ChatGPT has become the way of the world. It is a source of answers for a wide range of topics, from work and leisure to relationships and travel. But ChatGPT can only give you relevant answers when you write a prompt well.
A prompt is a command or an action sentence used to communicate with ChatGPT and other and other AI language models.
This blog post will reveal our little secrets to crafting perfect ChatGPT prompts and becoming a master of this art. These tips come from our internal AI experts, who have extensive experience training AI language models.
What is ChatGPT?
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a cutting-edge AI language model released in November 2022. With the ability to answer any question posed to it, ChatGPT quickly made a name for itself by attracting 1 million users within just five days of its release. And since then, the number of ChatGPT users has continued to grow steadily.
But unfortunately, ChatGPT comes with a few limitations.
- It does not know anything that happened after 2021 as it is trained on a huge database with updated data till 2021.
- With great popularity comes another ChatGPT limitation. It is either down or at capacity most of the time due to huge traffic. To overcome this, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Plus – a premium subscription.
- ChatGPT is strictly a text-only language model and does not generate any AI images.
Why create a perfect ChatGPT prompt?
If language models like ChatGPT have been trained on databases created by humans, shouldn’t they understand the way we talk?
Even though they are trained on human-generated data, they are still machines. You always need to instruct it to get the work done.
Writing a perfect ChatGPT prompt can result in
- Conversations that are meaningful and engaging, like learning more about a particular concept by asking follow-up questions and using these responses effectively.
- Accurate predictions and relevant analogies from ChatGPT can be used in your work.
- Faster responses boost your productivity and get things done on time.
- Improving the perspectives and notions of ChatGPT by maintaining clarity in your prompt.
How to create a perfect ChatGPT prompt
To be honest, writing ChatGPT prompts is not tough. But writing the perfect ChatGPT prompts to get relevant results from the language model is not a cakewalk either.
After using multiple AI tools like ChatGPT, AI model training experts have come up with a few tips you can follow to use ChatGPT effectively.
1. Start with an action word.
Do you want AI to take you seriously? Then always start your ChatGPT prompt with action words like Create, Write, Make, and Generate instead of starting with ‘Can you’
2. Provide context.
A doctor can better diagnose a patient’s condition with a clear context of the symptoms. Similarly, ChatGPT can generate a relevant answer with enough context for your question.
Contextual ChatGPT Prompt: I have 3 years of experience as a software developer. Now I got bored with coding and want to transition to another career. My education qualifications are B. Tech in computer science, and I am well-versed in understanding the business side of software as well. Suggest a list of career options that are easy for me to transition.
3. Use role play.
For example, you are seeking content marketing advice on improving brand awareness for your newly launched CRM software.
Role-play ChatGPT Prompt: You are a marketing veteran for software products with ten years of experience in the industry. You have built marketing strategies for successful software products like Vimeo, Freshworks, Hubspot, and Zoho. Using your marketing experience, advise me on how to build awareness for my newly launched CRM software product ‘Zilio’
4. Use references.
If you want to mimic the writing style of any celebrity, then ChatGPT can do that, too, if you mention it in the prompt.
Reference ChatGPT Prompt: Write a list of mistakes to avoid in the 20s in Shakespeare style
Isn’t it amazing! Now, do you see the power of writing perfect ChatGPT prompts 🔥?
5. Use double quotes.
When speaking to someone or presenting, how do you emphasize the importance of a word?
You either say it loudly, stretch the word’s pronunciation so no one misses it, or use air quotes.
You can see the importance ChatGPT gives to double quotes in the first line itself. When not using quotes, it referred to the essay as ‘Content Marketing: An Introduction,’ but when used quotes, it said ‘Content Marketing: The Art of Reaching Your Target Audience.’
6. Be specific.
No one likes being vague because it does not leave any actionable insights to work on. ChatGPT also cannot generate good responses with vague prompts.
It works best when given specific prompts like
Specific ChatGPT Prompt: Write marketing copy to make my email marketing more engaging. The product I am promoting is called X (e.g., company, service or organization). What subject lines would you suggest for a sequence of Y emails?
By adding specific details like subject lines and the number of emails in the sequence, ChatGPT’s response is relevant and matchs user expectations.
7. Give examples.
Want ChatGPT to get inspired from the existing content piece? Then using examples in prompts can help you get the desired responses.
For instance, you want to write a book review based on an example.
Example-based ChatGPT Prompt:
Here is a book review of <example book>
“<example book review>”
Now write a similar book review for ‘<book name>’
Now ChatGPT uses a writing style similar to the example provided. What are you waiting for? Input your best examples/ templates and get the desired responses
8. Include the length of the response.
ChatGPT does not know if you want a crisp two lines response or a comprehensive paragraph for your prompt. It would come up with its response length if not mentioned in the prompt. To avoid confusion and regenerations, it is good to specify the response length in the prompt.
Another best use case is asking ChatGPT to elaborate or shorten the text.
ChatGPT Prompt including response length: Elaborate about ‘content marketing’ in 300 words.
Along with defining marketing concepts, ChatGPT can also help you with content creation strategies.
9. Handhold the AI.
Like we said before, AI is a machine and needs to be instructed clearly on the task, and when we say handholding, we are not exaggerating. In particular situations, it is crucial to tell the AI what to do, what to avoid, and what to prioritize.
Here is an example of a custom diet plan with conditions.
Conditional ChatGPT Prompt: I am a 26-year-old female looking to lose 6 kg in 3 months. Create a 1700 calories Indian diet plan for two weeks. Do not give me non-vegetarian options on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. It should be a lean protein diet with carbs (30%), protein (40%), fiber (20%), and fat (10%).
10. Don’t hesitate to refine.
Like the famous proverb, “Practice makes a man perfect,” refining the prompts as required generates perfect responses.
In the above example, a custom diet plan is generated. Now I want to know how many calories each meal has along with macronutrient data.
The first thing to do is toggle the ‘enable memory’ button to ask follow-up questions.
Refined ChatGPT Prompt: Give me calories for each meal and macronutrient data (carbs, protein, fiber, fat)
11. Specify the tone.
If you are using ChatGPT to write an email or a funny meme, specifying the tone can make a huge difference.
For example, you have a young audience to target and want to share something exciting with your community.
Tone-specific ChatGPT Prompt: Write a post about the new launch of our ‘Tnagers’ T-shirts. Also, include that these T-shirts will be given away to the winner of the giveaway contest. The contest is they have to share about Tnagers on their social media. The contest winners will be the top 3 people who will get the maximum number of followers.
12. Get summaries after a long chat.
Do you spend hours in AI conversations? Even though that’s sweet, you might get lost in the long chat. So to avoid this and have an idea of what you were talking about with AI, you can summarize the long chat.
But with ChatGPT, you can edit, copy, download, and share these conversations with friends, family, colleagues and followers.
Conclusion
The recently-released ChatGPT has generated a lot of excitement and has become a popular topic on social media. To make the most of ChatGPT, it is crucial to craft effective prompts. Writing ChatGPT prompts is a skill that is gaining recognition and is expected to become more in demand. With practice, this skill can be honed to perfection.
However, despite giving world-class prompts, ChatGPT sometimes tends to give outdated and irrelevant responses as it is updated with information until 2021 only.