marketing-social-gtm · diff
git:20260905.4909a33 to git:20260905.0fd23a5
9 added, 4 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: marketing-social-gtm
title: "Social Go-to-Market Planning"
description: "Plan cross-platform social launch, proof, and objection campaigns around buyer needs, sourced evidence, channel roles, reply ownership, and business outcomes. Activate for launch planning, go-to-market strategy, GTM, or social campaigns."
license: MIT
compatibility: "Requires access to campaign source documents and account analytics; network access for source and policy checks."
domains: marketing
rules:
- content(launch)
- content(gtm)
- match(go[ -]to[ -]market)
- match(social[ -]campaign)
---
## Overview
Plan cross-platform social go-to-market work from a concrete buying situation. Produce a campaign brief, channel-role decision, sequenced calendar, and outcome readout. Use this skill for launches and sustained proof or objection campaigns; leave platform-specific anatomy, length limits, link placement, and publishing packages to the per-platform posting skills.
## Mental model
Give every channel a defined contribution to the buyer's next decision. Apply supplied facts and proof → the author's documented voice → platform rules. Treat publication policy as a gate that voice cannot override. Separate an observed result from a proposed tactic; label campaign recommendations as craft judgment (directional).
Reuse an agreed ICP and sales motion. Record unsupported audience assumptions and the evidence needed to decide them. Reduce channel scope when production or reply capacity cannot support it. Publishing is a downstream step with its own approval state.
## Campaign brief and channel decisions
Complete this schema before assigning launch, proof, or objection work. Mark missing inputs explicitly; omit unsupported claims rather than filling the schema with invented specifics.
| Field | Record |
|---|---|
| Audience and buying situation | ICP, user versus buyer, current alternative, trigger, evaluation constraint |
| Promise | Supported change the product offers, applicability boundary, excluded outcome |
| Proof inventory with sources | Claim, source URL or document location, owner, measurement conditions, reuse permission, limitations |
| Desired action | Evaluate, try, request information, or deliberately no CTA |
| Destination | Verified destination matching that action; record no destination when deliberate |
| Stage | Teaser, launch day, proof, objection, or recap |
| Disclosure obligations | Affiliation, payment or gifts, sponsorship, synthetic media, local community requirements |
| Voice owner | Actual speaker, documented samples, approved register, final reviewer |
Attach campaign ownership, readiness dependencies, baseline, and review dates. Classify an empty field as a drafting constraint or a publication blocker. A missing quote blocks that quote; a missing live destination blocks a try-now invitation. Keep incomplete examples out of the approved publishing queue.
Select channels with the table below, then confirm actual ICP presence. Proposed roles are directional decisions, not proven conversion rankings.
| ICP | Channel role to test | Evidence and boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Developer tools | HN for inspectable work; X for an original explanation; dev.to for substantive technical education | Show HN requires tryable, personally built work (official, Show HN Guidelines, 2026-09). DEV recommends full useful articles (official, DEV Organization Guide, 2026-09). Check authorship gates before assigning either. X selection is directional. |
| B2B SaaS | LinkedIn for buyer problem and customer proof; YouTube for an evaluable walkthrough; Medium for a substantive expertise article | LinkedIn recommends ramp, launch, and nurture (official, LinkedIn Launch Framework, 2026-05). Medium allows first-party business links while prohibiting traffic-first spam (official, Medium Rules, 2026-09). YouTube selection is directional. |
| Consumer or creator | Instagram and TikTok for demonstrations; YouTube for deeper evaluation; Threads for conversational education | Sprout respondents reported product-review and social-search use on visual networks (measured, Sprout Social Search, n=over 2,000 users in US/UK/Australia, 2026-06). Threads education preference appears in consumer research (measured, Sprout Platform Preferences, n=surveyed Threads users, 2026-03). Neither establishes the best launch mix. |
| Any ICP with observed community fit | Reddit for permitted problem discussion; Bluesky for education; Mastodon for accountable participation | Bluesky respondents preferred product education (measured, Sprout Statistics, n=surveyed Bluesky users, 2026-02). Require campaign-specific evidence of audience fit elsewhere; don't infer it from network stereotypes (directional). |
Keep newsletter and existing community follow-through attached to the chosen social channels. Product Hunt recommends early participation and preparing newsletter and LinkedIn promotion (official, Product Hunt Sharing, 2026-09). This guidance establishes no universal ordering.
