# Content > Use this skill when the user needs a content strategy, wants to build in public, grow an audience, choose content platforms, or create a distribution plan. Covers platform selection, build-in-public frameworks, content distribution, and audience building for solo founders. - **Type:** Skill - **Install:** `agentstack add skill-whawkinsiv-solo-founder-skills-content` - **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior - **Seller:** [whawkinsiv](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/whawkinsiv) - **Installs:** 0 - **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills) - **Latest version:** 0.1.0 - **License:** MIT - **Upstream author:** [whawkinsiv](https://github.com/whawkinsiv) - **Source:** https://github.com/whawkinsiv/solo-founder-skills/tree/main/skills/content ## Install ```sh agentstack add skill-whawkinsiv-solo-founder-skills-content ``` Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent. ## About # Content Marketing & Build-in-Public For a solo founder, content IS the marketing department. This skill helps you pick a platform, build an audience through authentic sharing, and convert followers into customers — without a marketing team or ad budget. ## Core Principles - Content is not marketing. Content is proof of expertise, proof of work, and proof that you understand your audience's problems better than anyone else. - Build-in-public is the highest-ROI content strategy for a solo founder. It costs nothing, builds trust, and creates a moat of authenticity no competitor can copy. - One platform, deeply. A mediocre presence on 5 platforms loses to a strong presence on 1. - Show your work, not your product. Process > polish. Decisions > announcements. Lessons > launches. - The content that converts best is the content that would be useful even if your product didn't exist. - Consistency matters more than quality. Publish regularly at 80% quality rather than occasionally at 100%. ## Platform Selection Choose ONE based on where your ICP actually spends time: | Platform | Best For | Content Style | ICP Signal | |----------|----------|--------------|------------| | **Twitter/X** | Developers, SaaS founders, tech professionals | Short-form threads, hot takes, metrics sharing | Your ICP tweets about work, follows industry leaders | | **LinkedIn** | B2B professionals, enterprise buyers, consultants | Professional stories, industry insights, career content | Your ICP has detailed LinkedIn profiles, posts about industry | | **Reddit** | Technical audiences, niche communities | Helpful answers, deep-dive posts, genuine participation | Active subreddits exist for your problem space | | **Indie Hackers** | Solo founders, bootstrappers | Revenue updates, strategy deep-dives, lessons learned | Your buyers are themselves builders/founders | | **Hacker News** | Developers, technical decision-makers | Technical articles, Show HN launches, Ask HN questions | Your ICP reads HN, comments on technical topics | | **Discord/Slack** | Community-first audiences, developer tools | Ongoing helpful presence, quick answers | Active communities exist in your niche | **How to decide**: Go where your ICP already has conversations about the problem you solve. Search for your problem keywords on each platform. The one with the most active discussion is your platform. ## Build-in-Public Content Framework ### The 5 Content Pillars **1. Progress Updates** (weekly) What you built, what moved, what the numbers say. ``` This week: - Shipped [feature]. Here's why it matters: [user problem it solves]. - MRR: $X → $Y (+Z%) - Biggest surprise: [insight] - Next week: [what you're tackling] ``` **2. Decision Stories** (2-3x/month) The reasoning behind a product, pricing, or strategy choice. ``` A user asked for [feature]. I said no. Here's why: [Explain the reasoning — what you considered, what tradeoffs exist, what you decided and why.] The harder question isn't "should we build it?" It's "what should we NOT build so we can focus on what matters?" ``` **3. Lessons & Failures** (2-3x/month) What went wrong and what you learned. This is the highest-engagement content type. ``` I lost 12% of my users last month. Here's what happened: [Honest explanation of what went wrong.] [What you learned.] [What you're changing.] Sharing because I wish someone had told me this 6 months ago. ``` **4. How-We-Built-It** (2-4x/month) Technical or tactical deep-dives that showcase your expertise. ``` How I built [feature] in [timeframe]: [Step-by-step breakdown of the approach] [Tools/tech used] [Result for users] Full breakdown: [link to blog post or thread] ``` **5. Problem Exploration** (1-2x/month) Content about the problem space that's useful even without your product. ``` The 3 things every [ICP role] gets wrong about [problem]: 1. [Misconception] — Actually, [truth]. Here's why... 2. [Misconception] — The data says [counter-evidence]... 3. [Misconception] — I learned this the hard way when... ``` ### Content Calendar Template ``` Monday: Progress update or metrics share Tuesday: Problem exploration or industry insight Wednesday: How-we-built-it or tactical tip Thursday: Decision story or lesson learned Friday: Community engagement (reply to others, ask questions) ``` Minimum viable cadence: **3 posts per week**. You can always scale up, but consistency at 3/week beats burnout at 7/week. ## Platform-Specific Formats ### Twitter/X **Thread format (highest engagement):** ``` Tweet 1 (hook): [Surprising claim or specific result] Tweet 2-6: [The substance — one idea per tweet, each stands alone] Tweet 7 (close): [Takeaway + soft CTA] Example hook tweets: - "I went from 0 to $5K MRR in 90 days. Here's the exact playbook:" - "A user asked me to build [feature]. I said no. Here's why:" - "I tracked every hour I spent for 30 days. The results surprised me:" - "The biggest mistake I made building [Product] (and how I fixed it):" ``` **Single tweet format:** ``` [Insight or observation] [Supporting detail or data point] [Implication or takeaway] Keep under 240 characters for maximum reach. Or go long (up to 4,000 chars) for nuanced takes. ``` ### LinkedIn **Post format:** ``` [Strong opening line — pattern interrupt or bold claim] [blank line] [3-5 short paragraphs, each 1-2 sentences] [Use line breaks aggressively — LinkedIn rewards readability] [Personal anecdote or specific data point] [Takeaway or question to drive comments] [Optional: 3-5 