I used to write Twitter threads into the void, but a few tweaks changed my game
Here is how I got 2200 Twitter followers in 4 months and how you can do it too:
Threads work when there’s an audience, of at least 100 (300) people.
Quality threads come from quality tweets. Quality tweets come from quality comments.
Here’s the approach that helped me the most:
A) 20 comments every day.
When you have a small account there's no sense in writing killer threads, 20 views won't make it viral. Focus on commenting in your target accounts. Hang out with people 1-2 levels above you: drop some comments on 20-60k pages, some on the 300 - 5k pages.
B) Send 10 DMs every day.
You need engagement on your profile. Engagement comes from having good relationships with others.
C) Write 4 tweets a day.
2 of them for growth, 1 authenticity, 1 authority. Growth tweets are good ideas about your niche topic. Authenticity tweets are about your uniqueness - share what you do in life, what's your story, what you stand for. Authority tweets are case studies, testimonials or whatever proof there is for what you drive traffic to. I scheduled via Feedhive cause it synced with LinkedIn, now switched to Tweethunter as it has better functions for growth.
D) 1 great thread every week.
Start practicing early once you pass 200-300 followers. Spend 80% of the time on the hook. A/B test hooks by sending them to your friends. I built relationships, sent one nice thread to 10 people, couple 50k+ accounts retweeted it, then 400 other people retweeted it too. That's how I went from 800 to 1800 in 24 hours.
E) Understand your final goal, values and idea.
"I help everyone with everything and tweet about life" won't get you anywhere. Pick 10 topics you want to speak about. Tweet them until you hit 10k followers and then cut to 3 topics that work best. Experiment with for your style, but stick to your principles.
F) Find your why.
If you have a strong "why" - you'll be consistent. Btw growing a Twitter account is not the best tactic for growing the startup. If your end goal is to grow your product - close the first 20 customers via 1-1 chats asap. You don't need any followers to do it, just the right way to approach people. I regularly help with user acquisition for early-stage SaaS products, so don't hesitate to reach out.
Twitter is a 2-way street.
Treat it like a conversation, not a broadcast.
I've learned this is the case quite recently. It's kinda like browsing conversations to hop into! :)
Totally!
Hi Denis! What a fantastic and concise post on Twitter growth. Curious to know what kind of DMs did you send and what did you ask about?
Happy to help!
You want to build a positive relationship with every person who follows you. You check the profile and ask something that sparks your attention. Such way you kickstart the conversation.
Initially, you do it so people retweet/comment on your stuff, but as time goes you just enjoy the vibe.
For your profile:
Hey! Saw you're building Gexpr, what inspired you to do it?
That makes sense! It's also nice and open-ended so there's no ask and doesn't come across as intimidating. Love it and I am definitely going to use that method, thanks :)
Spot on re:threads. Every influencer out there is suggesting to publish threads constantly but they take a lot of effort and if you are just starting out you are shouting into the void. Why not start small and combine with comments/convos, by publishing easier to write "tweets," and as you build following (and authority), you can go longer form with tweetstorms.
Yes, good way to approach it
Or as you noted, 1 thread per week, not per day.
Life paradox, since last year you don't have posted anything
This is a new trick I guess
Thanks for the article! I like how specific you get with your advice, very helpful.
Thanks!
Thank you Denis for this feedback and congratulations! As you indicate on one of the previous answers, it is indeed necessary to spend a certain amount of time each day to obtain this result in such a short time.
It's a real choice to make in your time organization.
Totally, doesnt work if you dont put it as top 3 priority in life.
Great post, Denis. So many people are highlighting the importance of Twitter commenting/DMs. Is there a tool you use to handle them? Also, how do you comment/DM time wise, i.e., schedule time during the day or set notifications?
It's better to set yourself a 45 min time frame each day when you schedule tweets and another 45 min time frame for dropping 20 comments. Doing 45x2 min sessions works best for focus.
It's better to have notifications on for big accounts so you show up first, this way you grow quicker.
So far I handled everything in Twitter, may switch to doing it in Tweethunter soon.
That makes sense. I've been planning to give Tweethunter a try but keep seeing negative thoughts around it (e.g., here or here) that point out to the fact that it somehow encourages copying others' tweets.
