A Social Media Manager’s Guide to ChatGPT [Best Prompts for SMMs]

AI and marketing 

Social media content production – writing posts, scripting videos, podcasts, or compiling response templates – can be difficult and time-consuming. And with budget cuts many marketing teams have faced this year, more agile social media professionals have started exploring artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

What is ChatGPT?

An AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT is designed to help its users with various tasks, from answering questions to generating creative content. And since it can provide detailed information and answers to virtually any question in writing, ChatGPT can be an important tool in the social media marketing toolkit. With the help of this chatbot, marketers can kill two birds with one stone: produce high-quality content and free up time to focus on other aspects of their jobs.

How can social media managers benefit from ChatGPT?

There are many ways social media managers can use ChatGPT for their benefit. For starters, the AI-powered chatbot can help marketers produce content faster and more efficiently. (And isn’t this a dream come true for every social media marketer?)

Whether you need to write a caption for Instagram, craft a LinkedIn article, or compose a tweet, ChatGPT can help you do it and do it fast.

“I’ve used ChatGPT as an editor of all sorts. I’ll get it to rewrite captions for social to give me new options. I’ve also used it to shorten captions if I feel they are too long.”  – Katie Slayford, Social Media Executive, Brandwatch

In addition to saving you time, ChatGPT can also help improve the quality of your writing output. Whether you are looking for fresh ideas, better ways to express your thoughts, or need a starting point, like an outline, ChatGPT can come in handy. 

ChatGPT in practice: Social media marketing made easy ✅ 

ChatGPT can provide significant benefits to social media managers in their daily work. In the following section, you’ll find some anecdotes from our social media marketing team here at Brandwatch, who’ll talk about the prompts they use to streamline their content creation process. 

But first, you need to understand how to get the input you desire from the tool.

How to improve ChatGPT's response to your questions

Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

The Cheshire Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

Most of the time, the quality of the answers you receive depends on how well you position your questions.

ChatGPT is no different. In other words, the science of making marketers smarter with the help of ChatGPT lies in the details.

If you are getting “down and dirty” with ChatGPT, here are some tips for improving the AI's response:

1. Ask for alternatives: If you're unhappy with the first response you receive from ChatGPT, just tap “regenerate response” to explore alternative ideas. There’s no limit to how many times you can regenerate a response. 
2. Provide context: The more context you provide to ChatGPT, the better the response will be. Be sure to include information about the platform you're writing for, who the intended audience is, the desired length of the piece, and any other relevant details.
3. Define the tone of voice: Whether you want to be lighthearted or serious, ChatGPT can help you achieve the tone you're looking for. But it doesn’t stop there. You can name a famous person (a celebrity, writer, or an artist, maybe?) whose voice ChatGPT should model your response after. 
4. Set character limits: If you're writing for platforms with strict character limits, such as Twitter, be sure to set these limits in advance. This will ensure that ChatGPT produces content that is within the guidelines of your platform, and it won’t require too many alterations.

ChatGPT and social media management: What NOT to do 

While ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for social media marketers, it should be used with caution. When using ChatGPT for content writing, it's important to avoid the following traps:

1. Don't rely on the word-for-word answers provided by ChatGPT. While the chatbot can help you produce high-quality content quickly, it's still important to review and edit the content before going live with it. The results produced by the chatbot are not always accurate or factual, so as a rule of thumb, you need to take the time to review the output and make any necessary changes.
2. Don't ignore brand voice and tone: Maintaining a consistent brand voice and tone across your social media platforms is important. ChatGPT can help you produce engaging and effective content, but it's vital to ensure that the content is also in line with how your brand “sounds.”
3. Not providing enough context: As mentioned earlier, the more context you provide to ChatGPT, the better its response will be. If you don't provide enough information about the platform you're writing for, the tone of voice you want to use, and any other relevant details, the AI chatbot may produce content that is not quite right for your needs. And this will result in spending more time on editing.
4. Not taking the time to train the AI: Yes, you can train the chatbot to be a good assistant! This involves providing ChatGPT with examples of the type of content you want it to produce, as well as any specific guidelines or restrictions you want it to follow.

