This is part 4 of my free course, ChatGPT for Beginners.

• part 1

• part 2

• part 3

Table of Contents

• How do I ask ChatGPT questions effectively?

  • Simple Trick - add this to the end of every prompt

• What types of answers can ChatGPT give?

  • Plain Text

  • Lists

  • Tables

  • JSON and CSV

  • Code

  • Markdown and HTML

• How can I use ChatGPT for work?

  • Drafting Emails

  • Brainstorming Ideas

  • Conducting Market Research

• Has my free AI education helped you?

How do I ask ChatGPT questions effectively?

I’ll walk through a few tips to ask ChatGPT questions more effectively.

Be specific:

If your prompt is too broad or vague, ChatGPT may struggle to provide the precise answer you're looking for.

Instead of asking, "Tell me about AI," try asking, "Explain the difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning."

Instead of asking: Tell me about social media…

Be more specific by asking: Tell me about the social media platform tiktok and how to use it to build a personal brand for my new business.”

This gives ChatGPT clearer direction and a more focused response.

Provide context:

Adding context and details often makes a big difference.

The more context you give, the more personalized responses you get.

If you're asking ChatGPT to help with a project, then include important details, like your target audience, desired outcome, current challenges, constraints, etc.

Below, I add more context to my previous prompt by specifying my new business is “an AI education course”. As a result, ChatGPT’s answer is tailored to using TikTok to build a brand around AI education and types of educational videos I should make.

Keep it simple:

Don’t overload prompts with too much information or too many questions.

If you ask multiple questions at once, ChatGPT may not know which questions to prioritize or how they relate.

I suggest breaking down your questions into bite-sized chunks, so that ChatGPT responds to one question at a time.

For example:

Instead of asking, "Tell me about the weather forecast and a good restaurant nearby,"

Split it up into prompts:

• "What's the weather forecast for today?"

• "Can you suggest a good restaurant nearby?"

Experiment with different phrasings:

Sometimes, small tweaks lead to way better answers.

If ChatGPT’s response falls short, try rephrasing the question.

In this example, compare ChatGPT’s answers to the following 2 prompts — the only difference is one word in the prompts, yet ChatGPT’s answers differ dramatically:

• "What are the benefits of solar energy?"

• "What are the environmental benefits of solar energy?"

You’ll be surprised — a slight change in wording can shift ChatGPT’s focus and improve the relevance of its response.

Give feedback:

ChatGPT works better when you give it feedback or ask follow-up questions.

Remember, ChatGPT has a “memory” feature, learning your preferences over time.

If you’re not happy with ChatGPT’s initial response, ask it to clarify or elaborate.

For example, say:

• “Could you give me a few examples?”

• “Update your answer - explain it like I’m 5”

This iterative process, giving continuous feedback to ChatGPT, helps finetune the conversation and return higher quality, more personalized answers.

Simple Trick - add this to the end of every prompt

My simple hack to get significantly better answers from ChatGPT is to add the following 3 sentences to the end of each prompt:

ChatGPT will ask you a handful of clarifying questions. Simply answer each question to the best of your ability. It’s perfectly okay to say “not sure” or “I don’t know” if needed.

Here’s how it looks:

Notice how ChatGPT responds with a more tailored and detailed response because of all the additional context I’ve provided by answering its clarifying questions!

What types of answers can ChatGPT give?

ChatGPT can provide answers in multiple different formats.

All you have to do is ask!

Plain Text

The most basic format is plain text. This is what you’re used to already.

For example, if you ask:

“What is artificial intelligence?”

ChatGPT will give you a straightforward response in plain, easy-to-read text.

This format is the default and works well most the time.

Lists

When you want information presented in an organized way, lists are a great option.

Simply ask ChatGPT to produce numbered or bulleted lists, which are helpful for step-by-step guides or collections of ideas.

Below, I ask, “What are some effective time management tips?”

ChatGPT provides a nicely formatted numbeical list, plus bullet points in each section.

Tables

For data comparisons or displaying structured information, ChatGPT can format outputs into tables.

This is awesome for side-by-side comparisons.

Here, ChatGPT made a table comparing social media platforms for marketing:

Tables make it easier to digest numerical data or compare traits across many options, providing clear visual separation of information​.

JSON and CSV

If you're working with data, ChatGPT can output JSON and CSV formats.

JSON is commonly used by developers to structure data so that it’s easy for both humans and machines to read, often for API calls or data storage.

CSV is perfect for organizing information into a format you can import into Excel or Google Sheets.

For example, you can ask, “Provide a CSV file with a list of the top 10 most populated cities,” and ChatGPT will give you the data in a structured format​.

In the example below, I ask ChatGPT to provide both a CSV and JSON of the list of US states’ population. Simply click on the links in blue to download the files.

Code

For developers, ChatGPT can generate code in various programming languages, including popular languages like Python and Javascript.

Whether you're looking for a simple script or more complex code, ChatGPT can help!

Below, I ask ChatGPT to write a Python script to calculate the factorial of a number.

ChatGPT responds with a complete and functional Python script.

This is helpful for debugging, refactoring, or learning new programming languages​.

Markdown and HTML

For more complex text formatting, ChatGPT can output Markdown or HTML.

This is useful if you need formatted text with headings, bullet points, or bold and italicized text — such as for blog posts or documentation.

For example, the following markdown output can be copy pasted directly into Wordpress and the section headers and formatted text will be rendered correctly.

Altogether, ChatGPT supports a variety of output formats, making it extremely versatile for a range of tasks!

How can I use ChatGPT for work?

Believe it or not — there are hundreds of ways to use ChatGPT at work!

Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT to brainstorm common work-related use cases.

Here’s a small snapshot of its answer:

I’ll walk through the 3 most common use cases:

• drafting emails

• brainstorming ideas

• performing research

These use cases are widely applicable to many roles, regardless of industry, department, or seniority level.

But keep in mind:

There are so, so, so many varied and creative ways to use ChatGPT for work.

Drafting Emails

I personally know many people who use ChatGPT to help draft work emails.

Whether you need to send a quick response, follow-up with a client, or put together a detailed proposal — ChatGPT can help you brainstorm ideas, whip up a first draft, proofread your email, and tweak your style/tone.

Below, I ask ChatGPT to draft a follow-up email after a job interview. I instruct ChatGPT to ask me clarifying questions, which results in a much better, more personalized draft.

Make sure to personalize the emails to maintain your unique style of communication and fact-check all information.

Brainstorming Ideas

My personal favorite use of ChatGPT is “brainstorm partner”.

I can always count on ChatGPT to get me un-stuck!

As a content creator, I use it to generate lots of ideas, very quickly, for my videos and social media posts.

In this example, I ask ChatGPT about social media campaign ideas for a fitness brand. After its first response, I follow-up asking it for other successful examples of “Fitness for a Cause” campaigns and to brainstorm specific campaign ideas related that would represent an outdoor fitness brand:

While ChatGPT is awesome for idea generation, remember that the real magic happens when you take those ideas and make them your own​ 🙂 

Conducting Market Research

ChatGPT helps with market research by analyzing trends, consumer behavior, niche specific content, and competitors.

Here are examples of market research prompts related to launching a skin care product:

• What are the latest trends in skin care? Search the internet.

• Analyze this company's website: https://cleanskinclub.com/ … What are its core value props and differentiators?

• Brainstorm 5 ways my new skincare product can differentiate from Clean Skin Club.

• I really like #2 (biodegradable single-use towels with active ingredients). Search the internet to find other companies that offer #2 today.

• Analyze the company "Clean Skin Club" and the company "Boscia". Use the internet. How would you compare and contrast these 2 companies?

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