Read on Twitter
Most creators struggle with building an audience from scratch
How do you start? What are the right metrics? Right techniques?
I built an audience from 0 to 4K on Twitter, 0 to 3k over email largely by building in public
Here’s the playbook that helped me (a thread
)
How do you start? What are the right metrics? Right techniques?
I built an audience from 0 to 4K on Twitter, 0 to 3k over email largely by building in public
Here’s the playbook that helped me (a thread
)
Start with the why The key is to deeply understand why you want an audience
If it’s just for selfish reasons, you’re likely to struggle
I always look for a win-win. I’ve often asked myself: What can I help my audience achieve by nature of following me?
Have a deep why
Have a clear goal For years, I lurked on Twitter and never even had an email list. I scoffed at people who were “building an audience”
The penny dropped when I started shipping projects & needed real people for feedback and I had none
Then I sat down & wrote clear goals
Evaluate your personality on Twitter Are you someone who gives more than who takes?
Givers are 10x more likely to build and keep an audience
A sarcastic viral tweet may bring attention, but not audience
Be a giver, root for others, open up your DMs and help ppl
Change your inputs Curate your feed, stop following thousands & getting overwhelmed
Unsubscribe to hundreds of newsletters
Make space for signal and curb noise
Drama, negativity & judgment all have a subconscious tax — they erode your trust in people and in yourself
Create way more than you are comfortable Used to aim for 3-4 “perfect tweets” in my early days, rookie moves
Now I tweet 20-30 tweets a day and share as much I can
Same with emails. I write at least 2 emails a week to an audience
Be prolific
Use Twitter for engagement, not self promotion A simple technique that works:
Reply with a thoughtful comment under a popular account in your niche
Another technique:
Ask specific questions useful to others
Give, give, give, then ask Share feedback when people ask, guide them towards resources that helped you
Build a habit of giving with no expectations
Then ask when you have a specific request, you’ll be surprised by people’s kindness
Be grateful for your existing audienceYou can never build an audience of thousands when you are ungrateful for the tens who chose you today
Reach out randomly and say hello or thank you
Treat them well
Find ways to add value I share weekly lessons from prolific creators through interviews on my email newsletter ( http://buildinpublic.xyz )
I share my playbooks openly on Twitter and @IndieHackers
Be consistent in adding value, it’ll compound to a big audience
Obsess over impact not metrics At the end of the day, numbers are fun but senseless without a meaningful purpose
On days when I’m doubting myself, I imagine that my tweets/emails impact 1 person in Texas or India who learned something new today
That’s a win right there
Build in public None of my journey would have happened if not for building in public
I’m a nobody on the Internet — I earned all this trust and leverage by simply showing up and sharing my experiments with others freely
#buildinpublic
Be patient The early growth is slow and suddenly it moves fast
On Twitter, my followers went from 0 to 2k in 2 years and 2k to 4K in a couple months
Enjoy the ride, be grateful for the small wins and when you repeatedly add value, the Internet will reward you
That’s all for now
Hope it was helpful/encouraging
I’m always happy to share what I know and things that worked for me, so DM me any further questions
Retweet this thread for reach, thank you
Hope it was helpful/encouraging
I’m always happy to share what I know and things that worked for me, so DM me any further questions
Retweet this thread for reach, thank you
If you interested in my work, check out http://buildinpublic.xyz (my newsletter)
And http://letterdrop.io (side project)
And http://thisiskp.com (essays)
Thank you!
And http://letterdrop.io (side project)
And http://thisiskp.com (essays)
Thank you!
