AUTHOR’S NOTE: I initially wrote this crash course intending to work with ChatGPT. But since then, Google’s Bard, Microsoft’s Bing AI, and many other AI tools have entered the market, making GPT less attractive. The principles I’ve explained below, however, can be applied to all AI chatting/generation tools – it’s prompt engineering so the rules won’t change no matter how diverse or advanced AI gets. So go ahead & read through!

ChatGPT has taken over our social media feeds & entire lives! But very few people are using it to its full potential.

Do you want in on the party, too? But you don’t know how to write good prompts?

Over the course of the next few tutorials, you’ll understand the basics of how to use the tool smartly.

This crash course is divided into 7 short parts:

1. Basic Starter Prompt Examples – get a feel of how to talk to an AI
2. Intensive Research Audit – use AI to mine insights & get information
3. Idea Generation – Get thought starters to kickstart your project
4. Refining Draft – Ask for feedback to improve your own thoughts/work
5. Content Creation – Develop original content from references that you liked
6. Team-wise Use Cases – List of prompts that each department might find handy
7. Beyond ChatGPT – Curation of other AI tools that can get your work done

Today, we’ll start small by just covering the many possibilities of what we can do with this technology.

I’ll share starter prompts for you to copy or tweak, then try them out yourself. Pay close attention to the style of instruction as well as the kind of phrases/language I use.

Knowing how to talk to AI (a.k.a. Prompt Engineering) is going to be an in-demand skill in the coming decade so this is basically free practice for that eventuality!

In the coming chapters, we’ll cover many use cases in detail because starter prompts are only part of the game, so you also need to learn how to push GPT to refine its own output by giving it smart feedback.

Note on Limitations

A caveat before we begin, as you might know, the knowledge cut-off of ChatGPT is until September 2021, so it knows everything about the world before that date only.

This means you cannot ask what the weather at present is or what are the latest changes in Instagram’s algorithm – for questions that need topical i.e. current answers, you’ll need to subscribe to GPT-4, which is currently priced at ~₹800 per month.

But don’t let that make you think that GPT is any less useful. As you’ll see ahead, it can x5 your speed, thinking and output if you speak its language correctly.

P.S: If you didn’t already have free access, you can log into ChatGPT by visiting the Open AI website > Create your Account > Go to ChatGPT.

Prompt 1: Make a content calendar for my brand

You’re in charge of a premium green tea brand that has a target audience of 20 to 30-year-old working Indian professionals who are health-conscious people staying in Tier-1 cities like Mumbai. They’re most active on Instagram.

Generate more than 20 engaging and visually appealing content/post ideas that we can post on the account in the month of November. They need to provide informational or entertaining value to the people but also integrate our range of teas into it. Have a balanced mix of short videos and carousels or single static graphic design-based post ideas. Try to include an element of gamification.

The posts should help us gain engagement and more followers through the means of bookmarks, shares, tags and comments.

Keep your tone similar to Zomato, which uses light humour, Gen-Z slang, and fun or witty elements in their social media content.

Takeaways:

• Specify what role you want GPT to assume – it can be the personality of a famous author like JK Rowling or more general, such as that of a feminist activist. It will mimic the tone.

• Be as specific with your request in terms of the number of ideas you want, the goal of the content and the format in which the ideas can be executed.

Prompt 2: Suggest an ad campaign idea

I am working on a fast food franchise brand that sells pizza in Mumbai out of many cities. My TG is mostly 20-30-year-olds who order it at their offices. Suggest me 3 ideas for a technology-led marketing campaign or brand activation that will delight customers and also win famous awards like Cannes Lions and D&AD. I also want the campaign to go viral on social media, increasing my brand’s visibility & online orders.

Mandatorily follow this format without any exceptions: Name of campaign, consumer Insight or problem, detailed description of campaign idea & solution, execution plan, KPIs, possible results, catchy PR news headlines. Explain to me why each idea is effective, unique and original.

Keep your responses concise, sharp and convincing. Avoid suggesting ideas that would take up budgets of more than ₹50L and require event hosting or management and physical on-ground planning. That said, you can suggest hybrid OOH & digital campaigns.

Focus more on tech-led campaigns that engage the audience either while walking through the city or on social media or both.

Takeaways:

• Be precise about the industry you’re in, the company you’re working with and the audience you’re targeting with your initiative.

• Be clear on what you want to achieve in terms of performance or outcomes.

• Prompt GPT to adhere to a certain structure, flow or format that’s easily consumable & relevant to you. For example, we marketers always design our campaign pitch decks in a certain style so I asked GPT to package its idea in the same way.

• Always tell GPT about your dislikes, restrictions, drawbacks, concerns, fears, etc. Tell it what you do NOT want it to generate so that it can actively avoid those points, style of formatting (e.g. emojis) or tonality (e.g. don’t sound too professional or formal).

Possible Followups:

• I like the first route. Can you expand on it?
• The second route has drawbacks which are x & y. Address them & refine your response.
• I don’t like the options. Focus more on x, y & z. Give me new ones.