### Founder and brand ownership
Test founder-led LinkedIn work when the founder owns the experience: founder posts received 2.7 times the reactions and comments among pairs where both accounts posted (measured, Serge Bulaev, n=35 founder/company pairs, 2026-08). This small observational study did not control matched content or measure revenue lift.
Retain a useful brand presence. Dreamdata associates company-page impressions with closed deals in its customer journeys (measured, Dreamdata Benchmarks, n=66M+ sessions and 3.5M+ journeys, 2026-03). Association doesn't prove causal influence. Choose other platforms' handles by real expertise and response continuity; don't export the LinkedIn result (directional).
## Launch and proof posts
Use the calendar as an illustrative T-14 to T+14 planning template, not a measured optimal cadence. Every offset below is illustrative; move or omit slots according to readiness, community permission, and available evidence. Give the downstream writer the shape and proof assignment, leaving platform execution to its posting skill (directional).
| Offset (illustrative) | Channel and shape assignment | Reply-window ownership |
|---|---|---|
| T-14 to T-8 | Select channels; inspect community rules; prepare Product Hunt and newsletter assets; commission a founder decision or buyer-problem post for LinkedIn, X, or Threads | Campaign owner records open buyer questions; founder confirms technical availability |
| T-7 to T-1 | Assign demo/artifact previews to chosen visual channels; commission policy-eligible dev.to or Medium depth; prepare permitted community context | Author covers the agreed opening hours; product owner receives evaluation blockers |
| T0 | Announce availability on chosen social handles; release the newsletter and optional Product Hunt launch; assign a runnable Show HN only when eligible and staffed | Named launch lead covers initial responses; technical owner handles setup; support owner handles access and terms |
| T+1 to T+3 | Answer a sourced objection on LinkedIn, X, or Threads; add useful clarification in existing discussions; commission a YouTube walkthrough if warranted | Original author returns to unresolved questions; follow-up owner contacts only consenting prospects |
| T+4 to T+7 | Publish permissioned customer proof on selected channels; give newsletter subscribers relevant adoption help | Customer-proof owner checks interpretation; support records activation friction |
| T+8 to T+14 | Share a bounded recap; commission deeper lessons where useful; review outcomes and schedule later cohort evaluation | Campaign owner closes open threads and records the next response and measurement dates |
Specify each reply window's local time, timezone, backup owner, escalation route, and handoff status. These are staffing commitments, not ranking promises. Reopen coverage when substantive questions arrive (directional).
Keep an approved Launch HN separate from coordinated press and other launch events, as its instructions require (official, Launch HN Instructions, 2026-09). Show HN requires maker availability and prohibits soliciting friends' votes or comments (official, Show HN Guidelines, 2026-09). Don't turn a waitlist into a Show HN slot.
### Proof selection
Match the proof to the exact promise. Prefer an inspectable artifact for capability claims; use customer outcomes only with permission and their measurement context. Record the baseline, observation window, denominator where relevant, operating conditions, and unresolved cost. Keep a case result bounded to that case; don't convert it into a general forecast (directional).
Obtain approval for names, quotations, logos, screenshots, and sensitive context before reuse. Preserve the source beside the working claim and the permission scope, including channels and expiry where specified. Redaction requires checking that the remaining material still supports the claim. Never synthesize a customer quote or infer permission from public availability.
Don't invent personal history, timelines, measurements, or shipped results. When a drafting example requires missing specifics, use bracketed placeholders and label it not publishable until filled and verified. In the actual campaign plan, identify the missing evidence in prose and assign its collection. “No CTA” doesn't repair unsupported proof.
