What to post before you delete

Post it a few days early, not on your way out. People need time to see it and save your details. Pin it to your profile if the platform allows.

Do not put your phone number in a public post. It gets scraped for spam and SIM-swap attempts within hours. Ask people to DM you for it, or share an email address instead — email is far safer to publish.

The short one

Deleting this account on [DATE]. Not a statement, just done with it.

If we're actually friends, DM me and I'll send you my number before it goes.

The warm one

After [NUMBER] years, I'm closing this account on [DATE].

It's been genuinely good — I've met people here I'd never have met otherwise. But I want the hours back.

I'm not disappearing. Email me at [EMAIL] and I'll always reply. If you'd rather have my number, DM me before [DATE].

The straightforward one

Heads up: this account comes down on [DATE].

Best way to reach me after that is [EMAIL].

If you're on Signal, DM me here and I'll send you my details.

The one for a professional account

I'm stepping away from this platform on [DATE] to focus on [WHAT].

Ongoing work lives at [WEBSITE].
For enquiries: [EMAIL].

Thanks to everyone who followed along here.

The dry one

Turns out I've spent [NUMBER] days a year here. Going to go find out what else is on.

Deleting [DATE]. [EMAIL] if you need me.

Work out your own number with the time calculator.

Before you post it

• Set up the email address first and check it works. A typo here is how people lose touch permanently.
• Export your contacts — a public post reaches followers who happen to be scrolling that day, which is a small fraction of them. The data rescue checklist covers this.
• Message the people who really matter individually. A public post is not a goodbye to a close friend.
• Skip the manifesto. Long posts explaining why social media is bad tend to read as an argument, and people respond to the argument instead of saving your email.

Post it early, and pin it

The mistake that wastes a good goodbye post is timing. Publish it as you press delete and almost nobody sees it — feeds are ranked, most followers are not online, and the post disappears with the account within hours.

• Post about a week ahead. That gives the people who check in occasionally a chance to see it at all.
• Pin it to your profile so anyone who visits directly finds it rather than your last ordinary post.
• Put the contact method in your bio too. Bios are read by people who would never scroll to a post.
• Repeat it once, closer to the day. Once is a notice; twice is a reminder. Three times is a farewell tour.

Never publish a phone number. Public numbers are scraped within hours and fed into spam lists and SIM-swap attempts. An email address is the right thing to publish, ideally one you can abandon if it gets buried in spam. Share your number by direct message, to people who ask.

Say where you are going, not just that you are leaving

The posts that actually keep people are the ones that give somewhere concrete to go. "I'm off Instagram" gives a reader nothing to do; "I'm off Instagram, my photos are at this address, email me here" gives them two.

Whatever you name has to exist before you post it. Set up the email, publish the site, create the account on the other platform — then write the post. A goodbye pointing at something you intend to build next week is a goodbye pointing at nothing, and nobody comes back to check.

If you have no replacement and want none, that is a perfectly good post too — just give an email address. The aim is not to migrate your audience, it is to stay reachable by the handful of people who would genuinely miss you.