Social posts: LinkedIn + X + Instagram

Last tested 2026-04-26

The prompt

Write three posts for the same idea, one per platform. Each post must be platform-native, not a copy with different lengths.

The idea:
{{idea}}

Constraints (apply to all three):
- Open with the strongest line, not a setup.
- No marketing verbs: leverage, unlock, empower, transform, revolutionize.
- No openings: 'In today's fast-paced world,' 'I'm thrilled to announce,' 'Excited to share.'
- No hashtags unless I ask.
- No exclamation marks.

Per-platform rules:
- **LinkedIn**: under 220 characters before any 'see more' break, line-broken for skim, personal-voice.
- **X / Twitter**: under 280 characters, single tweet, compression-first.
- **Instagram caption**: under 125 characters, hook in first 80 chars, one CTA at end.

Why it works

Generic 'write a LinkedIn post' prompts produce posts that sound like every other AI post on LinkedIn - which means they get skipped. The fix is platform-native voice plus an explicit hook structure plus a banned-words list. This prompt enforces all three. The banned-words list is the most important part: it forbids the specific verbs ('leverage,' 'unlock,' 'transform,' 'empower') and openings ('In today's fast-paced world,' 'I'm thrilled to announce') that mark a post as AI-written within two seconds. Without that list, the model defaults to them. With it, the post reads like a human wrote it.

Example output

LinkedIn (under 220 chars, hook-first):

We almost shipped a feature nobody asked for.

Usage data was up 40% on a button we'd buried in a sub-menu.

We assumed: people love it, build more of it.

Reality: they were clicking it by mistake.

The fix took 5 minutes. The lesson took 5 weeks.

X / Twitter (under 280 chars):

We almost shipped a feature nobody asked for. Click data said 'usage is up 40%.' Real reason: the button was next to the one people actually wanted. The fix took 5 minutes. We almost spent a sprint expanding it instead.

Instagram caption (under 125 chars):

40% more clicks ≠ 40% more love. Sometimes the data is just telling you the button is in the wrong place.

Common mistakes

Don't use the same post on all three platforms - the prompt produces three because LinkedIn rewards line breaks and personal voice, X rewards compression, Instagram rewards a hook in the first 80 characters. Posting one of them on all three is worse than posting one platform-correct version. Also: do not let the model add hashtags unless you specifically ask. AI hashtag suggestions are uniformly bad and signal AI authorship louder than the words do.