Twitter’s great.
I joined back in 2017 but never got to actively use it until much later in June 2020.
Somehow, I just logged on one day and saw people selling guides on Gumroad on how to grow a following and monetise Twitter back in 2020. I bought one of those guides, implemented a few of the strategies (which kinda worked, somewhat) and started gaining followers.
2 years later, I got almost 5k followers and even managed to get a book deal. I achieved my dream of becoming a published writer. All because of this little bird app.
Why I Use Twitter (And Dislike Facebook)
Twitter enables short bursts of texts. It’s perfect for people who have train of thoughts and need to shout it out quickly. I think it’s really aptly named. Imagine the Internet being a tree, and in a particular corner there’s a branch full of chirpy little blue birds.
Twitter’s algorithm rewards engagement. So if your tweet is valuable, it blows up and goes viral in a matter of minutes. Over hours, your tweet would’ve likely been seen by thousands of people. From my own data, my most viral tweets have reached 500,000 impressions.
As Twitter is mostly text-based and each tweet is limited to 280 characters, my theory is that it rewards people who take time to write engaging tweets and squeeze as much entertainment as possible into those character constraints. Thus tweets end up being funny, sarcastic, entertaining and inspiring. All key ingredients for virality. As tweets take time to write, the platform rewards people who have a modicum of writing ability, which explains why it trumps other platforms that rewards visual attractiveness (think Instagram models).
News travel much faster on Twitter. I’ve grown used to seeing news that was shared on Twitter first appearing in mainstream social media like Facebook and news portals much later, sometimes even days later. This makes Twitter a prime place to be before things blow up.
By the middle of 2021 I discovered Crypto Twitter and went down deep into the rabbit hole. The number of smart people and thoughtful article I’ve come across far surpasses what I experienced in Facebook.
My Twitter Journey
At first I felt like talking into the void as I had only 100 followers who were either bots or friends who don’t use Twitter much, or at all. When I first started seriously using Twitter, I engaged with popular accounts and posted thoughtful replies.
A few of tweets went viral and on good days I gained up to a hundred new followers. On bad days or months I gained probably a few. The key is consistency – writing good threads with information that people would like to read based on your niche. Mine just happens to be crypto. I do comment on current issues from time to time especially in the local Malaysian context.
Should You Get on Twitter?
The question should be – why shouldn’t you? Twitter is its own world – the people who use it are more active and you get to meet new friends. In contrast to Facebook where only people you add would see what you post (and even then there’s no guarantee), Twitter gives you the opportunity to reach new audience, depending on how well you write.
Plus, with Elon Musk buying Twitter and Binance jumping into the fray, I foresee Twitter evolving even further into a decentralised media powerhouse and becoming a cornerstone of the Web 3 revolution.