Automating Content System Using Airtable and Make.com

In this guide, we will walk through an automated system that helps you scale your content production, repurposing a single piece of content into multiple formats across different platforms. Using Airtable and Make.com, you’ll be able to streamline your content creation process and distribution. Let’s break this down step by step.

Step 1: Understand the New Approach to Content Creation

Before jumping into the automation, let’s explore the new mindset for content creation:

• Old Way: Each platform gets its own specific content, i.e., a YouTube video for YouTube, a tweet for Twitter, etc.
• New Way: Think of each component (video, image, title, transcript) as individual pieces of content. Store them in a Content Pool, where each piece can be transformed and repurposed multiple times.

Step 2: Set Up Your Content Pool in Airtable

1. Create a New Airtable Base: Start by creating a new Airtable base for your content management. Rename the base to something like “Project 10X” and create a table called “Content.”
2. Add Key Fields:
   • ID: Use an auto-numbering field for unique content identification.
   • Copy: This will be the text or caption for your content.
   • Title: Store your content’s title here.
   • Images & Videos: Use attachment fields to upload content.
   • Source Type: Create a single-select field to track where the content is coming from (e.g., YouTube, community post, etc.).

Step 3: Set Up Input Forms for Content Capture

Now that you have your content pool, you need to create a way to add new content to it.

1. Create Input Forms: Airtable’s form feature allows you to submit content ideas, community posts, or media files into the system.
   • New Idea Form: Capture ideas for content with a simple form. Include a title, idea description, and optional images or videos.
   • Community Post Form: Use this form to capture text or posts you’ve already shared in your community for repurposing.
2. Create a Form for Video Uploads:
   • Add fields for video title and source type.
   • Use the attachment field to allow users to upload videos directly into the Airtable content system.

Step 4: Automate Content Collection with Make.com

Use Make.com to automate content collection and management.

1. Slack Integration for Audio Notes: Create a private Slack channel to record voice notes, which can then be automatically sent to Airtable.
   • Set up an automation to watch the Slack channel for new voice notes.
   • Download the audio and use OpenAI’s Whisper to transcribe the notes.
   • Store the transcription in Airtable under the “Copy” field.
2. Google Drive Integration for Video Uploads: Create a folder in Google Drive to upload videos.
   • Automate file detection and upload these videos into your Airtable system.
   • Ensure videos are properly labeled and categorized.

Step 5: Automate Content Production (Transformations)

Once your content is in Airtable, you can transform it into different content types (e.g., blog posts, carousels, tweets).

1. Create Transformation Actions in Airtable:
   • Add a table called “Transformation Actions” with different tasks like “Media to Transcription,” “Text to Blog,” “Text to Carousel,” etc.
   • Use Make.com to trigger different automations depending on the action you select.
2. Set Up Automation for Transcribing Media:
   • Use Make.com to call Whisper from OpenAI to convert media files (like videos) into text.
   • Store the transcription back in Airtable.
3. Convert Text into Blogs:
   • Take the transcription and send it to OpenAI’s GPT-4 to generate a blog post.
   • Store the blog post in Airtable under the “Copy” field.
4. Create Carousel Posts:
   • Use Make.com and a design tool like Placid to convert text into a series of images (carousel posts).
   • Feed the text into Placid, which will create individual images for each quote or line.
   • Store the generated images back in Airtable.
5. Generate Tweets:
   • Use OpenAI to generate 5 tweets from a piece of text.
   • Create new rows in Airtable for each tweet.

Step 6: Distribution of Content

After production, it’s time to distribute the content.

1. Connect to Social Media Platforms:
   • Use Make.com to automate the posting of content to platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
   • Schedule daily or weekly posts, automatically pulling content from Airtable.
2. Monitor the Automation: Make sure that everything runs smoothly, and occasionally check your automation flows for any errors.

Step 7: Review and Fine-Tune the System

• Testing and Tweaking: Continuously test and refine your automation. For instance, if the AI outputs need adjustment, modify the prompts used in GPT-4 to get more personalized results.
• Expand Your System: Add more transformation actions, such as turning a blog into a YouTube script or converting a tweet thread into a blog post.

To Conclude

By following these steps, you’ll build a highly efficient content production system that automatically multiplies your content. With Airtable serving as your content pool and Make.com handling the automation, this system will save you hours of manual work and ensure your content is distributed effectively across platforms.