Let’s get the unoriginal advice out of the way.
Yes, you need to do the following:
- Optimize your bio
- Tweet 3x per day
- Engage 30x per day
- etc. etc.
But you knew that already.
Instead, this guide has my original solutions to problems that no one warned me about.
Let’s get into it…
1. Write clearly**.**
Nuance doesn’t scale.
Tweets are limited to 280 characters. Even threads are composed of tweet-sized building blocks.
The format ensures you need to get a major point across every 2 sentences.
The best-performing tweets trend toward opinionated one-liners.
You need to lean into this.
Don’t hedge your bets.
Qualifiers are ‘hedging words.’
Think of words like basically, essentially & mostly.
Using qualifiers undercuts your point & adds nuance. Nuance is poison to virality.
Kill these from your tweets.
Write at a grade 3-7 reading level.
This is the reading level of the average American.
- Use Grade 3 words as your default: fake
- Use Grade 7 words for flair: counterfeit
- Avoid Grade 12 words. They hurt flow: spurious
2. Set up smart systems.
Give yourself room to mess up.
No matter how motivated you are to post daily, life happens:
- Stolen laptop
- Overtime at work
- Death in the family
Buckle down & schedule the next month of tweets in 1 day.
This will relieve an immense amount of pressure. You can always edit & replace the worst tweets a few days later.
Give yourself a buffer.
Engage once. Tweet twice.
When you find a post that inspires a thoughtful engagement, reword that engagement into a top-level tweet to go out the following week.
There’s enough time between both posts for this not to be annoying.
Then think of a continuation idea & tweet it whenever you want.
This way you get 3 pieces of content when something resonates with you.
Build a tweet flywheel
Your 1st tweets are supposed to be shit.
Tweet whatever comes to mind. Treat it like your journal.
Use this approach:
- Write 100 bad tweets
- 1 of them will perform really well
- Rewrite the great tweet 100 different ways
Timing matters more than they’ll admit.
Engaging at any time throughout the day won’t cut it.
The way to get the most distribution is to engage with giant accounts within the first 5 minutes of their tweets.
You need to be able to come up with a decent tweet on the spot. This is a skill you hone over time.
For me, engaging with giant writing accounts from 0800-0900 EST is the sweet spot. I keep a tab open & refresh TweetDeck for the hour.
This is how I drive large volume to my profile.
3. You have to play status games.
Respect psychological levels
In forex trading, psych levels are arbitrary round numbers that influence how people trade.
On Twitter, you need to hit different follower benchmarks for different people to consider you worthy of a follow: 50, 100, 500, 1000
It gets easier because people scrutinize you less.
Play the ratio.
Your follower:followed ratio should be at least 3:1 once you’re beyond 50 followers
If you’re following more people than follow you, you look questionable.
It’s stupid, but true.
Stop selling.
Don’t put offers in your bio at sub 200 followers.
People get nervous that you’ll pitch them unproven products or services.
You need to give some advice for free first to cue the reciprocity effect.
If you insist on selling something, post actual proof you’ve done the thing. Otherwise, no one cares.
4. You need to be able to change your mind a lot.
It’s OK to flip-flop on niches.
Before I choose to focus on clear writing, I tried these niches:
- Middle Manager
- The Networker
- Content Operations
- Digital Writing Coach
A completely random list of curiosities. The only way to test them was to try them out.
Those hours you’ve spent brainstorming a niche could’ve been better spent writing & posting.
Try to NOT go viral.
Going viral off of 1 post is severely overhyped.
In the start you’ll be experimenting with wildly random content.
Gaining 10k followers on a Google Chrome extension thread is a lot less useful if you never want to write about Chrome extensions again.
And by time you’re dialled into a niche that makes sense, you’re momentum will have increased anyway.
5. Be brave.
You need to get personal.
People follow people, not brands. Use your real name & face.
If you’re worried about your boss finding out about your Twitter account, you’re either living a lie online or at work. Figure out which & address it.
Take a weekend to write your ‘origin story.’ These are the 5-10 pivotal events that got you to where you are today. Inject these into your content to add some personality.
Stop looking for advice.
Take notes on the advice that’s resonated with you the most so far. Type it out & keep it in a handy place.
When in doubt, turn to that advice instead of looking for new stuff. The net sum of all advice is 0, so be picky about who you listen to.
Be gracious.
Value every interaction you get.
If someone likes 3 of your posts, that’s a signal to show them some love. You’re not better than anyone else.
Stop writing into the void & embrace the 1st friend that comes along. It’s much more fun.
Don’t refresh your analytics every minute. Write or go outside instead.