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Dom Wells

Can You Use Twitter to Grow Your Online Business? Here’s A Step-by-Step Guide From The Best Business Twitter Users

Do you want to turn Twitter into a money-making machine? 

Twitter used to just be a place where celebrities interacted with fans, and business owners shared links to their articles…but a few years ago we started to notice it’s actually somewhere a lot of entrepreneurs are both networking, and growing their businesses.

As we paid more attention and spent more time there from 2020 onwards, we also noticed people using it to growth-hack, sometimes at incredible speeds and build a business almost from nothing, just off the back of a twitter following.

Some things have changed a little bit since Elon’s takeover; the algorithm is evolving and people are figuring out what works, but the platform is still an excellent place to build an audience, and from there, launch or grow your business.

In this article, we deep-dive into several topics that online business owners need to know more about: 

  • Is Twitter still a viable marketing and sales channel following the rolling changes being made by Elon Musk?
  • How can you mitigate risk if Twitter stops being a viable channel for generating sales leads? 
  • Using other people’s strategies and proven data-backed examples, can you grow your online audience to generate revenue for your business from Twitter? 

We’ve talked to experts who’ve been-there-done-that, who have turned Twitter into a revenue-generating pipeline for their businesses. 

Best of all, we’re giving you a step-by-step approach you can follow to create content for Twitter that will improve your visibility, web traffic, and sales pipeline. 

Why Consider Twitter As An Online Platform For Generating Sales? 

Despite controversy following Elon Musk’s takeover and the changes he’s implementing ⏤ something we’ll cover in more detail next, ⏤ Twitter is still one of the world’s most popular and active social networks. 

Twitter has changed a lot since it first launched. Algorithms dictate what we see, and advertising is everywhere. It’s less of a “Town Square” for the connected community and more of a series of interconnected neighborhoods in a large city. 

Most people on Twitter follow others within their own bubble, aligning with their worldview and filtering out opinions they disagree with. For those who want business and entrepreneurial inspiration, there’s a good chance you’ll follow numerous entrepreneurs and others like yourself.

With 1.3 billion accounts worldwide and 450 million active every month, it’s a busy and vibrant social media platform. 

Providing your audience is on Twitter, there’s a good chance you’ll find customers and can use it to generate revenue for your business. 

In the same way that Jeremy Moser, Co-founder & CEO of uSERP, an SEO and Digital PR agency, went from 500 to over 91,000 followers in 16 months, generating $400,000 from Twitter. 

Another Twitter business owner, Wiz Utopian, Owner of Social Studio and the online marketer’s community, Utopia, deploys a Twitter content creation strategy for clients that’s so far generated: 

How does Wiz Utopian do it? 

One thing we need to remember about those who create content to pull in sales leads is that most of them give away 90% of their knowledge for free. They show people, many of whom could become potential customers, how to do it themselves. 

The reason this works so well from a sales perspective is, even when you’re explaining how to do something if you’re potential customers need a Done-for-You (DFY) solution, then they’re more likely to become clients when they see what you do, how it’s done, and the results it achieves. 

He explains the basics in a Tweet: 

Numerous other entrepreneurs are doing this right now, as we cover in this article’s interviews and playbook section. 

However, before we get into that, we have to answer the question: Is Twitter still a viable platform following Elon Musk’s takeover? 

Following Elon Musk’s Takeover, Does Twitter Have Long-term Viability as a Social Media Platform? 

Since his takeover, Musk has already made numerous changes on the platform, such as launching a premium subscription, “Twitter Blue.” You can pay $8 monthly for a “verified” blue tick and “power users” features such as an edit button. 

He has also been making changes to the algorithm, which might make some of the older growth strategies less effective.

Anyone active on Twitter will have been following this saga in real-time, and everyone has their own feelings about whether or not it’s still a viable platform. 

It’s a question we have to address in this article. 

Is Twitter still a viable platform for businesses? 

HubSpot asked 100 marketers whether they would keep using Twitter for their business or brand:

“66% of respondents said “no.” 

Although “71% said they plan to spend less time on Twitter” personally while continuing to use that platform for clients or their own businesses. 

Despite numerous concerns, Twitter still has 1.3 billion accounts worldwide. However, only 450 million of these are monthly active users (MAUs); of those, only 237.8 million are monetizable daily active users (mDAU). 

