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How to Grow Your Twitter Audience from Scratch

After multiple suggestions from fellow IH users, I've decided to repurpose and share a post I've written not too long ago on Twitter growth hacking.

Now, without further ado, if you're starting from scratch building your Twitter audience, do this:

  • Before you do anything, optimize your profile. I wrote about it here: https://zlappo.com/blog/ultimate-guide-optimize-your-twitter-profile-more-followers-and-conversions-examples-given/.
  • Next, start following 10-20 key influencers (big accounts) in your niche/market.
  • Add them to a private list called "Snipe." THIS IS WHERE YOU LIVE NOW.
  • Comment 10-20 times on these key influencers' tweets daily.
  • Do this for 3-6 months consistently. Day in, day out.
  • Make sure your comments add a ton of value and can actually stand on their own merit as their own tweets.
  • Double-down on influencers who engage back; cut off influencers who ignore you.
  • The goal is to leverage other people's large followings to build your own, to maximize your visibility in the easiest way possible, and also establish yourself as an up-and-coming influencer in your niche to entice people to 1) click on your name and 2) end up following you, so your profile and your content have to really look the part.
  • In 2020, this is the state-of-the-art growth hacking trick for Twitter, why else does "Eugene Gu, MD" comment so often on @realdonaldtrump's tweets?
  • Also, commenting on Twitter is a very delicate art, Twitter has its very own specific social culture/networking etiquette, here's an article I wrote on Twitter commenting strategies: https://zlappo.com/blog/4-smart-twitter-commenting-strategies-grow-your-followers-examples/.
  • Once you get some traction, start scheduling your own original tweets, automating retweets for your evergreen tweets, etc. to leverage automation to the fullest to turn your Twitter profile into a giant mega-funnel for your site/app/blog: see https://zlappo.com
  • Double-down on followers who engage with you and your content; don't bother with those who don't.
  • These people will probably be your first advocates, customers, affiliates, testimonial providers, and promoters. Treat them like your friends. Networking 101. They're your tribe.
  • Yes, you need to constantly write original content for Twitter. Platitudes, lists, actionable insights, stories, tweet storms, infographics, what have you. Here's a list of ideas: https://zlappo.com/blog/10-easy-high-engagement-tweet-ideas-grow-your-audience-faster-examples-given/.
  • You should definitely auto-retweet your evergreen/most-popular content in the background as well: https://zlappo.com/blog/how-automatically-recycle-your-evergreen-tweets-step-step-guide/.
  • You do this consistently enough, you don't even have to sell. The sale will find its way to you.

Disclaimer: yes, I'm the founder of a Twitter growth tool company + author of a Twitter growth hacking blog

  1. 3

    Good list - thanks Jayber!

  2. 3

    Okay these tips are solid gold. I started publishing tweets around idea creation and it's gaining news users.

    https://twitter.com/startappideas

  3. 3

    How do I follow your blog? I can't seem to find an RSS feed.

    1. 2

      Unfortunately we don't have one yet. But adding one soon!

  4. 3

    Incredibly powerful. Thanks Jayber!

  5. 3

    Super helpful and concise ! nice thanks for sharing

  6. 3

    This is my favorite post about Twitter so far

  7. 3

    Useful and actionable, thank you for the tips 🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️

  8. 3

    very useful, thanks for sharing!!

  9. 3

    Just want to add a tip, the Indie Hackers account, thanks @rosiesherry is a great account to follow. It posts great content + is relevant to everyone here + retweets content from a bunch of other indie hackers/entrepreneurs so is a great way to engage and meet other people over on twitter.

    1. 3

      Thanks Yehuda.

      I'm trying to get into the habit of scheduling content upfront, up to a month in advance, but only for some of the content. I don't feel comfortable automating stuff.

      I need to find the confidence to comment as IH on other people's accounts. Feels a bit different from a 'company' Twitter account.

      1. 3

        Disclaimer: everything I'm about to write applies to my personal account but I believe could be relevant to you as well, either way take it with a grain of salt.

        I tried to start and had a few false starts on Twitter in the past week or two. I finally decided this morning to go all in on twitter because I think it will return a lot of value in the coming months/years.

        When I started the past week or two I got a few posts out, got almost no engagement and went and deleted my tweets for fear of someone finding them unpopular when they saw them in the future. I then thought about how I use twitter and realized the one and only true metric that matters is your follower count.

        These people have an increased chance of being exposed to your future tweets and are a great signal to newcomers to your profile when they decide whether to follow you or not. Everything else you do on twitter (to a certain extent) is highly ephemeral and doesn't matter at all even 5 minute after you post it. For a bigger account like indie hackers, that time might be 24 - 48 hours but after that, for 99%+ of twitter users 99%+ of that content is lost forever.

        It's not built for people to have easy access to your past tweets from months or years ago. And even more so, people viewing your profile CAN'T SEE YOUR REPLIES to other people.

        With that in mind, I realized that

        1. Obviously I have to be careful not to say anything super bad as is evidenced from recent "cancellations" of celebrities for past bad jokes. But for me that's irrelevant because I try really hard to keep all my online presence extremely positive regardless of anything else because in my opinion positivity >>>> than negativity.
        2. Everything you do will immediately be gone. If you mess up or make a mistake, your good, in a few days, literally no one will see it because there's going to be so much new content flooding their feeds, it won't be relevant.

        In conclusion, haha, if you even read all of this, just start. You almost literally, can not mess up on twitter when it comes to anything (except for point 1 above). Plus, just like anything else, as you do it more, you'll get better at it and people will just be looking at your past, most recent examples and will think you're a pro.

        P.S. I'm practicing self promotion even though it's nauseating, cause all the, keep doing it and you'll get better at it. So, in that light, if you do want to practice replying/engaging/interacting with someone on Twitter, @yehudabrick is where you can find me 😊!

  10. 3

    Thanks for sharing! My Quora account has taken off, but Twitter growth is still a pain in the butt. Will follow your suggestions and maybe try Zlappo too ;-) Cheers

    1. 2

      Let me know if you need any assistance. Always ready to help!

  11. 2

    Hey thanks for making this. I am trying to build a Twitter audience myself but it is rather new and enticing. Appreciate the read. Hope all is well

  12. 0

    Recently launched a bot that gives you back your time by automating the engagement process on Twitter.

    Just set it up once, and forget!

    The bot will go through the tweets in your curated lists every hour and give an engaging reply.

    I call it engage-ai. You can download it from here:

    https://ghosharnab.gumroad.com/l/engageai

    See results:

    See results:
    results of engagement bot on twitter

    results of engagement twitter 2

    Don't worry; if you are not a developer, I can personally help you set up the bot. :D

  13. 3

    This comment was deleted 7 months ago.

  14. 3

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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