At this level, you’ve heard all of it about AI. AI might help you write higher. AI might help you create sooner. However can it assist your social captions carry out higher?
As a busy social media marketer, something that guarantees to make the content material creation course of simpler and sooner is interesting. And with instruments like ChatGPT making AI accessible and user-friendly, it’s price testing for writing captions.
Utilizing AI to jot down social posts, particularly on Twitter, additionally begs the query: Do AI-written captions affect engagement and attain? Does the Twitter algorithm penalize tweets written by AI? Can it actually even inform if a Tweet is written by AI? I ran an experiment to search out out.
Craft perfect posts in seconds
OwlyWriter AI instantly generates captions and content ideas for every social media network. It’s seriously easy.
My speculation for this experiment is that human-written tweets would get extra engagement and attain than AI-written ones.
Why? Nicely, I’ve been on X (previously Twitter) for greater than ten years, so by this level, I ought to know my very own viewers finest. Plus, people have been writing for hundreds of years and AI has solely been doing this for two — that has to depend for one thing, proper?
However earlier than I performed the experiment, I wished to get extra perception from somebody who works instantly in social day-after-day. So I requested certainly one of Hootsuite’s social specialists, Trish Riswick, about her expertise with AI and if she’s observed any distinction in engagement in comparison with human-written captions.
Riswick shares that the Hootsuite social group has experimented with utilizing AI to jot down social captions in a few methods.
“At Hootsuite, we have now two several types of tweets that we put out,” says Riswick. “We put out enjoyable, linkless, personable tweets for model consciousness. And we additionally put out stuff that’s purpose-driven for once we need folks to take an motion, like when we have now a product replace or a webinar that we would like folks to join.”
Riswick says that she has observed a distinction in engagement and attain when she makes use of AI for purpose-driven content material.
“We see actually nice engagement and attain once we’re utilizing AI for bottom-of-the-funnel posts as a result of it’s capable of ship the knowledge faster than we might be capable to if we had been writing it,” says Riswick. “After we give AI a particular, simple job (that doesn’t depend on model humor or information of present occasions), the outcomes assist us create efficient CTAs or a unique method of relaying that message.”
On the flip facet, she has not observed an enchancment in engagement or attain when utilizing AI to create model consciousness content material.
“These are the issues that AI instruments don’t actually seize in addition to a human does,” says Riswick. “Having the ability to converse in your model voice is one thing AI remains to be studying. AI instruments present an amazing place to begin and assist velocity up the method, however human oversight and modifying remains to be a should.”
Methodology
To check whether or not human-written Twitter captions generate extra engagement and attain than AI-written ones, I got here up with three units of tweets to share on my personal Twitter account.
I began by sharing my very own tweet in my ordinary tone and magnificence. Then, I prompted ChatGPT to give you an analogous tweet so the 2 might be pretty in contrast.
For instance, certainly one of my private tweets was a tip for fellow freelancers. I then gave ChatGPT a easy immediate to copy my tweet:
Whereas there are a ton of creative prompts you can give ChatGPT, I gave the AI device some prompts that had been on the less complicated facet, just like the one above.
I wished to maintain it fairly bare-bones to offer ChatGPT the liberty to generate an natural end result moderately than one thing that was closely refined. (The thought is to see if we are able to get the identical outcomes whereas saving time, in any case.)
For this experiment, I posted 4 tweets that had been textual content solely and two tweets that included a hyperlink. Let’s dive into the outcomes!
Outcomes
I checked the efficiency of every tweet about 24 hours after I posted utilizing Hootsuite Analytics. Listed here are the outcomes:
Human captions | AI captions | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Put up | Eng. charge | Attain | Eng. charge | Attain |
Put up with hyperlink | 8.71% | 781 impressions | 11.43% | 35 impressions |
Textual content publish 1 | 2.2% | 227 impressions | 8.26% | 242 impressions |
Textual content publish 2 | 7.22% | 97 impressions | 1.92% | 52 impressions |
At first look, it’s clear that the AI-written tweets had a better engagement charge than my tweets two out of the thrice. Nonetheless, two out of the three AI-written tweets additionally had fewer impressions than the human-written ones.
