What people don't get about growing on Twitter
If you try to get likes, you won’t get likes.
I sometimes catch myself writing a tweet that “could go viral.”
But the people who follow me don’t need me to go viral. They want me to write something useful.
So that’s what I aim to do. Works every time, 60% of the time.
👌 Couldn't agree more.
I've watched plenty of people assume this "go viral or go broke" mindset — both on Twitter and on other social platforms — and then promptly burn out. It's rarely a good idea to put a lot of pressure on yourself to achieve crazy short-term success in games that require long-term sustained effort.
Thanks, Channing. The focus on long-term over short-term is key.
Here's another view at this: consider WHY people want to go viral. They either want more followers or they want to sell something once they have the attention of a large crowd.
In either case, this is causing unsustainable relationships:
The new followers you get when you go viral are very fickle. I have several good Twitter friends who had a VERY viral tweet that caused them to jump tens of thousands of followers overnight. But all of them —ALL of them— lost these followers over the next few months. Not a surprise: people who follow you because you're viral are not interested in your "regular programming" the same way your non-viral followers are. They come for the hype and rarely stay for the normal stuff.
Now, if you intend to sell something at this point, you maneuver yourself into a loss-loss situation: the people who already follow you already know what you're selling. The people who JUST followed you don't want the first thing they see you say beyond your viral tweet to be an ad. Imagine meeting someone for the first time and all they do is try to sell you a thing that has little to do with why you met them. So in either case, old follower or new, you're creating distrust and burning a relationship that was JUST starting to form.
Chasing virality is rarely worth it if you care about forming sustainable long-term relationships with your audience on Twitter.
This.
Last week, I had a conversation with @aarondfrancis on our podcast about how he uses twitter, and how he grew from 1.2k to 5.1k followers in the last year, by being himself.
Just building in public, being positive, and having conversations... every day.
He has definitely changed my mind about twitter. It's a refreshing, enjoyable way of using twitter, and it seems to work.
https://share.transistor.fm/s/c854b56e
Thanks for sharing. That was definitely a more grounded take on how to use Twitter.
Subbed to the podcast.
Also, his positivity is contagious 😊
I know right? He's the real thing - on twitter and on the podcast!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Agree 100%
I was just thinking about this twitter thing.
I am entering this twitter game (with very few followers, Im not chasing):
Discovering how important might be twitter as an acquisition funnel, but there are other ways, I would not advise a new indie-hacker to "go and tweet" if he has nothing to share on the moment, that will result to generic content-marketing
Feeling that for some folks, it is ALL ABOUT growing a twitter audience, I don't really agree if it's not matching my internal feelings
The more time I spend, the more I see patterns from all these threads (same catching phrase, same finding patterns in all these threads)
↘️ Hard to find signal in this noise, are you guys feeling the same ?
I feel my process should just be
And because I need consistency and motivation:
... And that's it ! That's okay if I reach a low figure number of followers, because they will be hyperqualified, I guess ?
At the end, everything should compound
Compounding effects kick in late, but boy do they kick :D
When you build a reputation for being a HUMAN BEING that helps people selflessly, you won't be able to escape the support and admiration of the people who have found you along the way.
It's quite the opposite of what you'd consider a "traditional distribution channel." Twitter becomes a great channel —even for distribution— when you do everything but push your product.
Love that you have found sharing your story, helping people, and interacting with people you actually want to interact with. That's a stellar example that many people should follow.
I have the opposite impression. A lot of folks I see on Twitter with high follower numbers and likes tweet generic stuff that looks very similar to what others in the space post. I get really bored sometimes reading all the generic JavaScript and programming advice. This might be more prominent in the developer/Indie Hacker scene than in others, I don't know.
I see this same thing.
Some really big accounts post useless fluff all the time.
But look at their follower-to-likes ratio. It's often not very good. And sometimes these accounts simply got big 5-10 years ago and don't generate much in the way of real, value-adding relationships anymore.
This is a very important observation. High-follower accounts that don't engage with their audiences are usually the first ones for people to unfollow because they start becoming generic.
Oh you will find plenty of these kinds of accounts. There is a lot of cargo-culting around "high-engagement content", on the creator and the consumer side.
But I see that changing. More and more people unfollow these accounts and look for lower-follower but high-actual-engagement people. And I see them succeeding in a very different way: they're not "making fast cash" but actually build relationships that open up opportunities beyond money for them.
And when it comes to our Twitter information diet: you eat what you choose from the menu ;) Try unfollowing those accounts for a change in your timeline. I do this quite regularly.
Totally agree
Likes aside, I feel my own relationship with Tw**ter has only very recently settled into something fun and healthy. I think because:
There's more, but these are probably the main things.
[1] https://sive.rs/hellyeah
[2] https://typefully.com/
[3] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/threadhelper/nfadnflafdfmekapgcgddbccooagpndk?hl=en
Well said, Arvid! When I grew rapidly on Twitter, it was because I had just started sharing resources and things I had learned over the past 7 years in my career. And it actually translated to a real audience and sales because I had given out real value. I hate gimmicky or engagement focused tweets. No value there or benefits.
Is twitter in general a good place to promote a Saas, compared to Facebook, YouTube or blogging? I've tried it and there just aren't a lot of conversations around my topic on twitter.
I found a lot more results on Facebook using my own Facebook Group, but I suppose this is completely dependent on the topic.
