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Audiences are classic for 'the old web' and yearn for material that feels ageless. Lots of developers are currently starting to take advantage of this by ditching trends and focusing more on evergreen material like vlogs and storytime videos, or reviving retro aesthetic appeals (although this itself is most likely simply a current pattern). You do not wish to squander valuable time creating videos for the sake of hopping on a trend audiences don't wish to see it anyhow.

Rather, focus on high-quality content that shows your craft and values. Don't just hop on the fond memories trend use throwback referrals or older music styles just if they match your story.

I utilize AI to create social networks material each and every single day, but probably not in the way you're believing. Instead of typing in a timely and after that publishing, AI is woven into almost every phase of how I think, prepare, design, and ship material. At Buffer, and on my own social networks, I've grown to over 20,000 followers throughout platforms.

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A year earlier, my AI use appeared like most people's: open ChatGPT, ask it to write a caption, get something generic back, rewrite the whole thing anyway, and question what the point was. The issue wasn't the tools, it was that I was using them one-dimensionally when the real take advantage of was all over else.

Not because AI was composing much better posts for me, however since I was composing better posts with AI handling the friction. I've checked a lot of tools. These are the 14 that stuck, arranged by where in my workflow they come in, starting well before I open a blank page.

I'm a company believer that the quality of my material is directly connected to the quality of what I consume. Compared to the amount of time and energy I have, there are limitless quantities of material and connections to be made. This is where this tool comes in: they help make that process much easier and more repeatable.

Where I wish to break away remains in making connections and having an unique perspective, so my content does not feel acquired. Sublime helps me do that. When you conserve something to Sublime a quote, a link, an image, a note it right away surfaces associated concepts from other individuals's libraries. Sublime's founder, Sari Azout, calls this "common knowledge management."In practice, it feels less like a productivity tool and more like browsing the reading lists of the most intriguing people you understand.

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Sari's framing is one I return to typically: the trick to better AI output isn't much better triggers it's better inputs. There's a real distinction between asking AI to "compose me something about personal branding" and handing it 40 ideas you have actually been collecting about identity, craft, and audience-building and asking it to find the thread.

Or I'll drop them onto a digital infinity board and start playing with the circulation rearranging concepts, including my own notes and external context up until a shape emerges. It does need active engagement, however. You have to sit with what it surfaces, not simply wait to a folder you'll never resume.

In some cases I need to extract structure from my own rambling I talked through an idea, and now I require to discover what's in fact worth keeping. Other times I've got the opposite problem: scattered references throughout tabs, notes, and half-watched videos, and I require to synthesize them into something meaningful that still sounds like me.

That's not why it's on this list. The usage case I lean into for Granola is thinking out loud.

What I return isn't simply a records. It's a beginning point. When concepts won't await a convenient moment, so you simply interrupt everyone (my team has been really patient with me) This is how I utilize Granola to remain present in meetings without losing every idea that appears.

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Granola makes that impulse efficient. It's simply listening and organizing.

I drag in YouTube videos, TikToks, articles, PDFs, voice notes whatever raw material I'm working with and organize it into groups that the AI can pull from concurrently.

I use it primarily for scripting YouTube videos, short-form content, anything where I want the output to actually seem like me rather than generic AI-speak. My common setup looks like this: Examples of my own previous material (this teaches it my voice) Reference videos I wish to study not to copy, however to gain from their structure, hooks, pacing The working draft, where the AI pulls from both groups simultaneouslyThat tail end is what makes it click.

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It's manufacturing my voice from Group 1 with the structural patterns from Group 2. The output still needs modifying, but I'm starting from something that seems like me riffing on ideas I in fact care about not a generic script design template. I can also access several designs (ChatGPT, Claude) within the exact same work space, which is beneficial when I desire to compare outputs or utilize various designs for different parts of the procedure.

The actual tool below is more thoughtful than its landing page recommends, however it's a significant financial investment. Strategies are yearly only with a credit-based system, so it deserves screening within the 30-day money-back warranty before you go all in.Price: From $400/year (yearly billing just; 30-day money-back warranty) Here's what I have actually discovered works much better than asking AI to write my content: asking it to assist me believe through my content.

: Strategic sparring and seeing concepts before I build themClaude is my thinking partner. Not my ghostwriter my sparring partner. That distinction matters more than any feature list. What makes Claude distinctively beneficial for content work is the combination of deep reasoning and the ability to actually show me things.

It can also imagine what we're discussing: model a web page layout, mock up a report structure, build a working preview of a landing page. I'm not simply discussing ideas in the abstract. I'm taking a look at them. For our upcoming State of Social Engagement report, I went back and forth with Claude over multiple rounds till the structure clicked.

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That iterative process is where the genuine thinking happened. I've likewise used it to prototype websites layouts before sharing concepts with my team. Being able to see the structure, not simply explain it, helps me come to discussions better prepared. The sparring just works if I actually push back, though.