A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a friend who teaches at George Washington University. I’m talking to professors across the country to understand their policies on AI in the classroom and how they’re teaching students to use it in their PR work. While I love it and think we should all be fully embracing it, I want to get a grasp on how the kids who will be entering the workforce in the next couple of years are using it.
During that conversation, he said, “Have you tried NotebookLM yet?” I said I hadn’t, but that I had heard a few rumblings about it. He told me to prioritize learning about it.
The very next day, I was scrolling through LinkedIn and came upon Danny Brown’s article, “How I Created a Full, Co-hosted Podcast in Just 4 Hours with Google’s NotebookLM.”
In it, he describes how he uploaded some content and allowed the AI to do its job. As it describes it, NotebookLM “takes a look at the “source” you’ve provided—which can be a web page, a document, a PDF upload, or even copy-pasted text—and then creates an audio file where two people talk about the source in question, but with their own viewpoints.”
Record screech. Mic drop. Stop the presses! Say what?
I read the rest of his article and then clicked on the podcast recording. And I was blown away. I mean, completely floored by what I heard. It didn’t sound like AI. It sounded like two friends having a conversation about podcasting.
When my husband FaceTime’d us from his business trip that evening, I said, “You have to hear this!” and then played it for him. Even he, who is not as enthralled with AI as I am, admitted it’s pretty darn cool.
The Power of NotebookLM
In the Spin Sucks Community last week, a member asked, “Has anyone tried Google’s new NotebookLM? It’s insane. We’ve all been impressed by AI over the last few months, but this takes it to another level.”
Yes! Completely and wholeheartedly agree!
Billed as a notetaker and research assistant powered by Gemini, NotebookLM might be the next tool you have to have for media briefings, meeting notes, and even podcast recordings. I’m not a fan of Gemini—it doesn’t do some of the creative things I want to do, nor does it incorporate feedback well—but I am willing to give this tool a shot.
Right now, Claude is my tool of choice because you can create Projects there and then add your content so it has a reference point when helping you create. But let’s see if NotebookLM is at least as good.
You’ll first upload documents (PDFs, Google Docs, slides) to create a notebook. It then uses that information to train an AI to become an expert on everything you’ve uploaded. It will then summarize content, generate ideas, and provide insights. It can also create an expert to answer questions based on the uploaded material. This is where your AI-powered assistant comes into play.
Media Monitoring to Podcast Creation
To show you how it works, I took the scripts from the Fundamentals of Media Measurement online course I did with Muck Rack and uploaded them into a Notebook. (As an aside, if you haven’t taken that course yet, it’s free, so you have no excuse!).
Once that was done, NotebookLM displayed a “Notebook Guide,” which provides an overview of the note I created and gives options for what to create from it, including:
- FAQs
- Study Guide
- Table of Contents
- Timeline
- Briefing Doc
While this is totally relevant to my work—it makes a lot of sense to create a FAQ and a study guide to support the coursework—the real value is in the audio creation it will do.
How NotebookLM Saves Time
You will be completely amazed if you haven’t already heard audio from NotebookLM. The inflections, tone, emotions, and even the filler words are crazy real. You can still tell it’s AI-generated, but it sounds polished and sophisticated.
I had it create a trailer for the Fundamentals of Media Measurement course. I prompted it with this, “Create a trailer for the Fundamentals of Media Measurement online course, brought to you by Muck Rack, which will help you learn how to measure your media efforts in about two hours.
“This at-your-own-pace training will help you create a successful measurement strategy, report on your success, and earn resume-worthy credentials. You’ll learn how to measure and prove the value of PR with quick, bite-sized lessons, actionable tips for choosing the right metrics (with examples!), and step-by-step approaches you can implement immediately.
“It’s taught by industry experts Gini Dietrich, Johna Burke, and Christopher Penn. Upon completing all course lessons and module quizzes, as well as passing the final exam, you will earn an industry-recognized certificate!”
Here is the result:
A Few Misses
There were a few things I didn’t love that I would edit if I were to release this. They include:
- The “hosts” spend the first minute discussing how the course only takes two hours and how they don’t believe it. It’s super cynical and would probably dissuade some people from taking the course.
- They butchered my name. I would have to figure that out.
- It doesn’t have much meat, but it would be ready to go if I edited it from three minutes to one.
It’s pretty darn cool, right? It took me longer to figure out and type the prompt than it took to generate the audio clip. So much potential here!
Uncovering Hidden Insights
Other than creating a fun audio podcast or video trailer, NotebookLM has some other interesting functions that are especially applicable to us.
Try this: take a year’s worth of media monitoring and upload it into a notebook. It will give you a comprehensive summary of key themes and sentiment in seconds. Boom!
But that’s not all! It can also predict what might happen by analyzing past crises (not just for your business but in the industry, locally, regionally, nationally, or even globally). This will help you develop response plans and generate potential scenarios.
It’s also great at connecting seemingly unrelated pieces of information, leading to unexpected angles for your stories or pitches. For the data lovers, it can analyze campaign performance to inform future strategies, making your campaigns more targeted and effective.
Need real-time updates? It can analyze media coverage or campaign performance on the fly, allowing you to offer up-to-the-minute insights. It can also help create compelling visuals, talking points, or comprehensive FAQs for client meetings.
And for those you who are like me and repurpose the heck out of your content? Now you can transform all of that into social media posts, news releases, or executive summaries in seconds.
Your First Steps with NotebookLM
As for efficiencies,it’s not unlike all of the other generative AI tools. It can give you a comprehensive overview of a new client or industry, create an outline or first draft of content, and summarize key points an action items from meeting notes.
If you want to check it out, start by uploading some existing materials to your first notebook—maybe a recent news release, some media coverage, and a client brief. When creating prompts, be specific. Instead of asking “What should I write about?”, try “Based on this media coverage, what are three potential angles for our next news release on sustainable packaging?”
Let me give you a quick example. Last week, I uploaded a client’s annual report and recent media coverage. I then asked it to identify potential story angles aligned with current media trends. In minutes, it provided three solid pitch ideas we might have overlooked. It saved hours of research and sparked a great brainstorming session with my team.
The Future of PR
Try NotebookLM this week. Start small—upload the current FAQs from your website and ask it to provide more questions for you to answer. Upload a recent transcript from a meeting and ask it to summarize it into action items and next week’s meeting agenda. Or upload a recent industry study and ask it to summarize it for you into a briefing document.
And, of course, you can upload any sort of content—the last five blog posts you wrote or a Town Hall script—and ask it to create audio for you.
Once you start playing with it, you’ll realize there are lots of fun applications that can make you much more productive.
This isn’t about AI replacing us—it’s about empowering us to be more creative, more strategic, and more effective. Don’t be scared! Embrace! I promise you, you will love it as much as I do.