What do these outcomes imply? Let’s break down every of those tweets in additional element.
Tweet #1: Tweet with a hyperlink
As a author, I usually flip to Twitter to share my current work. So my first tweet for this experiment was a tweet with a hyperlink selling an article I wrote.
Within the tweet, I summed up the article and offered a bit perception into why somebody could need to learn it by main off with a private truth. This can be a fairly commonplace formulation I take advantage of for my tweets.
Listed here are the outcomes of this tweet, in response to Hootsuite Analytics. The tweet generated an 8.71% engagement charge, 68 whole engagements, and 781 impressions.
As I stated, it’s regular for me to share my work on Twitter. I additionally like so as to add some private background to all these tweets to supply context so persons are extra compelled to learn them.
On high of all that, the model I discussed within the tweet (@Wethos) retweeted it, which undoubtedly helped increase the variety of impressions.
I requested ChatGPT to create one thing related utilizing one other article I wrote for a similar model, so there was as little bias as attainable. Right here’s the tweet ChatGPT got here up with:
And listed here are the outcomes of the AI-generated hyperlink tweet. This tweet acquired an 11.43% engagement charge, 4 whole engagements, and 35 impressions.
Whereas this tweet technically generated a better engagement charge, the variety of impressions wasn’t even near the quantity the human-written tweet acquired. I’d additionally notice that in my view, it’s much less personal-sounding than the tweet I wrote.
And in contrast to my first tweet, the account I discussed didn’t work together with this publish. To be truthful, I shared the 2 tweets that talked about the model a couple of week aside. There’s an opportunity that they had been much less prone to reshare once more in such a short while body.
There’s little doubt that the retweet on the primary hyperlink tweet boosted the variety of impressions, and never getting additional protection on this tweet resulted in very low visibility.
Tweet #2: Textual content-only tweet
One other subject I usually publish about is freelancing. I repeatedly share suggestions that I feel different freelancers would discover helpful. The publish under is an instance of a tweet I’d write on a traditional day.
This tweet generated an engagement charge of two.2%, received 5 whole engagements, and 227 impressions.
On paper, these outcomes aren’t a lot to jot down house about. However they’re on par with my ordinary efficiency, particularly contemplating how small my viewers is (fewer than 300 followers). This tweet additionally carried out nicely above the common Twitter engagement rate of 0.05%.
I requested ChatGPT to recreate an analogous tweet by prompting it to jot down a tweet that shares a tip for freelancers. Right here’s what it got here up with:
If I’m being trustworthy, I didn’t count on this tweet to carry out in addition to it did. To me, it sounded a bit tacky and didn’t really feel like one thing I’d say naturally. However the outcomes inform a unique story.
In accordance with Hootsuite Analytics, this tweet generated an engagement charge of 8.26% and acquired 20 engagements and 242 impressions.
One of many major causes I feel this tweet carried out higher is as a result of it included a hashtag and a few emojis. I didn’t embody both of these in my preliminary tweet as a result of I often don’t.
Regardless of my hesitation, although, I suppose there’s a purpose the Hootsuite Blog recommends adding hashtags and emojis to your Tweets as a normal finest apply in any case! That engagement spike is tough to argue with.
Tweet #3: Textual content-only tweet
My ultimate tweet for this experiment is about what it’s like working for your self and being your individual boss. Right here’s the tweet I wrote:
After checking Hootsuite Analytics, I can see that this tweet generated a 7.22% engagement charge, 7 engagements, and 97 impressions
As I realized all through this experiment, ChatGPT *loves* including emojis and hashtags if you ask it to jot down a tweet. So for this immediate, I particularly requested it *not* to incorporate any emojis or hashtags.
Although the hashtags clearly made a distinction final time, I wished to see if the AI might generate content material that might be extra much like the tone and magnificence of my ordinary content material.
Right here’s the immediate:
And right here’s the tweet ChatGPT got here up with:
Right here had been the outcomes of this tweet. This tweet generated a 1.92% engagement charge, 1 engagement, and 52 impressions.
