300K Twitter Followers in 2.5 years : A case study and guide


Introduction


In this article, I am going to share a real life case study of how a normal dude like us built a twitter following of more than 250 thousand audience in 2.5 years. 

Stay with me.


Twitter is one of the most popular social media platform with 229 million active daily users worldwide. A huge following on twitter is often an authority. And of course, people are behind the numbers. To build a Twitter account from zero to thousands of followers does not come by accident. Conscious efforts were made and this article is just about how a guy did it.


Why Build Twitter Audience


Twitter still ranks among the top social networks and is still potent in building brand followership. Twitter should be seriously considered for its active usage among the millennials. Brand awareness of Twitter in Germany is at 89% and 86% in USA.

In Japan, 87% of people aged between 20 and 29 use twitter in 2021 aloneThe great wealth transfer that is on going is putting billions of dollars into the hands and direct control of millennials thus making them a marketing target for companies and brands.


There are ways to build twitter audience which still works.

Elon must for instance is currently the 2nd most followed man on twitter, thanks to his acquisition of the blue app company. However, before that, Twitter itself, in their article stated and explained 7 ways to growing a Twitter account. And a quick analysis of Elon’s page will show you he consistently does 5 out the 7 guides.





How PRATHKUM built his Twitter account




The hero of this article is an average Pakistani guy on twitter called Pratham.

Pratham joined Twitter on April 2017 with zero Followers. He is web development content creator for twitter tech lovers. I have been following his twitter accounts for some time ever since he caught my attention. And what I found out are worth sharing.


 1. Optimize Your Bio



This shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody who wants to build authority on social.

Your bio information is more like About Us page in a website. In deeper look, about us is not really about you. It's about the audience you want to attract. How well your visitors understand you, your brand or your services without asking further question tells how well optimized your page is.

Your bio information should be concise, coherent and straight to the point just as Prathkum did and advised others to do.



2. Make yourself relevant in your Niche Industry

Prathkum stated in one of his tweets how he does not know anything in programming some way back. So, how did he manage to be see as an authority.


He narrowed down to one programming language ; CSS (CSS is not actually a programming language, it is a styling language for web pages, and it's relatively easy to learn).

You may be tempted to tweet about many things at the start, but don't do it. In social media marketing, authority comes with specialty. So, by keeping to CSS, Prathkum gained some following that he will expand from. it is called MVA (Minimum Viable Audience) The smallest possible audience that can sustain your micro niche at the start. This first set of connection should never be taken for granted. Prathkum didn't ignore them and you shouldn't .




3. Post Frequently

Even till now, Elon Musk still post more than 2 tweets a day and much more than that on some days .

Likewise Prathkum, who on his initial days discovered the inconsistency of tweets in some authority pages remedied it on his own account.

Prathkum still tweet more than 2 posts everyday.


4. Reply, Reply, Reply 



Social media is not a one way megaphone. It was not built to be that way. While

it is possible to respond to all his followers, the much he respond to were really

engaging. Prathkum don't see responses like :

"Awsome Stuff !!"

"Thank You"

"I agree "

as engaging responses. Even on social, the golden rules still applies. He puts effort to make his responses and replies engaging and felt. To him, response like "I agree" kills the conversation.

If you agree say why and give proper reason .


5. Be Human




In some of his posts, Prathkum has made tweets about his favorite football team which is absolutely human to do. This way, he shows his audience that he has like passion just like them.

Now, these type of football tweets may not require prior planning and so on. It is there to show his human side and that is all.

For his other tweets, Prathkum puts in effort and prior planning to make them worth his audiences' time and attention.

The juice of the point is that his tweets is not all about sharing articles, contents or links, he calls doing just that being a content bot.


6. Use Hashtags Sensibly


The use of hashtags on social media post is now popular and widely accepted. However, the overly use of hashtags can be counter productive. I have gone through Prathkum's posts and noticed he uses at most one hashtags on his tweets this days.

However, before he clocked 500 followers he uses 2 to 3 hashtags on a single post. Again, he advised not to use hashtags on a Bio Page, that it looks spammy.

I may not follow his advice if I am posting on social media page like Instagram, but we are talking about twitter here baby.


7. Win Your Audience Trust Through Valuable Contents



It is nearly impossible to make money on social media legitimately if your audience don't trust you. Trust is the key that opens the door of many opportunities.

Through his many tweets, Prathkum took his audience through his initial fears of coding to the persistence that saw him through the whole process finally. His tone too was connecting with the newbies and developer who need to switch to other languages or need to have access and information on tools that will make their jobs easy. Prathkum stood as the guy they needed to have around and he stood up to it. By being authentic, his followers trusted him to provide answers to their many questions and motivations to face their challenges.



8. Be Part of Your Audience.




Prathkum knows the challenges he faced when he started coding, and he made his tweets to tackle those challenges in the journey of others. This way, he was able to not just produce valuable contents for his followers but helpful contents that carries them through the next phase of their career challenges. When people see the value your tweets brings to them, they are more likely engage with you.






Conclusion


Prathkum didn't arrive at his 300K followers in a day. Just like every good thing, it takes time and effort. In his initial days, he was spending 6  to 7 hours a day building his twitter audience. And his perseverance and consistency paid off. He has his doubts and fears still he kept to it, creating valuable contents for his niche industry.

I hope this article points you in the right direction.

Comment below if you know Twitter account that does it well...