Nine post formats that actually travel
These aren't hacks. They're the shapes that survive contact with a feed, because each one gives a reader a reason to finish the first line. Fill in the brackets and delete the ones that don't fit what you actually have.
1. The reversal
Works because it promises that the next line contradicts the first. Requires you to have actually changed your mind.
I spent [time period] convinced that [common belief].
Then [specific thing that happened].
Here's what I'd do differently:
[3-5 short lines, most specific first]
[One line on what it cost you to learn this.]2. The number in the first line
[Number]. That's how many [unit] it took to [outcome].
Breakdown:
— [component]: [number]
— [component]: [number]
— [component]: [number]
The part that surprised me: [the one non-obvious line item].3. The thing I deleted
Consistently the highest-engagement shape for founders, because everyone posts what they built and almost nobody posts what they removed.
I just deleted [feature / page / process] that took [effort] to build.
Why I built it: [the reasonable-sounding original logic]
Why it had to go: [what actually happened when real people used it]
What replaced it: [usually something much smaller]4. The specific how-to
How to [specific outcome] in [time], without [the expensive/obvious way]:
1. [Action] — [why this order matters]
2. [Action]
3. [Action]
4. [Action]
Takes about [honest time]. The step people skip is [n], and it's the one that does the work.5. The comparison table
A table stops the scroll because it's visually different from everything around it. Be fair about the alternatives — an obviously rigged comparison is worse than no post.
[Option A] vs [Option B] for [specific job]:
Cost: [A] / [B]
Time to set up: [A] / [B]
Breaks when: [A] / [B]
Best for: [A] / [B]
I use [choice] because [one specific reason]. [Genuine case where the other one wins.]6. The public question
Genuine question for people who [specific role/situation]:
[The question — narrow enough that only about 200 people in the world can answer it well.]
Context: [two lines on why you're asking, including what you've already tried]
I'll share what I learn.The last line is what makes people answer. Then actually do it — that follow-up post outperforms the question.
7. The receipt
[Time period] update on [thing]:
[Metric]: [number] ([change])
[Metric]: [number] ([change])
[Metric]: [number] ([change])
What worked: [one thing, specifically]
What didn't: [one thing, specifically — do not skip this line]
Next: [one thing]8. The tiny useful thing
I made [small thing] because I got tired of [annoyance].
It [does exactly one job]. Free, no signup, no email.
[Link]
Built it in [honest time]. Take it, fork it, ignore it.9. The unpopular specific
An opinion narrow enough to be defensible. The failure mode is a vague contrarian take, which reads as bait — the fix is specificity.
Unpopular: [narrow, defensible claim about your actual domain].
Not [the broad version everyone argues about]. Specifically [the narrow version].
Reason: [the mechanism, not the vibe]
I'd change my mind if [the specific evidence that would do it].The two that don't work
| Format | Why it fails |
|---|---|
| The milestone with no story | "We hit 100 users!" is a post about you. Nobody outside your company gets anything from it. Add what you did differently to get from 50 to 100 and it becomes a receipt post, which does work. |
| The generic thread of tips | "10 tools every founder needs" competes with ten thousand identical posts and signals that you have nothing first-hand. One tool you actually use, with the specific reason, beats all ten. |