And even the Facebook Group I have to promote with lead generation ads, Facebook is pay to play at this stage, unlike Twitter I think, but at least I'm getting some organic reach, my own community that I can interact to daily to better understand what they are looking for, and I'm growing my email list.
If your target audience is not active on Twitter, you won't convert anyone into a customer.
However, Twitter has one BIG advantage: a lot of fellow indie hackers and founders are building their businesses in public. You'll learn from them by just watching, but you will have them actively help, support, and motivate you if you build your business in public there as well.
Whenever I have a problem with my business, I ask my audience for experience or guidance. I still have to filter a lot to make sense of the replies, but it's so much better to get immediate feedback on stuff than building in secret for ages and then only hearing crickets.
So, even if Twitter isn't your perfect audience, the founders on Twitter might be.
Facebook groups are AMAZING for finding your perfect customers — as long as you get invited into the right invite-only groups. Can you share more about your approach to that?
Hello arvidkhal, thank you that makes sense. And what founder to you recommend following that you enjoy the most, is there a twitter community for that?
Regarding Facebook, even if you get invited to Facebook groups with your audience, if you start posting your stuff or start sending private messages to group members, you will quickly get banned, at least that is how it works on my industry.
I find that silly because most of the value of the group is to be able to reach other members. And even if you don't get banned, getting traction is super slow.
What I found works for me is to create my own Facebook Group, and promote it with lead generation ads on Facebook. I find that even with a small nominal amount of money I can grow the group, and so I prefer building my own community without having to be dependent on other Facebook groups.
Twitter is also experimenting with their version of FB Groups called "Twitter Communities".
You are right
100% Agree.
I even stopped focusing on writing tweets every day and instead only post threads I know will be of real value.
When I don't have anything to tweet I interact with people and answer questions.
So far it's been way more successful in terms of interactions and connections made (not to mention leads!) than posting a bunch of fluff I'm embarrassed to have my name next to.
It's all about being genuine and honest.
Tell your story, your truth, and your ideas, and do not try to say things you think you have to say.
That works all the time, and it doesn't matter that 90% of people don't like how you think. You write for the small percentage that agrees with you.
Absolutely! It's enough just to be useful!
A few weeks ago, I thought about building in public as a marketing tactic, but I believe that channel has been burnt out, most things look like a fraud now.
The "hope this goes viral" mindset is exactly why, if you don't follow the right people on Twitter, your feed will be flooded with some of the most repetitive, formulaic, insincere, disingenuous, uninsightful, unactionable platitudes.
I could not agree more.
Couldn’t agree more. This is exactly why I’ve gave up on Twitter - pressured myself too much with that stuff and obv didn’t succeed.
Marketing 101 - If you don't create value, then you can't sell anything.
Fully agree with you Arvid.
Don't focus on getting upvotes. Focus on creating content and building an audience. You can use instagram for building an audience too.
it is true, the more we seek an ephemeral end the more the result will be the opposite
This post and all the comments below are the best Twitter course! 1000 relationships is better than 100K followers.
I'm new on the Twitterland and omg it's so tempting to start behaving as if you're not a human being and all you care about is a single number.. as if behind that number there are no human beings but just... a prize!!!
Looking just for followers also gives me high anxiety! What if I had only 1000 Twitter followers who look forward to my tweets, DM me, say hello, become clients, share my thoughtful tweets... that I want...
Arvid, I have a big vision, I want to become the next Bill Campbell, the most loving and successful coach in Silicon Valley. I have a prosperous coaching business and now I want to coach good founders for free—and for life, just like Bill. I see that you are also in the startup ecosystem. Where would you start if you were me? Any communities with startup founders trying to change the world? Where would you look for new founders if you were me? Any specific people to follow on Twitter?
I'll put this post on my wall right now!!!! With love, Angelos.
I've noticed that the type of tweet which goes viral usually gets no engagement. Most likely because such tweets just express a sentiment. There is no real interaction to be had.
Possibly such tweets will get you removed from people's lists. Also why even look at followers? The real metric is how many meaningful engagement sbyou have
Best strategy is to share what you did or expert in a simple way.
You would be surprise how much knowledge you have and take for granted but others crave.
All great creators in one post I like it and what you say bro is true.
Love this Arvid 💙
The challenge for smaller accounts is to keep going without much validation or signs of growth.
To trust that they will benefit in the long term.
I think going viral gives instant gratification and tells you that you are doing "something" right at this Twitter thing.
Short-term rewards are useful to build habits that will benefit in the long term.
Otherwise, it can feel like you're just pounding a brick wall and just hurting your own knuckles in the process.
It all depends on the content, timing and the hottest topic on the platform at the time.
I could not agree more.
how #important are hashtags these days?
I personally avoid them at all costs
Are people generally Tweeting from a company account or their personal account? I am always not to sure which account I should be posting from. Do I want to focus on growing my personal account of company one. ¯\(ツ)/¯
I fall into same situation many times.
Correct, there definitely is a cold start problem though, as in how do you get from 0 followers to say your first 500.
TikTok did really well in this area, would love to see Twitter adopt a more meritocratic algorithm to surface content in a similar way to the FYP.
This is the way.
I started working on a challenge of bootstrapping a saas in 30 days 2 days ago (30_days_challenge), tweeting about my activities along the way helps promoting my product, and from another side helps my with my goal knowing that there are people following the progress and that I need to honor their and of course my expectations.
Trying to not get hunted by all that likes and followers idea but it's not easy you see !
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