LLMs for Socials and those that hate social media

I’ve been following along closely with Harper Reed’s blog lately, and I noticed in An LLM Codegen Hero’s Journey he had the comment:

interesting note: i don’t really use LLMs to help me write things. I imagine they would be good at it, but i find that i want my voice to be heard, and not normalized. Whereas my code needs to be normalized. interesting.

I’ve been using a method for my socials for a while now that my wife, who is an amazing writer and marketer taught me. In the interest in sharing what seems to be working, here’s how I’ve been doing it.

Step 1: Have a bunch of your writing you like

You want to show the LLM your best work. I used a number of the posts off this blog. If you don’t have any writing, this is definitely a pretty big barrier.

Step 2: Copy those posts into an LLM

I used Claude along with the following prompt

Here is a bunch of my writing.

<Copy Blog Posts>

Help me come up with a brand and voice guide for prompting. Put my brand style in a format like this. Include at least 3 bullets, but if you think more would better convey my style, don't limit yourself

Tone & Brand Voice Guide
# Overall Style & Approach
- Point 1 – Description
- Point 2 – Description
- Point 3 – Description
# Tone Characteristics
- Point 1 – Description
- Point 2 – Description
- Point 3 – Description
# Brand Voice in Action
- Point 1 – Description
- Point 2 – Description
- Point 3 – Description
# Messaging Do’s & Don’ts
✅ Do:
- Point 1 – Description
- Point 2 – Description
- Point 3 – Description
- Point 4 – Description
- Point 5 – Description
- Point 6 – Description
- Point 7 – Description
- Point 8 – Description
- Point 9 – Description
❌ Don’t:
- Point 1 – Description
- Point 2 – Description
- Point 3 – Description
- Point 4 – Description
- Point 5 – Description
# Example Messaging Styles
- Example 1:
"Epsum"
- Example 2:
"Epsum"
- Example 3:
"Epsum"

This gave me the following

Cole Van Vlack’s Tone & Brand Voice Guide Overall Style & Approach

Practical Optimist – Balances ambitious vision with realistic assessment of challenges, focusing on solutions rather than just identifying problems
Experience-Backed Insights – Draws from personal experience to provide meaningful frameworks and actionable advice
Efficiency-Minded – Consistently seeks the most effective path forward, weighing time/effort investments against potential returns
Growth-Oriented – Approaches setbacks as learning opportunities and emphasizes continuous improvement
Technically Credible – Demonstrates deep understanding of technical concepts while making them accessible

Tone Characteristics

Conversational Expertise – Combines intellectual depth with approachable language; explains complex ideas as if talking to a smart friend
Authentically Vulnerable – Openly shares failures and challenges alongside successes, creating relatability without undermining credibility
Thoughtfully Structured – Organizes ideas into clear frameworks that help readers approach complex problems systematically
Gently Direct – States opinions clearly without being dogmatic; presents ideas with confidence but remains open to alternative viewpoints
Dynamically Paced – Alternates between longer, thoughtful passages and punchy, direct statements to create readable rhythm

Brand Voice in Action

Framework Development – Breaks complex topics into hierarchical structures or actionable principles
Value-Based Prioritization – Emphasizes focusing energy on high-leverage activities that align with personal/organizational values
Practical Metaphors – Uses relatable analogies to make abstract concepts concrete (e.g., comparing skill acquisition to compound interest)
Reflective Questions – Poses thought-provoking questions that invite self-assessment and deeper consideration

Messaging Do’s & Don’ts

✅ Do:
Offer frameworks, not just advice – Provide structured ways of thinking about problems, not just one-off solutions
Acknowledge tradeoffs – Present both benefits and limitations of approaches rather than overselling
Use technical language appropriately – Deploy specialized terms when necessary but define them for clarity.
Balance theory with application – Connect abstract concepts to practical implementation
Inject occasional humor – Use gentle wit to maintain engagement without undermining seriousness of content
Ask provocative questions – Encourage reader reflection through well-placed questions
Provide clear prioritization guidance – Help readers focus on high-leverage actions
❌ Don’t:
Oversimplify complex topics – Avoid reducing nuanced subjects to platitudes or ignoring genuine complexity
Present theory without application – Steer clear of purely academic discussions without practical takeaways
Use jargon without explanation – Never assume all readers understand specialized terminology
Project false certainty – Avoid presenting opinions as universal truths, especially in evolving domains
Sacrifice depth for engagement – Don’t water down substantive insights for the sake of accessibility

Example Messaging Styles

Event Announcement: “After one too many startup events where everyone’s building apps and no one’s building hardware, I decided to create the meetup I actually wanted to attend. Hard Tech Happy Hour is for everyone working on the physical stuff—where development cycles are measured in years, not sprints. Join us Thursday if you’re tired of explaining why your prototype takes months, not days.”

Learning Framework: “When it comes to mastering software development, I’ve found there’s a hierarchy of skills that matters far more than any specific language or tool. Level 1 is making code work at all. Level 2 is using language-specific features effectively. Level 3—where most people never reach—is writing code others can actually understand and maintain. This is where the 4:1 ratio comes into play: you’ll spend 80% of your time reading code and only 20% writing it. Optimize for readability, and you’ve quadrupled your efficiency.”

Productivity Principle: “Sleep takes up a third of your life. But getting sleep right is what enables you to have the energy to tackle the rest of your life. So optimizing sleep is more than just optimizing one third of your life—it helps you optimize your whole life. This is why I ruthlessly cut activities that don’t generate compounding returns. Paying someone to mow my lawn isn’t an expense; it’s buying back time to build skills that actually appreciate in value.”

Step 3: Come up with 3 Posts you want to talk about

I have been doing a lot of promotions for some local events for AI Tinkerer’s here in KW and Hard Tech Happy Hour. The first few posts, you want to have some solid ideas of what you want to talk about. You want to paste in your brand and style guide, along with your ideas (or ask it to help you generate some).

These first posts will suck, but that’s OK. They will be much better than the base model. Pull those over into a text editor and rewrite the posts how you would. They should be fairly close, with only a few locations that make you cringe. I have a Google Doc where I keep all the posts for all of the events I am doing.

Step 4: Leverage the brand and style guide AND those posts

The next time I want to write a post, for example someone wants to demo at AI Tinkerer’s, I use the following format

Here is my brand and style guide

<Copy  brand and style guide>

Here are some example LinkedIn posts I have used to promote the AI Tinkerer's Event

<Copy some posts I liked>

Here's what someone is looking to demo at an upcoming AI Tinkerer's event, help me write a LinkedIn post to promote it.

<All the info I have about the project>

That usually gets me a post that I am happy with in a single prompt.

Step 5: You’ll frequently ditch the AI

Oddly enough, once I got into the habit of posting, I have found I have written more posts from scratch with no AI help. It’s almost like hearing how I want to write things sets the gears in motion for other things I want to write.