Dec 26, 2022·edited Dec 26, 2022Liked by BowTied Bull
This is an awesome post. Can confirm that using Twitter the right way to build an organic following and customer list is very doable if you can entertain and inform.
Twitter is probably better for this than when I started doing it a couple years ago because of the how the algorithm promotes your replies and engagement to people who don't follow you, but who Twitter thinks might be interested in your topic.
This is a topic I'm always fascinated by, and I figured I'd share a few observations. I've grown a Twitter account to 10k followers multiple times, and these are just a few of the things that have worked for me:
1. Reply to EVERYONE (as long as they're not trolling). Even if it's something as simple as "Thanks!" or "Good Point!" . The algorithm rewards people who interact and have conversations, not just people who are standing on a pedestal and talking into the void.
2. Get a feel for your own analytics and test out different kinds of media and how it drives engagement. The ironclad rule for Tweets is that adding media (photos/video) is always better than just a normal tweet.
For example, I started realizing for my audience that hand-drawn diagrams got more engagement in general than computer diagrams and graphics.
You should also try different calls to action and get a feel for what a good clickthrough percentage is for your audience. Adding something like "CLICK HERE" to a tweet really does make a difference, but you should always test with your own audience.
3. Threads work (But most people won't make it to the end) - Your first tweet should be the attention grabber, and give them a reason to keep reading. Your second tweet should have a call to action ("Before we get started, you should sign up for my newsletter).
Also, see my comments about media tweets above- Add a photo or video to each one of your tweets in the thread, it will result in more engagement. Later on you can repurpose this into blog and/or email content
4. Take advantage of your most valuable real estate- Your bio and pinned tweet. Whatever you're promoting, you need to be optimizing your bio and pinned tweet to funnel people to a landing page. Even if you have nothing to sell yet, you need to be collecting emails. If people trust you, and you have authority, you can always promote an affiliate offer.
These two spaces will always have the most eyeballs, so make sure your links and CTAs are set up, even if you're just getting started.
5. The biggest flaw of Twitter is that once you get to around 10,000+ followers, you're speaking to people who are in very different stages of the customer awareness journey. A certain percentage of people may have just followed you and may not know much about you and what you believe, others followed you awhile ago and may have forgotten why, others may be long term fans, etc.
This is important because you don't have a lot of options to segment your audience, and it's also why so many "gurus" just tweet out engagement bait because they're using Twitter as a purely top-of-funnel traffic generator.
Long story short, start an email list so you can talk directly to your biggest fans in a different way. @WiFiMoneyGuy is great at this.
6. If you are just starting out, yes, interacting with larger accounts is a great way to be seen and build a following. Make sure you have something interesting or original to say though, don't just agree. Twitter will amplify your tweets if you get into a conversation with a bigger account, they want the new people to stick around, but you must have something intelligent to add to the conversation.
Even if someone doesn't follow you right away, optimizing your bio and pinned tweet for an email landing page can generate traffic from your profile while you're still at double and triple digit followers.
7. Personally, I've always preferred sending Twitter traffic to an email list first as opposed to selling directly off of Twitter (though I've done both). Your mileage may vary depending on your audience and offer.
Hopefully this helps someone just starting out. I nuked my personal account about 6-8 months ago, but IMO it's never been easier to build an audience from scratch on the platform.
congrats guys - some solid success. re: writing those posts just for growth, I do that all the time. It's the easiest way to capitalize on that momentum and engage folks. Within the newsletter vertical, knowing you're writing a banger is a great feeling and then watching that success immediately convert is a unique dopamine hit. Makes all the failures before insignificant. Excited to see how big this becomes.
Gator and Fawn are doing a great job. Valuable members of this community. Also easy to work with, nothing but smooth sailing personally; and it's exciting to get a first-hand view at what they're planning for the future. This is going to be big.
Congrats on the launch! Very interesting case study.
1) Notice you didn't mention about testing the safety of the product (eg. chemicals in product could give side effects if swallowed). Is this necessary? Or did you just rely on liability insurance?
2) On this part "make sure to spend a lot of time updating your policy documents in the website’s footer", who did you use to get your terms and conditions, privacy policy etc in order?
This is an awesome post. Can confirm that using Twitter the right way to build an organic following and customer list is very doable if you can entertain and inform.
Twitter is probably better for this than when I started doing it a couple years ago because of the how the algorithm promotes your replies and engagement to people who don't follow you, but who Twitter thinks might be interested in your topic.
