We took five common LinkedIn post types — the job announcement, the advice post, the humble brag, the thought leadership, and the company update — and rewrote them. Here's what changed.
BEFORE: "Thrilled to announce that I'm starting a new position as Senior Product Manager at Acme Corp! I'm so humbled and grateful for this opportunity. Can't wait to see what the future holds! #newjob #excited #productmanagement #grateful"
AFTER: "I just started at Acme. Here's why.
Two years ago I watched a friend lose her entire photo library because the backup product she trusted just... stopped working. Nobody noticed for six months.
Acme is building the product that would have caught that. I'll be leading the consumer notifications team.
This is the first job I've taken where I can explain what I do to my mom and she immediately gets why it matters."
WHAT CHANGED: The before is a template. Anyone could have written it. The after has a specific story that explains the why — not just the what. It gives people a reason to care about your new job, which is the only way they'll engage with it.
BEFORE: "5 Things I've Learned About Leadership: 1. Listen more than you talk 2. Hire people smarter than you 3. Give credit, take blame 4. Be transparent 5. Never stop learning
What would you add? 👇"
AFTER: "I gave my team a 4-day work week in January. Not as a perk — as an experiment.
The hypothesis: we were spending ~20% of our time in meetings that could be async. If we reclaimed that time and compressed it, we'd get the same output in fewer days.
Week 4 results: output stayed flat. Ticket velocity actually went up 8%. Two people told me they'd been considering leaving and now they're not.
The most interesting part: nobody misses the meetings we cut. Nobody has even asked about them."
WHAT CHANGED: The before is a listicle of things everyone already knows. The after is one specific experiment with real numbers. The before asks for engagement. The after earns it by sharing something genuinely useful.
BEFORE: "I wasn't going to post this, but my team convinced me. We just hit $10M ARR. It's been an incredible journey and I'm so grateful to everyone who believed in us from the start. Here's to the next chapter! 🚀"
AFTER: "We hit $10M ARR last week. I want to talk about month 14.
Month 14 was when we had $83K in revenue, two engineers had just quit, and our biggest customer told us they were evaluating competitors. I sat in my car in the parking lot for 20 minutes before going back inside.
We almost pivoted. We almost took a bridge round at terrible terms. We almost hired a sales team we couldn't afford.
We didn't do any of those things. We fixed the product. It took four months. It felt like four years.
$83K to $10M. The number sounds clean. The path wasn't."
WHAT CHANGED: The before performs humility. The after earns it by sharing the hard part. The milestone becomes interesting because you show what it actually cost.
BEFORE: "The future of work is changing. Companies that don't adapt will be left behind. Here are 3 trends every leader should watch:
1. AI will transform every industry 2. Remote work is here to stay 3. Employee experience matters more than ever
The question isn't whether these changes are coming — it's whether you're ready."
AFTER: "We just ran our annual employee survey. One question floored me.
'Do you trust your manager to advocate for you?'
41% said no.
Not 'neutral.' Not 'sometimes.' Forty-one percent of our employees actively believe their manager would not go to bat for them.
We spent $200K on a new HR platform last year. We should have spent it on management training.
I'm sharing this because I think most companies would get similar numbers and most CEOs would be just as surprised."
WHAT CHANGED: The before is a generic trend forecast that requires no expertise and takes no risk. The after shares proprietary data, admits a mistake, and takes a specific position. It's the kind of post only this person could write.
BEFORE: "Big news! We're excited to announce the launch of our new AI-powered analytics dashboard! 🎉 This cutting-edge solution leverages machine learning to deliver actionable insights in real-time. Learn more: [link] #AI #analytics #innovation #launch"
AFTER: "We shipped the analytics dashboard today. It was supposed to launch in October.
What happened between October and now: we showed it to 15 customers. The first 8 said it was useful. The next 7 said it was useful but they wouldn't actually open it every day.
'Useful but I wouldn't use it' is the most important feedback a product team can get. It means you built the right thing the wrong way.
We rebuilt the notification system, cut three features nobody asked for, and added the one thing everyone did: a Monday morning summary email.
It's not cutting-edge. It's not AI-powered. It's a dashboard that people will actually open."
WHAT CHANGED: The before is a press release. The after is a product story with real decisions, real tradeoffs, and a perspective. It makes you want to try the product because you trust the people who built it.
Every rewrite follows the same principle: replace the general with the specific. The post that could be written by anyone will be read by no one. The post that could only be written by you is the one people remember.
Say Something interviews you and writes three drafts. No templates. No engagement bait.
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