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There are many ways to grow your Twitter following. There are so many it can be overwhelming. Don’t listen to the noise. This article covers the 3 absolute fundamentals of Twitter growth you need to know.
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The 3 Fundamentals of Twitter Growth
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Growing on Twitter is not rocket science but don't be fooled into thinking it's a walk in the park either.
The platform may change ownership. Algorithms change too.
But the absolute fundamentals don’t.
In Twitter’s case, there are three of them and that’s what we’ll cover in today’s article. Let’s dive in!
1st fundamental: The Content
If no one is reading your ideas, the rest won’t matter. That’s why you need to create good content. But what makes good content?
Types of Content on Twitter
Simply put, good content, or the content that will get the most engagement is the content that does at least one of these for your audience:
- Teach them something
- Empathize with them
- Make them think
- Entertain them
- Inspire them
This is how you create specific value for your audience. Let’s see it with some examples 👇
→ Teaching
Teaching something is the best way to establish yourself as an authority on Twitter. If you are consistent with it, soon people will recognize you for it.
This type of content helps build trust and attract customers.
→ Empathize
The Twitter competitor launch made a lot of waves on Twitter. People were tired of hearing about it, especially those who couldn’t access it yet (like me 👋). That’s why I tweeted this meme I put together in 20 seconds.
The reason it went viral: I empathized with a feeling many people were having on Twitter.
→ Make them think
Challenge how people see the world. Show them a new perspective or solution.
You want to aim for the “I’ve never thought about it like that” reaction
→ Entertain
People don’t come to Twitter to be bored. You don’t need to be the funniest person in the room, but you must spice up your content a little bit. Make it entertaining:
→ Inspire
Sometimes people need some inspiration. If you give them that with your tweets, you’ll have a fan for life.
Besides these, other types of content that work well on Twitter are visuals. They are massively underrated and a great way to generate attention.
Consistency and posting frequency
But none of this will matter if you don’t manage to be consistent with your content. The big question here is: How often should you post on Twitter?
There's no use in posting 10 times in one day if you spend 3 weeks without posting anything.
Twitter is a game of showing up every day.
But as important as showing up is, it’s even more important how you show up (and how often).
The cool answer some gurus will give you about “how often you should tweet” is 50 times a day.
The real answer?
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to it.
The best way to figure out the best posting frequency for your account is to test and experiment with different frequencies. Then track the engagement and reach of the tweets and optimize from there.
If you want to dive deeper into posting frequencies, check out our guide.
2nd Fundamental: The Engagement
The other 50% of the Twitter growth equation is engagement. It’s so powerful to tweet a question and get tens of replies answering it.
It’s all about genuinely connecting with others and building a network you can later fall back on.
The usual question when we get to this point is: who should I engage with?
If you are short on time, your best bet is to create a Snipe List. A snipe list is a private Twitter list of 10-20 key creators in your niche that you’ll follow and interact with regularly.
These people have a large and engaged following and post relevant content for your niche. What we are going to do is target these creators and their followers, so we can later attract them to your profile. If you want to go in-depth on how to build one, check out our guide on it.
Once we have our Snipe list, it’s time to start engaging with them.
There are two types of engagement on Twitter: the engagement that happens in public and the engagement that happens in private.
Public Engagement: Replies
Public Engagement on Twitter is not just a vanity metric. It is a sign of an active Twitter community.
Responding to mentions and comments on your content is important because it helps you build a lasting connection with your network. It encourages trust and loyalty and eventually increases your conversions.
The easy way to do it is to spend 20-30 minutes a day commenting on some posts from the folks on your Snipe list. Try to add value with your comment, don’t just say “Good post.” Instead, try to:
- Add your point of view to the original post
- Spark a conversation or join an existing one
- Tell a personal story that complements the original post
- Ask a thoughtful question so the original poster can reply
Do that for a few months and you’ll notice a huge difference in your engagement numbers.
Private Engagement: DMs
A big part of what goes down on Twitter happens in the DMs. DMs are a great way to build that network. They are a great way to start conversations and build relationships.
However, most DMs get ignored.
General Twitter advice says “DM 20 accounts in your niche and connect with them.”
And that’s it.
Then what most clueless creators end up doing is bombarding everyone with DMs that feel like spam and not genuine.
To properly build a network, there are 2 basics you should cover:
- Do not make it a numbers game. If you engage or DM someone, do it because you are genuinely interested in that person.
- Run away from basic interactions. “Hi, how are you?” won’t get you any responses. Try to make each of your engagements feel unique and tailored to the person you are engaging with
If you want to learn more about sending DMs that don’t get ignored, read out in-depth guide on it.
3rd Fundamental: The Profile
If you nail Fundamentals 1 & 2, you’ll generate traffic to your profile. But that traffic will be useless if your profile looks terrible.
Would you open a DM from an account with a weird username and no profile picture?
My guess is that you said NO.
What you need is a “follower funnel” 👇
An optimized profile is vital to convert all those visitors to your profiles into followers (or clients, connections…). Each part of your profile needs to be optimized for this conversion to happen.
We've written guides on building a strong Twitter presence, but let's cover the basics:
- Have a clear bio that introduces who you are and what you do
- Use a high-quality profile picture featuring your face
- Include a link in your bio for those wanting to learn more about you
An optimized profile aligned with your content and brand is essential for credibility.
Proof of work, community, and trust
Content builds proof of work, engagement builds community and your profile builds trust.
These are the three fundamentals of Twitter growth, the three basic things you need to have a successful Twitter journey.
At Tweet Hunter, we’ve written extensively about each of them. In this article, you’ll find plenty of links to our other resources.
And if you ever decide to give Twitter a go, you can get started with Tweet Hunter for free with the link below!