## Voice ownership
- Have the named speaker review their actual position and register. Preserve natural contractions or fragments; introduce no errors. Use platform register only when documented voice is absent. Keep a technical objection precise without forcing every author into the same tone (directional).
+ Have the named speaker review their actual position and register. Preserve natural contractions or fragments; introduce no errors. With no documented voice, use restrained plain language suited to the reader, not an invented founder persona or borrowed platform slang. Keep a technical objection precise without forcing every author into the same tone (directional).
- Remove formulaic contrast frames, padded triads, staccato paragraph stacks, dramatic pivots, and tidy moral closers; check excessive em dashes without banning useful punctuation. Treat these as practitioner editing heuristics, not AI detectors or measured ranking factors (directional; Aborn, Cox, Gichigi). Also remove rhetorical-question openers, “nobody talks about” framing, “let that sink in,” engagement-bait endings, hashtag stacks, emoji bullets, and miracle-fix narratives as editorial rules (directional).
+ Review repeated contrast slogans, padded adjective lists, choppy paragraph stacks, empty suspense, and compulsory morals for a concrete reading problem. Keep real comparisons, useful summaries, meaningful questions, and audience-appropriate punctuation. Remove unsupported universal claims, false urgency, and requests for empty agreement; don't confuse every legitimate CTA with engagement manipulation. These are contextual editorial judgments, not AI detectors, banned-word lists, or measured ranking factors (directional; Aborn, Cox, Gichigi).
Require real decisions and supporting receipts before adding personal stakes (directional; Lees). Don't manufacture imperfections to imply human authorship (directional; Aborn). Keep affiliation and media-label obligations in the final handoff.
+ Adapt the same claim and proof to each audience and medium: narration, visual evidence, captions, replies, and long-form explanations have different jobs. Don't cross-post a lightly reworded script everywhere. Keep source labels, confidence notes, and research instructions in the internal handoff; retain public attribution, material limitations, and disclosures in the actual copy. A factual draft is not evidence that the speaker experienced its claims (directional).
+
+ For US-facing endorsements, disclose material connections clearly with the endorsement and preserve truthful personal experience. A platform's partnership toggle may not sufficiently explain the relationship; verify both the applicable disclosure requirements and the platform's rules (official, FTC Disclosures 101, checked 2026-09). Disclosure does not make prohibited promotion permissible.
+
## Cadence, engagement, and measurement
Choose cadence from evidence availability and staffed responses (directional). Buffer's format comparisons differ by platform, and its engagement definitions include LinkedIn clicks (measured, Buffer Engagement, n=platform subsets of 52M+ posts, 2026-03). Don't replace buyer relevance with a universal format hierarchy or promotional percentage.
Use permission-based DMs. A like, follow, or public reply doesn't authorize a sales sequence. Respond publicly to the actual question without inserting a cold pitch. Move private details to an agreed channel; record consent, purpose, owner, and the promised follow-up. Stop after refusal or an unanswered unsolicited approach. Don't enroll a contact into newsletters without permission (directional).
### KPI stack and readout
Define a qualified conversation as an ICP-fit person expressing a relevant evaluation or buying need. Record evidence of that qualification, not just positive sentiment. Separate registration from the agreed activation event. Deduplicate contacts and accounts across channels; record unavailable data as unknown (directional).
| Layer | Read out |
|---|---|
| Native response | Reach or views with definitions; relevant replies, saves, shares, profile visits; account baseline at matched post ages |
| Qualified interest | Qualified conversations, requested evaluations, accepted follow-ups, repeated objections |
| Product outcome | Source-tagged signups, activation cohort, failed onboarding, return use where available |
| Commercial outcome | Opportunities and pipeline influenced, attribution model/window, account overlap, eventual won revenue |
Use consistent source, medium, and campaign tags, with `utm_content` distinguishing creatives or placements (official, Google URL Builder, 2026-09). Apply tracking only where the platform handoff permits it. Retain raw self-reported discovery alongside tagged visits; HockeyStack documents grouping self-reports into channel buckets (official, HockeyStack Attribution, 2026-09).