Prompt 3: Write an email response

My agency’s client which is an FMCG company has told us that they’re absolutely unhappy with our team’s performance in the past quarter. They’ve said that we don’t understand the brand, our presentations aren’t packaged well and our team isn’t as responsive as they would’ve liked. We need to assure them that we hear their feedback and will take corrective measures.

Draft a convincing email to help us ensure that they’re retained. Through the email, suggest me some action points to turn the situation around.

Takeaways:

• Use words like “convincing” or “persuasive” that describe the required quality of the writing to achieve your goals.

• Give as much context as you can so that GPT can specify those points in the email/content piece it generates for you.

• Explain what exactly you aren’t able to write yourself (in my case, I didn’t know how to act on the feedback). Then prompt GPT to write that in the context of the email/content body instead of giving you suggestions separately – it makes your life one step easier.

Prompt 4: Build an argument in my defence

I & my colleague are debating about whether Golden retrievers are suited for the Indian climate. She has one in Mumbai so she’s probably biased towards them. I feel they’re not suited because of their coat and the weather in the city.

Her main counter-argument is that dogs always adapt to the environment so Goldies are fine to keep as pets as their body adapts. Form a solid convincing argument against this position by taking into account the origins & biology of the breed as well as the ethics of animal keeping.

Also suggest some ideas on what people can do instead, like adopting stray Indian dogs that are more suited to the climate.

Takeaways:

• You can ask GPT to debate for you & take any stance – as long as it’s not completely factually incorrect, like “the earth is flat” or the “Sun rises in the west,” GPT will be able to defend your social, political or emotional POVs

• When asking GPT to form an argument in favour of your POV, explain the grounds on which you want it to build it. In other words, what points or factors should it consider when speaking in your defence? For example, in my case, I told GPT to use the dogs’ origins & biology as bases to write the defence.

• A strong argument also identifies & then murders its counter-arguments pro-actively, so anticipate what your opponent in the debate will say & then tell GPT to pre-emptively attack these counterarguments

Prompt 5: Take a tough decision

I have to choose between two offers from the companies – Nesco and a startup called Social Box. The position is for a marketing brand manager. Nesco is on the client side while Social Box offers marketing services for brands. The salaries offered are ₹50000 and ₹35000 respectively.

Social Box is interesting to me because I’ll get to lead my own team but I’m scared that it might be too much responsibility at such a young age and a lot of expectations and pressure. There is potential for career progression.

Nesco is attractive to me because it’s a huge global brand and having it early on in the CV is a good launchpad for my career. But I feel I would not fit well with older people in the corporate world. I am a 23-year-old male living in Mumbai with an estimated projected monthly expense of ₹25000. I have only done internships in marketing previously.

Lay out the pros and cons of each option, the good possibilities and the pitfalls of choosing each. List some questions, points and considerations I should take myself before taking the decision. Tell me logically which side is better & why. Give me an action plan and email draft template for both accepting & rejecting the offers.

Takeaways:

• Give GPT as much context & background as you can.

• Share your personal instincts – what do you like about each option and also what is holding you back from going ahead with it?

• Rather than asking GPT to take a decision for you, ask it to list the questions you should consider to get more clarity on your options.

• Ask GPT to give you an action plan to follow through on the decision so that you can see things visually playing out in the future.

More Professional Use Cases

Here are some more ideas on how you can use ChatGPT:

• Recommend 20 good books on copywriting that my team members should read.

• Generate a list of innovative team-building activities for our next company retreat.

• Provide a point-by-point comparison of different project management tools & their features.

• What are some effective techniques to enhance customer support & satisfaction?

• Create a step-by-step market segmentation plan for a detergent brand operating in Tier-1 cities. Explain the rationale behind choosing the segments & have a detailed analysis of their psychodemographics.

• Generate a list of key performance indicators (KPIs) for the position of junior graphic designer in a mid-sized agency. She will be working on social media designs primarily.

• Generate a list of metrics/analytics we should track to measure the success of our website.

• What are some things I should cover when I’m onboarding a new employee in my team? I’m an SEO manager at an agency.

Bonus Giveaway

I’ve made a custom AI specifically to help you generate personalized prompt ideas for whichever position you’re in at work.

Access it here – you’ll just have to log in to the Poe (built by Quora) platform – which is free of cost – to start talking with my personal AI.

So those were some starting points just to dip our feet in the pool. Depending on the quality of GPT’s response, however, you may want to continue the conversation.

To proceed, visit the page Smart Shaala for more chapters on ChatGPT & many other practical topics.

Navigate this Track

This crash course is divided into 7 short parts:

1. Basic Starter Prompt Examples – get a feel of how to talk to an AI
2. Intensive Research Audit – use AI to mine insights & get information
3. Idea Generation – Get thought starters to kickstart your project
4. Refining Draft – Ask for feedback to improve your own thoughts/work
5. Content Creation – Develop original content from references that you liked
6. Team-wise Use Cases – List of prompts that each department might find handy
7. Beyond ChatGPT – Curation of other AI tools that can get your work done