It has been a while since X, formerly Twitter, went through a transformation. However, one thing is still the same: X remains a key platform for real-time conversation, thought leadership, and brand visibility. X is still shaping how users consume news, discuss business trends, and engage with entertainment content. Moreover, its influence is only getting bigger.

Growing an audience on X has changed significantly over the past couple of years. Gone are the days when posting frequently and hoping that your content goes viral is a viable option. The algorithm has evolved, users’ needs have changed, and competition is stronger than ever. Therefore, you need a smarter way to grow your audience on X.

The following strategies aim to guide you on how to grow your audience on X with the most recent and effective techniques while being realistic with the resources that can help you achieve your goal.

Understand How the X Algorithm Works

The X algorithm favors depth over breadth. Although having a larger number of followers is still important, X is now favoring how users interact with your content, not just that they interact with your content.

From insights by X’s engineering team and other studies, some key factors that influence ranking on X right now are:

● Replies that foster a conversation, posts that create a conversation thread with other users get a huge ranking boost
● Saves and bookmarks, these are key indicators that your content is worthy enough to come back to
● Profile visits after viewing a post, this is a sign that your content has generated interest in you
● Dwell time: this is a measurement of how long a user is engaged with your content before scrolling away
● Consistent engagement from the same users, the algorithm recognizes relationships and rewards loyalty

It is also worth mentioning that X Premium users have a distribution advantage when it comes to replies and recommendations. This is useful information regardless of whether you subscribe to X Premium or not. It is always a good idea to understand how the algorithm is working so that you can set your expectations for organic distribution.

The bottom line is that thoughtful content that offers value or a perspective always outperforms other types of content. The quality of relevance is far more important than how often you post.

Building a Clear Niche and Content Identity

One of the biggest pitfalls on X is trying to be everything to everyone. The most successful accounts that have steadily gained a following over time have a very clear niche that users think of right away when they see their name.

Examples of successful niches on X:

● Startup insights and entrepreneurship advice
● AI updates and tech analysis
● Health, fitness, and wellness education
● Pop culture analysis and entertainment news
● Finance, investing, and economics

Once you’ve established your niche, you’ll want to ensure that you maintain a level of consistency with each and every post. The content should always reinforce your identity and why users should follow you. This is key to getting categorized by the algorithm and recommended to users, as well as giving users an immediate reason to follow you.

A good exercise is to craft a sentence that summarizes what your account is about. If you cannot do that in a sentence, you may not have a well-defined niche. “I summarize AI research papers in simple terms for non-tech founders.” This level of definition is what differentiates growing accounts from stagnant ones.

Post Less, but Post With Purpose

The days of posting five or ten times a day on X are behind us. It’s no longer the best practice it used to be, and the result is an exhausted rather than an expanding audience. Quality has clearly won out over quantity.

The mark of a good posting strategy these days is:

● Threaded posts over one-liners, where multiple-post threads on the same subject consistently outperform single tweets in engagement and view counts
● Clear opinions supported by evidence, where sharing an opinion on something and supporting it with evidence or personal experience gives people something to engage with
● Visuals where possible, where charts, screenshots, video clips, or infographics can greatly enhance engagement and save counts
● Long-form posts, where X now allows articles, and using this feature helps the algorithm recognize you’re publishing high-quality content

The benchmark for you should be three or five high-quality posts, rather than three or five forgettable ones, each week. Each post should either educate, challenge, or spark an interesting conversation. If it doesn’t do at least one of these, it’s not worth publishing.

Engage Actively With the Right Accounts

X growth has never been a one-way street, and engagement with other accounts is just as important as the content you post.

The most successful accounts on X are the most active in conversations in their niche. The way to do this is:

● Find mid-tier posts in your niche, where using X’s search function will find you posts with around 50-500 likes, which is enough engagement to warrant an audience but not so much that you'll never be seen
● Don’t add platitudes. “Great post!” doesn’t get you more visibility. Add a specific example, a counterpoint, a question
● Quote post. This is one of the best ways to engage. Share someone’s post with your two cents added to the top
● Reply to your own comments quickly. Engage in a conversation. This helps the algorithm understand you’re really engaged in the conversation. Reply in the first hour for the best effect

Think of engagement as a conference. If someone comes up to you and says “Great talk,” you don’t just say thanks and walk away. You add to the conversation. This is the same idea for X.

Optimize Your Profile for Conversions

A post may be a winner in the feed. However, the moment someone clicks through to your profile and sees a vague bio, a blurry profile picture, and a hodgepodge of topics they’re unlikely to follow you.

Here’s what a high-converting X profile should look like:

● Bio. This should immediately convey what you bring to the table. In 160 characters or less. The formula for a winning bio is: What you do + Who you do it for + Proof. “Breaking down SEO strategy for ecommerce founders. 10 years in digital marketing. Clients include [brand] and [brand].”
● Profile picture. This should be a professional-looking image. A headshot or a brand logo. Avoid a blurry photo or a generic image.
● Consistent tone in recent posts: If the last ten posts are on ten different topics and written in ten different tones, how will a visitor know what they are signing up for?

One quick test: pretend to be a stranger and look at your profile. In five seconds, will you know what this account is about and why you should follow it? If not, there’s work to do.

Use Growth Tools Carefully and Strategically

Growing an organic audience from scratch takes time, and it often takes longer than new accounts expect. This is particularly true for new accounts and accounts that are rebranding and don’t yet have an established reputation.

To help bridge this gap, many accounts and creators utilize a range of analytics tools, scheduling tools, and audience growth tools to help them grow their audience. These tools can help you make important decisions about how to best engage with your audience and how to optimize your posting times for maximum impact.

Tools like Social Crow offer a range of services aimed at helping accounts gain maximum visibility and improve their early-stage audience engagement metrics. For new accounts, this can make all the difference between being ignored by the algorithm and gaining a wider reach.

Some users also choose to buy Twitter followers to help them gain an audience in the early days. This is a common practice and makes a lot of sense. New accounts with an established audience are far more appealing to potential followers and will often encourage users to follow them. While follower count does not guarantee engagement, it can certainly help to overcome the initial visibility problem.

The key concept is balance. Growth tools should be used in conjunction with good content and authentic engagement, not instead of them. A profile with a good number of followers but no content strategy will soon plateau. A profile with good content and good use of the available growth tools has the best chance of long-term success.

Final Thoughts

Growth for the X account is not about taking shortcuts. It's about strategy, consistency, and relevance. Knowing how the algorithm favors engagement, creating a strategy for your niche, creating content, and engaging with the community are the keys to success on the platform.

Organic engagement should be the core of your strategy, but being realistic about the tools and services available for support, especially in the early days, should not be considered a shortcut. It should be viewed for what it is: the reality of the level of competition on the platform.

X is one of the most influential platforms in the world, and for those who approach the platform with a strategy, it has the ability to be a source of power, opportunity, and reach. It's the accounts that provide the most value, not the most content, that will be the most successful.