This tweet is textual content solely, so it’s similar to the human-written one. Nevertheless it generated a a lot decrease engagement charge and acquired fewer impressions.
Why had been engagement and attain so low this time? Nicely, so far as tone goes, whereas the AI-generated content material is much like my model of tweets, it sounds fairly generic.
My preliminary tweet was a bit extra playful, however ChatGPT’s model is fairly flat — and the numbers again that up. Just one individual interacted with this tweet, which fits to indicate how unnoticed it went within the feed.
What do the outcomes imply?
General, the AI-written posts carried out higher than human-written tweets — at the very least when it comes to engagement.
In case you’re a busy social media supervisor and your major success metrics are attain and engagement, these outcomes show that AI might help you create content material that follows normal finest practices and can probably carry out nicely.
Nonetheless, though a few of the tweets written by ChatGPT had a better engagement charge than those I wrote, the interactions weren’t essentially as significant.
For instance, the AI-written hyperlink tweet generated a better engagement charge than the human-written one, nevertheless it had only a few interactions. The one I wrote acquired 16 profile visits, 15 hyperlink clicks, and even just a few bookmarks, in response to Twitter’s native analytics. In my expertise, these interactions usually tend to result in work, so I contemplate them extra helpful.
High takeaways
Listed here are extra of my insights from this experiment:
These instruments is usually a main time-saver
If there’s one takeaway I’ve from this experiment, it’s that AI instruments are quick. These instruments can crank out tons of tweets in a matter of seconds.
It may possibly take me some time to jot down my tweets, and I solely share a handful on any given week. So I can solely think about how lengthy it takes to create every week or perhaps a month’s price of captions for a model account that’s energetic on Twitter.
AI instruments could be useful to make use of when it’s essential write a giant batch of captions however don’t have the time to spend writing from scratch.
Hashtags and emojis assist
One other shocking takeaway from my experiment? ChatGPT is well-versed in Twitter finest practices. It understands how you can write one thing quick and attention-grabbing, and even is aware of that together with hashtags might help with attain and visibility.
To be trustworthy, I had by no means put a lot thought into hashtags or emojis earlier than. As knowledgeable author, I all the time prioritize the tone and development of a Tweet greater than the rest, and it’s labored nicely for me (to date).
However after seeing how nicely ChatGPT’s Tweet with hashtags carried out, I’m open to including a hashtag or two in my Tweets going ahead — particularly once I need to attain a wider viewers.
AI makes brainstorming a breeze
Even when the captions AI tools create aren’t completely consistent with your model’s voice or model, they provide a superb place to begin and might help you brainstorm concepts. They’re additionally nice at repurposing and summarizing long-form content material.
Whereas ChatGPT requires a little bit of finesse to create social captions, an AI device constructed for social media like OwlyWriter AI could make the method so much smoother.
As an example, OwlyWriter’s “Begin from scratch” choice permits you to choose your required tone earlier than producing content material. This positively might’ve been helpful in creating tweets that align with my writing model.
Try OwlyWriter AI for free. You can cancel anytime.
AI-written captions nonetheless want a human contact
We’ve all seen tweets which might be clearly AI-written. They often sound generic, lack context, or simply don’t make sense.
In case you use a device to jot down your tweets or captions, they in all probability gained’t be publish-ready straight away. You’ll often have to evaluation for accuracy and tweak till your posts sound such as you.
Finally, if you happen to’re going to make use of AI to jot down captions (and we really think you should!), consider the output as extra of a place to begin. You’ll have to make use of your social experience to refine your outcomes, however you possibly can in all probability get them accomplished a lot sooner than if you happen to had been ranging from scratch.
Begin constructing your social media presence utilizing Hootsuite. Schedule and publish posts on to X, have interaction your viewers, measure efficiency, and run all of your different social media profiles — all from one easy dashboard. Strive it free right now.
Save time and develop sooner with OwlyWriter AI, the device that immediately generates social media captions and content material concepts.