Social Media Automation with AI

I’ll paraphrase and anonymise.

"Kyle, I followed your advice about high volume posting on social media. I’ve got months of daily posts across four platforms... crickets. No growth, no engagement, nothing. Am I shadow-banned? What am I doing wrong?"

Curious, I went to check out their social media.

Yikes.

What I found was... well, let's be kind and call it "technically content."

High volume. Check!

But it was post after post of AI-generated beige blandness. Generic advice that could've been written by anyone (well, by ChatGPT!).

No personality, no spark, nothing that would make anyone want to follow, let alone engage. The AI automation was working perfectly - it was dutifully pumping out posts every single day. The problem? It was just amplifying mediocrity.

And frustratingly I know that this person is actually super vibrant and interesting IRL! And none of that came across in the content.

Being honest (even though it’s hard to hear) I had to tell them - it's not working because, frankly, it's not good enough.

The AI automation is doing exactly what it's supposed to do - it's taking what you give it and spreading it far and wide. That bit is working! But if what you're spreading isn't worth reading... well, you can guess the rest.

This week we’re going to talk about social media AI automation done right.

Let’s get started:

Don’t Amplify Noise

The AI Social Media Gold Rush

Let's talk about the (probably Midjourney generated) elephant in the room - AI social media automation is absolutely everywhere right now.

You can't scroll through TikTok or YouTube without seeing another "guru" showing you how to "build massive audiences on autopilot."

I get it. The promise is intoxicating. Who wouldn't want a system that automatically builds your audience while you sleep? That cranks out content across multiple platforms without you lifting a finger? That supposedly prints money while you're off living your best life?

Hell I’m lazy. I’m always looking for something to make my life easier so I can play video games.

It's seductive. It's appealing. And it's dangerous.

Because here's the thing - automation isn't magic. It's an amplifier. And that cuts both ways:

Good automation takes quality content and spreads it efficiently. It handles the repetitive tasks, freeing you up to focus on what matters.

Bad automation takes mediocre content and... well, spreads that efficiently too. It just means more people see your content that isn't worth their time.

The Foundation First Approach

This is why we're going to do things differently. Over this Playbook, we're going to build a social media automation system that actually works. Goodness, what an idea!

We're going to do it the right way:

1. We start with quality. Before we even think about automation, we need content worth sharing. Content that provides real value. Content that YOU would want to read. I’m not going to talk about automation until Part 4!

2. We polish before we automate. We'll manually craft and refine our approach until we're consistently creating content that resonates. Only then do we let the robots take over and start to post for us.

3. We scale thoughtfully. Starting with one platform, mastering it, then expanding. No shotgun approach of mediocre content everywhere.

Think of it like cooking. If you're making a meal for one person and it's terrible, making the same meal for a hundred people doesn't fix the problem. You just have 100 people with bad tummies now. Why would you do that!!? 😆 

But if you've perfected your recipe first? Then scaling up is a beautiful thing. We can get all loaves and fishes up in here (That’s what he said right..? No?).

The Text First Advantage

Throughout this Playbook, we'll focus primarily on text-based content. Not because that's all you can do - far from it! But because it's the perfect place to start:

• It's easier to iterate and refine text

• The tools are more mature

• The quality control is simpler

• The automation is more reliable

But here's a little secret - once you've mastered generating quality text content, you've actually unlocked much more. Those social posts can become video scripts. Those threads can become podcast outlines. The foundation we build here sets you up for multiple content formats down the line. We’re just starting with the basics first and locking them down.

Over the rest of this Playbook, we'll cover:

Part 2 - Content Sources: Setting up reliable feeds of quality raw material to fuel your automation. Because remember - garbage in, garbage out. We need quality foundations to build something worth sharing.

Part 3 - From Source to Social: Mastering the art of converting your source material into engaging posts. We'll start manually, perfecting our approach before even thinking about automation. One platform at a time, no shortcuts soz!

Part 4 - Your First Automation Steps: As mentioned we’re holding back on the automation! In this Part we’re getting started with Make.com, focusing on draft mode and quality control.

Part 5 - Scaling Your System: Moving from manual review to full automation, expanding to new platforms, and most importantly - maintaining quality at scale. Because growth without quality is just spreading mediocrity faster.

What's Next?

In Part 2, we'll build out our content sources. Because remember - garbage in, garbage out. We need quality raw materials before we can create quality content.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle

It used to drive me mad trying to keep up. Opening 50 browser tabs of articles to read "later" (spoiler: never happened…). Following every AI thought leader on Twitter. Joining all the Discord servers. Subscribing to every newsletter.

