Andrew Cassel – Middlebury College
Monday, October 9, 2023, 10:45 AM – 11:30 AM EDT 

For thirty days in November 2022, we asked audiences to submit prompts which would then be generated into images using AI tools. Community members submitted prompts in the form of a phrase they would use to describe the school to friends and loved ones. We took those phrases, categorized the ideas expressed into place, academics, community, and tested the pulse of our social media audiences sampled through a wide variety of platforms. We’ll share the promising results of this research, lessons learned from collaborating with an AI art generator and sustainable tactics for including ethical use of AI art generation in your content strategy.

Notes:

• Having students create prompts for AI
• Sense of place gets the best engagement for the college, so they really lean into it.
• Started as an engagement gimmick, turned into a marketing content.
  • The image is not the point. The engagement is?
• Surprisingly not posted on FB adn Twitter
  • Better traction on reddit, tumbler, mastodon, linkedin, pinterest
• Runway – AI text to video
• Mubery – AI text to image
• AI images starter tool: midjourney is a great place to start
• Generative AI search is here. Soon the search will be able to provide campus tours for prospective students even if you do not.
  • To prepare – make sure you have good, publicly accessible images and videos. That way they have good data sets to draw from.