The Bootstrapped Founder

Welcome to the Bootstrap founder, my name is Alvid Kahl and I talk about bootstrapping,

entrepreneurship and building in public.

Today I will talk about the three most common mistakes that people make on Twitter with

their profile, the way they talk, these kind of things.

Mistakes that when fixed will significantly improve your Twitter audience building game.

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Alright, let's get to our main topic today.

Ever since I offered to tear down my followers' Twitter profiles on a whim pretty much a week

ago, I've been inundated with requests.

At $100 each, this has been a very popular offering and it's been quite profitable for

me and I've recorded dozens of videos diving into people's Twitter profiles and pointing

out the small changes that can make a whole lot of difference.

Today I'll share the most common problems that I have encountered during those teardowns.

The biggest one, the biggest misconception of them all, is fundamentally getting wrong

who your Twitter profile is for.

That's number one.

It's not for presenting yourself, that's the surprise.

It's not there to sell your product to people or get them to subscribe to your newsletter,

particularly when you're just starting out.

It's something else, because at some point in the future when you reach critical mass

with your following, you can make it about who you are and what you do, but in the beginning,

your Twitter profile is all about what a prospective follower can expect to get from you.

It's not about who you are, it's about what's in it for them.

Think about it like this.

Your profile on Twitter is one big promise.

Twitter relationship between you and the person who just found their way to your profile for

the very first time.

A good Twitter profile aims to convince its visitors that following you will pay off for

them.

That's what it's about.

Consider that nobody really goes to a Twitter profile to buy an ebook or to sign up for a

newsletter.

People go there because they think interacting with you is worth their time in the future.

They consider following you for their own gain.

What's in it for them should be answered in every section of the profile.

Not what you are about, but what's in it for the people who come to your profile.

That brings me to the second most often occurring issue that I've seen everywhere.

People get at least one of the three core components of their profile wrong, even when

they understand that it's about their future followers and not just themselves.

Twitter beginners often waste incredibly valuable real estate on their profile.

The Twitter profile is the only place on the whole platform that you have visual and content

related control over.

Let that sink in.

Nowhere else can you add things that people will reliably see when interacting with you.

This is your only chance to set up a cohesive presentation that people will actually see.

The three core components here are your visual header, your descriptive section, that's the

bio, your link and things like your location, and your indicative pinned tweet, which means

it's an example of what people's experience with you will be on Twitter in the future.

Let's go through them one by one.

Your header image is a chance to visually communicate what people can get from building

a relationship with you.

The text-based subscription, the descriptive section, is a chance to describe what they

will get from it.

Your pinned tweet is a chance to show what they can get from it either by example or

through explanation.

So you visualize, you describe and then you show.

Yet, people put some random background image as the header.

They write only about their past accolades and how they want to present themselves in

their bio and the pinned tweet that went viral like two years ago, hoping to get more people

to like it.

That's folly.

Don't squander your Twitter real estate.

Create a header image that conveys the journey that you promised to take your followers on.

Communicate very clearly what they can get, what they can learn from being your Twitter

friend.

Highlight your most authentic work in your pinned tweet.

So show them what you got everywhere in your profile and don't waste the space with random

stuff.

And among the mistakes that people make in their descriptive section, one stood out the

most and I want to mention this here today because it's very easy to change.

People often misunderstand the purpose of the link in the bio.

And I've seen it all.

A link to a newsletter, a link directly to a purchasing page for a product or this weird

kind of short link that nobody really knows where it goes without clicking it.

They all have one thing in common.

They're an ask.

They demand from your prospect to move somewhere else to do something for you.

Look at this from the perspective of someone who's never seen you or interacted with you

or seen your work before.

They come to your profile, curious.

The first thing they see is you asking them for something.

And that's usually something that costs them money or requires them to hand over personal

information like an email address.

Is that the first impression that you want to make there?

To take something before you give?

That tends to be the worst foundation for a mutually beneficial relationship, which

is why most people are on Twitter.

So they might not convert into a follower because they think, "It's not for me."

And it's completely against the spirit of the platform.

A link to an external ask is a clear sign that you don't care about connecting with

people on Twitter.

It's a sign of wanting to move people off the platform as soon as possible.

And that is greedy, it'll make you look like you're only there to advertise your newsletter

or product.

Again, that's not why they come to your profile.

They want to see what they can get from a relationship, not a transaction.

You have to think long term here and be personal.

After all, this is your personal Twitter profile.

Even though it's a professional thing, it's still about you as a person.

If you want to have a link in there, make it a link tree or a bio link and give people

the option to learn more about you instead of funneling them to your monetized products

immediately.

Because that's the thing about long term relationships.

They start slowly, they build strength over time and then massively outperform any short

term transactions afterwards.

It just takes a while.

And a person who trusts you after all that won't just buy your work eventually.

They will make sure that their friends, their peers and colleagues do the same.

So don't go for the quick sale.

Allow people to want to buy your work over time and just be a person they can build a

relationship with.

In a way, all the three big issues here are about giving before you take.

Making it about your future Twitter friend instead of yourself.

And what I did here in all of this is an example of that as well.

I could have started with a URL to my hundred dollar Twitter teardowns that led me to all

these insights, trying to get you to buy one as soon as possible.

But how would that look?

Super selfish, right?

I want you to understand what you might be getting before I ask you to even consider

getting one for yourself.

And if you're unsure about this, don't get one.

I would rather have a follower than a customer in this relationship.

Because I know that once you're ready, once you've seen me share enough insights about

audience building and entrepreneurship and applied kindness, you might check it out because

you want to.

So treat your Twitter profile the exact same way.

Because when you promise this fruitful long term relationship for real people with you,

a real person, people will take you up on it.

And that's it for today.

Thank you for listening to the Booster Founder.

You can find me on Twitter at @AbitKal, A-R-V-I-D-K-A-H-L.

You'll find my books and my Twitter course there as well.

If you want to support me and the show, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, get the podcast

and your podcast player of choice and leave a rating and a review by going to rate this

podcast.com/founder.

Any of this will truly help the show.

So thanks so much for listening and have a wonderful day.