starting with AI for content horizontal

June

2024

16:08

Europe/Amsterdam

3 Tips to use AI and improve your output instantly

The urgency and benefits for you and senior management to start using AI today

Are you struggling to get that great AI output everyone is raving about? Is your AI copy bombastic, theatrical, wooly, and hard to read? Also, is it a bit generic and just scratching the surface?

Even you, or maybe especially you, as a senior manager, must understand how to work with AI and get the most out of it.

Getting the right answer, or output, starts with asking the right question.

Here are my 3 tips to improve your prompts and output instantly.

Give AI instructions like you’d give to a 5-year-old, including tone of voice, roleplay, and output requirements
Use prompt chaining; ask follow-up questions for better results
Start fresh with new prompts, open a new ChatGPT window, and prevent contamination

The benefit is that your AI output will have more in-depth insights, align better with your ask, and save time when using AI output in your daily work.

All of this enables you to spend more time on strategic thinking while AI creates and improves the content output.

1. Instruct AI like a 5-year-old

Sh*t in is sh*t out. The magic of AI is in the quality of your prompt. The better your prompt, the better the result.

Most people barely scratch the surface of AI’s potential when using it for their daily work. The main reason is the simplicity and superficiality of their prompts. There is no such thing as a one-liner prompt when you use the free version of ChatGPT.

These are the 3 elements you need to include in your prompt.

Tone of voice: be authentic
Role play for tailored output
Define your output, what do you need

Add your tone of voice to the prompt

Including your tone of voice applies when you ask AI to create content for you. If you’re just asking a question or doing research, there’s no need to include a tone of voice.

However, if you don’t want to spend more time rewriting AI’s output than when you would have written it yourself, add your tone of voice to the prompt.

For example, my tone of voice is like I am. No bullsh*t, short and sweet, clean and clear, direct, no jargon, no buzz of fuzz words. With short sentences combined with longer ones where needed. I use B1 intermediate English, reading grade level 8, optimized for mobile reading by using short paragraphs, lots of break lines, and subheaders.

You can simply add this description to your prompt. ‘Please, use this tone of voice: ’

How do you find your tone of voice? AI can help. Collect a few samples of your writing, and ask ChatGPT to define your tonality based on those examples. Use that description in your future prompts.

Use role play to be specific

The free version of ChatGPT doesn’t know you, so it will give generic answers, covering its ass for each and every one. If you want some more in-depth, detailed, or personalized output, you have to ask for it.

The easiest way to do this is to apply role play. This is as much as describing who you are to give context and reference so AI can tailor the output. If you mention you’re a beginner at something or that you’re an expert with over 10 years of experience, the output will be totally different.

It’s as simple as starting your prompt with ‘Imagine you are an expert in XYZ, so you can skip the basic steps and common knowledge’ or ‘Imagine you have never done this before, can you please explain the steps one by one with a clear guide what I have to do.’

This brings me to the last element, which is to list your output requirements.

Define your output requirements

Describe what you want. Do you want a how-to and easy-to-follow step-by-step guide? Or a bullet list with a maximum of 5 bullets? Or do you prefer a top 10 list? Of a table? Do you want an email or a blog post? Or a social post post?

The limit is your imagination and ability to give AI orders in your prompt.

The better you define what you want AI to do, the better the output.

It pays off to invest time and give a little love and attention to your prompt; ChatGPT will reward you accordingly.

Bonus tip: Be polite, say ‘hi, please, and thank you’ to ChatGPT

My personal tip is to say ‘hi, please, and thank you’ while chatting with ChatGPT.

It’s not that ChatGPT will do a better job; your input will be better as you communicate with ChatGPT on an equal level, and therefore, the output will be better.

Explained by example: creating a lasagna recipe prompt

For the sake of clarity, the example I use is a daily, very recognizable situation for everyone. By explaining how to prompt this simply, you can apply it to your specific job and needs.

Imagine that you’re hosting a dinner and want to make a vegetarian lasagna.

Since you’re asking for a recipe, you do not need to include a tone of voice, so we skip this step for now.
We do include role-playing, however, as I have specific needs as an inexperienced at-home DYI cook.
I need a very clear and easy does-it description of the steps and how to hassle with the ingredients. And I don’t want to spend too much time preparing it, as I’m a bit lazy and prefer to drink wine with my friends instead of sweating in the kitchen.

Prompt:
‘Imagine you are an inexperienced at-home cook and no star in the kitchen. Can you create a very easy recipe for me for a vegetarian lasagna I can make in 30 minutes. I want to prepare the dish in advance, so I only need to put it in the oven when my guests arrive, and I have time to drink wine instead of panicking in the kitchen. Can you create a step-by-step guide on what I need to do and what ingredients I need to have?’