relevant hashtags] ``` **What works on LinkedIn:** - Personal stories with professional lessons - Contrarian takes on industry norms - Specific numbers and results - "Here's what I learned" framing - Questions that invite discussion ### Reddit **Post format:** ``` Title: [Specific, descriptive, not clickbait] Body: - Lead with the value or question - Be genuinely helpful first - Share your experience, not your pitch - Mention your product only if directly relevant AND you disclose it's yours - Respond to every comment ``` **Rules:** - Never post just to promote. Reddit will destroy you. - Earn the right to mention your product by giving value first. - Each subreddit has its own culture. Lurk for a week before posting. - The best Reddit strategy is being the most helpful person in 2-3 relevant subreddits. ### Indie Hackers **Post format:** ``` Title: [Specific milestone, lesson, or question] Body: - Detailed breakdown of what happened - Actual numbers (revenue, users, conversion rates) - What you tried, what worked, what didn't - Specific advice for others in similar situations ``` The IH community values transparency and specificity above all else. ## Driving to Conversion Every piece of content should have a path to your product, but it should never feel like an ad. **Soft CTAs (use these):** - "I built [Product] to solve exactly this. Here's a 2-min demo: [link]" - "If you're dealing with this, I wrote a full breakdown at [landing page]" - "We're helping [X] teams with this right now. Details at [link]" **Hard CTAs (use sparingly, only on high-value posts):** - "Try it free: [link]" - "We just launched [feature]. Check it out: [link]" **Link strategy:** - Don't link to your homepage. Link to a specific page relevant to the post's topic. - Use case pages convert better than feature pages when linked from content. - "Start here" pages designed for community traffic outperform generic landing pages. ## Content Repurposing One piece of content becomes many: ``` Blog post (1,500 words) → Twitter thread (extract 7-10 key points) → LinkedIn post (extract personal angle) → Reddit comment (answer a related question, link to post) → Newsletter edition (add personal context) → Indie Hackers post (add revenue/metrics context) ``` Write once, distribute everywhere. But adapt the format and tone for each platform. ## What NOT to Post - "Excited to announce..." (nobody cares about your excitement — share the value) - "Working on something big..." (vague teasers waste attention) - Retweets/reposts of industry news without your own take - Complaints about competitors (compete with your work, not your words) - AI-generated content without heavy personal editing (audiences detect this instantly) - Content about your product's features without connecting to user problems ## Measuring Content Effectiveness Track monthly: ``` | Metric | This Month | Last Month | Trend | |-------------------------------|------------|------------|-------| | Posts published | | | | | Total impressions/views | | | | | Engagement rate (%) | | | | | Profile/bio link clicks | | | | | Signups attributed to content | | | | | Followers gained | | | | | DMs/replies about product | | | | ``` **The only metric that truly matters**: signups (or revenue) attributed to content. Everything else is a leading indicator. --- ## Getting Started **Tell AI:** ``` Help me plan my build-in-public content strategy: - Product: [what it does] - Audience: [who it's for] - Platform I want to focus on: [Twitter/LinkedIn/Reddit/etc.] - Current metrics: [MRR, users, or "pre-launch"] - What I'm working on this week: [current project or feature] Create: 1. A week's worth of posts (5 posts) using the 5 content pillars 2. Each post ready to copy-paste, formatted for [platform] 3. A mix: 1 progress update, 1 decision story, 1 lesson, 1 how-we-built-it, 1 problem exploration ``` **Tell AI (for individual posts):** ``` Write a [Twitter thread / LinkedIn post / Reddit post] about: - Topic: [what happened, what you learned, what you decided] - Key insight: [the one thing you want people to take away] - Product mention: [include naturally / don't mention product] - Tone: [casual and honest / professional / technical] Make it sound like a real person sharing their experience, not a brand posting content. Use the humanize skill patterns — no AI-sounding language. ``` --- ## Common Mistakes | Mistake | Fix | |---------|-----| | Posting on 5 platforms at once | Pick ONE. Go deep. Expand after 3 months of consistency. | | "Excited to announce..." openings | Lead with the value, insight, or result — not your feelings | | Only posting about your product | 80% valuable content, 20% product mentions | | AI-generated posts without editing | Audiences detect AI instantly. Write authentically or use humanize skill. | | Giving up after 2 weeks | Content compounds. Give it 3 months of 3x/week before judging. | | No call-to-action anywhere | Every post should have a soft path to your product | --- ## Related Skills - **niche-advantage** — If you're an industry expert, write authority content only a practitioner can write - **humanize** — Remove AI writing patterns from generated content - **copywriting** — Write stronger headlines and hooks for posts - **seo** — Turn your best content into SEO-optimized blog posts - **social-media** — Platform-specific growth and engagement tactics - **launch** — Coordinate content with product launches ## Source & license This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code. - **Author:** [whawkinsiv](https://github.com/whawkinsiv) - **Source:** [whawkinsiv/solo-founder-skills](https://github.com/whawkinsiv/solo-founder-skills) - **License:** MIT Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above. ## Pricing - **Free** — Free ## Security capabilities Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access: - **Network access:** no - **Filesystem access:** no - **Shell / process execution:** no - **Environment & secrets:** no - **Dynamic code execution:** no *"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.* ## Versions - **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source. ## Links - Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-whawkinsiv-solo-founder-skills-content - Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/whawkinsiv - Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse --- Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.