Hey ChatGPT, I need some help starting a blog post about coming back to work after taking time off to get control over my Depression. Can you help?
“After a much-needed sabbatical to recharge my batteries and battle the blues, I’m back and ready to conquer the workplace.”
Aggressive…and meh…not really me.
“After a hiatus filled with tears, laughter, and plenty of Netflix binges, I’m officially leaving my pajamas behind and rejoining the workforce.”
Literally wearing my pajamas right now.
“After taking a break from the grind to tend to my mental health, I’m back and ready to tackle the challenges of the 9-to-5.”
Freelancing is rarely a 9-to-5…but it is challenging!
Not bad, Chat GPT. Can you make it funnier?
- “After a journey through the land of pajamas and Netflix, I’m back and ready to trade in my couch for a desk chair.”
- “After a long hiatus spent fighting my inner demons and binge-watching every show on Hulu, I’m ready to return to the real world…or at least the office.”
- “After a much-needed mental health break that involved a lot of ice cream, crying, and napping, I’m back and ready to tackle the workweek.”
Thanks. I think I’ve got this now.
Dear reader,
After a long hiatus spent fighting the inner demons (well, more like slugs, really) and dominating the world of Farmville 2: Country Escape, I’m finally ready to return to the squirrelly world of social media.
And WOW! A lot has happened in the {checks calendar} SIX MONTHS that I’ve been in recovery mode.
- That dude bought Twitter and ruined it. And then ruined it some more.
- Instagram backtracked its focus on video.
- And AI writing software has overtaken…well…everything! Including this blog.
Pinky swear, I’m still the one writing here, but I did think it would be interesting to use AI to come up with some ideas, share how it worked for me and how you can use ChatGPT to help with your social media.
See, one of the things about Depression is that it literally saps your creativity and motivation. And when the motivation starts to return, the creativity might not. (Please realize, this is *MY* experience and may be very different from someone else’s experience with Depression.)
Now that my motivation is on the upswing (it still took me way too long to get this post published), I find I want to write, but I’m having trouble just getting started. That’s where ChatGPT comes in.
I finally got into it last week. It’s hugely popular and often over capacity, so if you want to try it, you might have to be patient. If you’re not patient, there are myriad other options: Canva’s Magic Write is decent but not as variable; Jasper, Rytr, Anyword are other options I’ve tried. If you’re an App Sumo user, check out what’s currently available there for AI.
What I learned about using AI to help with this blog post:
- AI is for drafting and idea generation. Don’t expect it to magically pump out exactly what you need on the first try. This is not Fantasy Island. You’ll need to fine-tune it.
- AI can do a whole lot more than you might think! In just a couple of days, I’ve written presentation descriptions, blog posts, a presentation outline, haikus, sonnets, my new bio, social media posts, and a parody of Big Big Energy (that was just for fun to see what it could do).
- Start small: Begin with small, low-risk projects to get comfortable with the technology and learn from your experiences.
- You can vary the tone of the writing. Don’t just tell it to provide something, tell your AI what you want it to sound like. Notice above where I said, “Can you make it funnier?” I actually told ChatGPT to make it funnier. And then I told it to make it even wilder. Humour is, of course, subjective, but adding these descriptors for the tone I wanted helped a lot.
How Can a Small Business Use ChatGPT?
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably wondering how to get started and whether or not this is going to be helpful for your business.
The truth is…it probably will be. But only if you use it right and keep the human element. Here are a few things you can try with your AI writer of choice, remembering to start with something low-risk:
- Blog post outlines;
- Blog post titles;
- Haikus about a specific topic to add a punch of whimsy to your blog;
- Summarize a long paper or article into main points for a slide deck;
- Write a call-to-action for your podcast;
- Presentation outlines;
- Analogies for your storytelling;
- Social media posts with variations.
I recommend setting a timer so you don’t get too far down the rabbit hole and waste your entire day “playing”…because that’s certainly easy to do with fun new tools. Also, check out this amazing post by Mark Schaefer about other ways to use ChatGPT.
Let me know how you use AI writers and ChatGPT to help with your social media.