The result? Complete paralysis.

I was so busy trying to consume everything, I created nothing.

Too much time spent reading. Not enough writing.

And what I did manage to share was rushed, surface-level, and frankly... not very good.

I needed less information, not more. Quality sources, not quantity.

Because here's the truth - if we're going to automate our social media, we need to start with exceptional inputs. Otherwise, we're just automating mediocrity.

In this Part we’re going to talk input sources.

Let’s get started:

Input Sources

GIGO

Let's talk about a fundamental truth: garbage in, garbage out (GIGO)

This Playbook will help you build a social media automation system.

We have Inputs (covered in this Part), how we Process the inputs using AI (next Part) and our social media posts as Outputs.

If we muck up now and put garbage into the system it doesn’t matter how good our AI processes are. We’ll get garbage Outputs.

This is even more crucial when we're thinking about automation. Because when you automate, you're not just sharing one piece of content - you're potentially sharing hundreds. If your source material is mediocre, you're about to amplify that mediocrity at scale. Eek.

So before we plunge in we need to decide on quality sources. Think farm-to-table rather than McDonalds.

Your Five Core Sources

I've tested dozens of different content sources over the years. And with AI I’ve added a few more recently. I’m going to show you my Big Five. They're the perfect mix of current events, expert insights, community discussion, deep knowledge, and personal expertise.

A lot to cover here so I’ll keep it high level!

AI-Powered News via Perplexity

Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that aggregates news and provides summarised insights. The basic version is free. Think of it as having a research assistant who reads everything and gives you the highlights.

Use a basic prompt like “what happened this week in AI?” and Perplexity will go and grab the top (recent!) stories for you:

Importantly these are genuinely new. The Project Jarvis example here was published 1 hour and 38 minutes before I searched.

What It's Good For:

• Breaking news in your industry

• Finding unique angles on current events

• Getting quick context on complex topics

Best Practices:

• Set up daily searches for your key topics

• Focus on stories with staying power (not just daily drama)

• Look for patterns across multiple stories

• Save the most insightful pieces for future reference

• Use it to find original sources, not just summaries - you can trace back to the original link via Perplexity.

X/Twitter Lists

A curated collection of genuine experts and practitioners in your field. Not influencers - actual people doing the work and sharing insights.

In X/Twitter you can create specific lists and add accounts to them. Add legit experts and clear thinkers in your niche for i) quick access to their posts and ii) we can automate off the back of lists later.

What It's Good For:

• Real-time insights from practitioners

• Controversial takes

• Engaging with thought leaders

Best Practices:

• Keep your lists small (20-30 people max)

• Review and prune. People leave Twitter all the time so clear your lists.

• Look for people who share process, not just results

• Create separate lists for different aspects of your field

Subreddits

Whenever I want a real answer online I’ll append “reddit” to the end of my Google search. Why? This will show me answers from Redditors - which is a real repository of knowledge. Amongst all the rubbish!

Subreddits are focused communities where people discuss specific topics, share experiences, and ask questions.

Here’s the r/entrepreneur subreddit for example:

All great potential sources for content.

Your job is to go and find the quality subreddits connected to your business and expertise niche. What will your social media posts talk about? Find the subreddits connected to those topics.

What It's Good For:

• Understanding real problems people face

• Finding common questions and pain points

• Seeing how solutions work in practice

• Identifying gaps in current content

Best Practices:

• Focus on 2-3 core subreddits

• Sort by "Top" posts weekly or monthly to see what’s most popular

• Look for recurring questions. These are goldmines.

• Pay attention to comments, not just posts. I’ll often prepare content off comments not just the actual post.

RSS Feed Curation

A streamlined way to follow specific blogs and publications that consistently provide high-quality, detailed content in your field. This includes newsletters.

We’ll later connect RSS feeds to our automations but if you just want a good way to find, curate and read RSS feeds then use an app like Feedly.

What It's Good For:

• Deep insights and analysis

• Well-researched content

• Thought leadership pieces

• Tutorial and how-to content

Best Practices:

• Use Feedly or similar RSS reader

• Limit to 5-10 key sources. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed here!

• Focus on evergreen content as these will be more useful to social media posts later

Your Own Content Archives

Your own existing long-form content - newsletters, blog posts, articles and guides. If you already create then you should be repurposing longer form content into shorter form social media posts. This also works with video as you can transcribe the content into text.

What It's Good For:

• Proven content that resonates with your audience

• Detailed insights you've already refined

• Personal stories and experiences

Best Practices:

• Create a system for organising your content (ie. Notion or just a Google Sheet)

• Tag pieces by topic and type

• Keep a "greatest hits" folder/list

• Look for content that can be broken down into smaller pieces

Curation rather than consumption

Your main task at this point is to go and gather up these quality sources. Get them saved in a document or anywhere handy - we’ll use them later as Input sources.

