Transcript of the video:

[00:00:00] Hello, G P T People.

[00:00:02] In today’s video, I’m going to share a free template that lets you generate a press release in a Google sheet using G P T three, and then export that text to a Google Doc so you can share and edit it.

[00:00:15] This template builds on the knowledge from my previous videos, which show how to connect G P T three to a spreadsheet and how to generate a blog post and export it to a Google Doc. The link to the template is in the description below, and I’m going to show you how to configure it and generate a press release.

A classic press release has a headline that draws people in and makes them [00:01:00] interested in your story. It also has a byline, which gives further details to that interesting headline. An intro paragraph that front loads key information, the body, also known as the rest of the text where you fill in the details and tell your interesting story.

[00:01:16] You’ll also want quotes, ideally from two people.

You’ll also need the outro to close off your press release and a boiler plate that says any additional details about the company, like contact information, years in business, you know all that. Press release stuff. If you want more information on the format, you can Google it. My search got me this document from the Ohio State University.

[00:01:37] Before we get this template, generating some adverbs. There are a few things I’d like to remind you.

Number one, content generators are just a tool to get you a first draft. You’re still gonna need to know grammatical basics and have an interesting story to edit it down to something that’s useful.

Number two is you want to over generate copy. You’re just using the AI to get a draft. Ultimately, it’s gonna need some human intervention.

I say this in my other videos, but you need to check the statistics and facts.

[00:02:06] GPT-3 is a language model, and so it’s just looking for the most sensible word to put next. What my father might call, spinning out some bullshit, so while it does have a lot of language to reference, it often lies. So don’t forget to check those statistics and facts

Lastly, I just want to point out that tools like this are a hundred percent about how you edit and adapt the text to your usage.

When you’re writing, formulaic content like this, getting a first draft can be quite difficult, and that’s where these generators really shine.

Before we configure the template, I’d just like to take a minute to ask you to like this video, subscribe to my channel and tell someone you care about that you care about them.

[00:02:51] I’ve been getting a lot of good feedback from my other videos. So with this generator, I’ve added a few things to make it more user friendly.

There’s two tabs. I’m currently on the input tab. If you click down at the bottom here, you have the output. This is where the text is going to be generated. We also have a workflow tool up at the top here that we can save what’s generated to a document

[00:03:13] The first thing you’re gonna want to do is go file, make a copy, there’s an attached app script file, which is doing all the generation and the saving. Just give it a unique name and make a copy for yourself.

I have column A made quite large right now, so you can see it on my screen. It will look slightly different when you open the template on your computer. The first thing you need to do is connect your open AI API key and set the folder where you’re going to save the text that is generated. To do that, you go to extensions, click the app script button,

First thing you’re gonna do is take your open AI secret key and paste it in.

Second, you’re gonna want to create a folder where the copy from the generator is saved. In my drive, I’ve created a folder called Press Releases, and up at the top [00:04:00] it has a unique ID that I’m going to cut and paste as my destination ID in my App script window.

[00:04:08] From there, I’m just gonna hit the save. And close that tab to return to my generator.

The first thing I’m going to do is give my press release a file name. For this example, we’re gonna generate a press release for my musical side project called Kitch with a one.

So that’s what my final name is gonna be.

[00:04:25] Now you just answer the questions on the left hand side in the boxes on the right hand side, and try to be as descriptive as possible.

The first question is who? In my case, it’s k1tch, a hiphop duo comprised of myself and Mc Jimi Maze.

Under did what? You just simply explain what happened.

So released a five song EP called Big Iron

Now for the descriptive word for above, you’re describing the vibe of what they did. In this case, we want it to be creative, so maybe I’d say “Lucid”.

But if it was business oriented, you might say something like synergistic or groundbreaking.

For location, Just put in where the news item is happening.

[00:05:10] The launch date should be entered as a written date.

For who describes who the consumer of the product, service or event might be. So in my case, it’s fans of lyrical hip hop with modern production.

Under why you wanna express the motivation of the person or company that’s in the press release. I’m gonna say to express our love of rap music in a Canadian way. We’ll see if that actually gets me something worth using.

For the statistic portion, you’re including this to make it feel more like news.

[00:05:40] A lot of press releases get used in a very lazy way, so with this statistic, you want to pick one that supports your news story.

I’m gonna pull a stat from this PR from Research and Markets

That the music streaming market is gonna be huge by 2027. Shocking stuff.

But it does make it sound more officious. Like me saying like, and subscribe to this video.

[00:06:01] Similar to the statistic with the quotes, I’d recommend you just write them for yourself. If you’re working in corporate pr, this is the thing that they slave over the most. What did the CTO say? What did the CFO say? What did the CEO think about the news? So just put whatever needs to be in there or write something interesting from the perspective of the people you want to highlight in your story.

The quotes are color coded and each one needs a person.

In this case, me…

And a role

[00:06:31] Think of it like the little thing that would be in the bottom corner of a TV broadcast.

Since one quote isn’t news, it’s always better to have two. You just do the same thing from another supporting character’s perspective.

Put in the name of the person.

Give them a role.

[00:06:47] Then include the follow up information, like a website or a phone number, or maybe even both.

Now that I have my basics and my quotes in there, I’m gonna go ahead and click the red button. It’s gonna turn green and over in my output you’ll see that it is loading, working on some text.

Now over here my output tab, it’s generated five potential headlines, five potential bylines, my intro, some body copy, two quotes with a setup and an outro slash boiler plate.

For me, this is a good first draft and I’m gonna take pieces from each one of those sections to put together my press release. Usually I’ll write 20% more to kind of fill it in and put in some of the details that the AI couldn’t possibly know about. But generally speaking, there’s some text to react to, and that’s what I need to really move it forward.

[00:07:43] If you’re not happy with the output, just take a look at the prompts that are generating the text and adjust them as you see fit.

Since I’ve been receiving a lot of questions about how to write prompts, I did each one of these in a slightly different way. To give you some ideas in how you can set up your own, feel free to modify the prompts in any way. You need

The IF statement. Reference is the button. If you uncheck this button, you will lose the text that is here. If you’re not happy with what was generated, you can uncheck, which will clear it.

And then recheck the button and generate some new content.

If you’re happy with the text that is there, you can just click Workflow Tools, saved document. And then you’ll need to authorize the script to put a new doc on your drive.

Just hit continue. Choose your account, and click the go to press release helper’s button.

I promise it’s not unsafe. I’m really not that good at programming.

[00:08:41] Scroll down and allow the script to run on your document.

With the script authorized, You can save the document. It’ll save finish script. And over in our press releases folder, we have our press release, which can be opened and easily edited. Now, a lot of the time, what I like to do is copy the pieces I’m going to keep to the top and then edit from there.

[00:09:06] I’m assuming if you’re using this tool, you already know how to write a press release, so I’m not gonna go too deep into that, the best way to see what this can do is to make a copy, put your keys in and generate some text for yourself.

If you have a question, feel free to put it in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter.

I hope this free template can help you claw back a few minutes of your day. Once again, please like and subscribe, watch my other videos, and stay tuned for more AI powered marketing magic.

Have a great day!