How to effectively use Twitter for learning, networking, au…

Disclaimer - Everything said here is “industry leader thoughts and mine” experience with Twitter, I don’t deserve any credits. I have just shared with you all things about Twitter at one glance. This guide covers everything about Twitter.

1/ First question you should ask yourself : Why to join Twitter?

I will tell you that you can generate sales, build connections, job opportunities, best learning sources, personal brand, start your own business and bunch of other things you can think of, Twitter will help you.

2/ Twitter is the best social networking platform in the world. Twitter is a school that helps teach people. Let’s cover all the things one by one from scratch.

3/ How to start using Twitter?

- Open the app and clean all your following.
- Avoid negative people and politics.
- Skip Twitter's recommendations.
- Start consuming content of people you follow for the 1st 15 days.

4/ Okay, but whom should I follow?

Follow your office colleagues, writers or authors, entrepreneurs and people you admire the most.

If you’re just starting out, your goal should be to make a 30 Under 30 List people to follow.

5/ When you follow somebody, you're giving them permission to brainwash you with their ideas, so always think 100 times before you hit follow.

6/ After it, start tweeting. But, what to write?

Identify your niche i.e., on which topics you want to write and start tweeting according to it. For example, Fincademy, writes about personal finance, stock market investing.

7/ Or you can make your unspoken identity, means whenever you think of any topic in your mind, the person's name should come. Like, whenever I think of Indian brands, the first person who comes to my mind is Palak Zatakia, bcuz he made his own unspoken identity on Indian brands.

8/ Okay, now I got it. But, how to tweet?

- After first 15 days, start replying, retweet with comments, share your thoughts, post quotes or lines you liked the most.

- Avoid excessively retweeting instead RT with comment - quote tweet.

- Then, start tweeting slowly & steadily.

9/ Commit to posting at least 1 tweet per day for 30 days and be consistent for a longer period if you want.

But, If you have a story to tell, make a thread out of it. Thread means an article which is split into different or multiple tweets.

10/ How to write a successful Twitter thread?

- Start with a good hook.
- Include your first point in the first tweet.
- Make each tweet a unique thought and should be individually retweetable.
- It should be neat and clean.
- Thread should have good storytelling.

11/ How long should a thread be?

Imo, the size of thread doesn’t matter. I have written a thread which was as long as 100+ tweets and a shorter one which has 15-20 tweets. Both the threads get a good engagement ratio. The whole essence of thread is to have good storytelling.

12/ So, should we write threads frequently?

Sorry to say, I don’t find an answer to it as everyone's opinions are different. But, from my personal experience, I can say that you should write a thread when you have a story to tell or make a complex concept in simple words.

13/ Okay. But, can we start business on Twitter?

Yes, you can start a new business from Twitter. For example, imagine if Product Hunt was not born.

Yeah, you heard it right. The founder of Product Hunt, Ryan Hoover once said “Product Hunt wouldn’t have started without Twitter”.

14/ On 6th November 2013, he tweeted “Just announced a new experiment : Product Hunt”.

15/ Ohh ! That’s amazing. But, how can we get a job from twitter?

I will be sharing my own experience, I can clearly see the shift of the job hiring process from Linkedin to Twitter. The fun fact is : Founders hire people from Twitter first, then they look for other platforms.

16/ I can assure you that you can get a job from Twitter because I got 2 jobs from this platform itself and it’s free.

Yess, you heard it right. I got my first 2 jobs from Twitter.

17/ How to build good connections on Twitter?

One rule: Reach out to the person to whom you want to ask or meet and you can reach out to people via DM. For example, Ranveer Allahbadia brings ‘Radhika Gupta’ on his podcast through a comment on her compilation of all talks thread.

18/ One message for Students : If you use Twitter to build a name and a network for yourself. Your network is what gives you opportunities, and if you don't have an existing valuable network, Twitter is the best place to build it.

19/ As you understand how to use Twitter, now it's’ time for how to grow from scratch:

Do’s :
- Get into other people’s conversation and reply with your opinions + thoughts.

- Unfollow people if they aren’t tweeting about stuff you like.

- Reach out to people via DM.

20/ Do’s :
- Find your own style or what works for you, don’t copy someone else. (I learned it very late)

Don’t :
- Use Hashtags (everybody has different opinions, try with yourself first)
- Tweet about stuff too niche to your life or situation to be relatable.

21/ Golden Rule of Twitter :

- Quality of followers >>>> Quantity of followers
- The unfollow button is your best friend.
- Quality of comments on your tweets, describe your post.

22/ Okay, I want to ask, is there any underrated tool on Twitter which people don’t use or are aware of?

Yes, there are many tools which people aren't aware of or use. Like DM, Mute words, Twitter advanced search option & many more.

Don’t worry, I will explain to you each tool.

23/ The most underrated tool on Twitter : Use Mute words. It means when you’re muting words, you won’t get any new notifications for Tweets that include them or see tweets with those words in your timeline.

