The Cadence Audit: Scoring a Week of Posts Against the 70/20/10 Rule
Objective: Given a real week's posting log for a B2B SaaS X account, classify every post by format, calculate the actual content mix against the 70/20/10 rule, and flag every post that breaks the no-link-in-the-main-post rule.
You're auditing the X account for a secondary product line at Mailchimp before next week's content calendar gets locked in.
Classify each of the 12 posts by format (text-only, multimedia, quote/reply), calculate the real mix, and find the fastest single fix.
Before you start
What you'll need
Free path (everything below is enough to finish)
Free, filtering and percentage formulas are all this audit needs
The process
2 steps
Step 01 of 02
The lesson's Step 2 sets a target mix of 70% text-only posts, 20% multimedia (short video, charts, screenshots), and 10% quote-posts or replies as original content.
Of 12 posts logged this week (7 text-only, 1 short video, 1 screenshot, 2 link posts, 1 quote-post), what's the actual mix in percentages, and which category is furthest off target?
Procedure
- Tag each row: text-only, multimedia, or quote/reply-as-content
- Note that the 2 link posts don't fit any of the three categories at all, since link posts aren't part of the 70/20/10 mix
- Calculate the percentage for each of the three legitimate categories out of the 10 posts that do fit the framework
- Compare against the 70/20/10 target and flag the largest gap
10 posts fit the framework (2 link posts excluded, see Step 2): Text-only: 7/10 = 70% (on target) Multimedia: 2/10 = 20% (on target) Quote/reply-as-content: 1/10 = 10% (on target) The format mix is actually healthy. The real problem is the 2 posts that don't belong in any category.
Healthy
The three legitimate categories land close to 70/20/10, and any posts outside the framework get flagged separately rather than folded into the mix.
Unhealthy
Counting link posts as 'text-only' because they contain some text hides the real problem, that those posts shouldn't exist in this format at all.
What this means
A healthy-looking content mix can still hide a structural problem if the wrong posts get folded into the wrong bucket during counting.
So what do I do about it?
| Symptom | Action | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Content mix percentages look fine but engagement is still flat | Check whether posts outside the three legitimate formats are being miscounted into the mix instead of flagged separately | 5 min |
Step 02 of 02
The lesson's Step 5 and Common Mistakes sections both name the same rule: never post a link in the main tweet, since external links suppress reach. The fix is to post the hook alone, then add the link in the first reply.
The 2 link posts both put the URL directly in the main post. What's the single fastest fix, and does it require rewriting the post copy at all?
Procedure
- Confirm both flagged posts have a URL inside the main post body, not in a reply
- Note the fix requires no new copy, only moving the existing URL out of the main post and into a pinned first reply
- Estimate the impression lift using the lesson's own framing (this one change alone can double impressions on the same content)
Post 4 (product update): URL in main post -> move to first reply, pin it, no copy change needed. Post 9 (blog link): URL in main post -> same fix. Estimated fix effort: under 5 minutes per post, zero new writing required.
Healthy
Every post with a URL keeps the URL out of the main post entirely, in a pinned first reply instead.
Unhealthy
A post reads fine and gets engagement, but its reach is quietly capped because the algorithm suppresses any post carrying an external link.
What this means
This is the single highest-leverage fix in the whole audit: it costs no new writing time and the lesson itself calls out that it can double impressions on unchanged content.
So what do I do about it?
| Symptom | Action | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Product-update posts consistently underperform text-only posts of similar quality | Check whether the underperforming posts carry a URL in the main post instead of the first reply | 5 min |
Final deliverable
A completed content-mix scorecard (percentages against the 70/20/10 target) plus a list of every post that breaks the no-link-in-main-post rule and its one-line fix.
See a reference example
MVMT posting log audit (excerpt) Content mix: 6/9 text-only (67%), 2/9 multimedia (22%), 1/9 quote-post (11%) -- close to target. Flagged: 3 posts carry a URL in the main post body. Fix: move each URL to a pinned first reply, no copy rewrite needed, estimated to roughly double impressions on those 3 posts.
Success criteria
You're done when you can:
- Correctly separates link posts from the three legitimate 70/20/10 categories instead of folding them in
- Calculates accurate percentages against the target mix
- Identifies the link-in-main-post issue as the fastest, lowest-effort fix