I had a call with a founder this week who's built a $2.5B exit track record and now runs a revenue automation tool.
90% of their growth? LinkedIn. Zero paid marketing until this month.
But he said something that made me laugh because I hear it constantly from clients: "My best posts never do best. My worst ones go viral."
And it’s not because they were the “worst.”
But because of one thing:
the pratfall effect.
It's a real concept in social psychology. When someone already perceived as competent shows a small imperfection, they become more likable, not less. The flaw doesn't undermine the credibility. It confirms there's a human behind it.
I've managed enough accounts to confirm this is true for almost everyone. And there's a reason…
1. Messy reads as human. Your audience isn't reading LinkedIn for polished takes. They're scrolling between meetings, making split-second decisions about what's worth their time. And in 2026, with every other post clearly written by AI and handed off to a designer, their brain has gotten very good at one thing: detecting whether there's a real person behind the words. They don't want less thought. They want more you. Your actual opinion. Your specific experience. The thing only you would say. That's what stops the scroll.
2. Emotional posts get seen and shared. When something frustrates you or surprises you or challenges what you believed, that energy transfers into the writing. People feel it. They click “see more”. They dwell on it. They save it. They send it to a colleague. Those are the signals LinkedIn's algorithm cares about most - dwell time, saves and sends, not likes.
3. The posts that underperform usually started with a format, not a feeling. Someone picked "carousel" and tried to fill it in. The posts that overperform started with a real thought - a frustration from a client call, a genuine opinion, something that caught them off guard - and THEN they applied strategy. The right hook, the right structure, the right content bucket.
We have a full design team at Distinctiva. Custom carousels, branded templates, the works. And I'm going to be honest with you... the posts performing best right now across most of our accounts? Screenshots. Text-only posts. A simple graph with just a logo slapped on it. A photo someone clearly took on their phone.
I'll give you a real example. A few weeks ago we were putting together a post for one of our clients. We have Ana Sofía, our designer, who can make anything look incredible. And we deliberately didn't use her. We made it look like the client just threw it together on Canva himself. A photo, a red X, a green checkmark, a logo slapped on it.
58,666 impressions.
That's not a coincidence. That's the pratfall effect applied to design. It looked like a founder who had something urgent to say and didn't want to wait for a designer to say it. And that's exactly what people responded to.
I'm not saying design is dead. We still use it strategically for specific things (case study breakdowns, data visualizations, branded carousels for authority content). But the days of whipping up any carousel and watching it blow up? Those are over.
But here's the part most people get wrong when they hear this...
They think "okay so I should just post raw, unfiltered thoughts." No. That's Twitter. LinkedIn rewards strategy.
The difference is where you start. Start with something real - a frustration from a client call, a genuine opinion, something that caught you off guard - and THEN apply strategy. The right hook, the right structure, the right content bucket.
Real insight first. Strategy second. That's the order.
The founder I talked to? His "worst" posts felt raw because they started from something real. Imagine if he'd then spent 20 minutes applying the right hook, trimming the fat, and mapping it to a specific goal in his funnel.
He wouldn't just go viral.
He'd go viral with the right people, AND convert.
Talk soon,
D.
P.S. One quick thing: hit reply and tell me what your biggest content frustration is right now. I read every reply, and it helps me make sure future issues actually answer the right questions.