Our product posts flopped. Here’s what worked instead
In October I sat down with the numbers for 150 posts I’d sent over about three weeks. I build small apps and games, and I’d been posting about them the way you’re told to: feature here, update there, a launch thread.
The results were humbling.
What the numbers said
- Product posts: a median of 53 views and one engagement
- Launch threads: 10,000 to 12,000 views, but only about seven engagements. Lots of eyes, nobody cared
- “Let’s connect” introductions: a median of 421 views, 25 engagements and 15 replies. About ten times everything else
- Overall median: 59 views, two engagements
One introduction post got 11,600 views and over 500 engagements. My followers went from 380 to 634 that week. No product post came close.
Why I think it happened
Nobody on X is looking for my product. They’re looking for people. An introduction (who I am, what I’m building, who I want to meet) gives people something to reply to. A product post gives them something to scroll past.
The launch threads got views because X pushed them, but views without replies don’t do much. A post that starts a conversation keeps getting shown. A post that gets looked at and ignored stops.
What I changed
- Three introduction posts a week, in the midday slot
- Product posts written as stories: the problem first, the product as the ending
- More questions that are easy to answer, and lists people recognise themselves in
- Stopped caring about posting hour. It barely made a difference for me
This is one account over a few weeks, so take it as a data point, not a law. But if your product posts are getting nowhere, try introducing yourself for a week and compare.
This is the analysis Orbit X’s Analytics page now runs for you: what works for you, by habit, by hour and by day.