The no BS way to grow from 0 to 3000 followers on Twitter

A while ago, one of my followers Marko asked me this question in DMs:

I figured there are many others like him who’d be curious to learn about my approach so in this edition, that’s what I plan to answer:

In the early stages of building an audience, most people suffer from their own limitations. The biggest one is not taking enough shots on the goal. If you don’t write a lot and stretch your creative muscles daily, you won’t learn the nuances and the mechanics of tweets. Just like pushups in the gym or taking free throws in basketball, early on, you just have to ‘create more’ before you even begin the conversation of what’s working and what’s not working.

Struggling to come up with 10 tweet ideas a day? Read this piece which has lots of templates for inspiration.

Threads allow you to practice building a story/narrative. Most people assume they have nothing interesting to share. This is untrue.

When you challenge yourself to publish long form threads on Twitter, you are forced to learn the ingredients of storytelling like:

Twitter’s algorithm rewards threads in a disproportionate way like Instagram does for Reels and Youtube has been doing for Shorts.

Threads is a reliable way to grow your core audience. You don’t have to use gimmicks or traps, just study what’s working and write the kind of threads you’d be impressed as a reader.

In the early days, it can feel like you’re tweeting into the void. This used to frustrate me because I felt like I was producing high-quality content but because I didn’t have enough daily attention, my work was under-appreciated.

The way to fix this is by going to places where there is an abundance of attention.

Not many leverage this powerful technique but if you follow (or “turn on notifications”) big accounts in your niche and simply bring value to their threads or tweets through your replies, you will gain a non-trivial amount of followers each day.

I’ve personally done this several times and it works! Just make sure, you don’t come off as desperate or too thirsty, which means you have to write with a sense of authenticity and truly wanting to add value to the conversation. [using your own unique perspective and life experiences]

This technique goes hand-in-hand with replies but in stead of making statements under big accounts, you are creating new open questions that might sometimes lead to longer fruitful discussions among others in the tweets/threads. Occasionally, the big accounts will even reply, engage with you or even retweet your open question to continue the conversation. This will expose your accounts to their thousands of followers and there by attract new audience for you.

Dickie Bush is one of my favorite creators who leverages this technique really well. He often shares this advice as well. The open secret is most threads I write or Dickie writes have been tested a few weeks prior as one-off tweets. If there was an immense response from the audience to a new idea expressed as a one-off tweet, you have now de-risked that and can turn that into a long form thread.

Basically, before spending 2 hours writing a thread that may or may not mean much to your audience, ship new ideas/hunches as one-off tweets and look for resonance. Your audience will guide you on what’s resonating with them and that should inform your long form thread strategy. This is a very smart and underrated tactic that I’ve only learned recently.

This tip is a tricky one because it’s very easy to overdo this method and many actually do. However, when done in moderation, this powerful tactic can do wonders in building up your audience base.

You create a thread that features/highlights a set of 10-15 top big accounts (ex: newsletter writers, Youtube creators, bootstrapped founders) and shine light on their work. This curated thread will perform well because many of the mentioned accounts will want to share it with their audience. This has proven to boost followers when done well.

One of the proudest achievements for me in my Twitter journey isn’t the 37,000+ followers. It’s the 40-50 close friends and relationships that were formed due to my content and tweets. I went from being a nobody in tech with zero network and networking skills to being part of a very vibrant thriving abundant circle of ballers and founders. Those who were once my icons are now my peers. The feeling is unreal.

Many of these people were strangers whom I just sent a simple DM and struck up a conversation. Because they saw my work day to day, over time, we became friendly and I’ve helped them in small and big ways and they constantly return the favor.

Note: In your 1st DM, don’t ask for a favor instantly. Just appreciate them and offer your compliment or any suggestions on their content. And if they’re busy, be patient.

Most people’s Twitter bio sucks. This is not a judgment on their character or their ability to add value. It’s just that they don’t give this piece of their online presence any care or attention. Partly due to laziness or innocent ignorance.. but unfortunately your bio is your digital first impression. It’s important to make a strong impression if you care to build an audience in the long run.

Your bio should be a bat signal to attract thousands of others like you - I discuss that in detail in this thread below: