Cracking Twitter for Beginners

I’ve made my way into an elite group of people with more than 1,000 Twitter followers. I used a combination of trial and error, followed by a breakthrough and some brute force. These are my notes on how you can do the same (in much less time). Read on if you’re a Twitter beginner, someone struggling to reach the next level, or a seasoned pro looking for something…

FRESH AND JUICY.

Twitter for Beginners

Look, I know how you feel. When you start on Twitter you are tweeting into the void. The occasional like and reply but not much else. Retweets are like gold dust. It’s painful and you’re stuck wondering when things will change.

I felt the same.

But here’s where you’re at, objectively: The overwhelming majority of Twitter users – 95% – have less than 500 followers. So anything above that and you’re technically already in the top 5%.

Don’t stop now.

6 Reasons Copywriters Should Use Twitter

The Truth Hurts…

I’m not claiming anything special here. 1,000 followers is peanuts compared to some. I won’t be launching a guide on how to get more followers. I think you need at least 5,000 followers to sound that foghorn.

(But I am going to recommend the ones I rate.)

Because here’s the truth. It wasn’t easy. And it took some time. But as my favorite James Bond villain says:

“Concentration, focus – that is all. The aptitudes come, the tools forge themselves.”

Dr. No

And that’s something you can use to your advantage, whether it’s applying for a job or hooking a freelance client, or just generally trying to impress people.

All you need is focus.

How to Measure Your Effectiveness on Twitter

So, for example:

You generate 100,000 Impressions.

1% of those convert to Profile Views = 1000.

1% of Profile Views convert to New Followers = 10 New Followers.

Not bad, but you can and will do better. 

In April 2020, with 464 tweets (tweets, replies, and retweets combined)...

I generated 709,000 Impressions.

1.66% of these Impressions converted to Profile Views = 11,800

2.96% of those 11,800 Profile Views converted to Followers = 349 New Followers

Now we're talking. 

And before you roll your eyes and say something about being an artiste who can't be doing with numbers...

My worst month for conversion to Profile Views: 0.77%
My best month for conversion to Profile Views: 3.05%

My worst month for conversion to New Followers: 0.57%
My best month for conversion to New Followers: 4.17%

This is a HUGE DIFFERENCE.

When you’re aware of these stats, and if you have a basic understanding of math, you see the importance of having a profile that converts if you want your efforts to be worth something in the long run. 

Admittedly, this isn’t a perfect science.

For example, if someone gives you a shout-out on Twitter and recommends people follow you, then you’re getting a boost in Profile Views without generating any more Impressions. BUT… the science is good enough.

If you tweak your profile, you need to track how it affects your conversion.

If either of your conversion rates is currently down below 1%, you need to work on your profile first before you fix anything else.

Ideally, you want it to be at least 2%.

I’ve managed to optimize and reach 5%.

More:

And the only way I know to do this if you’re not an anonymous troll is to have a clearly defined niche in your bio.

Bios for Beginners

My niche is copywriting.

But I also include the words ‘curiosity, understanding, and truth’ to hook those who might not be bothered about copywriting but can nevertheless align themselves with those words.

I might change this bio in the future (always be testing).

There’s really no point in tweeting much unless your profile offers people a reason to follow you.

For this, I recommend:

Less than 500 followers

Unfuck Your Twitter, by Western Mastery – get this if you need to get the basics on lock and to connect with Sean, the most helpful man on Twitter.

When you’ve got your profile converting at a decent rate, you need to go after impressions.

More than 500 followers

For this, I recommend:

Engagement is the new Cocaine, by Ed Latimore – get this if you want to learn how to write tweets that blow up and send your phone notifications into meltdown.

I’ve also received some 1-on-1 writing training from Ed.

With Ed’s help, I got my first tweet with over 100 retweets.

He has over 115,000 Twitter followers now so he knows his art.

And then…

Infinity and Beyond…

Make it Stick, by Charles Miller – get this if you’re in Twitter for the long game. You want to write, you want to build an audience and you want to make moolah.

But Paul, I can only afford one!

Get Make it Stick.

The reason I recommend Charles’ guide is because it contains one subtle but extremely powerful observation that I literally haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else.

It’s as valuable for beginners as it is for accounts easily averaging over 1 million impressions a month.

Everyone can learn from this observation.

I can’t stop thinking about it.

And the funny thing is…

Charles mentions it almost in passing in his guide and doesn’t make too big a thing out of it, but it’s like a rare gemstone.

And it’s this particular nuance that I’ll be doubling down on to go from 1,000 followers to 2,000.

At the time of writing, Make it Stick has nearly 70 perfect 5-star Gumroad reviews, so I’m not the only person to appreciate its value.

And… that’s it.

That’s all I got.

To recap:

Get your profile sorted and your conversion rates on lock, then get a guide and get after it.

P.S. UPDATE: Charles has discontinued his guide, and now runs an online writing community. I’m not a member, but I’ve no doubt you can learn a lot there. My favorite Twitter course right now is JK Molina’s Bow & Arrow. Inside the course, JK also talks about the strategy. If you buy the course, just email me and I’ll be happy to explain it to you in full.