some AI policies or some new functionality basically, that are new rules around... Is it specific to financial marketers or is it just people in general?
Sophie Bawany:
Across the board. Yeah.
Merdith Olmstead:
So there's some shifting going on with Instagram's algorithm around how it's handling AI content and AI created accounts. So this is really important because a lot of us are trying to figure out how to leverage AI for efficiency, for success, but also try to figure out, okay, we want to keep the human in our brands and the content we're creating. So what is basically happening right now with Instagram accounts that are impacted or they're created by AI?
Sophie Bawany:
So there's two different things that we need to first define. There's AI-generated content and then there's AI-assisted content. And I think a lot of us get stuck on this at the very beginning. So separating, if you're using ChatGPT, or Gemini, or Claude, to get ideas or to write your captions or to generate some text, perfectly okay. That is not what Instagram is considering AI-generated content.
Merdith Olmstead:
So that's considered AI assisted.
Sophie Bawany:
That's AI-assisted. And that's okay because that's helping your team, your marketing team with efficiency and you're taking those ideas and you're still going out and filming it, or you're still putting together graphics. What Instagram is more concerned about is the content where people are having... And I'll get into this again. Let me backtrack. There's two types of AI-generated content. There's the one that when you have talking fruit and vegetables where everybody knows, okay, this is not real.
Merdith Olmstead:
Super fake.
Sophie Bawany:
It's the ones that are deep fakes where it looks like you or me, but it's been AI generated and that person is speaking. That is the type of content that Instagram is putting more guardrails around, where you need to clearly label it that this is an AI-generated person speaking as if they were a real human.
Merdith Olmstead:
So basically they're trying to keep users from putting a bunch of fake people or completely fake content, especially even of a visual nature, onto the platform and almost pulling one over on users.
Sophie Bawany:
Yes. So you can use it. Instagram is not stopping, nor has Instagram officially released any data saying that they're going to punish or penalize you for using AI-generated content. It just needs to be very clearly labeled. The problem comes in when people try to sell it, even if it's a graphic. If you tell AI, "Create a graphic of me laying on a beach," that is considered AI-generated content because you weren't there. You had a third party. Anything that's created by AI fully and you're using it without any additional creativity or additional human touch, needs to be clearly labeled.
Merdith Olmstead:
And it's labeled in comment, you would say AI-generated content, AI-generated post, what?
Sophie Bawany:
And there's a button. There's actually when you're publishing, there's a setting that you have to toggle the button that says this is AI-generated content.
Merdith Olmstead:
Got it. So basically they're trying to separate... So are there people out there who have an entire account that are just posting with AI?
Sophie Bawany:
Yes. And there is a case to be made. I was researching it obviously for us, for financial institutions, for banks and credit unions. There is a world in which we could make a case of, hey, if you don't have a robust marketing team, or you don't have people that are comfortable being in front of a camera, there are a million scenarios where we could justify and make it make sense. The problem for us and the obstacle is, Instagram isn't penalizing you because you're clearly labeling it, but are your consumers, your members, your viewers, are they going to trust AI-generated content as much as trusting their local lending officer that they see in the branch?
So that's the issue for us. Instagram isn't saying don't do it. They're just saying make sure it's very clearly labeled. And for us as a strategy perspective, is it even going to work for financial institutions? Because yeah, it's cool and efficient, but people still trust people more than AI. There's an innate sense of distrust growing because of all of these AI content pieces that aren't as authentic.
Merdith Olmstead:
Right. And that's why we're seeing a reinvigoration of social media around even boring industries like banking, or insurance or whatever. So we don't think it's boring, but it can be pretty dry content, some of that. But a lot of people, a lot of banks, and a lot of credit unions marketing teams are really coming back and doubling down on social media because they know they can still show off the human side of their content. So they should definitely be careful about leveraging really obviously fake AI.
Sophie Bawany:
100%. It's a very big, and this is a conversation that we always have in our marketing strategy calls, where while we want to reach the younger market, we want to reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and it's everyone's dream to lower their average, what do they want? They want to hear from real people. AI is cool for watching funny videos. Yes, watching a cat dance is hysterical, but I'm never going to take my first loan advice from a talking cat.
Merdith Olmstead:
From those people.
Sophie Bawany:
You have to separate entertainment from information, or we have to find a happy medium where it's consumable content that is still reliable.
