You Need to Be On Twitter. Here’s Why.

When I took Twitter seriously in early 2022…

I grew my following from 260 to 2,600 in three months. Yes, that’s 10X growth on Twitter in just over 90 days.

And to be clear…

• I didn’t do the “follow-and-hope-they-follow-back” strategy (don’t do this)
• I didn’t pay for followers (definitely don’t do this)
• I also didn’t drive my email list to follow me (you can do this, but it’s not useful)

This was all “organic” growth with real people on Twitter.

But more important than my 10X growth…

• I nearly tripled my newsletter subscribers (osmosis.dev)…
• I found seven coaching clients worth $25,550 in business…
• I made friends with some pretty cool Internet strangers…

Point is – If you’re a writer, expert, or creator… you need to be on Twitter.

Here’s What Building A Twitter Audience Can Do For You

• Build a personal brand: Depending on the type of freelancing, consulting, or service work you do… a brand gives you that “halo of celebrity” which demands higher fees, lead attraction, and an authority status. That is, you won’t have to “sell” as hard on calls.
• Monetize your following: With an audience, you can sell them an eBook, course, or any other digital product.
• Create a TOFU for your funnel: TOFU stands for “Top of Funnel.” If you’re a direct response copywriter who writes sales letters and VSLs, then you know traffic is always an issue. Twitter has 400M users. You funnel them with your Twitter account to your sales page.
• Turn your audience into “job insurance”: If you’re more the employee/retainer type, your personal brand becomes “job insurance” in the sense that you can easily find another job. I know a few accounts who have parlayed their Twitter audience into promotions, new jobs, and even partnerships.
• Feed your insatiable, attention-starved ego: Hey man, I don’t judge. This is me too. I loves me my attention from a sea of strangers.

Furthermore…

More than any other social media platform, Twitter is “the place” for writers.

3 Reasons Why Twitter is for Writers

1. Twitter is where founders, journalists, comedians, politicians, and marketing folk hang out. (Those are all writers – and people looking for writers – in one way or another.)
2. Twitter is primarily a text-based platform. Very few pics, gifs, videos, memes, and “low-level” content.
3. Twitter is where readers hang out. You’ll find out immediately if your writing is up to snuff or not.

Now compare that to other social media platforms…

(Tongue-in-cheek humor coming up):

• • Instagram – where girls in yoga pants do squats and sell energy drinks.
  • Pinterest – where people throw up their vision boards and “art” work.
  • TikTok – short-form video content made by Gen-Z kids I don’t understand.
  • Facebook – a dying platform driven by boomer political rage. (And mom groups.)
  • LinkedIn – where consultants post cringey tips and employees brag about promotions.
  • Reddit – a bunch of funny smartasses who hate you if you promote anything.

OK, OK, joking aside… can sites like LinkedIn, Medium, and Quora be good for writers?

Yes, they can be.

But AFAIC, Twitter is where you’ll find the most engaged, interactive, and thoughtful audience… who can also lead to paying copywriting clients, consulting work, and other interesting opportunities.

IRRELEVANT FUN FACT: A lot of comedians and sitcom writers were “discovered” on Twitter since a lot of late-nite, SNL, and showrunners hang out there.

So How Do You Grow Your Followers on Twitter?

There are three things you need to know about building an audience on Twitter:

1. Have a clear purpose
2. Feed the algorithm (or Algo-Gods as I like to call it)
3. Be consistent ← Most important/hardest step

Over today and the next three PWA issues, I’ll go through each of these steps and how you can replicate what I did.

You can also follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/colinyjchung to observe what I do, how I do it, and what I don’t do.

But let’s do a quick “mini crash course” now, starting with…

• Purpose: Why Are You On Twitter?

You can use Twitter in multiple ways, but if we’re talking strictly business…

You’ll want to look at that list I wrote above earlier. Are you looking to…

• Build a personal brand?
• Monetize your following?
• Create a TOFU for your funnel?
• Turn your audience into  “job insurance”?
• Feed your insatiable, attention-starved ego?
• All of the above?

Your Twitter account can be all those things.

HOWEVER – it’s important you choose only 1-3 core topics that you’ll write about.

One to three. That’s it.

Here’s the deal – Twitter doesn’t like accounts that are all over the place. People want to quickly see what you’re about, and expect you to deliver on said expertise.

This might sound restrictive. It is.

And here’s what I have to say about that: start a second Twitter account for your weird hobbies. I’m serious.

If you want to use Twitter for business, your “business” account needs to be laser-focused.

In order to GAIN followers, your profile needs to be CLEAN. Your feed needs to be FOCUSED. Your content needs to be specifically VALUABLE (i.e. stick to 1-3 topics).

What topics tend to do better on Twitter for business?

Advice-Stuff does: Self-help. Business growth. Marketing tips. Writing. Finance and investing.

Take a look at my profile: https://twitter.com/colinyjchung

I write about human behavior, marketing, and “practical spirituality.” I don’t stray from that… too much.

