How to use ChatGPT as a Podcaster

First, we will briefly explain what ChatGPT is. Having a basic understanding of the tool’s foundations will help you understand what benefits you can expect from it.

Then we will cover the top five ways you can use ChatGPT in your podcasting:

Write Social Media Marketing Posts
Generate Topic Ideas for Episodes
Create Engaging Interview Questions
Draft Show Notes
Develop an Episode Script

If you are an independent podcaster who has been feeling overwhelmed with all the tasks involved in podcasting, we hope this blog post will help you discover what ChatGPT can do to lighten your load and increase your potential. 💪

What is ChatGPT

Let’s take a second to get to know Chat GPT. By the way, the GPT stands for “Generative Pretrained Transformer.“

Yes, it is Free to Use

OK, let’s cover the question that everyone asks first when it comes to things on the internet: Is it free? Yes, ChatGPT is free to use. There is a paid plan if you want the faster version with more bells and whistles, but it is free to do everything you would want to do as a podcaster. 💰

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about how it works.

How it Works

ChatGPT is a chat bot that has been trained on vast amounts of text, called a “large language model” or LLM.

And “large” is an understatement. 👀

OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, scrapped seemingly the entire internet’s text to train ChatGPT.

Yes, that means ChatGPT has been trained by conversations on Reddit, Twitter, etc. You know the ancient wisdom of “never read the comments”? Well, ChatGPT has read them and its language model is based on them. Now, you may understand why some ethicists are a little concerned about what ChatGPT might spit out in certain situations and on certain topics. 🥴

A simplified way of explaining how ChatGPT works is that, based on its immense training, it is very, very good at guessing which words are usually found together and in what order.

Because of this, ChatGPT is good at some things and not good at others. Let’s focus on what it is good at (in order to better understand how to use ChatGPT as a podcaster).🎙️

What ChatGPT is Good at

A frequently used example is that if you input “Who was the first president of the United States,” it will give the very accurate answer “George Washington” because it was extremely common for those two phrases to be linked in the text that ChatGPT was trained on.

Because of its training, ChatGPT is also very good at taking smaller chunks of text and rearranging them in helpful ways. So you can copy and paste a long essay into it and ask it to summarize the main points, and boom, done. 📝

That actually leads us to the first, and best, way to use ChatGPT as a podcaster.

5 ways to use ChaptGPT as a podcaster

1. Write Social Media Marketing Posts

If you have not noticed, here at Ausha we are obsessed with creating tools to elevate podcasters so their voices (and shows) are heard. That’s why as soon as ChatGPT was available, we integrated it into our Social Media Manager. Now, in the same place where you schedule and manage all your social media posts, ChatGPT will write your post for you.

That is right, ChatGPT will write your social media posts for you. 😲

How does it work? Well, Ausha already has a feature to generate a transcript of your episode’s audio. ChatGPT then takes that transcript and turns it into a social media post, formatted for that specific social media platform.

From the user’s perspective, literally all you have to do is click a button. You go in the Social Media Manager to make a new post, let’s say a LinkedIn post. You’ll see a button called “Generate with AI.” Click that button. And boom, ChatGPT magic. 🪄

Of course we have it all set up so you can easily edit the message in the text box, if you want to. You can make it sound more “you.” Or you really can just leave it how ChatGPT wrote it. Either way, you are saving time and brain fatigue.

Proven to Grow Your Podcast

Now, obviously this is a great feature for saving you time and energy. But does it really make a difference when it comes to growing your audience? Yes. The data shows a resounding ‘yes.’ 💯

Podcasters who used the ChatGPT feature in our Social Media Manager created an average of three times more social media posts. You can think of that as basically going from only posting once a month to posting once a week.

Those social media posts converted into an average of 2.3 more impressions on social media. In other words, by using the integrated ChatGPT function, podcasters more than doubled their reach on social media. 😻

You really can’t beat these results.

A lot less work and a lot better results? Yes please! 🌟

Without Ausha

Can you use ChatGPT to write your social media marketing posts without being an Ausha member? Yes, you definitely can. The problem is that it does take more time, energy, and money. But it definitely is possible. 🤷‍♀️

First, you will need to create an OpenAI account which involves giving them your email and phone number.

Then you will need to get a transcript of your episode. You will need to pay to have this done (there are several sites online that offer this service at a cost). 💰

Then you will need to copy and paste the transcript into ChatGPT. If your transcript is more than five hundred words, which many podcast episodes are, you will need to copy and paste five hundred words at a time since that is ChatGPT’s max. You will also need to prompt ChatGPT to remember the text.

After that, you will have to insert a prompt in ChatGPT to write a social media marketing post for you, based on the transcript you inputted. You will have to make sure the prompt describes what platform you want the post for. 💻

Once ChatGPT produces the social media post text, you will need to log into your social media network, open a new post, and paste the text in.

2. Generate Topic Ideas for Episodes

The next way we will cover how to use ChatGPT as a podcaster is generating content topic ideas for episodes. 💡

A key component to growing your podcast is releasing episodes consistently. Plus, sometimes you need support in staying motivated and coming up with fresh ideas for content. ChatGPT can help.

For example, let’s say you have a podcast about writing scripts for TV. Here’s are the first five suggestions that ChatGPT produces when you input “Give me topic ideas for my podcast episodes. My podcast is about writing and editing tv scripts”:

The Basics of TV Scriptwriting: Format and Structure: Provide an introductory episode that covers the fundamental elements of TV scriptwriting, including script format, industry standards, and story structure.
Creating Compelling Characters for TV: Development and Arcs: Explore the art of character development in TV scripts, discussing how to craft multidimensional characters and track their arcs over multiple episodes or seasons.
Writing Engaging Dialogue: Mastering the TV Conversation: Dive into the techniques for writing realistic and captivating dialogue that brings characters to life and advances the plot.

But let’s say you have already covered the basics in your podcast. This list is too simple. A longtime listener will get bored. You can use ChatGPT to develop more in-depth and creative ideas. 🧑‍🎨

For example, you can input “Who are underrated TV characters” to come with ideas of compelling fictional characters you can dissect in an episode. Here are the first three ChatGPT gave in response:

Felix Gaeta (Battlestar Galactica): Gaeta was a complex character who evolved throughout the series. He often found himself caught between loyalty and moral dilemmas, making him a fascinating character to watch.
Janice Soprano (The Sopranos): Janice, Tony Soprano’s sister, was a polarizing figure on the show. She had a complex personality and was involved in her own schemes and conflicts, adding depth to the story.
CJ Cregg (The West Wing): While President Bartlet and Josh Lyman received a lot of attention, CJ Cregg, the White House Press Secretary, played a crucial role in the series. Her wit, intelligence, and dedication to her job made her an underrated gem.

From there you can dive deeper and more creative with your next ChatGPT prompts to get a really great brainstorm going. 🧠

3. Create Engaging Interview Questions

If you do an interview format for your show, you may find yourself hitting a wall coming up with engaging new interview questions. This is another great area for how to use ChatGPT as a podcaster.

Your guest will appreciate compelling interview questions that really give them something to work with. Of course the questions need to be relevant to what the guest specializes in. The best questions, though, are ones that might not come to mind for you as you prep for the show. Your listeners will appreciate your extra effort of consulting with ChatGPT. 😀

As an example, we asked ChatGPT for good interview questions for Marta Kauffman, a writer on Friends. Here are few suggestions it came up with:

The show tackled a range of themes, from friendship and love to career struggles. What was the most challenging topic or storyline to write, and how did you approach it?
The series finale of “Friends” was highly anticipated and emotional for both the characters and the audience. Can you take us behind the scenes of writing and filming that iconic episode?
The show has faced criticism and scrutiny over the years for certain aspects, such as lack of diversity. Looking back, how do you reflect on these criticisms and how the industry has evolved since then?

4. Produce Show Notes

Show notes, also known as episode notes, are critical to beefing up your metadata and improving your search engine optimization. But also, let’s be real, they can be a bit of a chore. You’ve already written your podcasting script, recorded the episode, and finished editing the audio. You simply don’t have the time or energy to write the show notes. Don’t worry, ChatGPT will come to the rescue. 🫡

Remember, one of the specific things that ChatGPT is good at is restructuring text you give it. In this case, you can give it your show transcript and ask it to summarize it in about 100 words.

Of course, once you get ChatGPT’s response, you’ll want to edit it to make sure the show notes have all the specific info they need: Keywords, social media handles, links for more info, etc. 🗝️

But again, by simply writing a first draft of your episode notes, ChatGPT saves you a lot of time and energy. It allows you to do all the little things you need to do to optimize your podcast growth. It allows you to keep up with bigger podcasts that have bigger budgets and bigger staffs.

5. Draft Scripts

The last way we will cover how to use ChatGPT as a podcaster, is script formation. We are sticking it at the end because we do not want to suggest that you have ChatGPT write your podcast script and you read straight from it. Just use it as a starting point. 🟢

ChatGPT does not have your personality. It does not have your niche knowledge or your relationship with your listeners. Only you do. Your voice should come through in your script.

With that being said, ChatGPT can at least spit out a first draft of your script so you do not have to work from a depressing blank screen. This is especially helpful if you are prone to writer’s block. Sometimes it is easier to respond to a written draft than to come up with something completely new. 👍

As a podcaster, you have to find ways to keep your juices flowing. If ChatGPT can help you get over the hump of writing a script, use it!

Bonus: You can also use ChatGPT to then transform your script into a blog post. For the benefits of blog posts check out our Blog vs Podcast piece.

Final Word

The key to learning how to use tools is to play with them. Play with the ChatGPT tool to learn how it best works for you and your podcast. Basically, the best way to figure out how to use ChatGPT as a podcaster, is to use ChatGPT as a podcaster. 🎛️

Try different prompts. Ask it to provide more and more niche answers. Push its potential.

Podcasts rely on creating fresh, but relevant topics and content. Use ChatGPT as a tool to help you open up your brain and access all your knowledge and creativity. The breadth of the benefits for your podcast growth may surprise you. 🧑‍🚀🪐