AI funcitionality is still raw, and the ideation thing - it's all about how you use it. I think you might want to step away from it for first 1000 tweets you write (I did). Once you find your style - it's a powerful tool.
In my case it helps to come up with tweet ideas times faster than with FeedHive. I find the structure and then see how I can apply it to SaaS:
Never do these 3 things when opening a restaurant
turned into
Never do these 5 things when launching a startup
See nothing bad in it
This is helpful advice and agreed.
By the way, how is FeedHive? Keep hearing about it as well.
Been using it for 5 months to do linkedin + twitter. It's great you can split tweets by topics and see how each performs. I left because:
So I find tweethunter a better choice once you're 400-1000+ people and focus on threads.
One question I have is about the balance between growth and authenticity. As we aim for growth, how can we ensure that our authenticity isn't compromised? Also, could you elaborate more on the process of narrowing down from 10 topics to the top 3? How do you identify which topics are resonating most with your audience?
Thank you again for sharing your strategy. It's clear that your hard work and strategic approach have paid off!
This is a great blog post! I especially appreciate the focus on building relationships and engagement through commenting and DMing, rather than just trying to go viral with threads. It's also helpful to have a clear understanding of your goals and values, and to focus on a few specific topics rather than trying to cover everything. The advice to close the first 20 customers through 1-1 chats is also valuable for those looking to grow their product. Thanks for sharing your strategies and insights!
That's great advice ! When you say "reach out with DMs"; what do you actually tell them? I am trying to build my project's twitter account and I don't want to seem spammy
I am trying to build my Twitter audience.
My approach:
Definitely going to try your DM method now! Thanks!
Thanks for sharing, Denis!
It's one of the most practical how-tos about growing on Twitter I've ever read.
Just wanted to add, that ideally tweets and comments should be consistent and relevant to what you do.
Foe example:
I'm working on tools for sales, so it makes sense to comment on tweets of influencers who are writing about the same topic. (or DM them)
A simple search by hashtags helps.
P.S. If you need to find those who tweeted on your topic recently - just give a free try to Norns AI
this sounds extremely helpful, definitely using the tips to grow
Wow! Thanks for this. I've started my Twitter account but after two threads I thought that that was too hard and quit.
Now I see that the key is consistency. As always.
This is so helpful.
Always thought is could be rude going to people's dm for engagement.
This title certainly resonated with me 😂
Ah, was scouring the internet for a post like this xD
Thank you for this :)
Nice "btw" at the end. I just read a post by @aseemthakar which summarized a book by Sahil Lavingia which basically said the same thing: if you're just starting out, then don't worry about top of funnel stuff like social media; just do direct outreach to validate/invalidate your thing. It sounds like you help people with direct outreach, so I might try to find more of your stuff so I can learn.
Denisshatalain.com/10K and my YouTube channel are the best places to start! If you're planning to scale a SaaS, just DM me on Twitter so I brainstorm the fastest way to scale it :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsRvTGoSB1w&t=17s
I signed up to your 10K thing. I'm just starting out, so I'm taking your idea to direct email a bunch of people asking to get them on a zoom call so I can ask them basically your series of questions. My current hypothesis is that copywriters would probably like to use my tool, so I'm going to start reaching out to as many of them as I can.
You know it :) !
I'm sure these are great tips, @Denis_Shatalin. But, who would you recommend this strategy? It seems so time consuming that I can't imagine as a one man show building a software product while spending this much time on Twitter.
That's why I noted that if you want to build a startup - do sales, not tweets.
Thank you for clarifying! I probably misunderstood that part but now this makes perfect sense.
I love this, and I feel like I've found it with my current passion project / eventual side hustle. I'm a game developer and have been for a long time, but I decided to start releasing my own personal games as open source. That way I can spend my time developing cool gameplay mechanics and doing what I do best, while providing educational / reference to up and coming developers.
What's your strong "why" if you don't mind my asking? ;)
My mission is to help entrepreneurs make our world cooler [you may see it on my YT and Twitter banners :) ]. I tried to accomplish it with various startups, but now it's resonating the most: I help early-stage SaaS founders find Product-Market-Fit and pass the toughest stage with their startup.
I set myself a goal to help 1 founder every day. Half a year later, I feel amazing waking up to messages thanking me for my input. I see myself doing this for decades. There's nothing that excites me more than getting the founder from "lost and depressed (0 MRR)" towards consistent growth and eyes full of enthusiasm.
