The “This Is So You” Test: How to Make Posts People Send to a Friend
Likes used to be the scoreboard. Now Instagram cares more about how many people quietly send your post to someone else.
Instagram calls this “sends per reach,” meaning how often someone sees your post and DMs it to a friend. Adam Mosseri, who runs Instagram, has named it one of the platform’s top ranking signals, and it matters most when Instagram decides whether to show your post to people who don’t follow you yet.
So if you’ve wondered why a post with plenty of hearts went nowhere, this is a big part of the answer
A send is a referral
Here’s why I love this shift for service businesses. A like costs nothing. A send means someone thought “this made me think of you” and put their name behind it.
That’s word of mouth. It’s the same thing that fills your calendar when a past client tells a friend “you have to talk to this person.” Instagram is just measuring it now.
Why people actually hit send
Most posts that get passed around fall into one of these:
“This is so you.” It describes someone so specifically that a friend recognizes them.
“We were just talking about this.” It answers a question two people already had.
“This says what I couldn’t.” It puts words to something the reader has been feeling.
“Ugh, too real.” It names a shared frustration and makes it a little lighter.
Notice what’s missing: “five tips for better engagement.” Tips get saved. Moments get sent.
How to write a post someone will send
Start with a moment, not a topic. “Email marketing tips” is a topic. “Hitting send on your newsletter and spotting the typo two seconds later” is a moment. People forward moments.
Write it for one person. Picture the client who’d receive this and the friend who’d send it. If you can’t picture either, the post is too broad.
Use your clients’ actual words. The slightly messy phrases people say on discovery calls are what make a reader think “that’s literally me.” Don’t clean them up.
Make it complete on its own. People share things that make them look thoughtful. If the post only works after clicking a link, it won’t travel.
Leave the pitch out. Nobody DMs an ad to a friend. Your offer belongs in your bio, your stories, and your follow-up.
This is where AI falls short
AI can hand you 50 post ideas in a minute. What it can’t do is sit on a discovery call and notice that every client mentions the same 10 p.m. worry, in almost the same words.
That’s what makes a post sendable. Recognition comes from listening, and it’s the part I never hand off.
A 10-second test before you post
Ask yourself: Who would someone send this to, and what would they type above it?
If you can answer with something like “Cherie, this is you every Monday,” post it. If you can’t, rewrite the first line until you can.
If you’d like a second set of eyes on what your audience would actually pass along, grab a 15-minute call. We’ll look at your recent posts and find the one worth building on.
This blog was written by Kristina Kury, Founder & CEO of Sprout Creative
They work with small business owners and entrepreneurs who are busy running their businesses, overwhelmed with marketing, and whose growth has plateaued to turn their marketing into a more manageable, automated marketing machine.
Follow @SproutCreativeLA on Facebook and Instagram.