Report attribution limits: missing referrers, consent gaps, cross-device journeys, remembered sources, and multiple campaign touches prevent complete causal credit. Keep influenced pipeline separate from incremental pipeline; don't sum overlapping attribution totals. Match review dates to the actual sales cycle and avoid declaring revenue failure before cohorts mature (directional).
Readout template: campaign and stage; reporting window and cohort maturity; channel/shape/owner; baseline and observed native metrics; qualified conversations; signups and activations with denominators; influenced pipeline and model; unknown attribution; unresolved objections; experiment verdict; next action with owner and review date.
### Experiments
Change a single variable, such as speaker or proof presentation. Record the hypothesis, comparable audience, baseline, success criterion, resource ceiling, and decision date before publishing. Compare at similar ages and disclose concurrent events. Mark kept or killed with evidence; if volume is inconclusive, record that finding and explicitly decide whether to fund a dated continuation. Don't extend a weak test indefinitely (directional).
## What gets suppressed and prohibited
Apply community rules before scheduling; don't presume disclosure makes prohibited promotion acceptable.
| Surface | Participation gate |
|---|---|
| Reddit | Repetitive mass promotion and unsolicited mass messages are spam (official, Reddit Spam, 2026-05). Read each subreddit's rules; r/mcp requires disclosed self-promotion and Showcase tagging, and bans fake unaffiliated promotion and promotional AI slop (official, r/mcp Rules, 2026-09). Don't generalize that permission to other subreddits. |
| HN | Supply factual notes for independent human authorship; generated or AI-edited text is prohibited. Exclude booster comments (official, HN Guidelines and Show HN Tips, 2026-09). |
- | dev.to | AI-assisted promotional articles are prohibited by the currently linked guidance; removing the CTA doesn't change promotional purpose (official, DEV AI Guidelines, 2024-04). |
+ | dev.to | AI-assisted promotional articles are prohibited; removing the CTA doesn't change promotional purpose. Generated comments are also prohibited apart from the stated basic translation, grammar/syntax, and assistive-technology exceptions. Educational assistance must stay within the author's own understanding (official, DEV AI Guidelines, 2024-04; checked 2026-09). |
| Medium | Third-party ads and sponsorships are prohibited; first-party links don't authorize traffic-first spam (official, Medium Rules, 2026-09). |
| Product Hunt | Feedback invitations are allowed; direct upvote requests and vote rewards are prohibited (official, Product Hunt Sharing, 2026-09). |
| Other communities | Check local rules and moderator permission for the planned activity. Don't use sockpuppets, scripted employee applause, voting rings, or disguised commercial participation (directional). |
## Examples
These are illustrative campaign briefs. Bracketed specifics require supplied evidence; every example is not publishable until filled and verified.
### Developer tool launch
For [developer ICP] facing [workflow problem], offer [runnable artifact] with [documented limitation]. Assign an X demo explanation; prepare HN factual notes only after the maker can staff discussion. Commission an independently human-authored DEV tutorial if promotional policy requires it. Use the newsletter for opted-in setup help. Track [qualified evaluations] separately from [activations]; repository attention doesn't establish payment.
Why it works: the channel decision follows inspectability and the authorship gate.
The proof rule keeps [test conditions] beside the capability claim.
### B2B SaaS proof campaign
Bad assignment: claim universal savings from an unnamed customer story.
Better assignment: LinkedIn proof showing [customer-approved baseline] to [observed outcome] during [measurement window], with [remaining manual work]. Let the customer-approved source lead; give the founder a separate account of [actual decision]. Offer [evaluation destination] only when it matches the buying situation. Review [qualified conversations] first, then [pipeline cohort] at [sales-cycle review date].
Why it works: permission and bounded conditions prevent a testimonial becoming a forecast.
The KPI stack separates immediate response from delayed commercial outcomes.