Now, personally, I’m more interested in board games, RPGs, TV/film, comedy writing, war games, science fiction novels, pop culture, graphic novels, and military history. Basically, a lot of nerd stuff.

But I’m never going to post that stuff on my main account. It would confuse my “personal brand” – in this case, Colin Y.J. Chung.

HOMEWORK: Pick a niche or market you want to create content for. Then look at accounts that have at least 10,000 followers that are in that space. Study their profiles. Create your own profile.

• Feed the Algo-Gods (Algorithms)

If I had to summarize winning over Twitter’s algorithm in one simple formula, it would be this:

Consistent Threads + Retweets (RTs) = Mucho followers

That’s it.

Do “likes” and “replies” matter? Sure. But not as much as RTs.

Let’s break down how this formula works.

First, what does a free platform like Twitter (or any other platform on the planet) want?

They want an engaged audience to STAY ON THE PLATFORM FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE.

They want addicted crackheads.

• People who check it all the time. 
• People who log into it first thing in the morning. 
• People who interact on it, use it, and live there.

Why? Because you can’t serve ads to people who aren’t on the platform.

So while your cute, clever tweets might get a few seconds of attention… a thread will keep the reader on their platform longer.

Wait – what’s a thread?

It’s multiple tweets strung together. It’s basically a blog post. Think about it like a 250-500 word article, listicle, or story… except broken down into several 280-character tweets.

(If you write direct response copy, you may be writing in short, clippy 280-character “paragraphs” already…)

We’re going to talk more about threads in a future issue of PWA. You can also see my best threads here (It’s my thread of threads): https://twitter.com/colinyjchung/status/1564693509726035968

OK, so that’s the first part of the formula: threads.

Consistent Threads + Retweets (RTs) = Mucho followers

The second part is “retweets.” Why are “retweets” important?

Well, it’s the ultimate social media compliment, right?

• If you “like” something I wrote – that’s you giving me a nonverbal thumbs up.
• If you “reply” to something I wrote – that’s you saying “thank you” to me with words and engaging in a conversation.
• If you “retweet” something I wrote, which means my stuff shows up on your feed – that’s you telling your audience, “I like this enough to share it, you should read it too.”
• And finally, if you “quote retweet” something (that’s when you “retweet” but add a comment) – that’s you fully endorsing my content.

So when Twitter’s algorithm sees “retweeted” content… they see that as content they should push out to more people.

Here’s the deal: As you know, whenever you post stuff on social media, less than 25% of your audience will see it.

That’s just how most algorithms work. The algorithm suppresses content until it “proves itself worthy.”

So if within 24 hours, your content gets a lot of retweets/reposts/shares… and more and more people share it… the algorithm works in your favor to push it further and further out.

You are feeding the algorithm. You have created a piece of addictive content. The algorithm knows that it will keep users on the platform, therefore, they want to share it with as many people as possible.

So now you understand how Twitter (and most social media platforms work).

Consistent Threads + Retweets (RTs) = Mucho followers

And finally…

• Be Consistent

1. Let’s say you wrote a viral thread. It got over 100 RTs. You got 1,000 followers in a single day. You haven’t stopped checking your notifications for 24 hours. You’re thrilled. You can’t believe it. You’re a star. Now what?

Do it again.

And again.

And again.

Remember – what does Twitter (and every social media platform) want?

Attention. Engaged users. Crack addicts on their phones as much as possible, as long as possible.

You’ve just created value for the Algo-Gods, and their favor shines on you. But the Algo-Gods are fickle and demand more sacrifices.

But look at it another way…

Once you’ve got someone to follow you based on your amazing thread… what do they want?

More of you. More threads. More content. Gimme gimme gimme.

You need to feed your audience… which, in turn, feeds the Algo-Gods… which in turn, helps you grow your Twitter audience.

This is where the consistency game comes into play. If you want to keep growing your Twitter following… you gotta be consistent with your content.

Now obviously, this can be draining.

One, how do you come up with so much content? (We’ll talk about this next week).

Two, how do you not go insane feeding the Algo-Gods all the time?

For that, you need to be disciplined with your schedule.

Pick a day of the week. That’s your weekly due date for posting a thread. Come hell or high water, you’re going to post a thread on that day.

One thread a week is solid and steady.

You’ll also want to pick an hour of the day to log in to interact with your audience. Social media isn’t about broadcasting. It’s not one way. You’ll want to interact. The Algo-Gods like that too.

Remember, social media is a long game. One viral win won’t build you an audience. Months and years of consistent content will.

OK – that’s it for part one.

Next week, I’ll help you narrow down your 1-3 three topics (or content buckets).

Week after, I’ll talk about threads and how to write them.

And then, I’ll share the different steps of Twitter growth (there are different strategies for growing from 0-500 followers, 501-2,500, 2.5k-10k, etc.).

Finally, I’ll dig into how to monetize and leverage your Twitter following.

Remember to follow me: https://twitter.com/colinyjchung