Okay, so you’ve opened up the ChatGPT window. Hoorah, you’re already more of a digital wizard than the generations before you. But… now what? What do you write in the box? And, perhaps more importantly, how do you write it?
Effective prompting can help deliver a more accurate response that better reflects your specific needs. While the golden rule is to keep things simple, your prompts will change depending on the task at hand. But it needn’t be complicated. Let me show you how.
Please note: prompts will also differ depending on the platform being used. The text below offers general guidelines applicable to all.
Blog writing
I would never rely on software to write any form of content myself, but busy small business owners may find AI useful to get the content ball rolling. If that’s you, follow these three steps:
Choose a topic you want to write about.
Specify the guidelines for your output, e.g. tone, text length, content goals and structure e.g. ‘In a professional tone, write a 500-word blog on the origin of Nordic furniture.’
Edit, edit, edit. Remember: AI produces errors, too!
Brainstorming
Sometimes there’s nothing scarier than staring at a blank page. If you’re somebody without the luxury of a team to provide inputs, why not turn to AI for a dose of ‘techspiration’? Whether that’s guidance on structure or topic exploration, you can pose some prompts to get you started.
Here are a few examples:
Suggest three blog post ideas related to [insert topic].
Give me an outline for a short blog on [insert topic].
List me 3-5 LinkedIn post ideas for [insert specific audience].
Grammar
We’re all human, right? Even the best writers make mistakes. That’s why when the world offers you a free writing assistant, you take it. Various AI tools can be a game-changer for making sure your content is grammatically up to scratch.
I use Grammarly (the paid version), which acts as an extra pair of eyes for catching grammatical errors, ensuring a consistent writing style and checking tone and structure. While I don’t always accept the platform’s suggestions, its subtle nudges can be an invaluable resource when I’m working solo.
SEO assistance
I love pretty words. And pretty sentences. But to stand out on the internet, businesses – and writers working with businesses – need to perfect the art of choosing the ‘right’ pretty word. This is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in a nutshell: writing content that will help increase your visibility online.
From keyword research to competitor analysis, AI can be hugely beneficial for SEO tasks. Platforms informed by search engine information, such as Google’s Gemini and Claude’s Anthropic, for one, can help identify top-ranking keywords to use in online content.
Example: Suggest trending topics or hashtags for our [insert industry or topic].
Social media content
Operations, sales, marketing… Add in regular content posting on various social media sites, and we wouldn’t blame you for feeling the pressure of running a business alone or as part of a small team.
With its time-saving benefits, you might turn to AI to generate content for social media or rewrite existing content to better suit audiences across multiple platforms.
Examples:
Suggest trending topics or hashtags for our [insert industry or topic]
Rewrite this LinkedIn post as an Instagram post: [insert text]
Summarising
With adulting sometimes comes lots of large, lengthy documents. Whether you’re trying to find a way to best summarise a lot of information, or get to grips with key points, use AI to help you condense information.
Consider using prompts such as:
Generate a summary of around 100 words for this text
Can you summarise this article in 3-4 sentences?
For a sea of more prompt examples, or to learn in greater detail how you can best use AI for copywriting, download the full guide.
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