Remember: The goal isn't to consume everything from these sources. Read enough to know they are quality but that’s sufficient. Our purpose right now is to have reliable places to find quality content when you need it in the subsequent Parts.

In Part 3, we'll look at how we go about converting these source materials into engaging social media posts. But for now, I want you to set up just ONE of these source systems.

Pick the one that resonates most with you and get it organised this week. Step by step is good! One well-organised source is worth more than five chaotic ones.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle

And honestly? Some of them are quite good.

But there's a problem.

They're all black boxes. You feed in your content (input), it disappears into some mysterious prompting process, and out pops a social media post (output).

If you're lucky, it's great! But if it's not... well, tough luck. You can't peek inside the box. Can't tweak the process. Can't make it better.

We need to build our own black box. But with an access hatch we can open and have a tinker with! One where we control exactly what happens between input and output.

Let’s get started:

Building our Black Box

Choose Your Format First

The biggest mistake people make? Trying to create one magical prompt that converts content into every possible social media format. A Swiss Army knife of content generation.

Don't do it.

Instead, pick ONE format to master first. Want to write Twitter threads? Focus on that. LinkedIn posts? Perfect those first. Each format needs its own finely-tuned prompt. Trust me, this focus pays off.

This is probably the 4th Playbook where I’ve bullied Swiss Army knives. Sorry Switzerland!

The Refinement Method

Here's the step-by-step process I use to create perfect, reusable prompts:

1. Upload your input source - could be an article, Reddit thread, whatever - and ask ChatGPT or Claude the obvious: "Turn this into a Twitter thread." The output will be terrible. That's okay! We're just getting started. We need the raw stone to start chiselling our masterpiece.

2. Give Specific Feedback This is where the magic happens. Don't just say "make it better." Give both negative and positive feedback. Be specific:

• "Remove all emojis"

• "The language is too robotic"

• "Never use the phrase 'let's dive in'"

• "Paragraphs should be shorter"

• "I like how you structured that second point"

• "This tone is perfect - conversational but knowledgeable"

3. Iterate and Refine Ask for another version. Give more feedback. Each time, your feedback makes the output better. Keep going until you're genuinely impressed with what you're seeing.

4. Take a snapshot Here's the crucial step. Once you're getting good outputs, ask the AI to create an evergreen prompt that captures all your feedback. Something like:

Based on all the feedback and refinements we've done, create a comprehensive, self-contained prompt that can:

Take any input content

Apply all the style rules and preferences we've discussed

Generate consistently high-quality output in this format Make it evergreen - it shouldn't be tied to any specific input content

5. Test and Refine Take your new prompt to a fresh chat. Feed it new content to test how it does with a fresh input. Not perfect? Give more feedback. Ask for an updated prompt that incorporates the new insights. Rinse and repeat.

Once you’ve got your prompt to a place where it can consistently generate quality outputs from any input you throw at it save it somewhere. We’ll use it in the next Part when we automate.

If you are struggling to get good results again make sure that you are focusing on ONE format (ie. LinkedIn article or Twitter thread or Tiktok script). Never more than one.

If still problematic you may need to focus your input sources too. For example creating a prompt that works for news articles specifically but not for other sources.

Here's another thing to watch out for - AI models love to get specific. They'll start crafting prompts that are too tied to your test content. Be firm! Remind them that you're creating a reusable prompt for any input. You might need to say this multiple times during the process as AIs can drift!

Once you've got a solid prompt, you can ask for multiple outputs from one input. Want five tweets instead of one? Feed that back during the refinement process. But be careful - quality drops fast if you get greedy. Three to five variations is usually the sweet spot. Don’t force it to 100 tweets from one new article input! Can AI do it? Yup - but it’ll be crap.

The Power of Process

Yes, this is more work than using an off the shelf black box tool. Yes, you'll end up with multiple prompts - one for tweets, one for threads, one for LinkedIn posts, and so on.

But here's the beautiful part - these prompts are yours. You understand them. You can tweak them. And next time we'll show you how to plug them into an automation system that'll generate multiple formats at once.

In Part 4, we'll dive into automation. But for now, pick ONE format and create your first custom prompt using this process. Start simple - maybe single tweets or short LinkedIn posts.

Remember - you're building the foundation for your automated future. Take the time to get it right.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle

Sure, the prompts were perfect (after all that work in Part 3!), but I was still being a human robot. I was a cog in the machine.