A site with that many MAUs and mDAUs will always be viable as a marketing platform. 

But . . . one report predicts that Twitter could lose over 30 million users in the next two years. 

Jasmine Enberg, a principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, doesn’t think one single event could collapse Twitter as a viable platform. 

Enberg says that “users will start to leave the platform [in 2023] as they grow frustrated with technical issues and the proliferation of hateful or other unsavory content.” 

Twitter’s much smaller staff and fewer moderators, combined with Musk-instructed algorithm changes, could see users tire of hate speech, right-wing rhetoric, and content they’re not happy with. 

Musk will do anything to make Twitter profitable enough to justify the massive purchase price. And this might come at the cost of millions of Twitter users and businesses unhappy with the platform-wide changes.  

Whether this means Twitter will cease to be a viable platform for your online business depends on several factors. One factor every business needs to consider is, are my customers and audience staying on Twitter.

If so, then Twitter should continue to be viable for promoting your content, engaging with potential customers, and pulling in sales leads.

How Are Some of The Best Twitter Business Users Generating 6-figures or More From Twitter?

1. Jeremy Moser: Co-founder & CEO of uSERP

First up in our interviews is Jeremy Moser. (We recently published an in-depth interview on Jeremy’s unique approach to growing a 7-figure agency). 

Jeremy is the Co-founder & CEO of uSERP, an SEO and Digital PR agency with a worldwide team of 25 and counting. He co-owns Wordable.io with Brad Smith, owns several niche content marketing websites, and is very active on Twitter.

One of the secrets to his success is his activity on Twitter. 

How many followers do you have now, and what impact has that had on your revenue? 

In two years, Jeremy went from having around 500 followers to over 91,000. 

When asked what prompted him to start promoting himself and his businesses on Twitter, Jeremy said: “In February 2021, I noticed a small handful of entrepreneurs sharing their business journey, and thought it would be interesting to share what I was doing too. Their content helped me implement new ideas, so why not share what was and was not working for my  business to help others, too.” 

It’s made a massive impact on his agency, uSERP, and for clients, generating “About $400,000 in directly attributable revenue from Twitter in the last 16 months.” 

How do you create content for Twitter and keep it fresh and engaging, and how much time does it take? 

When we asked about the process and time it takes, Jeremy says he has “someone from my marketing team interview me for 30-60 mins per week on various subjects in our space, and then repurpose that into snappy tweets. This is the best hack I’ve found for increasing content production in less time.” 

His team also schedules and posts content on Twitter too. However, for the first 2 years he did that himself. 

Content also takes less time to create the more you’ve already done. His team can “repurpose anything I’ve done already on Twitter, or podcasts, or other articles. So the content creation process gets easier over time as you build a backlog of content and ideas!” 

What changes (if any) have you noticed since Elon Musk purchased Twitter? Have these affected your results or your opinion of Twitter as a platform?

“Massive changes. I honestly vary rarely use Twitter anymore. I’ve already found far better reach and better sales impact from LinkedIn, with a fraction of the following. Linkedin has become my main platform and has driven similar revenue in far less time.” 

Great insights from Jeremy. In particular: 

  • Creating content for Twitter doesn’t need to take more than 30-60 mins per week
  • You can outsource the actual writing of Twitter threads and content. Ghostwriters and copywriters can do this work (and even schedule it, using a tool such as Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social) 
  • Using that approach; you can grow your followers from 500 to over 90,000 in 2 years and generate 6-figures in revenue
  • However, since the Musk takeover, Jeremy isn’t using Twitter as much. He’s switched to LinkedIn, generating the same amount of revenue in a lot less time. Will others follow his approach? 

Next up is Alexis Grant, the founder & CEO of They Got Acquired. 

2. Alexis Grant, Founder & CEO of They Got Acquired

If you want to read more about Alexis Grant and They Got Acquired, we also interviewed Alexis about building and selling bootstrapped businesses. 

How many followers do you have now, and how has that impacted revenue? 

“I used Twitter heavily back in 2010, then took many years off. So when I came back to it in 2021, I had several thousand followers… but they weren’t the right audience for the new business I was building. Now I’ve got 13,600 followers and growing, and TheyGotAcquired has 2,250 (and growing).” 

