Go Ahead and Use That Em Dash, Human Marketer
I spend most of my time on LinkedIn when it comes to business social media. For marketers like me who mainly engage with marketing content, for the past 6+ months, you haven’t been able to catch up on your feed without seeing at least one post pointing the finger at em dashes in other posts and crying, “AI!”
Well, as a journalist-turned-marketer who’s written for businesses since 2006, this post is a direct refutation to marketers who are on board the train of “long dashes equal generated by AI in every case.”
Em dashes will always have a place in human-generated content because they serve multiple purposes
I’m making this point — but don’t forget about this other thing.
If I wrote the sentence above using a comma (,) or semicolon (;) in place of the em dash, it wouldn’t pack the same punch. It’s also, IMO, not quite as powerful if I were to split both clauses into separate sentences.
Of course, the other major use of em dashes is to bracket in a string of text within a sentence that’s either long or very long. Here’s an example from a blog post I recently edited for a client:
Without it, overspending happens in the wrong areas, while critical investments — such as preventive maintenance or staff retention — are overlooked.
If I used commas where the em dashes are there, that would create four commas in one sentence. Given most readers’ short attention spans and the high (and growing higher by the day) chance for distractions, using all commas in this case is the visual equivalent of eating raw fiber. In other words, beneficial at a basic level, but certainly not exciting or motivational.
Remember, em dashes didn’t proliferate in AI generated content for no reason
They pop up because they were used in many, many pieces of human-generated content on which AI models were trained. (I wish more of the long-dashes-equals-AI soapbox crowd would take a beat to consider this before posting.)
One approach to reacting if your content is ever on the receiving end of “That’s AI!” blowback
As you might have guessed from the client example I shared above, I’m somewhat liberal in my use of em dashes. I try not use them too much, but if you peruse my blog, you’ll see plenty of them.
While I don’t have experience in replying to someone who was up in arms because I used one or more em dashes, this would be my game plan for someone who reacted that way:
Recall the old adage, in a media context, that “All press is good press.” A digital marketing spin on this is “All engagement is good engagement.” With this mindset, thank the person for commenting. (Unless they’re being a total jerk, of course.)
If your content being called out is AI generated, admit to it. There’s no scarlet letter here — thousands and thousands of businesses use AI for this purpose. As long as you have a human review it before publishing, you’re good. Emphasizing these points should shut down most naysayers.
Alternatively, if your content being called out is not AI generated, proudly speak to this in your reply. You could go so far as to share screenshots of the different human-written drafts made on the way to building your final draft. And if multiple writers worked on the content, they could each pile on the reply comments. Importantly, whether one or more people push back, take care to avoid starting the digital version of a playground fight. You only want to shoot for pushing back against the point that the person complaining shouldn’t assume that an em dash automatically equals created by AI.
Approaching the rest of your text when writing to new leads
Beyond the punctuation and words you use when contacting new leads, there’s another layer to look at that gets at the psychology of relating to your prospects. I address this in my previous post — click the link under my bio below to check it out. The post is laid out with both text and a video for your convenience.
I hope it helps you. Let me know what you think!
