How I'm Using Twitter as an Anti-Writer’s Block Testing Ground
Step 1: Sign up for Twitter. Step 2: Read this...
We’re writers. Even if you don’t think you’re a writer, you are.
You send emails. you send risky texts. You’re a writer, chico.
And a writer’s business is figuring out what their readers wanna read. So if you want your audience to read your work, you’re in the right place.
Because I’ll explain the content strategy the top creators have known for years:
Idea validation.
Most writers waste hours every week writing about untested and non-validated ideas. And since most creators have limited time, they wonder…
“Why haven’t I made any progress?”
I was one of those creators. I used to write long-form blogs, praying people would read them. Now my process looks like this:
Read books for new ideas
Test ideas on Twitter
Review the data
Write blog
And since I respect your time, I’ll run through the process quickly and efficiently. Let’s dive in.
Follow 100–500 creators like you
This system is called the “Dream 100.”
First, sign up for Twitter, even if you despise ‘ol Musky and his “pay to win” system, and all of this will make more sense.
The idea is to follow 100 people who you:
Want to be like
Live your ideal lifestyle
Who do the work you want to do
Don’t be jealous of your “Dream 100”
Don’t look at their followers and metaphorically spit on the screen (don’t literally spit on your screen) and say:
“Wow, they got lucky!”
Or…
“Wow, I’ll never get to that point.”
Remember, everyone you follow started with 0 followers too. Once you get 100 followers, you’ll be surprised how many people are two steps behind.
But before you get there, you need to follow:
75% of accounts with the same follower account
20% is a bit bigger than yours
5% massive accounts
You can follow up to 500 accounts, but you should have an even ratio of followers to people you follow. You don’t want to look like you follow just anybody.
This will be important for the next step.
Comment on your “Dream 100’s Tweets”
Step two is to engage.
Most people miss this. They tweet into the void, expecting people to see their content. That’s how you waste your time and give up.
When you comment, provide as much value as possible:
Follow up with your take
Answer any questions
Spark a conversation
Use their tweets as inspiration for your own ideas. So take your time with this, use bullet points, and pretend you’re writing a regular tweet that could stand alone (you’ll want this for later).
When in doubt, use personal stories to it doesn’t look like you’re commenting to steal other peoples’ followers.
That’s what I did in my comment above
Do this up to 30 times daily
I aim for 15 times daily but don’t always hit my goal.
The key here is consistency and scheduling morning, afternoon, and evening times to engage.
Repurpose comments
This next step is the secret sauce.
When commenting, assume you’re writing a standalone tweet. Leverage other people’s ideas to inspire your own content. Check this out:
See what I wrote? After I wrote the comment, I used it as an individual tweet the next day:
This isn’t anything new. I started doing this myself then Dan Koe reaffirmed my strategy in one of his sprints.
The biggest Tweeters did this to grow, and it’s the main reason I’ve grown on the platform. Remember, most tweets need some tweaking to stand alone (the photo above didn’t need a change.)
Do this to catch two birds with one stone.
See what hits
This method is like throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks, only with less time investment.
I used to write entire blog posts to see what worked, but as my content ecosystem has developed, I’ve learned writing short-form posts first is a better use of time.
Use Twitter to validate your winning ideas by testing them. You know you've got a winner if they get high engagement numbers, likes, retweets, and especially comments.
Expand on your high-performing tweets
Write long-form newsletters and blogs on Medium
Absorb new information by reading books and watching videos
Read. Add value. Repurpose.
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