“I enjoy what’s now called building in public (though lots of us have been doing it long before this wave), and Twitter is a great place to do that. I also re-activated because it’s a good place to connect with the target audience for They Got Acquired: founders building businesses.” 

“We don’t track Twitter sales or email newsletter subscribers closely, as we don’t have a specific strategy we’re following on Twitter. I’m not trying to go big on Twitter. Just enjoy being there, and as a result, it brings in email subscribers.” 

“ I use it to make 1:1 connections, bring new subscribers to our email list, and generally garner trust in myself as an individual, and They Got Acquired as a brand. Perhaps that’s the biggest benefit I’ve seen: sharing there helps people trust the brand, which turns into other opportunities, which helps us grow.” 

How do you create content for Twitter and keep it fresh and engaging, and how much time does it take? 

“Because I’m taking the Build in Public approach, which resonates with our target audience (and many of them are doing the same), my strategy for creating content for Twitter is fairly natural and simple:

1 – I tweet when I have an idea and feel inspired

2 – We repurpose blog posts from They Got Acquired and turn them into threads like this one

3 – I like Typefully for creating threads.”

“All of that maybe takes an hour or so a week, plus any time I spend on Twitter engaging with my audience.”

What changes (if any) have you noticed since Elon Musk purchased Twitter? Have these affected your results or your opinion of Twitter as a platform?

“Sadly, Twitter has changed since Elon Musk took over. As a platform, it feels more bro-y. I don’t know if that’s because non-bro-y people have left the platform or because bros feel more comfortable sharing their honest opinions since Elon has shown it’s OK to bully others. I muted “Elon” so I don’t have to dedicate any brain space to him, and so long as the platform continues to be useful for connecting with founders and finding deals to cover, I’ll keep using it.”

Great insights from Alexis. In particular: 

  • Creating content for Twitter should only take an hour or so every week. 
  • You don’t necessarily need a strategy. Simply Tweet what you want when you feel inspired, especially if you’re a founder building in public (being open about your journey as a founder).  
  • You can use Typefully or other apps for creating and publishing Twitter threads.
  • Use Twitter engagement to drive traffic and subscribers to your newsletter. 
  • Since the Musk takeover, Alexis doesn’t feel as comfortable on Twitter. However, she will continue using it provided other founders are on Twitter, and it’s still a viable platform for engaging with founders and covering deals for They Got Acquired. 

Thank you, Jeremy and Alexis, for your insights and advice about how to use Twitter to grow your audience. 

Here are 9 steps for building your brand on Twitter, incorporating the valuable insights and advice from entrepreneurs we’ve interviewed for this article. 

Onfolio In-Depth Guide: 9 Steps For Building Your Brand on Twitter

#1: Know your audience 

Before launching any content marketing campaign, entrepreneurs and businesses need to ask a few simple questions: 

  • Do we know our audience? 
  • Do we understand their pain points?
  • Do our products or services solve them?
  • If so, can we show how we solve client problems with engaging content? 

If the answer to the above questions is yes, and you know your audience (including potential customers) is on Twitter, then it’s time to create a Twitter-based content strategy. 

#2: Create an audience-centric content strategy for Twitter 

If you’re new to Twitter marketing, it’s smart not to rush into it. 

Get to know your audience on Twitter. 

Do some basic research first. 

As Buffer recommends: “Compare your target audience’s demographics (information like gender, age, geographical location, income, etc.) and psychographic data (psychological traits like personality, interests, and values) with the social media platforms you’re considering.

For example, the most active age group on Twitter is Millennials, while TikTok is where Gen Z hangs out.” 

Getting to know your audience and what they want to see/engage with and learn is the most cost and time-effective way to create Twitter-centric content. 

With a strategy to build on, it should be easier to create the right type of content for your audience on Twitter. 

#3: Create the right type of content for your audience 

Start by asking, “What type of content does my audience want to see?” 

The easiest way to answer that is by reviewing the type of content you already engage with and enjoy from people you follow. 

Look at those you admire, including friends and competitors. 

Depending on who your audience is, the following types of content work well: 

  • Be topical: Respond to pop culture trends and Internet-based trends, such as Memes;
  • Create thought-provoking, educational, and thought-leadership content (teach people how to do what you do, show them, make it simple);
  • Be funny, witty, even sarcastic (providing it fits with your brand, tone of voice, and positioning in the market). 

