By Adriana Nguyen, Senior Social Media Manager
Not all AI tools are created equal, and if you’re a social strategist using ChatGPT for everything, you might be leaving results on the table.
After testing three different LLMs for social strategy and content creation over the course of the last year, I’ve learned that the tool matters less than the workflow. ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity each have distinct strengths and glaring weaknesses, but most social strategists pick whichever one is convenient or familiar and end up fighting the tool instead of leveraging it.
The key isn’t finding the “best” tool—it’s knowing when and where to bring them in and how to use them sequentially.
Here’s my breakdown of leveraging ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity for social media strategy—what each excels at, where each falls short, and how to use them together for better social content.
ChatGPT: The High-Volume Brainstorming Machine
Best for:
- High-volume content variation and A/B testing copy
- Distilling complex documents into social-friendly concepts
- Quick brainstorming sessions when you need a lot of options fast
- Building structured frameworks (content calendars, campaign templates)
Strengths:
ChatGPT is great for breaking down complex or long-form materials (white papers, reports, product descriptions, conversation transcripts, etc.) into easy-to-understand, social-friendly ideas, especially for social strategists who work in highly technical industries. It can also generate multiple creative directions quickly, making it efficient for exploring social campaign options, testing different copy angles, role-playing exercises, and building calendars and templates.
Limitations:
ChatGPT often defaults to generic marketing language (“elevate your brand 🚀,” “unlock potential 🔥”) without specific prompting. It can be overly enthusiastic or use hyperbolic language that feels inauthentic in B2B contexts. It also may also confidently present outdated information as current, since it lacks real-time awareness, and it sometimes overcomplicates simple concepts or adds unnecessary fluff. If you’re going to lean on ChatGPT for social copy generation, it’s important to edit ruthlessly.
Example use case:
You’re promoting a client’s product launch across multiple platforms. Use ChatGPT to:
- Generate 20 different LinkedIn post angles highlighting different product benefits for different personas
- Draft post copy variations testing different hooks (question-based, stat-based, story-based)
- Build a month-long content calendar with platform-specific post recommendations
Claude: The Voice Keeper
Best for:
- Developing and maintaining consistent brand voice across multiple pieces of content
- Writing with nuance and balancing professional credibility with human warmth
- Editing and refining existing content for clarity and tone
- Understanding context and adapting responses based on specific brand guidelines/examples
Strengths:
Claude excels at voice discipline—particularly internalizing brand guidelines, examples, and tonal guardrails, then applying them consistently across several assets without drift. Its writing tends to favor clarity, coherence, and nuance over gimmicks, making it well-suited for B2B social and executive thought leadership. Claude also handles long inputs and multi-step requests well, retaining context and intent across complex workflows rather than optimizing for isolated outputs.
Limitations:
Out of the box, Claude can skew more measured or formal than most social platforms require, especially in early drafts. It often prioritizes completeness over punch, which means social copy may need tightening or sharpening for scroll-stopping impact. Claude is less instinctively fluent in internet-native language, trends, or playful experimentation unless explicitly guided with examples, constraints, or tone references.
Example use case:
An executive needs your help creating thought leadership-style social content around an upcoming product launch, but she doesn’t want to sound overly promotional. Provide Claude with background on the product (what it does, who it’s for, and why it matters), along with 4-5 examples of the executive’s previous posts and any existing brand voice guidelines. Ask Claude to identify the core narrative angles for the launch (e.g., customer problem, market shift, behind-the-scenes thinking), then draft a series of LinkedIn posts that maintain credibility while still feeling human and thought-provoking. Use Claude to refine tone/clarity and ensure consistency across posts.
Perplexity: The Research Engine
Best for:
- Competitive intelligence and market scanning
- Verifying facts, statistics, and claims
- Understanding current conversations around specific topics or trends
- Finding recent examples, case studies, or news to reference in posts
- Identifying what questions audiences are asking about a topic
Strengths:
Perplexity provides current information with clear source citations, making fact-checking straightforward. It’s excellent for understanding “what’s happening now” in your industry or around specific topics. It’s good at surfacing diverse perspectives and identifying knowledge gaps, and its citations allow you to trace information back to original sources for deeper research.
Limitations:
Perplexity is not designed for content creation—it’s best as a research and information retrieval tool. Citations sometimes point to forums, Reddit threads, or less authoritative sources that require vetting. It can’t help much with creative ideation, tone refinement, or content drafting, and it may surface irrelevant results if queries aren’t specific enough.
Example use case:
Before creating a campaign about technical debt and its effect on enterprises, use Perplexity to research “What are companies saying about tech stack challenges in 2026?” to understand current pain points. Verify any statistics your client wants to cite in their posts. Identify recent news or studies that could make your content more timely and relevant. Find out what questions prospects are asking about your client’s product category. Use Perplexity as your starting point for accuracy and relevance.
How to Use These Tools Together
Each tool has a distinct role in the content workflow. The most effective approach is sequential:
- Research phase: Perplexity → Gather current data, validate information, understand the conversation landscape
- Creation phase: ChatGPT → Generate multiple creative directions, create frameworks and structures, explore different formats
- Refinement phase: Claude → Polish tone, ensure clarity, align with brand voice, synthesize ideas
Example workflow:
You’re developing thought leadership content for an executive speaking at an industry conference:
- Perplexity: Research the latest industry debates and what attendees are discussing on social about the event topic
- ChatGPT: Generate 15 different post concepts for before, during, and after the conference
- Claude: After drafting the social posts, refine and polish the strongest options to match the executive’s established voice
Better inputs lead to better outputs. And better workflows lead to better social content.
