--- name: reference-style-model description: Learn a company page's writing style, formatting and tone from a reference account's public posts, then turn it into a reusable style model with numbered moves and a pre-publish pass. Use when someone says "we want our LinkedIn to sound like ", "learn from these posts", or wants a consistent brand-page voice. Transfers form, never the reference's facts or numbers. --- # Reference Style Model Turns "make us sound like them" into a checkable spec. The output is a small skill (or a file loaded by your ghostwriting skill) that every draft for one account runs through. **The governing rule: the moves transfer, the evidence does not.** The reference company's numbers, benchmarks, customers and claims never appear in your drafts. Copying their metric format without a real number of your own is a fabrication. ## Inputs - The reference account URL (for example a LinkedIn company page). - The target account, plus 3–10 of its existing posts. - The target's existing bans (house style rules, slop-edit call-outs). ## Step 1. Harvest the reference corpus - Company feeds are usually login-walled (403 or a sign-in page). Individual post permalinks are often publicly readable: collect them one at a time from search results, the company's site, or a signed-in browser the user controls. - Aim for 15–25 posts across at least a year. Paste each **verbatim** with its URL and date. - If your reader collapses newlines, say so and mark line breaks as **inferred**. Ask the user for 5–6 screenshots from their logged-in view to confirm formatting. - **Scope to the posts.** Exclude the reference's marketing site and ads unless the user asks; site copy is a different register. Save as `01-reference-corpus.md`, grouped into **house forms** (launch, research write-up, event, hiring, reshare-with-comment, argument/opinion, release notes, etc.). ## Step 2. Measure and compare Build `02-form-inventory.md`: - Metrics per form for the reference **and** the target's own posts: length, sentence length, emoji count and position, hashtags, links (body vs comment, labelled vs bare), questions, use of "we", named people, numbers per post. - A **post-type → model** table: for each kind of post the target makes, which reference form to follow. - **House tics**: small repeated habits (a structural emoji that opens launch posts, a `The specs:` block, a labelled link stack like `Blog: / Paper: / Docs:`). ## Step 3. Write the moves In `SKILL.md` for the style model, write 8–12 **moves**. Each move: - has a name, - is proved by one verbatim line from the reference, - says when to use it, - shows a parallel line written for the target **with a target fact** (or `[needs real number]`). Moves that commonly transfer well from strong technical brand pages: 1. Direct, problem-led opening (the problem the reader has, in their words). 2. Mechanism sentence with literal outputs ("returns allow, deny, or ask"). 3. A specs block with real metrics, including cost, when real metrics exist. 4. Honest shipping status (alpha, waitlist, "works for X, not yet Y"). 5. Named human credit (who built it, tagged). 6. Structural emoji used as a section marker, not decoration. 7. Labelled resource stack at the end of launches (`Blog:` / `Docs:` / `Paper:`). 8. Mechanism-led close on argument posts (end on how it works, not a CTA). 9. Reshare-with-comment: one line of real opinion on someone else's work. 10. A self-implicating or against-interest line where evidence supports it. ## Step 4. Keep the target's bans stronger than the reference If the reference uses something the target has banned (em dashes, "isn't X, it's Y", marketing adjectives, alarm/FUD framing), **keep the ban** and give 2–3 parallel-positive replacements that get the same rhythm. Write these in a "Deliberately not copied" section with the reason. ## Step 5. Gap analysis Compare the moves to the target's existing posts. Mark each move: **already doing it** / **new** / **not applicable**. Usually this is a small shift, not a rebrand: say so. ## Step 6. Write the pre-publish pass A numbered checklist (aim for 10–15 points) that a draft must pass. Each point is a yes/no question. Include at minimum: 1. Does the opener name a problem the reader has, in one clause? 2. Is there at least one mechanism sentence with literal outputs? 3. Is every number from a primary source of the **target** company? 4. Is shipping status honest (no implied GA)? 5. Is anyone who did the work named and tagged? 6. Do emoji (if any) mark structure only? 7. Is there a labelled link stack (launch/release) or a mechanism close (argument)? 8. Zero banned constructions from the target's list? 9. Zero marketing adjectives/adverbs? 10. No named competitors, no headcount claims (unless the target allows them)? 11. Would this post still be true and useful if the reference company didn't exist? ## Step 7. Record default rulings and scope - **Scope:** which account(s) this model applies to. A brand-page model never overwrites a person's personal voice, and doesn't apply to other platforms unless the user says so. - **Default rulings** you made (for example "the 'no CTA' rule now allows the labelled link stack on launches") with a note that the user can override them. ## Step 8. Wire it in Save as its own skill (or a file in the ghostwriting reference set). If a ghostwriting skill is in use, add this model as a **mandatory load at Step 0** for the scoped account and run its numbered pass as the **voice gate**, so it applies to every draft without being asked. ## Deliverable ``` reference-style-model/-/ SKILL.md # scope, moves (each with verbatim proof), not-copied list, pre-publish pass 01-reference-corpus.md # verbatim posts, URLs, dates, grouped by form; inferred line breaks marked 02-form-inventory.md # metrics vs target, post-type→model table, house tics ``` Report to the user: how the corpus was sourced and its gaps, what's new vs what they already do, what was deliberately not copied, default rulings, and where it's wired in.