Using Buffer's AI Assistant

If you’re tired of wasting time with writer’s block or struggling to write the perfect post, we have just the ticket for you! Buffer’s AI Assistant helps you generate fresh, engaging content in just a few seconds.

Give Buffer AI Assistant a single prompt and it’ll help you craft replies, populate endless post variations, and can repurpose your content in a click—meaning you can focus on the fun stuff. Or, take existing content and use Buffer's AI Assistant to expand, summarize, or refine your thoughts. 

Think of Buffer AI Assistant as a powerful sidekick, ready to help make your ideas shine! (While AI is  smart, it does have some limitations and we recommend that you double check any suggestions it offers).

This article contains the following sections:

1. Ways to use Buffer’s AI Assistant
2. How to generate a suggestion
3. Tips for creating a great prompt
4. Known Limitations with AI

Ways to use Buffer's AI Assistant

For tips on how to get started with AI, check out our beginner’s guide to using AI on social or see the AI Assistant in action below, as it generates an idea in the Create space. 

How to generate a suggestion

Buffer’s AI Assistant is integrated in both the Publishing dashboard as well as the Create space (as shown in the video above), so you can use it as a brainstorming buddy to help you dream up your next idea, or in the Publishing composer to help craft the perfect post.

You can also use the Content Ideation tool to generate ideas based on your industry and target audience.

Start with a prompt

If you have a general idea of what you want to convey in your post, but need help writing it, you can give AI Assistant a prompt that is at least 4 words and under 10,000 characters and it will create a draft for you. 

1. Click on AI Assistant or click Use the AI Assistant and the AI Assistant will open on the side of the composer.
2. Type a prompt that is at least 4 words long into the box and click Generate. Check out our tips for creating a great prompt! 
   
3. AI Assistant will do some thinking and come up with a post caption for you. If you like what you see, you can Insert into your post. If you want to make adjustments, you have a few options to adjust the text and tone:
   • Regenerate, Rephrase, Shorten, or Expand the text
   • More Casual or More Formal tone
4. When you’re happy with the result, click Insert to add the text to your post. That’s it!

Start with a draft

Know what you want to say, but just need help tweaking the language?

1. Type your caption into the composer and then highlight the text and click Refine with AI.
   
2. The AI Assistant will open on the side of the composer and you’ll see the following options:
   • Regenerate, Rephrase, Shorten, or Expand the text
   • More Casual or More Formal tone
3. When you're happy with the caption, click Replace to update your caption.

Start with your business or audience

Buffer's AI Assistant can also help you brainstorm ideas, based on your industry and targeted audience. (This feature is only available within the Content area of Buffer).

1. Head to the Content section of Buffer and click on Generate Ideas 🪄 .
   
   
2. To start, tell us a little about your business and who your target audience is. Once you’ve filled in both fields, click on Generate Ideas to see your suggestion. 
   
   
   
   • If you’re happy with the suggestion, click Use it to save it as an idea.
   • Otherwise, you can click Try Another to generate a new suggestion.
     
     
3. If you want to make a change to the description of your business or your target audience, click Customize to tweak the information and then click Generate Ideas to generate a new idea.

Tips for creating a great prompt

When using our AI Assistant, your prompt should be at least 4 words long. To create an effective prompt, you can ask yourself a few questions:

• Objective: What is the goal of the post? Are you promoting a product, sharing information, driving engagement, or something else?
• Target Audience: Who are you writing for? Understanding your audience helps tailor the tone and style accordingly. 
• Content: Please provide the main idea you want to include in the post. It could be a specific message, a call-to-action, or any other specific details you'd like to share.
• Keywords/Hashtags: Adding relevant keywords can improve visibility and engagement.
• Tone and Style: How do you want your post to sound? For example, friendly, informative, formal, casual, etc.
• CTA (Call-to-Action): If you want to direct the audience to a website, landing page, or any specific action, please provide the link or details in your prompt.
• Platform: Which social media channel will this post be published on? Different platforms have different character limits and audience expectations. (Note: Buffer's AI assistant takes care of network customized prompts automatically once you've clicked Customize for each network in the composer)

Known Limitations with AI

Buffer's AI Assistant uses OpenAI to generate suggestions and there may be some limitations with what it can do. (We always recommend double checking the suggested content for accuracy before posting!) For example:

• It may occasionally generate incorrect information about people, places or facts.
• It may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content. In this case, please send us an email at hello@buffer.com to let us know. 
• It has a limited knowledge of world events after 2021.
• It may occasionally make up facts or “hallucinate” outputs.
• It cannot open and read any URLs you provide it.