Now, compare the prompt above to the output you probably would have asked:
‘Can you give me a recipe for a vegetarian lasagna?’

I already freak out by just reading the recipe, let alone preparing a decent lasagna.

2. Use prompt chaining: never stick to one prompt

The other magic in AI is prompt chaining. This is an expensive word for asking several prompts to get your output. It’s good to realize that there is no such thing as a one-prompt-based, satisfying answer.

I prefer to first let AI go very broad, let AI do the research and gather information, and then drill it down to the essentials to get my required answer. It sounds a bit complicated, so let’s explain it with the vegetarian lasagna example.

Example: prompt-chain the lasagna

If you prompt ‘Can you give me a recipe for a vegetarian lasagna?’ you will not get the answer you need. So, follow up with ‘can you make it easier so I can do it at home with little to no experience in the kitchen’. That already improves the output. If you then follow up with, ‘can you adjust the recipe so I can prepare the dish in the afternoon so I only have to put it in the oven?’ you’re almost there.

If you use an extended and detailed prompt, as I did in the example above, then this prompt chaining still improves your output.

Never stick to one-prompt-and-go; always ask a follow-up question or give more details to improve the output.

Rule of thumb: my prompt length is 50 words, and a minimal 3 to 5 prompts

My prompts are generally long and extensive; I use a minimum of 50 words. And I use around 3 to 5 follow-up prompts.

Remember, the more effort you make, the better and more satisfying the AI output will be.

Don't be lazy.

3. Start fresh with new prompts; open a new window

This is about the importance of clean prompts for accurate results. Many make this mistake. It’s common practice to continue chatting with ChatGPT in the same window.

However, realize that, just as with prompt chaining, AI uses the answer it has given you before to determine and create the answer to your new prompt.

So, if your new prompt is not aligned with the first prompt, just open a new window to start fresh and prevent any contamination from previous asks.

Example: why lasagna and espresso martini don't mix

Back to the lasagna example. If you now want a recipe for making a spiked coffee, such as an espresso martini.

If you stay in the same chat, AI will take all your questions about the lasagna into account to create the espresso martini recipe.

To get a clean and fresh start to make the best and most delicious espresso martini ever, open a new chat to prevent your previous requirements, such as your kitchen inexperience and laziness, from influencing the espresso martini recipe.

Last tip: Have fun; you can’t break AI

This is my very last and maybe even most important tip. ‘Have fun’. Play and fool around with ChatGPT. Push the limits, ask the weird things, challenge the status quo.

Whatever you do, you can’t break AI. If you get stuck or don’t like what you get, close the chat and open a new one.

The worst that can happen is that ChatGPT remembers your quirky prompts; at best, that results in a better output for the next session.

Start now. Why you should begin using AI today

If you know how to use AI correctly and get more satisfying answers, you’ll discover a whole new, exciting world. AI is amazing and can speed up your work enormously.

That doesn’t mean you should take on more work directly; the main benefit is that it frees up your time to think strategically and improve your content game. After all, content in 2024 is not about more; it’s about better.

Realize it really takes time to learn to prompt. Practice makes perfect. And the nasty thing is, once you think you got it, a new tool or update releases with new features.

So, if you don’t start now, it will become increasingly difficult to start and become experienced. Start with asking for recipes and work your way up to using AI in your daily job.

Free versus paid ChatGPT

Lastly, some words about understanding the benefit of paid ChatGPT, and the differences between the free and version.

For about € 25 a month, you’ll get

Better output as the paid version is just better
Personalize your ChatGPT: bake your tone of voice and role play into your ChatGPT with Custom Instructions
Build your own GPTs for prompts you often use

Try it; in the worst-case scenario, you’ll lose € 25 and gain more experience.

Wrapping it up, the need for AI skills in senior management

In short, learn the AI game as the gap between the inexperienced and experienced widens by the day. If you don’t start now, it will become increasingly more difficult. And this especially applies to senior management, from the Directors to the VPs and C-Suite. If you want to manage a brand and your teams correctly, you need to know what this AI is all about and have first-hand experience.

By the way, being honest now, if I speak to senior-level people and they have no clue about how to use AI themselves, then you don’t show that you know what’s going on in society and how work and business are changing.

These are my 3 tips.

Give AI instructions like you’d give to a 5-year-old, including tone of voice, roleplay, and output requirements
Use prompt chaining; ask follow-up questions for better results
Start fresh with new prompts, open a new ChatGPT window, and prevent contamination

Start now, have fun, and consider getting paid to personalize your ChatGPT.

Need help?

If you need any help with all of the above—and I’m not biased at all—I’m thoroughly experienced, have ruffled many feathers, and have learned from my mistakes, drop me an email. If I’m not the right person to help you, maybe I can recommend someone or an agency from my network.