A post-mortem is five questions you answer in five minutes for your best post of the week. The point is not to explain the past. It is to decide the next post. Done weekly, it turns one lucky post into a format you can repeat.
TLDR: Each Friday, take your top post and answer five questions: how did it compare, what was the hook, what was the format, who reacted and what is the sequel. Write the answers in one line each and schedule the sequel before you close the tab.
Start with the comparison, not the number
A raw number means nothing on its own. In Mydrop's data, the median Instagram engagement rate was 3.1%, and the middle half of posts ran between 1.1% and 6.7%. So a 2% post is normal and a 7% post is a good day.
Compare your top post against your own account's median, not against another brand. If it beat your typical post by 50% or more, it earns a review. If not, pick the next one.
The five questions, one line each
Copy this into a doc and fill it in. Keep your answers short. If an answer takes more than a minute, you are overthinking it.
| # | Question | Example answer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | How far above my median was it? | 2.1x my usual engagement |
| 2 | What was the hook in the first line or first 2 seconds? | A number: "I cut 4 hours from reporting" |
| 3 | What was the format? | 7-slide carousel |
| 4 | Who reacted: followers or new people? | Mostly shares to non-followers |
| 5 | What is the sequel? | Same hook with the next tool, as a Reel |
Question 4 matters most. Shares and saves from non-followers mean the idea travels. Likes from regulars mean the idea comforts.
Name the one thing that probably caused it
You will rarely know the cause for sure, so write a guess and call it a guess. Pick one: the hook, the format, the topic or the timing.
Timing is usually the least likely. In Mydrop's data, the weekday made almost no difference, and the one clear loser was posting between midnight and 6 am. So look at the hook and the format first.
Schedule the sequel before you leave
This is the step people skip, and it is why good posts die. Make the next post right then, while the idea is fresh: same hook pattern, new topic, or same topic in a new format.
Put it on the calendar with a date. In Mydrop you can pull the original into the content calendar, draft the sequel with AI captions and see the result next to your other performance data. Mydrop shows each post's results by platform, so you can find the top post in seconds.
Keep a running file of winners
After a month you will have four or five one-line reviews. Read them together. Patterns appear: the same hook type, the same format, the same day of the week for your audience.
That file is worth more than any benchmark, because it is about your account. For a way to turn the winners into more output, see batching vs repurposing. To compare across platforms without drowning in charts, read how to compare social ROI across platforms.
Do the same for your worst post, once a month
Your weakest post is also data. Once a month, run the five questions on it too, and write down what you would change. You will often spot the same cause: a vague first line, a dense caption or an off-topic image.
Do not delete it. Note the lesson and move on. The aim is a shorter list of mistakes, not a clean grid.
Do this today: open your analytics, find your top post of the past two weeks, answer the five questions and schedule its sequel. Start with Mydrop to keep the calendar and the results in one view.
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