The hack
Optimize your profile to get followers and funnel traffic to your product.
Why it works
People who shape public opinion live on Twitter. If your customers do as well, you can use it as a place to funnel them to see your product.
Unless you are famous on the internet already, like Naval Ravikant, you can’t get away with having a basic profile. You need to sell yourself and do it well.
The goal of your Twitter profile is to make you look like someone they should follow. Once they do, you can nurture them with your posts and maybe some day down the line they’ll become customers.
How to do it
There are two profiles that we can copy and learn from. Daniel Vassallo and Marc Lou. For the first one I used the older profile version here, as it’s more relevant to people starting out.
The checklist to follow is.
- Profile picture: A simple picture where you smile works the best.
- Top image: Don’t sweat this one. Feel free to leave it empty, or add your company logo or simple slogan.
- Location: You can try to be funny here, or just go with a city or country.
- Link: Add a link to your website/blog directly there. Don’t link to your LinkedIn, those audiences are different.
- Description: You have a sentence to tell people why they should follow you. It comes down to 2 main points:
- Credibility → Is this person legit? Listing what you work on, what you have built in the past, anything to show that you’re not completely random works. Don’t overdo it. Think of the Naval profile — cool people play it cool.
- What do you tweet about → Why should I hit follow? What is the value you're sharing with your followers? Is it tips on how to become self-employed, build a business, or grow carrots in your backyard?
After the profile, you have to nail the pinned post. This will give everyone a quick sneak peek into what you’re posting. If you can put in a little credibility-building, it's even better.
Threads and images work the best. Linking to an external blog post might be too much work for people who don’t know you, so keep it simple.