Thanks for asking, Kirk :)
These are great tips, thanks!
Looks like a lot of work but I'm all for it.
Thanks! Feels like my guide to begin growing my twitter account :)
What made you switch to TweetHunter?
You can do comments + tweets only until 1000 followers, but then it's time to double down on great threads. Hunter has better functionality for them.
@Denis_Shatalin I'm printing this bad boi and putting it on the wall. This is a great recipe :D
Great :)
Congratulations and thanks for sharing such a great post.
Fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
Glad it helped!
Damn, Denis. You're a boss. Incisive thinking, great writeup. Thanks, man!
Glad it helped!
Thanks for the write-up. I've been struggling with content curation on Twitter for a while now; I'll be sure to incorporate these tips into my growth strategy going forward.
I am working on website for projectors and trying to rank it. https://www.projectorspoint.com
Nice :)
This is awkward, I got less than 10 followers. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Hi Denis,
thanks so much for the post. I'm stuck since ages to around 150 followers and were always wondering how to improve and grow. I'll try your strategies for the next few months. Wish me luck!
You nearly passed the toughest stage, gets much easier when you're at 400.
You could notice, every next 100 followers are 2x faster than previous ones
Amazing information! This will help to organically boost presence on Twitter. Just a small question how to you select that whom you have to DM?
Find 5-15 bigger profiles whose audiences you want to copy. Can be 1k - 100k people (optimal to go 1-5k early cause they reply more). Switch notifications on and drop great comments.
Found a nice profile? Check all the suggestions.
This comment has been voted down. Click to show.
Nobody reports spam anymore?
Great post Denis! This certainly seems very insightful for those that want to organically boost their presence on Twitter! Just a question, when beginning out with DMs how often did people you send DMs to respond? Also, did you face any hostile responses?
Appreciate it!
If you write someone personalized dm and genuinely want to build a connection - I wonder who'd ever be rude to you. You may get ignored 30% when sending messages to people who don't follow you, but it's because it goes to the other folder.
When you send new followers copy pasted message - response rate is low and it harms relationship. Better send nothing. If you write smth nice - of course they will get back, 90% of time.
Thanks a lot for your sharing.
Glad it helped!
Some great insight here. However it does seems like a huge amount of effort to put out that many tweets per day!
Real question, how much time do you spend on twitter per day?
Another question—when you "sent one nice thread to 10 people" how did you frame that request?
You already passed the toughest stage, now unfollow 500 people and make it clear why you're a rockstar in your bio, chat with 50 people and you'll grow exponentially from now.
Good advice, thank you!
For the thread:
Hi! Earlier we talked about bootstrapping / earlier I saw you tweet about X. I just wrote a thread on this topic, would love to hear your feedback :)
By the time you get into threads you have 40+ relationships, ideally with big accounts too. Better don't do it for the first 5 threads, with them you practice. As you feel you figured out how to do killer hooks -> you go.
Ok you can do 3 tweets a day, morning, afternoon, evening, each automatically retweeted in 12 hours with Feedhive (or twice in 6 hours for Tweethunter).
3 Tweets a day -> 21 tweets a week. You go to the nice park on Saturday morning, write 10 tweets in 45 min, then look at the trees and drink tea for 15 min, then write 11 more tweets in other 45 min. Now you have your tweets for the week. If you wanna rest next weekend, you can return to park on Sunday and schedule for 2 weeks.
Throughout the week you check in for 45 min every day to drop 20 comments fast. Then you DM/engage in the other 15 min later in the day.
1.5h on weekends + 1 hour spent wisely every day = 300 in 2 months = 1000+ in 4 months.
Amazing post. Thanks so much for sharing Denis!
Happy to help!
Yeah I second this, I only started seeing new followers once I start commenting. I only have ~500 followers so tweeting something doesn't exactly get a huge response. Good insight!
absolutely!
threads work only when you have been getting consistent engagement on your tweets
True!
This comment has been voted down. Click to show.
haha wtf
This comment was deleted a year ago.
This comment was deleted a year ago.
Absolutely! Wish it didn't cost me a few products to learn it.
yep, I second that. Go to them, don't wait..