Saying that ChatGPT is popular would be a gross understatement. With over 100 million users and over a billion visits a month, this AI tool is all the rage these days. It’s ability to generate content and mimic human-like responses has won the masses over.
With fans ranging from college students to online marketers, you can bet that ChatGPT is here to stay.
However, as with most AI tools, this one has its limitations too. These arise because ChatGPT is not human and it’s dependent on the input it receives – and the people using it aren’t aware of how to use it well.
In fact, despite its popularity, most ChatGPT users merely scratch the surface when using this awesome tool. Below you’ll find 7 pitfalls that you’ll want to steer clear of. To get the best responses from ChatGPT, you need to be proficient at using it.
- Lack of specificity
To get the hang of ChatGPT, you must first understand that it’s a text generator. It’s not a human writer.
For example, if you hired a freelance writer and gave them a project, they’d ask you a few questions before getting started on the job. This would allow them to give you exactly what you want and reduce the possibility of revisions.
ChatGPT, however, will not ask you questions. It’ll just look at your message and generate a response that it deems best.
Let’s assume you want it to write an article for your gardening blog. If you fed it the prompt, “Write me an article for my gardening blog” – this is what you’d get…
Wow! It’s enthusiastic alright… but did you really want an article on companion planting?
Probably not.
Letting ChatGPT decide what content it’ll write for you is like buying a scratch-off ticket. You might get an occasional winner, but for the most part – it’ll be a total miss.
For ChatGPT to give you what you need, you need to be specific. If you have no idea, you can even ask it for suggestions.
For example, we can ask ChatGPT to give us sub-niches in the gardening niche. Then we can ask it to give us popular topics in any particular sub-niche you’re interested in.
From here, you can pick a topic and generate an article outline or a complete article.
Let’s do it!
We’ll choose the topic of composting and natural pest control…
Now, ChatGPT can give us an article/outline that’s in alignment with our needs.
Your takeaway here: Be specific when giving ChatGPT prompts.
- Starting too many chats
If you notice, ChatGPT calls it a ‘chat’. That implies you’re having a conversation with it. When you type in your first prompt, ChatGPT remembers it.
From there you can keep iterating your prompts and get it to improve its replies within the same chat. Since it remembers what was said earlier, it can automatically reference the earlier messages to give you the best response.
Many people are unaware of this and open new chats for every request. Since each chat is a new conversation, ChatGPT will treat is as such and will not refer to the earlier chats. This will create disjointed replies and there will be a lack of congruence in the generated text.
So use one chat and keep working on your prompts until you get what you want from ChatGPT. It’s easier and faster too.
Your takeaway: Use 1 chat per job. As long as what you’re generating is related to your original request, you’ll NOT need to start a new chat.
- Not asking ChatGPT for help
Another pointer that people are unaware of is that you can ask ChatGPT to create a prompt for you – and tell you what it needs. If we follow the earlier gardening example, we could ask it to create a prompt for us…
Now that we know what details ChatGPT needs, it’s just a matter of compiling the required information – and we’ll ask it to create a prompt for us…
With this prompt to guide you, all you need to do is insert the relevant details and ChatGPT will generate an article that’s targeted, relevant and ideal for your blog.
Your takeaway: Ask ChatGPT to create prompts for you, if you’re having trouble creating one yourself.
- Using ChatGPT’s content exactly as-is
This is one topic that’s highly polarizing.
Do you copy and paste ChatGPT’s content exactly as it is without making alterations?
Or do you use the content as inspiration but edit/tweak it to make it better?
The former requires minimal work… but the latter will require you to inject your voice, personality, wit, opinions, etc. into the content.
It goes without saying that the results you achieve will be in proportion to the effort you apply. Even if ChatGPT is generating the text, when you edit it and make it ‘yours’, you’ll have content that is engaging, easy to read – and it’ll resonate with your audience more.
That’s the ONLY way to stand out. You can bet the masses will just take the path of least resistance by copying and pasting the content.
It’s a matter of time before everyone starts sounding like everyone else. As good as ChatGPT may be, it cannot beat a human when it comes to creating engaging content.
People enjoy hearing from other people. This is why influencers have hundreds of thousands of followers. People want to hear from you – not ChatGPT.
Your takeaway: Use the tool to perform low leverage tasks, but ‘fine tune’ the content so it appeals to your tribe.
- Not fact checking ChatGPT’s content
ChatGPT is only as current as its last data set. This means if no new information was added to it, the content it has may be outdated.
Furthermore, ChatGPT may also try to pass off wrong information as real. Since it’s capable of creating readable text, you may be falsely led to believe that the facts are real. You must be alert here – especially if you’re using it to create non-fiction content.
Your takeaway: Always fact-check ChatGPT’s content
- Not providing context
For ChatGPT to understand what you need, you’ll need to give it some background information first. Context is very important.
Unfortunately, so many ChatGPT users are so eager to get it to do work for them that they fail to tell it what they’re all about. This will result in ChatGPT not generating optimal responses to their prompts.
Using the earlier gardening example, we’ll give ChatGPT some context like this…
Now that you’ve ‘prepped’ ChatGPT, it’ll be able to generate outlines/articles like a blogger who’s into gardening. Excellent!
- Asking for too much all at once
ChatGPT is artificial intelligence… but it’s not a human. One common mistake newbies make is asking for too many things in one prompt.
For example, “Write me a 1,200-word blog post on composting. Make it have headlines and sub-headlines. Italicise keywords, bold headings, add references, and include a call-to-action to a blogging ebook. I also want a table of pros and cons of organic compost. Create a product review for my ebook too.”
That is just TOO MUCH!
ChatGPT will do its best and probably get a few things right, but it’ll make a mess of the rest. If you try to improve the response, it’ll make an even bigger mess.
The best way to go about it will be to approach the process in stages. Create the article first, then add the headlines and sub-headings. Then add references, etc.
Each task should be done on its own. When your article is ready, then you can ask ChatGPT to format it. By approaching the process step-by-step, it’ll not only be more manageable, but the tool will also be able to execute your prompts more efficiently.
In conclusion…
These 7 mistakes trip up millions of users who play around with ChatGPT a little and then dismiss it because it wasn’t good enough for them.
In reality, their mistakes were affecting their results adversely. ChatGPT is only as good as the person wielding it.
So, practice using it, steer clear of these mistakes, and once you get the hang of things – you’ll discover that this AI tool is more versatile and powerful than you could ever imagine.
Leverage it to accelerate your content creation process and complete time-consuming tasks for you (in minutes). ChatGPT is your digital VA that’s always eager to please you. Use it wisely.
