NEWSLETTER: The importance of a good AI prompt
When it comes to using AI, a good prompt is crucial to getting good results. So what exactly is a prompt and what makes a good prompt? Let's find out...
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đ AI 101 for small business owners:
đ¶ Because itâs all about those prompts đ¶
(to the tune of the Megan Trainor song All About That Base)
When it comes to using AI, most people these days are using generative AI which is the type of AI that - as the name suggests - generates something for you. Things like text, images, videos - basically any type of content. So a lot of business owners are using generative AI to help with marketing and social media.
How do you get AI to generate something?
In order to get AI to generate something for you, you have to tell it what youâre looking for. And the way you do that is by entering a prompt.
What is a prompt?
A prompt is the question youâre asking or the instruction youâre giving. Youâre essentially having a conversation or a âchatâ with a computer, so your prompt is what youâre entering to get that conversation started. For example, in the screenshot below you can see that if you are using ChatGPT, one of the main AI players, you enter your prompt in the area that says âSend a messageâ.
Why a good prompt is important:
When using AI, the quality of the results youâll get is typically dependent on two things:
The quality of data the AI program has access to
The effectiveness of the prompt being given
If youâre a little more high-tech or you pay someone to build a custom AI program for you, then you will have some control over the data. But itâs more realistic that you will be utilizing an AI program that someone else has built, and therefore you wonât have any control over the data.
But the good news is that you will have complete control over the prompt which is why itâs important to understand exactly what a prompt is and what you can do to make it as effective as possible. Because if you can make your prompt as effective as possible, you will (hopefully đ€- see more on this below) end up with the best possible results which will then benefit you and your business.
*Why hopefully?
The reason I say that a good prompt will hopefully get you the best AI response is because AI being used in this capacity is still in the early stages and is very much a work in progress. The main players and the tech companies who are building products on top of them are constantly making tweaks and training their AI to improve the results (here is a link to a newsletter from a few weeks ago that explains all about those companies). As we all know, technology can be great but it doesnât always work the way we want it to.
Weâre basically dealing with the toddler stage of AI that includes things like AI hallucinations (more on that in next weekâs newsletter). So keep in mind that it might not always be perfect, but when it works well it can be used in some incredible ways to help you and your business.
So what makes a good prompt?
When it comes to a prompt, you want to be as specific as possible without getting so wordy that the AI program gets overwhelmed.
Here are some things to keep in mind for your prompt:
Goal - establish what youâre looking for. Examples: write an article aboutâŠ, make this sentence sound more professional, come up with suggestions forâŠ
Role - mention if there is someone with a specific role that would be producing the type of content youâre looking for.
Tone - tell AI the tone youâre looking for. Examples: friendly, informative, professional.
Audience - if there is a specific audience youâre looking to reach, mention that.
Length - state the length you want your result to be.
Clarity - be as specific as possible about what you want. Avoid any vague or broad terms.
Format - state how you want the results to be displayed. Examples: a summary, an article, point form, a table, a numbered list.
Prompt and repeat
As AI is constantly evolving, donât get discouraged if you donât get what youâre looking for on the first try.
Itâs definitely a good idea to try more than one prompt whenever youâre looking to get AI to generate something. And you should try a few different AI programs too, as they could be using different data sources.
Have some fun with it to see the different results you can come up with based on the various prompts you enter. Tweaking your prompts and testing different variations will only increase your odds of getting good results.
EXAMPLE
So letâs take all of those tips and put them to work in an actual prompt. Letâs say I own a heating and cooling company and Iâm working on some marketing content for fall/winter. I went into Poe.com, one of my favorite AI programs (this is not sponsored), and I entered: in the tone of a friendly yet professional business owner, write an article with a point form list of tips for homeowners to get their furnace ready for the cold weather months.
Here is a portion of the result:
I ended up with a list of 8 different tips and overall I was happy with the content. But each tip had two bullet points and I wouldâve preferred it to be only one or two sentences per tip. So I responded in that same chat and simply said âmake it shorterâ.
Here is that result:
Youâll see it gave me exactly what I asked for: a shorter version of that original article. But now itâs a little too short for what I was wanting. So Iâm going to start an entirely new chat, still using my original prompt but now adding the instruction that each tip is to be summarized into no more than two sentences.
Here is that result:
The best part is that this time, instead of only 8 tips it ended up giving me 12:
So you can see how entering the prompt multiple times in multiple variations can result in different responses and therefore different content. This now gives me some great content to work with that I could then revise to put my own touch on (as mentioned in last weekâs newsletter, AI-generated content should be used as your first draft, not your final draft).
The bottom lineâŠ
When it comes to entering a prompt, give specific instructions and keep trying out different prompts until youâre satisfied with the answers youâre getting.
If you want to explore prompts further, here are a few links to check out:
A Medium article about 31 prompts that are better than simply saying ârewriteâ
GoDaddyâs AI prompt library for small businesses
A ZDNET article on how to write better prompts specifically for ChatGPT
The end:
I know that was a lot to digest and youâre likely feeling a little brain overload, so thatâs all for this week. Watch for the test drive and headlines to return in next weekâs newsletter đ
â© In next weekâs newsletter:
All about AI hallucinations
Test drive: using Anyword for copywriting
đ Coming soon
With many small business owners curious as to how AI can be used in their business, Iâm developing a course that will teach you what AI is and, most importantly, how you can use it to become more efficient and grow your business.
The course will be based on the following foundations:
Quick - My goal is to have it run no longer than 30 minutes. Business owners are busy enough so I want to teach you as quickly as possible.
Easy - There are enough things going on with your business taking up your precious brain power, so Iâm developing this course to be as easy as possible.
Affordable - This course will be very affordable (less than $50). I want you to learn as much as possible for as little $ as possible. (Check with your accountant to see if you can use it as a tax deduction!)
If you want to be notified when the course launches, sign up here: https://forms.gle/mcAwePKDgF5wWUki6
đ Who am I and why am I writing this newsletter?
My name is Melissa Hopper and Iâm a small business consultant and entrepreneur. Iâm not an AI expert but rather an AI enthusiast who became curious about how AI could help me in my business and help my clients in their businesses.
I decided to start this newsletter to share what Iâm learning and what my clients are learning about how AI can help small businesses. To learn more about what I do, click here.
đ Thank you
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