Art of Posting - Lesson 4
Packaging
How format changes reach: adding an image lifts the typical creator by 41.5%
Most creators treat visuals as decoration, something added once the text is done. The data says something different.
Format is a reach decision. Compare each creator against their own average, and the median creator's image posts run 1.41 times their text posts. That is a 41.5% lift, and it holds for 42 of the 53 creators in the index.
Be careful how far you take that. The raw corpus averages (2,108 for image posts against 693 for text) overstate the case, because the creators who lean on images are not the same creators who lean on text. Comparing each creator against themselves removes that distortion, which is why 41.5% is the number we publish and 3x is not.
Format Performance Breakdown
Image: 2,108 average weighted engagement across 14,404 posts. The strongest of the three formats.
Carousel: 1,173 average across 1,212 posts. Best for step-by-step content people want to save.
Text: 693 average across 13,983 posts. Lowest of the three, and the format where the writing has to carry everything.
Video sits outside this table. There are 10 video posts in the index, which is far below the threshold at which we will quote a number.
Image Types Preview
Image types are scored against the creator's own average, where 1.00 means the type performs exactly like that creator's typical post.
document_note: the strongest type in the index. Full deep dive in Lesson 7: Visual Authority.
headshot_selfie: near the top, and cheaper to produce than anything else on this list. team_people: also above the creator's own average, and the most widely used of the types that are.
product_graphic: the weakest type in the index, and not by a small margin.
The Packaging Multiplier
Text posts are not broken. They average 693 engagements across 13,983 posts, and plenty of the index's best writing sits there.
The point is smaller and more usable than the usual advice. For the median creator, moving a post from text to image is worth about 41.5%, and choosing document_note over product_graphic moves it further than the text-to-image decision did. Same content, different packaging.