Last week I gained 200 followers on X from one single tweet. It might seem small for many but if you consider last week I had 1,000 followers, that’s a 20% increase! That means 200 people interested in what I have to say. It’s mind-blowing.
I like hanging out on Twi-… X. But I’ve been skeptical about paying for X Premium ever since it came out. Paying $8 a month to Mr. Musk for more visibility? It seemed shallow.
This is why I decided to take X more seriously. I studied so that I could understand how it worked and beat them at their own game.
I started to create more content that resonated with my current followers, prepped my bio, and added relevant links. Here’s when the magic happened. My breakthrough post was about how I decided to stop working as a freelancer to become a full-time indie hacker.
This is not my most viral tweet, but it’s the one that has got me the most followers of all. And here’s what made it work:
- I included a photo of myself to make it more personal and authentic. I’m usually hesitant to share my pics, but I remembered that “everything you want is on the other side of cringe.”
- I posted content that I knew my audience would enjoy. As a maker myself, I get inspired by the stories of people who take the plunge and go all in to make the things they want.
- I used a keyword that was relevant to my audience – in this post, I added “indie hacker”.
- I replied to EVERY SINGLE COMMENT as fast as I could. This gave an additional boost to that tweet hours after I posted it.
- I reposted the tweet after 12 hours. I always get a couple of likes each time I repost one of my tweets. Maybe it’s because people are in different time zones and the algo sometimes fails to show a tweet.
- I prepared my account for virality by:
- Updating my bio, mentioning the topics I discuss, and links to my projects.
- Shared plenty of content I believe my audience would find interesting. This increased the chances of gaining more followers if they visited my profile.
In summary, my takeaway is: think about who you are speaking to and prepare yourself to get lucky.