Content goes in here, copy to ChatGPT, paste the output, copy to Typefully, schedule the post... over and over and over. Yaaaa!

Then I got my act together and built it all in Make.com. Now those same tasks take 15 minutes to check. Just a quick review of the outputs before they go live.

But here's the crucial part - I only automated once I knew my process worked. Once those prompts were consistently delivering quality outputs. Automation amplifies what you've got. Make sure it's worth amplifying!

Let’s get started:

Automating our social media

Meet Make: Your Automation Hub

Make.com is like Lego for the internet.

This isn’t sponsored FYI - just love the tool. But hey Make if you read this, hit me up babe?

It lets you connect different tools and services together, creating automated workflows that run by themselves. Think of it as the pipes connecting your content sources to your social media platforms.

If you’ve used Zapier it’s pretty similar. But allows for more complex worksflows.

And, maybe more importantly(!), it's visual. You can literally see how everything connects. No coding required. Just click, drag, and connect.

Starting Safe: Google Sheets as Your Draft Mode

Before we connect to any live services, we're going to use Google Sheets as our "draft folder." Why? Because it's:

• Safe (no accidental posting)

• Easy to review

• Simple to organise

• Great for tracking changes

• Perfect for collaborating if you have a team

Let's build a simple flow that:

1. Takes an RSS feed as input

2. Feeds it through your custom prompt

3. Saves the generated posts to a Google Sheet

The setup looks like this:

• Sheet columns: Date, Source, Original Content, Generated Post, Status, Notes

• Each new piece of content gets its own row

• You can mark posts as approved, needs editing, or rejected

• Add notes about what worked or didn't

This gives you a safe space to test and refine your automation before it goes anywhere near your actual social platforms.

Building in Make.com

The basic flow is straightforward:

1. RSS Trigger: Watches for new content

2. ChatGPT Module: Uses your custom prompt from Part 3

3. Google Sheets Action: Adds a new row with the results

I can literally feed this into Make like so:

and Make will create the workflow for me:

EASY mode! We don’t even have to work out the automation ourselves.

We’ll then plug in our prompt (from Part 3) into the ChatGPT module. Any RSS feed input will act as a trigger and be run through the ChatGPT module and spit the result out into the Google Sheet.

You’ll need to connect up the services by logging in or adding an API key (Make will tell you how) but once connected you can reuse the module in multiple workflows.

Obviously this is a very simple workflow but Make’s AI can do this for much more complex systems too!

Spend time getting this simple flow working perfectly. Review the outputs. Refine your prompt (inside the Make module). Get everything running smoothly.

Each day, review your sheet:

1. Check new outputs

2. Mark what's working and what isn't

3. Note any patterns in the ones that need editing

4. Use these insights to refine your prompts

5. Track approval rates to see improvement

Only when you're consistently getting 90%+ approval rates should you think about connecting to live platforms.

Your First Live Automation

Let's start with something simple: automating one content source to one platform. For example, taking an RSS feed and turning it into Twitter posts.

We would basically switch the Google Sheet module to a Twitter module.

Same RSS input, same ChatGPT process. Just piping out to Twitter instead of our Google Sheet.

The basic flow looks like this:

1. Source watches for new content

2. Content gets fed into your custom prompt

3. AI generates the social post and posts to Twitter

We can again feed these steps straight into Make’s AI and it’ll create the flow for us:

And again we’d hook up our logins/credentials to get it all live. Beautiful!

Expanding Your Empire

Here's where it gets fun. Once you have one solid automation, you can:

1. Add more sources to the same flow

2. Create parallel flows for different platforms

3. Add conditional logic (different prompts for different content types)

4. Include error handling and notifications

But remember - expand one piece at a time. Test each addition thoroughly before adding more complexity! It’s very tempting to go mad but don’t build on wobbly foundations. We’ll get into this more in the next Part.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle

His CEO in America had been watching my TikToks about AI in business. Intrigued, she asked her UK team to check me out.

The UK VP found me on LinkedIn, followed my content there for a while, joined my newsletter and finally reached out about consulting work.

This wasn't a one-off. It's a pattern I see more and more - discovery on one platform, verification on another, then business inquiry.

For me personally it’s discovery through snappy TikTok content, heading to LinkedIn to validate my expertise and then maybe checking out my long form work in the newsletter... and by the time they reach out, they feel like they know me.

And we know the truth!

All this content, across all these platforms? It's coming from the same core sources we covered in Part 2. Same RSS feeds, same Twitter lists, same Reddit threads.

I'm not creating entirely unique content for each platform. I'm instead taking quality inputs and, using our processes from Parts 3 and 4, transforming them into platform-perfect outputs.

One good article or insight can become:

• A TikTok script

• A LinkedIn post

• A Twitter thread

• A newsletter section

• Multiple social posts

This "media empire" presence is just two people (me and my business partner) along with well-crafted systems.

I'm not a massive organisation with a content team. Just carefully built automations that turns one piece of content into thoughtful, platform-specific posts across multiple channels.

That's what we're building towards today. Not just automation for automation's sake, but strategic omnipresence that drives legit business results.

Let’s get started:

Scaling up our automations

Building Your Multi-Format Machine

Remember in Part 4 when we set up that simple flow to Google Sheets? Then switched it to go “live” straight to Twitter?

Time to turn that single stream into a content delta.

Instead of one input → one output, we're going to create multiple parallel processes. We can set up your Make.com flow to run multiple prompts on the same input

• One prompt for TikTok scripts

• One for LinkedIn thought leadership

• One for Twitter threads

• And so on

Each format gets its own dedicated column in your Sheet. One piece of content, multiple outputs, all quality-controlled in one place.

The workflow will look something like this:

One input (the RSS blog feed) on the left which is then routed to all the different ChatGPT processing prompts which then output to a Google Sheet. Or later directly to LinkedIn, Twitter, Meta etc.

We are basically adding more platforms, more outputs, from the same input.

Here's where most people go wrong - they try to launch everywhere at once. Instead, start with your strongest platform. The one where your prompt game is already solid.

For me, that was Twitter. Once that was running smoothly, I expanded to LinkedIn. Why? Because my audience discovery pattern showed that's where people went to verify me. Makes sense - see a punchy AI video, check if I actually know my stuff on LinkedIn.

Each new platform needs three things:

1. Platform-specific prompts (remember Part 3?)

2. Quality metrics that matter for that platform

3. Clear connection to your business goals

It’s super tempting just to connect up everything and go ham. Don’t. Remember we want to automate quality. So again start each new flow with Google Sheet until you are happy with the draft quality. Then expand automations.

The Power of Platform Synergy

Different platforms serve different purposes:

• TikTok/Twitter → Discovery and reach

• LinkedIn → Credibility and expertise

• Newsletter → Depth and relationship building

Your automation should reflect these roles. Same source material, different emphasis:

• TikTok gets the snappy hooks

• LinkedIn gets the detailed analysis

• Newsletter gets the full deep dive

This is definitely more advanced but done well will give massive leverage. We can start to create output that match up to different levels of audience - discovery, validation and relationship building. We prepare content to met audience members where they are.

Here’s an example flow:

1. Discovery Content (TikTok, Twitter, Meta)

• Punchy, attention-grabbing hooks

• Short!!

• Aim for wide audience and volume

• Hints at deeper expertise

2. Validation Content (LinkedIn, Twitter)

• More detailed insights, hinted at in discovery content

• Medium length - Threads, short articles, 3-5 min video

• Higher level of expertise

• Business-focused angles

3. Relationship Building (Newsletter, private community)

• Deep dive content

• Long form (articles, newsletter issues, 10+ min videos, webinars)

• Direct value delivery

• Clear next steps (the sale!)

Adapt these stages for your particular industry obviously but in general these platforms and content types will work for most.

Remember that your automation should support this journey. Each piece of source material can hit multiple stages - the key is matching format to function. One source input could create content at all three levels.

Remember: You're not just posting everywhere for the fun of it. You're building a purposeful presence that guides people through a journey from discovery to business relationship. This is AI entrepreneurship after all!

Wrapping Up The Week

We've covered a lot of ground in this social media automation playbook. Let's recap the journey:

Part 1: Foundations We tackled the fundamentals - why most AI social media automation fails and why quality must come before automation. Remember: automation amplifies what you've got, good or bad.

Part 2: Sources We set up your content sources - from AI news via Perplexity to curated Twitter lists, subreddits, RSS feeds, and your own content. Quality inputs = quality outputs.

Part 3: Processing We built custom prompts through iteration and feedback. No black boxes here - we crafted our own processing engine that generates exactly the content we want.

Part 4: First Automation Started carefully with Make.com, using Google Sheets as our safety net. No rushing to live posting - quality control and testing first.

Part 5: Scaling Up Finally, we expanded to multiple platforms, built robust systems, and created that "media empire" presence that drives real business results.

The key throughout? Taking it step by step. No rushing. No shortcuts. Just systematic building of quality automation. Sorry!

Boring but effective! Sums me up really! 😛 

Keep Prompting,

Kyle