“Posting on social media takes too much time.”

That's what I hear from people who spend hours each week, manually creating content and seeing no results.

Turns out, most people don’t know how to leverage AI and automation.

It’s not about AI replacing writing or thinking.

It’s about using AI/automation to:

• get un-stuck

• stay consistent

• automate tedious manual work

• free up time to focus on your core message

So, here's an AI-powered Zapier automation that generates LinkedIn and Twitter/X posts from interesting articles.

As you surf the web and stumble upon an intriguing read, use this 1-click automation to create valuable content for your business or audience.

I’ll show you step-by-step how to build it using Zapier and ChatGPT.

Here’s the Youtube version of this post:

• Step 1: Setup the Zapier Chrome Extension

• Step 2: Create a New Zap

• Step 3: Parse the Web Page

• Step 4: Truncate the Text

• Step 5: Ask ChatGPT to Write LinkedIn Post

• Step 6: Ask ChatGPT to Write Tweet

• Step 7: Append to Google Sheets

• Optional Steps

• Last Thoughts

This AI automation is particularly useful if you want to share content with your audience but you’re pressed for time — perhaps you’re building a personal brand, running content marketing for a startup, own a business and want to attract leads organically, or growing your blog.

Step 1: Setup the Zapier Chrome Extension

1. Install the Extension: Follow the instructions here to install and setup the Zapier Chrome extension.

2. Pin the Extension: Once installed, pin the Zapier extension to your Chrome toolbar for easy access.

3. Open the Extension: Click on the Zapier icon in your toolbar. You should see a list of suggested Zaps and an option to enable natural language actions.

Step 2: Create a New Zap

1. Start a New Zap: In Zapier, create a new Zap and select the Zapier Chrome Extension as the trigger app.

2. Set Trigger Event: Choose "New Push" as the event. This will trigger the automation whenever you click "Send" in the Chrome extension.

3. Configure Input Fields: Optionally, add input fields. For example, you could add an input field to specify your unique perspective for your post.

Step 3: Parse the Web Page

1. Add Web Parser Step: Add a new step in your Zap and select "Web Parser by Zapier."

2. Configure Parsing: Set the “URL to Parse” as the tab URL from the previous step. Change the content “Output” to plain text for easier parsing.

3. Test Parsing: Test this step to ensure it correctly extracts the content from the web page.

Step 4: Truncate the Text

1. Add Formatter Step: Add a new step and select "Formatter by Zapier."

2. Select Truncate Text: Choose "Text" as the event and then "Truncate" in the transform field.

3. Configure Truncation: Set the input as the content from the previous step and limit the text length to 200,000 characters. Append ellipses at the end if truncated.

Step 5: Ask ChatGPT to Write LinkedIn Post

1. Add ChatGPT Step: Add a new step and select "ChatGPT."

2. Select Conversation Event: Choose "Conversation" as the event to send text to OpenAI and generate a completion.

3. Authenticate Account: Connect your ChatGPT account by providing your API key and organization ID.

4. Configure User Message: Set the user message as the truncated text from the previous step.

5. Set Assistant Instructions: Paste a prompt for writing LinkedIn posts into the assistant instructions field. Feel free to start with my LinkedIn ChatGPT prompt, but highly recommend you customize it with examples you like and instructions to emulate your voice and writing style.

6. Max Tokens: Set to 4096 if you’re using model ChatGPT-4o.

7. Temperature: Play around with this parameter. Setting it to 1 results in more randomness and creativity, while a lower value makes the output more focused.

8. Test ChatGPT Step: Test this step to ensure it generates a LinkedIn post.

Step 6: Ask ChatGPT to Write Tweet

1. Duplicate ChatGPT Step: Duplicate the previous ChatGPT step.

2. Modify Instructions: Change the assistant instructions to a prompt for writing tweets. Feel free to start with this prompt (sourced from Fabric), but I personally don’t like the output. It’s high on my to-do list to improve!

3. Test Tweet Generation: Test this step to ensure it generates a tweet.

Step 7: Append to Google Sheets

1. Add Google Sheets Step: Add a new step and select "Google Sheets."

2. Select Create Spreadsheet Row Event: Choose this event to append data to your Google Sheet.

3. Configure Spreadsheet: Select your Google Drive, spreadsheet, and worksheet.

4. Map Fields: Map fields from previous steps to columns in your Google Sheet (e.g., title, URL, date, LinkedIn Post, Tweet).

5. Test Google Sheets Step: Test this step to ensure it correctly appends data.

Here’s a real example of the workflow in action, populating content in my Google Sheet, using Paul Graham’s latest essay The Right Kind of Stubborn:

I personally love well-structured LinkedIn posts, but again, feel free to update the writing prompt so it suits your voice and style.

I don’t love the tweet output — I plan to improve and update that prompt soon!

Optional Steps

The beauty of Zapier, and why I’ve chosen it over low-code AI agent builders, is its massive suite of integrations enabling easy extensibility.

In this guide, I’ve shown how to output posts to Google Sheets, encouraging you to perform review and edit before posting.

But, you could easily publish directly to social media.

Zapier has out-of-the-box integrations to publish directly to LinkedIn, Facebook, and many other platforms. Main one missing is X/Twitter, sadly, but one workaround is to push to a social media management platform, like Buffer, which integrates with the X/Twitter API directly.

Another optional step is to call OpenAI DALL-E3 to generate AI images before posting, using your LinkedIn post or tweet as the prompt. This enables you to publish an image along with your post.

Last Thoughts

Following this guide, you can build a robust AI system automation that streamlines your content sharing process, allowing you to focus on more strategic tasks while maintaining an active social presence.

Here’s how the full Zap looks:

Realistically, I estimate automating maybe 80% of the work.

In my opinion, you should still edit the writing and most importantly…

Add YOUR unique insight, perspective, or value — the fun part!

But, freeing up 80% of the work lets you focus on the fun part.

That’s why I built this!

Hope it helps 👋 

Did I miss anything?

Have ideas or suggestions?

Message me on LinkedIn 👋 

Sabrina Ramonov

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