How to grow on 𝕏?

Hey, it’s Marc

I started 𝕏 in November 2021 with 0 followers. It took 8 months to get the first 1,000 followers.

Now, it takes 10 days to get 1,000 followers. The game-changer was knowing what to write, and what not. Let’s talk about it!

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes 12 seconds

Why should someone follow you?

It comes down to 2 criteria:

1. Usefulness

There are only two types of content we consume on 𝕏: educational and inspirational.

• Educational tweets make us smarter, like how to use GPT-4 to improve SEO.

• Inspirational tweets motivate us to crush our goals, like an MRR growth chart from a fellow solopreneur.

Usefulness describes the level of education/inspiration of a Tweet.

90% of your content should be useful (it’s OK to post about your cat from time to time).

2. Authority

6,000 tweets per second.

We’re all competing to get attention. What’s the easiest way to know if a creator is worth our time?

Her number of followers. If people trust her, so should I.

But authority is a just byproduct of usefulness. So we start with the latter.

How to be useful?

1. You inspire others

People should read your tweets and think you’re special, unique, and different. At first, you’re inspirational with what you do:

• You build startups from a boat

• You learn how to code in 6 weeks

• You ship an app every month while working 9 to 5

Then you keep inspiring with your results:

• You get acquired

• You reach ramen profitability

• You get a DM from someone famous

There’s no way to manufacture inspiration. You have to live a remarkable life, share it, and be patient.

Avoid the future tense trap: a commitment is far less inspiring than an achievement.

2. Or you educate them

You don’t need to be an expert to teach. You only need to know something people don’t:

• A MacOS shortcut

• A new subreddit to promote an app

• A writing formula to get upvotes on Hacker News

For instance, I follow @wono_strategy because he writes about growing an audience in a genuine way. I binge, like, and retweet everything he says because it resonates with me and I haven’t heard this before.

There are two traps to avoid:

1. Everything Education: If you write about habits, audience building, and finance, your readers will be lost. Focus on your field of expertise.

2. Abstract Education: Topics like motivation, focus, or productivity are too abstract to be taught on 𝕏. Avoid them, or niche down like @heyeaslo (productivity + Notion)

My 𝕏 account started to grow once I realized which category I fell into. People were inspired by the velocity at which I built apps. So I redesigned my profile and focused on shipping more.