### Consumer or creator launch
For [audience] choosing [product category], assign an Instagram demonstration and a TikTok use-in-context script from [real footage]. Pair the optional Product Hunt release with an opted-in newsletter only if its audience fits. Disclose [gift or commercial relationship]. Follow with a YouTube explanation of [documented limitation] and a no-CTA recap if no further action is needed. Track [destination visits] through [activation or purchase event], without crediting all launch-day sales to social.
Why it works: platform execution stays downstream while the campaign owns the sequence.
The provenance and attribution rules preserve an honest outcome boundary.
## Checklist
- [ ] Brief names the buying situation, sourced proof, voice owner, and deliberate CTA choice.
- [ ] Every chosen channel has an ICP rationale and a supported downstream action.
- [ ] Calendar has readiness gates, reply owners, backups, and later cohort reviews.
- [ ] Customer proof is bounded, sourced, and permissioned; incomplete examples remain unpublishable.
- [ ] First lines express supported points; each assignment has a coherent idea.
- [ ] Downstream handoff covers format constraints, link path, author voice, disclosures, relevant assets and alt text, and follow-up replies.
- - [ ] AI-tell pass removes manufactured rhetoric and errors without flattening voice.
+ - [ ] Voice review fixes specific reading problems without inventing experience, flattening register, or enforcing detector/punctuation quotas.
- [ ] Community permission and authorship gates pass; DM follow-up has consent.
- [ ] Readout separates qualified interest, activation, and pipeline attribution; experiments have decision dates.
## References
Undated official pages below use their verification month in inline labels.
- [LinkedIn Launch Framework](https://www.linkedin.com/business/marketing/blog/linkedin-ads/how-to-launch-a-product-on-linkedin), 2026-05-26.
- [Show HN Guidelines](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html), [HN Guidelines](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), [Show HN Tips](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22336638), [Launch HN Instructions](https://news.ycombinator.com/yli.html), checked 2026-09.
- [DEV Organization Guide](https://dev.to/help/organizations/maximizing-your-dev-organization), checked 2026-09; [DEV AI Guidelines](https://dev.to/guidelines-for-ai-assisted-articles-on-dev/), 2024-04-08.
- [Medium Rules](https://help.medium.com/hc/en-us/articles/213477928-Medium-Rules), checked 2026-09.
+ - [FTC endorsement disclosures](https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/disclosures-101-social-media-influencers), checked 2026-09; US-facing commercial endorsements.
- [Sprout Social Search](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=173051), 2026-06-22; [Platform Preferences](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/?p=193529), 2026-03-16; [Statistics](https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-statistics/), 2026-02-09.
- [Product Hunt Sharing](https://www.producthunt.com/launch/sharing-your-launch), checked 2026-09.
- [Serge Bulaev](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/company-page-personal-profile-where-should-b2b-content-serge-bulaev-micve), 2026-08-17; [Dreamdata Benchmarks](https://dreamdata.io/blog/announcing-linkedin-ads-benchmarks-report-2026), 2026-03-10.
- [Aborn](https://emilyaborn.com/ai-writing-tells-what-they-cost-you/), 2026-07-10; [Cox](https://huntingthemuse.net/library/how-to-tell-if-writing-is-ai), 2026-06; [Gichigi](https://tahigichigi.substack.com/p/12-red-flags-of-ai-writing-and-how), 2026-02-18; [Lees](https://www.housingwire.com/articles/taste-guts-receipts-ai-writing/), 2026-08-07.
- [Buffer Engagement](https://buffer.com/resources/state-of-social-media-engagement-2026/), 2026-03-05; primarily historical account data.
- [Google URL Builder](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10917952?hl=en), [HockeyStack Attribution](https://docs.hockeystack.com/guides/report-examples-and-insights/adding-a-self-reported-source-to-your-unified-channel-defined-property), checked 2026-09.
- [Reddit Spam](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043504051-Spam), 2026-05-19; [r/mcp Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/mcp/about/rules.json), checked 2026-09.
Re-validate when:
- Features are renamed or policy pages change.
- Algorithm repositories gain relevant commits.
- New vendor reports replace the measured baseline.
Validated: 2026-09