Merdith Olmstead:
Got it. So you don't want to compromise your level of trust-
Sophie Bawany:
100%.
Merdith Olmstead:
And expertise, like a trusted advisor seen as a financial expert with a bunch of garbage, silly content. Now, mixing in some entertaining content now and then is obviously still important, because that's what people tend to engage with sometimes. But it is important to make sure that you're not trying to pull one over on them, because if they realize, oh, these people are making a bunch of fake AI content, they're going to unfollow you, right?
Sophie Bawany:
Yes. And also Instagram in this latest algorithm update has said AI is clearly going to impact your reach. If you don't label it properly, the recommendations, the For You page where everyone wants to be will directly be... And your recommendations are how people find you. And for financial institutions, that's a gold mine because that's where you're competing with bigger institutions or bigger influencers, just based on the quality of your content.
Merdith Olmstead:
Yeah. We already know that on a lot of these platforms, people don't need to be following you anymore in order to see your content. Because if they are interacting with content around similar topics, these algorithms are now smart enough to show them new content that they might like, and they might not ever click Follow. They might just engage with the content. But on the other side, you also were saying that users are really having a say in their algorithm, and what do they want to see? So they could be hiding something or reporting something as spam that's obviously going to impact your reach overall. Are there other ways that users are able to tell Instagram content that they want or don't want to see?
Sophie Bawany:
Yeah, the shareability, and along the lines of people having more say in their algorithm, this is all part of Instagram's push to make it more user-friendly. They've gotten a lot of heat in the past few months about taking over the narrative and not giving users a say. So to give people back a little bit of control, the recommendations, not only is it just what you're actively searching for, but the content, now Instagram is taking a more active stand on looking at the actual content, and qualifying it before it even gets eyes, before users even have eyes on it.
So setting up a financial institution for success, or any content, we can no longer have these long-winded hooks. You got to get to the meat and potatoes right at the beginning.
Merdith Olmstead:
Got it. So coming right out of the beginning and saying, "Hey, we're talking about first time home buyer tips and tricks," and then you dive in, so people understand.
Sophie Bawany:
And we used to say, "Here are three things you need to know..." And we would wait eons, that's not going to work. You have to say, like you said right at the beginning, new home buyers, here are three things you need to work. First time auto, put the keyword at the very beginning of your hook because Instagram is now, that's how it's going to recommend that content and that's how you become more searchable.
Merdith Olmstead:
Got it. So the main piece of content that you would say, okay, this is a product or a service, or getting out of debt, or planning for your future, or saving for retirement or whatever it is, you want to really highlight that. I have noticed on some of my feeds where you'll see a piece of content and then it will literally ask you, were you interested in this piece of content, yes or no? So that's obviously how Instagram is trying to empower users to influence the topics of content that they're seeing, not just the individuals that they follow.
Sophie Bawany:
And it's funny because even if you follow them-
Merdith Olmstead:
If you follow banks. Yeah. Yeah, it's great.
Sophie Bawany:
And it's also interesting because for example, I follow obviously FIGROW, I manage FIGROW. If I see FIGROW's content, it still asks me, "Are you interested in this type of..." And I'm already following. I'm already a captive audience. So please, the thing is we can't get complacent thinking, "Oh, okay, if we already have these followers," it's still asking preferences even for people that are currently following you. And what that's going to do is that's going to change the order in which when you open your homepage and you have your following content, now based on who's following, even within your followers, now it's a competition. So if I like your content, if I like Meredith Olmstead's content more, it'll put your stuff above somebody who I might be following, but I just didn't hit Interested.
Merdith Olmstead:
Right. Got it. All right. So I guess the moral of the story is basically, well, first of all, you should be using AI, but it's not just should you be using it, but do you understand how to use it? And do you understand how Instagram is going to be treating that content that you're creating with AI? And it's not going to be just Instagram, obviously. They're Meta, so that's Facebook. It's going to hit TikTok and any of these other channels. I'm sure LinkedIn probably has very similar kinds of policies and treatments around AI-generated content.
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Sophie, for these great tips. It's nice that we can bring all this to our clients and to our followers. If you're interested in learning more about social media strategy for your credit union or community bank, please visit us at figrow.com. We have lots of other case studies, podcasts, and other kinds of content that you would be interested in. Otherwise, let's just all get out there and make it happen.