24/ To enable it, Go to Settings, then Privacy and Safety and there you can see Mute and block or Mute words. But, please do it later on. Read the full thread first.

25/ Twitter advanced search is the best thing about this platform and almost nobody uses it.

Here’s a fun way to use it:

- Pick your favorite person to follow.
- Search the keyboard that you want to know.
- Use other options to get detailed search.

Then, do it again.

26/ Use Twitter Lists to create curated feeds that are of a higher quality.

27/ Use the pinned tweets to highlight your personality and key ideas. It could be a popular tweet/ thread or it can be a reflection of your own philosophy.

But, what if I have so many threads?
Make thread of threads (compilation) so that people can binge read your ideas.

28/ Or you can also make a Moments, which include your most popular or recommended thread. (Imo, most understand tool on Twitter)

29/ Okay, tell us some hacks to grow followers on Twitter?
One of the most important things that you can do is reply, especially if it's a question asked by someone you admire.

30/ Or Grow your following by replying to popular tweets. Find a tweet written by somebody with a big following. Then, add an intelligent reply.

Why does this work?
Twitter algorithm ranks replies by engagement. By replying, you can ride the wave of people with big audiences.

31/ Sticking to your niche or unspoken identity along with consistency is the best thing that can help you to grow your Twitter following.

32/ Comments is the best way to increase your profile reach as more people will get to know about you. It’s my personal opinion.

33/ Turn complex information (annual letters, research articles, books, etc.) into simple threads and tweets. Like, I did on health, term and car insurance policy.

34/ One of the most important factors why people follow you is : Your Bio and Profile Picture.

35/ Your bio should tell people everything they need to know about you.

- What to expect when they follow you?
- Credibility : Why should they listen to you? What are you known for?
- Use the pinned tweet and your banner to let people know what you stand for.

36/ Your profile picture also brings followers. It’s because people don't remember your name and username. But, people remember your picture. And they remember coming across a good tweet from 'an account with that picture'.

37/ Keeping your pic the same over long periods of time builds your brand by exposing people to your face + ideas over and over again until they hit that follow button.

38/ Once changed, followers need to re-associate the new photo with the person. and it takes time to get used to it, and start recognizing their avatar in timelines again.

39/ Not changing your profile picture is one of the best things you can do to grow your Twitter.

40/ Ask questions to engage with your audience from time to time.

41/ The biggest growth hack of Twitter is : Reaching out to people’s DM. If you reach out properly, you can get funding for your startup, next co-founder, connections, job opportunity and more.

Domm Holland, the Co-founder of Fast got all these things, through Twitter DM.

42/ How to use direct messages?
- Don’t send auto-generated messages.
- Convey your message in 3-4 texts.
- Keep conversations active in DMs.
- Once it’s appropriate, ask to meet in-person or speak by phone.
- Don’t Spam.

43/ The art of sending DMs that get a response is simple : Never use DMs to ask a question that can be Googled.

It shows a lack of agency on your part & that's the type of message that gets usually ignored.

When someone is giving their time for free, respect it!

44/ So, does it mean we should also keep our Dms open?
Yes, definitely. You should keep your DMs open. You never know who will reach out. If something weird happens, just block or report them and move on.

45/ Use Twitter Bookmarks to add the best tweet or thread, you found interesting and re-read it.

How to use it ?
Click on the Share button and there you find, Add Tweet to Bookmark. Now, you can see it on your Bookmark tab and it is available at the top left corner.

46/ Twitter becomes much more valuable once you start using it to make friends and there is zero downside to being active on Twitter and unbelievable upside if you are consistent.

47/ If you admire a person or likes his/ her tweets, Enable the Twitter notification as it will save your time.

48/ After applying the tips and hacks. Now, you have decent followers. Finally, own your audience by creating a blog or a newsletter. Twitter is great for distribution and building connections. However, blogs and email lists are ideal for long-term audience engagement.

49/ One tip : Your mind will develop faster as soon as your time spent on Twitter exceeds your time spent on Instagram by following the right topics, discussions and people on twitter.

50/ If you have done all the things as mentioned above, you automatically have created a personal brand.

51/ Conclusion:

- Share unique and original thoughts.
- Leverage Twitter.
- Take a confusing idea & make it simple. Make your followers smarter.
- Find the strategy that works for you.
- Your timeline should be something that people can endlessly scroll.
- Read the thread again.

52/ Tagging people from whom I have taken help for making this thread:

@palakzat @david_perell @join2manish @mkobach @BeerBicepsGuy @viraj_sheth @tobydoyhowell @ankitkr0 @amlewis4 @Julian @mckaywrigley @vedantm_

Sources - https://t.co/0DOrdxbkUS

I don’t deserve any credits.

53/ Ending up by a quote - Twitter is the most amazing networking and learning network ever built. In any given field, 50-80% of the top experts are on Twitter and they’re sharing ideas. If you’re not on Twitter, you are missing out a lot.

~ @bgurley

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