What to post before product launch
Launch day goes better when some of the right people already know what you are building. You cannot make that happen on launch day. You can start weeks earlier, with small honest posts that do not need a finished product.
Start with the problem
Before you show anything, say what the problem is. Describe the moment it happens, for a specific kind of person. Suppose you are building a tool for freelance designers who chase late invoices. You might describe the Tuesday when a client says the invoice is “in the system,” three weeks after it was due. People who have lived that moment will stop scrolling.
Post about the problem several times, from several angles. Describe how people cope today, what they have tried, and why it falls short. You are not selling yet. You are finding out who raises their hand, and every reply is a name for your list. The people who respond to the problem are the people who will care about the product.
Show the build
Once people know the problem, show the work. A rough screen, a sketch, a decision you made and why. Founders often feel the product is not ready to show. Showing it half-built is the point, because it invites opinions while they can still change something. A reply that says “I would never use that” is worth more now than the same reply after launch.
Share what you cut as well as what you added. Say what you decided not to build yet and the reason. This helps readers picture where the product is going, and it tells them you make choices on purpose. Keep it concrete: a screenshot, a sentence, a named decision.
Talk about the early users
If you have even a handful of early users, they are your best material. Describe what they are doing with the product, what surprised you, and what they asked for. Use their words when you have permission. This is social proof that is honest at a small scale: a few real people using a rough thing and telling you what is wrong with it.
If you have no users yet, say so, and say how you are looking for them. Name the kind of person you want to hear from and what you would ask them. Asking for ten conversations is a perfectly good post. The replies often become your first users, and some of them become your loudest supporters.
Share the doubts
Posts about what you are unsure of get honest replies. Which of two names? Which price? Is this feature a trap? Ask a real question that you have not already decided. Readers like to be consulted, and a person who helped choose the name is more likely to show up on launch day.
Be careful with fake suspense. Teasers with no information, such as “something big is coming,” give readers nothing and they teach people to ignore you. Give a real piece of the story every time. Something specific is a better tease than any countdown.
A simple six-week outline
A plan helps when you do not know what to say next. In the first two weeks, post about the problem: the moment it happens, the people it happens to, and what they do today. In weeks three and four, show the build: a rough screen, a decision, something you cut. In week five, bring in early users and their words, with permission. In week six, ask a real question about the launch itself.
Within that outline, leave room for real events. If a customer says something striking in week two, post it then. If a build goes badly in week four, say so. The outline is there to make sure that you always have something to say, and you should break it whenever the truth is more interesting.
On the last days before launch, tell people exactly what is happening and when. Give the date, the place to be, and what you hope they will do. Keep the message short and concrete. A reader who has followed you for six weeks only needs to know when to show up.
After launch, keep going. The posts that got you here are the same ones that carry you to the next milestone, and the people who followed along are your most patient supporters.
Keep a short list of the people who reply along the way. By launch day it will hold the names of the readers who care most, and you can write to each of them directly. A personal note to thirty people who have followed your story often does more than any public post, because they feel they were part of it.
Finally, decide beforehand how you will measure the six weeks. Count list sign-ups, named replies and conversations booked. Those are the numbers that tell you whether the audience you built is the one you need.
Build a list and a rhythm
Give people a way to hear when you launch. A simple page with an email box is enough. Put the link in your posts sparingly, once in a while, where it fits. Track which posts bring sign-ups to the list, because that tells you which parts of your story attract the right people.
Aim for a steady rhythm over a perfect one. Posting a few times a week for six weeks beats a burst the day before launch. A daily three-minute take is easy to keep up. Quant100 gives you one question a day, so the weeks before launch fill with real material, and the receipt the next morning shows you which posts brought people to your list by name.