For B2B businesses, such as marketing agencies and coaches, the best types of content you can create are: 

  • 1 or 2 threads every week (ending in a call-to-action)
  • 3 to 5 per day shorter Tweets (anywhere from 21 to 35 p/week)
  • 1 image or visual-based piece of content 
  • 1 auto DM to followers (ending in a call-to-action)

As Jeremy Moser and Wiz Utopian have both said in this article, creating content for Twitter shouldn’t take longer than 60 to 90 minutes per week. 

Either create and schedule the above yourself. Or outsource it to a ghostwriter, content writer, or marketing agency. 

Once created and approved, everything can be scheduled using tools such as Buffer. 

It’s that simple, and it works. As we’ve seen, there are entrepreneurs who’ve been active on Twitter for anywhere from 3 to 16 months and who’ve generated 6-figure sums in new revenue for their business. 

If it’s worked for them, this same format can work for you too. 

#4: Be relatable, funny, and helpful, but not salesy

Salesy content doesn’t work on Twitter. 

Sure, for every 10 Tweets, maybe ensure 1 is promotional or at the end of every thread, but don’t inundate your audience with messages for them to buy your products or services. 

With your Tweets, aim to be relatable, funny, or helpful. Keep a consistent tone of voice. It should be your voice, even if a ghostwriter is producing your Twitter content. Make sure the tone and style align with how you talk and interact with clients, colleagues, and even friends. 

Read more from Buffer on the types of Tweets that do well on Twitter.

#5: Use scheduled and real-time Tweets 

Scheduling is always helpful, especially when you schedule Tweets according to the times when your audience is most active online. 

Although we now have to factor in the impact of Twitter’s algorithms and post-Musk changes, such as the “For You” and “Following” Feeds. 

Chances are, your audience might not see your Tweets in real-time. 

However, your audience is more likely to see them if they set an alert for when you Tweet or they make more use of “Following” than “For You.”

With that in mind, it makes sense to use a combination of scheduled and real-time Tweets. 

Save all of the content you’ve created to be scheduled. 

And then, every so often, Tweet in real-time, either on the app or desktop version of Twitter. 

Say something timely, relevant, and likely to engage well with your audience. Get their attention. Even, and in some cases, especially if it’s controversial! 

People love a good debate on Twitter. However, for the sake of your business and keeping your platform, keep it civil. 

#6: Interact with your audience 

Audience interaction is crucial.

Publish and forget isn’t an approach you can take on Twitter. 

Once you’re getting content out there, make sure to monitor Retweets and comments. Jump in and engage with your followers when interesting questions are asked. 

Pro Tip: Watch out for trolling, comments from spambot accounts, and other wastes of time. 

Only interact with real followers, rather than worrying about comments that are either clearly from a bot account, or from users who are intentionally trying to provoke you. 

#7: Automate outbound and inbound direct messages (DMs)

One of the tactics that Wiz Utopian, and that he deploys for clients is automated direct messages (DMs) to new followers. 

There are loads of ways to do this, through Twitter’s Direct Message APIs, or using dozens of third-party tools, such as Hootsuite. Most social media management and scheduling tools come with auto DM features, allowing you to automate a welcome message to new followers. 

If people are following you and engaging with your content then there’s a good chance that a percentage of those are potential customers. 

Interacting with them via a private message is a great way to turn followers into sales leads. 

Make sure to include a call-to-action, such as: 

  • A diary link so someone can schedule a call; 
  • A free downloadable marketing asset, such as a template or eBook;
  • Access to a private group of like-minded people, such as a Slack channel; 
  • Or a software/app download link or free trial sign-up. 

Automated messages can be used to get you one step closer to converting a follower into a customer. Use them wisely. Keep testing what works and what doesn’t, iterate, improve, and aim to maximize conversions through this channel.

#8: Be consistent 

Being consistent with Twitter marketing is crucial. 

Audience growth only comes from consistently producing and publishing the content your followers want to see. 

As we’ve seen from those who’ve gone from 500 to over 90,000 followers in 16 months, anyone can do it. Put the work in. Be consistent. And you’ll reap the rewards, which could be an extra 6-figures of top-line growth for your business. 