This is a topic I'm always fascinated by, and I figured I'd share a few observations. I've grown a Twitter account to 10k followers multiple times, and these are just a few of the things that have worked for me:
1. Reply to EVERYONE (as long as they're not trolling). Even if it's something as simple as "Thanks!" or "Good Point!" . The algorithm rewards people who interact and have conversations, not just people who are standing on a pedestal and talking into the void.
2. Get a feel for your own analytics and test out different kinds of media and how it drives engagement. The ironclad rule for Tweets is that adding media (photos/video) is always better than just a normal tweet.
For example, I started realizing for my audience that hand-drawn diagrams got more engagement in general than computer diagrams and graphics.
You should also try different calls to action and get a feel for what a good clickthrough percentage is for your audience. Adding something like "CLICK HERE" to a tweet really does make a difference, but you should always test with your own audience.
3. Threads work (But most people won't make it to the end) - Your first tweet should be the attention grabber, and give them a reason to keep reading. Your second tweet should have a call to action ("Before we get started, you should sign up for my newsletter).
Also, see my comments about media tweets above- Add a photo or video to each one of your tweets in the thread, it will result in more engagement. Later on you can repurpose this into blog and/or email content
4. Take advantage of your most valuable real estate- Your bio and pinned tweet. Whatever you're promoting, you need to be optimizing your bio and pinned tweet to funnel people to a landing page. Even if you have nothing to sell yet, you need to be collecting emails. If people trust you, and you have authority, you can always promote an affiliate offer.
These two spaces will always have the most eyeballs, so make sure your links and CTAs are set up, even if you're just getting started.
5. The biggest flaw of Twitter is that once you get to around 10,000+ followers, you're speaking to people who are in very different stages of the customer awareness journey. A certain percentage of people may have just followed you and may not know much about you and what you believe, others followed you awhile ago and may have forgotten why, others may be long term fans, etc.
This is important because you don't have a lot of options to segment your audience, and it's also why so many "gurus" just tweet out engagement bait because they're using Twitter as a purely top-of-funnel traffic generator.
Long story short, start an email list so you can talk directly to your biggest fans in a different way. @WiFiMoneyGuy is great at this.
6. If you are just starting out, yes, interacting with larger accounts is a great way to be seen and build a following. Make sure you have something interesting or original to say though, don't just agree. Twitter will amplify your tweets if you get into a conversation with a bigger account, they want the new people to stick around, but you must have something intelligent to add to the conversation.
Even if someone doesn't follow you right away, optimizing your bio and pinned tweet for an email landing page can generate traffic from your profile while you're still at double and triple digit followers.
7. Personally, I've always preferred sending Twitter traffic to an email list first as opposed to selling directly off of Twitter (though I've done both). Your mileage may vary depending on your audience and offer.
Hopefully this helps someone just starting out. I nuked my personal account about 6-8 months ago, but IMO it's never been easier to build an audience from scratch on the platform.
Well done toons! We're proud of you both here at Ram Ranch.
how did you get past the never go 50/50 with a partner?
congrats guys - some solid success. re: writing those posts just for growth, I do that all the time. It's the easiest way to capitalize on that momentum and engage folks. Within the newsletter vertical, knowing you're writing a banger is a great feeling and then watching that success immediately convert is a unique dopamine hit. Makes all the failures before insignificant. Excited to see how big this becomes.
Gator and Fawn are doing a great job. Valuable members of this community. Also easy to work with, nothing but smooth sailing personally; and it's exciting to get a first-hand view at what they're planning for the future. This is going to be big.
Just got my two orders this week and am loving it. Will keep ordering in the future.
Congrats on the launch! Very interesting case study.
1) Notice you didn't mention about testing the safety of the product (eg. chemicals in product could give side effects if swallowed). Is this necessary? Or did you just rely on liability insurance?
2) On this part "make sure to spend a lot of time updating your policy documents in the website’s footer", who did you use to get your terms and conditions, privacy policy etc in order?
Thanks!
Enjoyed the read. Im in the process of launching a craft chocolate bar company. Nice to see the process from their side.
Good read as always.
Awesome Work Anon(s)
Outstanding article. Motivating and inspiring. Congratulations on this endeavor.
Congrats Fawn and Gator, esp Fawn, she RT my Ecom brand when I started out
Incredible case study, so much obvious white space for these 2 to grow their brand into. Keep killing it!
Will gator and fawn share what the startup cost was?
Amazing!
Awesome! Lots of great advice
any recommended resources for that? "but it took time for me to learn how to write proper hooks and craft content that is engaging. "