Using AI to come up with perfect social posts

Content ideation

Brainstorming post ideas is half the battle of social media content creation, and AI tools can get you through writer’s block.

Begin by going to an AI tool like ChatGPT and write a prompt such as “Act as a social media expert and provide five post ideas for Facebook related to [product and/or brand]” The more specifics you provide, the better. You can include the brand’s mission statement, selling points, etc. The AI tool will generate a list of post ideas based on those specifications, and you can choose the ones that fit your social media goals best.

Write with Confidence using Editor

Elevate your writing with real-time, intelligent assistance

Learn more

AI can’t see the forest for the trees, but you can. You still need to review and critically assess the generated post ideas. Not every idea will be exactly appropriate for your special media page, so pick and choose what works best. You can even take a half-baked AI-generated idea and edit it to fit your needs. For example, AI may recommend running a contest on social media to drum up interest for your brand. You know your brand has a policy against contests, however, you can run giveaways. Change that initial AI-generated idea to a giveaway and align your social media post idea with your brand’s policies.

Writing post captions

Even the most seasoned social media gurus get stuck writing post captions from time to time. AI tools like ChatGPT can keep the ball rolling when your brain is fried.

In your AI tool, write a prompt along the lines of, “Brainstorm five captions for a post about [topic]. Provide both common and unique ideas.” Include clear details to ensure you get the results you’re looking for. Tools like ChatGPT do remember the context of past conversations to a point. While it may remember which brand you’re working with, it may not. Include details like brand and product just to make sure to develop results as accurately as possible.

The AI tool will generate captions and you get to choose to use them or not. Maybe you like one of the captions just as is—great! Use it. Perhaps you like the direction of one of the ideas, but you don’t like the wording. You can ask the AI tool to rework that idea further to get a better result. Prompt it with “Rewrite the first idea five times with these instructions: It must include [product] and end with a call to action.” See if the AI text generates a caption that matches what you’re looking for better. If it doesn’t, tweak it yourself.

Creating social media images

You can also use AI tools like Microsoft Designer to generate images for your social media posts. Rather than relying on the same ten product pictures or obvious stock images, freshen up your social media posts with brand-new AI-generated images no one has ever seen before. AI won’t do all the work for you. You still have to come to the tool with an image concept you’re looking for. But it can bring your exact social media concept to reality.

Prompt the AI tool with instructions on the type of image you’re looking for. For instance, if you want to create a post about a volunteer opportunity to clean up a beach, you can prompt the AI tool with, “image of realistic garbage piled on a sandy beach.” Play around with the prompt instructions a few times until you get an image suitable for your post.

The importance of critical thinking while using AI

Generative AI is a hot topic right now. A lot of people are afraid of AI tools taking away the importance of human creativity, and for good reason. But an AI tool is just that: a tool. A tool is only as powerful as its wielder; it does not hold the knowledge and context of the person using it. With critical thinking and your creative mind at the helm, you can use ChatGPT or any other AI tool to help social media post creation run smoothly.