Growing 5k Followers in a Year on X

When I came back to Twitter a year ago, I haven’t used the platform for over 5 years. Originally the account was connected to my German Marketing Blog and Podcast, which I have sold a long time ago.

I used personal branding in another life to build my German business relationships, consulting European marketing agencies, which I do to this day. But thanks to my networking efforts I didn’t have much use for my social media presences anymore.

Starting All Over

Starting out on X last year I had about 900 German Followers left, most of them inactive or not interested in English content. At this point I almost lost all of them. My first posts here were literally seen or liked by nobody.

And because Germany is a bit of a language Silo I had no connections to draw uppon. I had to start from 0, working my way up one post at a time.

X Spaces Cheat Mode

I grew a little, reached some people, made a few new friends. But it really took off once I discovered the power of Spaces.

Working from my home office, I began listening to more and more Spaces until I eventually decided to jump on stage a few times. My first Spaces were with small groups of 10–20 people, sometimes even less. However, what immediately became clear to me is that they are the perfect tool for making real connections, especially for a natural networker like myself.

You can exchange a hundred comments back and forth with another creator, but when you can hear each other and vibe on the same frequency, you’ve made a friend, a genuine contact.

And that can happen just as easily with a huge account as with anyone else. Particularly, big accounts on the platform are flooded with DMs and notifications, but on Spaces, you can bypass all of that and talk to them directly.

How to Spaces

Of course, making a good impression is crucial, and that part took me quite a while. Spaces is not a podcast; it’s not like any traditional format, and I didn’t quite know how to behave at first. However, by observing and listening to the best Spaces on the platform, I slowly started to realize what Spaces Hosts want to see:

Provide good entertainment, offer value, stay on topic, refrain from making it about yourself or talk for too long. The most important person in a Space is the listener; try to put yourself in their shoes and do whatever it takes to provide a good show for them.

As I learn and host more Spaces myself, I’m starting to write down what I believe works best, and I’ll share this with you as soon as I find the time to put it all together.