#9: Measure the impact, iterate, and improve 

As is the case with every marketing and sales activity you undertake, you need a way to measure the impact, iterate, and keep improving. 

Doing this with Twitter marketing is fairly simple. Here are the metrics to measure: 

  • Are our followers growing? 
  • Is engagement going up or down (Likes, Retweets, Comments, and direct engagement with your audience)? 
  • Are we generating sales leads from this channel? 

The third is the most important. As another Twitter business user, JK Molina, puts it, “Likes Ain’t Cash.” 

He promotes a template-based system, similar to the ones we’ve outlined here that turns Twitter engagement into sales leads. JK Molina also provides a done-for-you system that can generate up to $30,000/mo in additional revenue. 

Once you start seeing revenue flowing in from Twitter, you’re doing something right. Keep doing that, and you can grow your business even further. 

Conclusion: Key Takeaways 

At the start of this article, we asked the questions:

  1. How can you turn Twitter into a money-making machine? And;
  1. Is Twitter still a viable platform following Elon Musk’s takeover?

Answering the first question is simple: Yes, you can turn Twitter into a money-making machine for your business. Especially if you’re B2B and offer coaching, consultancy, marketing, sales services, and software, or your B2C audience is on Twitter, and it’s a channel to connect with them, such as niche websites.

With 1 in 5 US adults on Twitter, 1.3 billion accounts worldwide, and 450 million MAUs, it’s a viable platform for most businesses.

As we’ve seen from research and interviewing founders who are busy building in public, growing their audience, and using Twitter to generate sales leads (such as Jeremy Moser, Jordan Ross, Wiz Utopian, and others), it’s entirely possible to use Twitter to generate 6-figures and more for your business.

These founders are dominating their respective niches, Tweeting constantly and consistently, and using Twitter as a massive sales lead generation and monetization channel. This article shows that you can do the same for your business.

The beauty of those entrepreneurs’ approach is that it’s not complex, doesn’t take too much time, and anyone can do it. To refresh your knowledge, here are the basic steps you can take:

  1. Know your audience: Do your homework on who you want to engage with on Twitter
  2. Create an audience-centric content strategy for Twitter
  3. Create the right type of content for your audience (e.g., threads, videos, memes, etc.)
  4. With everything you publish, be relatable, funny, and helpful, but not salesy
  5. Use scheduled and real-time Tweets
  6. Interact with your audience (however, keep interactions with real followers, not bots or people who will waste your time engaging in trolling)
  7. Automate outbound and inbound direct messages (DMs)
  8. Be consistent: Once you start, keep going; otherwise, you risk losing your audience and the traffic or sales leads it generates
  9. Measure the impact, iterate, and improve  

For B2B businesses, such as marketing agencies and coaches, the best types of content you can create are:

  • 1 or 2 threads every week (ending in a call-to-action)
  • 3 to 5 per day shorter Tweets (anywhere from 21 to 35 p/week)
  • 1 image or visual-based piece of content
  • 1 auto DM to followers (ending in a call-to-action)

For B2C businesses, such as niche websites, you can create similar types of content, just ensure it’s tailored for your audience.

This should only take an hour or so a week, whether you create and schedule everything in one go (or have someone do that for you) or Tweet when you feel like it.

As for whether Twitter will remain a viable platform for businesses following Musk’s takeover: that remains to be seen. Hopefully, it will, as it’s proving incredibly valuable for business owners using it to generate 6-figures and more in revenues.

The best strategy we can recommend is to keep using it as you have been or implement the steps outlined above and use Twitter to build a newsletter. This way, your business will continue to benefit from Twitter as an audience engagement and sales lead generation channel while, at the same time, safeguarding your marketing by using it to create a newsletter.

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Dom Wells

Dominic Wells is the CEO and Founder of Onfolio. Dom is responsible for developing and implementing Onfolio’s long term business strategy. He is a serial entrepreneur with more than a decade of experience investing in and building digital businesses. Dom has grown Onfolio from a startup to a NASDAQ listed company. For Onfolio’s investors, Dom has built a diverse and profitable portfolio of online businesses that deliver consistent returns. Dom is passionate about entrepreneurship and regularly speaks on digital business strategy, online business investment and profitable growth opportunities. For Dom, diversification and exceptional talent are the keys to sustainable growth.

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