Post format · Story posts
Behind the scenes: real viral examples and how it's built
How the work really gets done is what followers can't see anywhere else. 11 viral posts on X from 10 creators used this format between April and October 2026. Their median views were 89.6K, and their median reach 12.2 times the creator's follower count.
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Real examples
The 5 most viewed posts, one per creator.
Derek Devicemanager
@IT_unhinged
3.8Mviews
Security called me at 6:12 AM today. "Patch every PHP server immediately." I asked what happened. "Two critical vulnerabilities. Remote code execution. No authentication required." Cool. How many PHP servers do we have? According to inventory: 12 According to…
20.9K followers · Oct 21, 2026
Mitchell Hashimoto
@mitchellh
1.7Mviews
Good moment today to remind everyone to stay frosty with AI. I was working on making a server stoppable via the CLI, and Codex decided the best path forward was to implement an unauthenticated network API to every server to shut itself down. Excellent work. I responded with "I…
231.9K followers · Aug 17, 2026
Josh Daws
@JoshDaws
512.9Kviews
Mary Sue Bloopers! Directing an AI film is a lot like directing actors and working with a cinematographer. People think you type a prompt and out pops a movie. That's not how it works. You provide a prompt and reference images/videos/audio to generate a take. It's not right…
41.6K followers · Oct 9, 2026
Alex Cornell
@alexcornell
428.7Kviews
When I look back at the earliest @Muse mocks, the very first thing that was designed was the “status” pill at the top of the screen. That one tiny piece of UI survived every subsequent revision, many months on. It remains one of my favorite parts of the design. Its purpose is…
70.1K followers · Sep 23, 2026 · Photo
Guillaume Huin
@HuinGuillaume
227.4Kviews
Grimace Shake is trending again as McDonald's Germany just launched it. When the Grimace trend happened, I led Social for McD US. The one question I kept getting: what happened at HQ when you first discovered it? Below is a behind the scenes of what happened, sharing actual…
40.9K followers · Apr 30, 2026 · Photo
How it's built
Answer this first: What does a part of your work look like from the inside? For example: “How we ship a feature in a week: one doc, one call, daily demos”. Then write one line or paragraph per bracket, in this order:
[What people see from the outside] [What it actually takes, specifically] [What you'd tell someone starting out]
The median viral post in this format was 1,008 characters long, and 4 of 11 had a photo or video. Use it to build in public and grow your audience.
Formats like it
All formats, as fill-in outlines: tweet templates and LinkedIn post templates. What's going viral right now: this week on X.
Questions
What is the behind the scenes post format?
How the work really gets done is what followers can't see anywhere else. It goes in this order: what people see from the outside; then what it actually takes, specifically; then what you'd tell someone starting out.
Does it work on LinkedIn as well as X?
The examples on this page are X posts. The shape carries over to LinkedIn; put the first beat in the first two lines, before "see more", and write the rest in full sentences rather than as a thread.
Where do these examples come from?
From Postel's library of individual creators on X. Each day, posts from the last two weeks by creators with at least 1,000 followers that have reached 5 times their follower count in views are checked once: a model sorts each by format, and a stronger model approves it as a clear example. 11 posts from April to October 2026 were tagged with this format; the page shows the most viewed one from each of up to five creators.
How do I write a post in this format in my own voice?
Answer one question first: What does a part of your work look like from the inside? Then fill the template on this page with your answer, one beat at a time. In Postel, pick this format under Viral posts › Formats and it writes the post for X, LinkedIn or both from your answer, in the way you write (one AI credit per network).
I'm one of the examples. Can I have my post removed?
Yes. Send the post's link through the contact form at postel.app/contact and it comes off this page within a few days.