What Is Broetry?
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Key Takeaways
- Broetry formats a post as one sentence per line with blank lines between, mimicking poetry to slow the reader and build tension.
- The term was coined by BuzzFeed News in late 2017, which credited the word to reporter Caroline O'Donovan, as the style spread across LinkedIn.
- Marketer Josh Fechter is widely credited with establishing and popularizing the format's conventions.
- It worked because heavy line breaks maximize white space and dwell time in a text-sparse feed; it is mocked for formulaic, humble-brag storytelling.
How Broetry Works
Broetry is a LinkedIn post written to look like poetry. Instead of paragraphs, every sentence — sometimes every fragment — gets its own line, with a blank line between them. The effect is a tall, narrow column of text that a reader scrolls through one beat at a time. The name is a portmanteau of "bro" and "poetry," a nod to its roots in earnest, self-improving, mostly-male business content.
Mechanically, it is line break formatting pushed to its limit. Each break forces a pause; each pause builds suspense. A typical broem opens with a dramatic one-line hook ("I fired my best client yesterday."), drip-feeds a short personal story line by line, then resolves into a tidy business lesson and a question. Because the format stacks so much white space, the post is long on the page but light to read — a high readability score by construction — which pulls the reader downward and runs up dwell time. That is one reason the style spread so fast.
Where Broetry Came From
The style crystallized in 2017. As single-sentence-per-line posts took over the feed, BuzzFeed News ran a piece that named the trend — coining "broetry" (and "broem" for a single post), a word the report credited to reporter Caroline O'Donovan.[1]Mac, Ryan. "Why Are These Posts Taking Over Your LinkedIn Feed? Because They're Pure Broetry." BuzzFeed News, 2017. View source The marketer Josh Fechter, who had honed the spoken-word style on Quora, is the person most often credited with establishing the format's conventions and proving its reach.[2]"Self-Help Poetry, Dubbed Broetry, Has Taken Over LinkedIn." InsideHook, 2017. View source By December 2017 the format was ubiquitous enough that outlets from InsideHook to Boing Boing were dissecting it — admiringly and otherwise.[3]"Broetry is the perfect blogging format for the age of Trump." Boing Boing, December 7, 2017. View source
The timing explains the appeal. LinkedIn's feed was starved for native content, so anything that stopped the scroll was rewarded with outsized reach. Broetry stopped the scroll by design. It read as personal in a place built for corporate updates, and its line breaks made even a thin anecdote feel like a story worth finishing.
Example of Broetry
A textbook broem, illustrative:
"A stranger changed my life on a Tuesday."
"I was broke. Down to my last $40."
"He bought my coffee and said seven words I'll never forget:"
"'Bet on yourself. Nobody else will.'"
"That was 2019."
"Today I run a seven-figure agency."
"Lesson: the smallest kindness can rewrite a life."
"Agree? Repost to spread it."
The anatomy is visible at a glance: a cliffhanger hook, a suspense ladder of one-line beats, an emotional turn, a broad lesson, and an engagement-bait call to action. That last ingredient — the reflexive "Agree? Repost" — is exactly what turned broetry from a technique into a punchline.
The Bottom Line
Broetry is LinkedIn's most recognizable native format: a post styled as free verse, one line at a time, engineered to build suspense and rack up dwell time. Coined in 2017, it worked — and still works — because white space and cliffhangers suit a fast, mobile feed. It is mocked because the same template, repeated by thousands of accounts with manufactured emotion and a "repost if you agree" tag, curdled into self-parody. The lesson is not to avoid line breaks; it is to earn them. A real story told in the broetry shape still lands; a fabricated one told the same way is why people roll their eyes. Used honestly, it is closer to a listicle post than a con — a structure, not a trick.
What people get wrong about broetry
Broetry is not inherently cringe — the cringe is the lie. The format itself is just suspenseful pacing, the same tool a good storyteller has always used; there is nothing embarrassing about putting one sentence on its own line so it hits harder. What people actually recoil from is the fabricated parking-lot epiphany, the invented stranger who dispenses a perfect aphorism, the humble-brag dressed as vulnerability, and the 'agree?' tag stapled to the end. Blaming the line breaks is like blaming the sonnet for bad love poetry. Tell a true story and the broetry shape works; manufacture one and no amount of white space will save it.
| Broetry | Listicle Post | |
|---|---|---|
| Shape | A narrative told in one-sentence lines | A numbered or bulleted list of points |
| Register | Personal story building to a lesson | Practical, skimmable takeaways |
| Best for | Relatability and reach | Saves and reference value |
| Failure mode | Manufactured drama, humble-brag | Shallow, padded 'X ways to' filler |
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is broetry on LinkedIn?
- A post written like free verse — one short sentence per line, blank lines between — that builds suspense toward a business or life lesson. The word blends 'bro' and 'poetry' and describes the dramatic, story-driven style common on LinkedIn.
- Where did the term broetry come from?
- BuzzFeed News coined it in late 2017 while documenting the style's takeover of LinkedIn. Marketer Josh Fechter is most often credited with popularizing the one-sentence-per-line format that the term describes.
- Why is broetry mocked?
- Because the format became a formula: a fake-sounding personal epiphany, over-the-top line breaks, a neat moral, and a 'repost if you agree' tag. When thousands of accounts run the same template with manufactured emotion, it reads as parody.
- Does broetry still work?
- Yes, when the story is real. The suspenseful pacing still earns attention and dwell time on a mobile feed. It fails when the emotion is manufactured or the template is obvious — audiences now recognize and discount the pattern.
Article Sources
ContentIn requires writers to use primary sources — official LinkedIn documentation, engineering publications, and original platform data. Learn more in our editorial standards.
- Mac, Ryan. "Why Are These Posts Taking Over Your LinkedIn Feed? Because They're Pure Broetry." BuzzFeed News, 2017.Link Accessed July 22, 2026.↩
- "Self-Help Poetry, Dubbed Broetry, Has Taken Over LinkedIn." InsideHook, 2017.Link Accessed July 22, 2026.↩
- "Broetry is the perfect blogging format for the age of Trump." Boing Boing, December 7, 2017.Link Accessed July 22, 2026.↩