Avoid these traps, and you are well on your way to getting the most out of ChatGPT and freeing up some time for more creative work in the process. 

Best ChatGPT prompts for social media marketers:

Now that we’ve covered the do’s and don’ts, let’s get to the actual prompts. 

“Hey ChatGPT, act as a…”

There are several ways a social media marketer can go about setting up the tone and voice of the content piece ideated with ChatGPT. For example, you can mention famous writers, like Ann Handley from MarketingProfs, industry publications, or existing content pieces that you want ChatGPT to mimic. 

Or you can simply tell ChatGPT to act as a professional in your industry. For example, if you want to create a quick social media post on how to pass a job interview, you can tell the chatbot to act as a hiring manager. And then, ask the tool to come up with 10-15 common questions for an applicant and how to address them best.

Ultimately, you’ll want to use this structure as your guideline:

Do [something] to [add your intended action] for [your objective or intended outcome] that explains [add reasons or context] and includes the phrase [keyword phrase].

Here’s an example: "Create a new title for www.brandwatch.com/blog/tips-for-better-data-storytelling that explains how to use social media data to tell compelling business stories and includes the phrase social listening.”

Here are all the different tasks social media managers can use ChatGPT for:

• Generate fresh content ideas
• Create hooks for social media writing and ad copy
• Brainstorm CTAs
• Invent new hashtags
• Craft creative social media captions
• Write video and audio scripts
• Brainstorm Q/As for video or livestream sessions
• Make up captivating product or service descriptions
• Do all kinds of research for your projects and campaigns
• Draft titles and headlines
• Craft promo emails and ad copy for upcoming livestreams and social media account take-overs
• Extend the shelf life of your content by paraphrasing and crafting alternatives
• Use ChatGPT to support your customer service. The AI chatbot can help you craft multiple social media templated responses to the most frequently asked questions (that you can then add to your roaster of templates in your social media management tool.) 
• Come up with conversation starters to nurture your community

“ChatGPT is like a second brain for me! When I’ve been writing captions or copy all day, ChatGPT can be a second pair of eyes, checking over my grammar and ensuring my captions are engaging and impactful.” – Katie Slayford, Social Media Executive, Brandwatch

7 Useful ChatGPT prompts social media managers can use every day

1. Write a social media post that drives traffic to your website

“Write a Tweet that drives traffic to [URL]”

2. Write a social media announcement about your product launch or company news

“Write an Instagram announcement about [URL]"

3. Write a social media giveaway post 

“Create a social media giveaway post about [insert holiday]”

4. Create a social media poll/quiz

Note: Please note the importance of always checking your facts. As with the example below, ChatGPT actually got it wrong: The first three movies featured below were the 2022 Oscars nominees, not the 2023 ones.

“Create a social media poll/quiz about [insert topic]”

5. Write an inspirational social post about a particular topic

“Write an inspirational social media message about [insert topic] for my audience [insert medium/platform]"

6. Introduce a new team member on social media

“Write a LinkedIn post introducing [insert name], our new [insert title] at [company name.]”

7. Create lighthearted, fun social media posts 

“Create a funny Tweet about [insert topic.]”

And keep in mind that you can always make ChatGPT’s responses more accurate and reliable by adjusting for the tone of voice and providing more context and examples.

ChatGPT can be your own prompt generator

Finally, you can ask ChatGPT to act as a prompt generator.

We know, very meta, but stay with us.

Tell the tool to create specific prompts you can use with ChatGPT for the best results. For example, we asked ChatGPT to suggest five prompts a social media manager can use on ChatGPT to help them come up with a creative copy for an upcoming social media campaign.

• "Generate 10 attention-grabbing headlines for a new product launch on Instagram.”
• "Write a Twitter thread on the benefits of using product X, using five tweets with a maximum of 280 characters each."
• "Come up with five different captions for a Facebook post showcasing our company's commitment to sustainability."
• "Generate five hashtags for a post about healthy eating habits."
• "Create a LinkedIn update that explains why consumers need to use your product.”

Here’s an example from one of our experts.