Tips for AI Generated Content on Twitter

I've been playing with OpenAI's ChatGPT recently for creating Twitter content. Overall, the AI engine struggles to write engaging content for Twitter. That said, I've discovered some tricks to make AI-generated tweets more human sounding.

Obvious AI Content

Some content is obviously AI-generated. It feels robotic, and the tone doesn't aligned with the platform you find it on. For example, human-generated tweets are short and punchy, whereas AI content tends to be generic and wanting for a longer format. It just can't seem to fit a full thought into 280 characters.

I recently came across the example below written by John Plumstead, a self-storage operator and real estate investor. I connected with John and he acknowledged testing out AI content, but said his tests haven't been very fruitful. I decided to test if I could get OpenAI to write a better version.

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Several replies to this thread noted its obvious AI origin, a fact John readily acknowledged in the replies.

How can we make it better?

I've been extensively testing strategies for constructing prompts to return the best content from OpenAI. In a previous post, I discussed three parameters that seem to consistently boost content quality:

1. Tone
2. Style
3. Audience

However, through further experimentation, I've discovered two additional elements that really bring the pieces to life, particularly for Twitter:

1. "Include" parameter. I quite literally write the word "Include:" followed by a list of comma-separated thematic elements that I want OpenAI to include
2. Use the API. I've written about this previously, but the OpenAI API gives us access to a powerful parameter not available in ChatGPT: the temperature variable. The short explanation is that the temperature variable allows the AI algorithm to take more risks in the response formulation, thereby adding a more natural feel. ChatGPT uses a temperature setting of 0.7 by default, but the API lets us turn this up to 1.0, adding an element not available in ChatGPT.

OK, let's look at the prompt strung together using the 5 details above:

You may notice that I placed the "Style" parameters in the "Include" parameter ("an engagement question" and "introduce the purpose of the thread"). I've discovered that OpenAI ignores prompt variables if there are too many, but placing those variables in an "Include" statement tends to result in more of them being used.

The moment you've all been waiting for! Here's the improved version:

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1. Florida is an economic powerhouse; and Publix is a key contributor to its success! Let's take a look at why this homegrown grocery chain is having such a positive impact:
2. As of 2019, Publix's sales topped $36.1 billion and there are 1,229 stores in 7 states. Last year in Florida, Publix added 8 new locations, bringing the total to 780 stores. #FloridaEconomicGrowth
3. Publix's presence means an influx of investment & jobs. Publix is the largest private employer in the state of Florida, with over 217,000 associates between the state & Georgia — this is an increase of over 11% since 2013. #FloridaProspering
4. Publix leads the field in productive commercial real estate usage, with stores that bring together attractive locations, community-focused amenities, and competitive pricing. #FloridaCompetitive
5. We're proud of how this Florida favorite has made such a significant economic impact. Florida, what do you love about Publix? #FloridaFavorite

Admittedly, this thread isn't winning any awards. The topic is pretty "blah" and I'm sure there's a ceiling on how engaging it can be. That said, it's miles ahead of where we started and on par with the "here's a thread about a random boring thing" threads that are abundant on Twitter these days.

PS: You may have noticed that my request to exclude hashtags was completely ignored - another reason to place as many elements as possible in the "Include:" parameter.

I'll update this post as I discover more tricks for writing engaging Twitter threads with AI. I plan on continue testing different methods, and hope to test Twitter engagement with them. I'll be sure to post here with an update once I have more!