There's no lie, twitter has made a comeback and in a big way. Twitter has become the bedrock for bootstrappers, course creators and SaaS founders to build a massive following but more importantly make some serious bank.
There's so many examples of people with 30k followers on Twitter and LinkedIn, pushing their courses or products and Twitter seems to beat all platforms with conversions each time
Ask Jack Butcher who runs visualise value, he built his company to 100k MRR in less than 18 months purely on Twitter, or Dave Vasallo who's made over $350k from his courses mainly through his Twitter
So we know that Twitter is a big one, but hacking Twitter is different from Instagram/FB/Tiktok or LinkedIn because the Twitter works on some key elements different from other platforms, also the interaction layer on Twitter is hyper-personal compared to other platforms.
On Instagram you make a post, people comment and you reply at times, on Twitter you're sharing micro-thoughts and garnering an audience around that.
Before we dive in, lets quickly chat about what the Twitter algorithm actually considers as successful or failed.
Your tweet is graded on the following factors:
- Profile credibility
This is based on your tweet pattern, is it bot-based, verified check and how your previous tweets have performed with respect to engagment
- Does your tweet include native images
Native Images and Videos do really well in twitter
- Does your tweet include external links
This is universal to most social media platforms, they want users to stay on the platform and naturally de-rank tweets with external links. This is not drastic ofcourse, plenty of hyper-successful tweets with external links but more general knowledge
- Are your immediate followers engaging or not?
Twitter/Tiktok are all the same. They want quality at the top and crap at the bottom, so they push your content to your immediate audience and see if your message resonates with other followers
- Are you getting external engagement
Beyond your followers, are your followers followers engaging with your content ? When this happens you're content is promoted to a new layer of exposure/distribution which shows your content to more people
- Are people reading your tweets and engaging / retweets
You want your tweets to spark emotion, a comment comes high, a quoted tweet comes second, a retweet comes third, a like is the easiest format of engagement
Twitters algo like all social media algorithm is looking into engagement and engagement quality. Alright with all that being said, lets look into some free/epic hacks
So let's dive into the top ways :
1. Set up notifications with popular Twitter Influencers
Leverage influencers whenever you can. Set up notifications for when popular influencers write tweets, the notification bell on their profile will do this for you. Whenever they make a tweet, comment something relevant and valuable. As that tweet grows viral (which they always do) your tweet will sit at the top and naturally gain engagement and exposure.
You're riding the wave of other people's garnered following and its a tool to acquire massive following by being very strategic on which influencers' profile you engage with.
Use this initial engagement to direct message the influencer and build a rapport with them, you'll soon see them retweet your posts which will boost your profile
2. Tweet consistently about a niche
There's no secret here. Twitter loves active users. You need to tweet consistently but also build towards a niche. Don't just tweet random stuff, tweet valuable and knowledgable content in a niche you want to gain authority. If you're a designer and want other designers to follow, continuously share tips about UX and Design. Similarly so with other niches. Once you've built a following and authority, you can then spread your wings to other arenas
3. Use images where possible
Tweets should be skimmable, and in a feed full of text, images stick out like a sore thumb. This is pretty much the entire ethos behind Jack Butchers meteoric success.
Try convert each of your tweets into images, and stay on brand and stay consistent - this leads to familiarity and familiarity leads to trust. Which eventually leads to followers
4. Run a Twitter giveaway
Works like a charm all the time, run a quick giveaway and set some core rules on how people can participate in your giveaway. Again this needs to be specific to your niche. Don't just give away a MacBook. If you're selling an investor course and that's your niche, do a giveaway for a 1 year subscription to Yahoo finance for example, This will attract the right followers
5. Embed your profile link on high traffic website/newsletter
If you've got other places with high traffic or following, leverage that. It is the easiest way to gain followers and also "move" your audience across your content horizon
6. Leverage threads, leverage the algorithm
Threads are a great way to build long form content on Twitter. But at the same time they're a great way to hack the algo, as people will need to "click" into a tweet to read a full thread, this triggers as engagement to the twitter algorithm
In addition threads are a great way to spread your chance of getting engagement, maybe a user doesn't like your main tweet as much however the 5th point in your thread resonates really well which leads to engagement, retweets and the whole play
7. Analyse the free twitter analytics
Find key people who've followed you, DM them and build relationships with them. Also use this as a way to see what your audience most engages with and what they don't. Start gearing your content towards what your audience wants to see which eventually leads to more growth
Remember this is temporary, you can eventually share whatever you want but for now you want to focus on dominating a niche so you can build a rapid audience
8. Post relatable content
It sounds stupid but its a big one. Post content your audience can actually relate with. If you're posting content about living the high life but the majority of your followers are up and coming developers - they won't understand what you're saying.
If you're a senior developer, share your everyday struggles, you'd be surprised how many people will resonate with you. If you're a product manager, talk about the everyday struggles and frustrations you face and you'll see people swarm in 1000s agreeing with you
See as humans we relate more to pain than to pleasure, its the caveman/woman instinct built in us. People bond more over pain than they do over pleasure
Use this to your leverage, and this doesn't mean post doom and gloom all the time, add a humour spin to it
9. Meme your way to the top
Humour and intrend memes go a really long way. Twitter has its moments and you need to leverage trends and fads to build that audience of yours
10. Become an authority in your field
Twitter sees through you, unlike other platforms where you can be a fake founder, Twitter will call you out. You need to build your authority to gain authority. This happens through off-twitter activity like writing blogs, sharing achievements and career progressions. The show then tell approach
Write a post and see if you can gain some traffic for it by spreading it on popular forums and when you do eventually get a win. Write an authoritative tweet on how you did it
All it takes is one win
Last bonus tip, treat your profile like your landing page
- A clean profile picture of yourself
- Your description needs to be very intentional, tell people why they should follow you e.g "I tweet about how to become a freelancer"
- Your pinned tweet should be an extension of your profile description again reaffirming to visitors why following you would be a good thing for them
Thats all for this one, all them best with your Twitter hacks and gaming this social network
