Rather than replacing human expertise, ChatGPT serves as a collaborative assistant, speeding up research, enhancing content creation, and even aiding with data analysis, all under the guidance of a savvy professional. 

This blog explores three core areas where PR professionals can use ChatGPT strategically for social media management: 

•  Research, Strategy and Planning,
•  Delivery (Content Creation, Drafting, Tone Control, Channel Adaptation)
•  Measurement and Evaluation. 

We’ll share practical tips to ensure the AI’s output stays on-brand, accurate, and authentically human.

ChatGPT for Social Media Research, Strategy and Planning

Getting the strategy right is the first step in any successful social media campaign. ChatGPT can function as a research assistant and brainstorming partner to help you in the early stages of planning. For example, you might prompt ChatGPT to “Summarise the latest social media trends in the fintech industry and suggest how a fintech start-up could engage audiences on these trends.”

With a well-crafted prompt that provides context (industry, audience, goals), ChatGPT can quickly compile insights and creative ideas. It’s great for brainstorming campaign angles and content ideas when you’re staring at a blank page, input a broad idea and let the AI offer a list of angles or themes to get the ball rolling. The output might not be a final strategy, but it can spark inspiration and save precious time.

Importantly, specificity and context are key when prompting. A vague ask like “Give me a social media plan” won’t yield great results. Instead, be direct about what you need, the more detail you provide about your brand voice, audience, and objectives, the better ChatGPT can tailor its suggestions. Even information that seems obvious can help. AI benefits from knowing the context and target audience. Always review these outputs with a critical eye – use your PR expertise to choose the best ideas and align them with your client’s goals.

ChatGPT for Social Media Content Delivery

Once your plan is in place, ChatGPT can assist in the delivery phase – creating and refining content for different social channels. Think of it as a copywriting assistant that can draft posts, suggest wording, and adapt tone on the fly. For example, you might use it to generate social copy variations: “Draft five tweet ideas announcing our new product feature in a playful tone.”

If the first draft is too formal or bland, you can continue the conversation and ask ChatGPT to tweak it: “Make version 3 sound more casual and add a question to encourage engagement.” The ability to iterate in a conversational way means you can hone in on the perfect phrasing or style. I often advise treating ChatGPT like a dialogue – ask follow-ups just as you would give feedback to a junior copywriter.

Tone control is a particularly valuable use. PR professionals know that tone can make or break audience resonance. ChatGPT will adjust style if you specify it – whether you need a friendly Instagram caption, a professional LinkedIn post, or a witty tweet. Always define the voice: e.g. “Write a LinkedIn post in a confident, executive tone celebrating our company’s latest award, using British English.” If the result feels off (perhaps too stilted or too “bot-like”), don’t settle – instruct the AI to refine it (“Make it sound more human and warm, less like a press release”).

You remain the director in this creative process. Even experienced users stress that AI-generated text is a starting point – you must review and humanise it before publishing. This could mean adding local phrases, injecting a bit of personality, or simply tightening the copy. And of course, always proofread and fact-check the content. ChatGPT’s knowledge isn’t infallible, so verify any factual statements (dates, stats, names) it includes.

Another big advantage is channel adaptation and repurposing content. PR teams often need to adapt a core message across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more. ChatGPT can save time by transforming a single piece of content into multiple formats. For instance: “Here is a short blog excerpt about our new product [paste text]. Summarise this into an engaging LinkedIn post, and also provide a 280-character tweet highlighting the key point.” By doing this, you ensure consistency in messaging while tailoring the delivery to each platform’s style. The result is a set of first-draft posts for each channel that you can then edit and schedule.

Throughout the content creation process, remember that ChatGPT is an assistant, not the primary creator of your brand voice. Your role is to guide it with clear instructions and then refine the output so it truly speaks to your audience.

ChatGPT for Social Media Measurement and Evaluation

PR professionals also need to measure results and glean insights to prove the impact of social media efforts. Here too, ChatGPT can act as a helpful analyst (within certain limits). While the AI doesn’t have real-time access to your analytics, you can feed it data or ask it to suggest frameworks for evaluation. For example, if you have a pile of metrics from a campaign, you might prompt: “Here are our social media stats for last month: [list metrics]. Summarise the key takeaways and suggest two actions to improve engagement next month.” ChatGPT can interpret the data and produce a narrative summary, highlighting what went well and what could be optimised. This can speed up report drafting, allowing you to turn raw numbers into insightful commentary in minutes, meaning quicker turnarounds on those end-of-month reports.

ChatGPT is also handy for defining what to measure and how to evaluate success. If you’re unsure which social KPIs align with a certain goal, you could ask: “What key performance indicators should a luxury retail brand track to measure Instagram campaign success?” The AI might recommend engagement rate, reach, click-throughs, sentiment, and conversions – giving you a checklist to work from.

For sentiment analysis, while specialised tools are ideal for data collection, you can use ChatGPT to interpret qualitative feedback. For instance, feed in a few representative customer comments or tweets and ask, “What is the overall sentiment here, and what common themes do you see?” ChatGPT can quickly summarise whether responses are positive, negative, or mixed, and highlight recurring topics. This provides a jumping-off point for your own deeper analysis of brand perception.

Always remember that human insight is crucial in evaluation – ChatGPT can crunch and summarise information, but it’s your PR intuition and experience that will interpret the nuance and decide on strategic adjustments. Use the AI to accelerate the number-crunching and first-draft writing, then apply your judgment to draw meaningful conclusions and recommendations for your team or client.

Curzon PR is a London-based PR firm working with clients globally. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Business Development Team bd@curzonpr.com