Helping you grow on Twitter. 500k followers generated for 20+ clients. Watch me share how I go from 0 to 10k followers in 90 days or less (publicly) π
I'm Pascal.
Today is 20th May.
And in the next 90 days...
I'm going to take this account from ZERO to 10,000 followers (100% in public) using only @stanleyforx.
I'll document the entire process underneath this tweet as a live thread.
Follow me to tag along for the journey.
first 30 days on a new account, i spend 80% of my time on other people's posts.
my own tweets? 20% of the effort.
sounds backwards. but at 0 followers, your tweets reach nobody. your replies reach everyone who follows that person.
flip the ratio. build the audience first.
biggest mistake i see from accounts building in public:
they make the tool the main character instead of the lesson.
your audience followed for the expertise. the tool is how you deliver it.
80% value. 20% product. flip that and you lose them.
this is day 2 of doing 30 public X account audits.
@FlorinPop17 - 203k followers
profile snapshot:
- 85,129 total posts over 13 years
- following 2,533 (80:1 ratio)
- pinned tweet: newsletter promo with 27 likes
- verified blue check, creator label
what's actually working:
1. dev memes and humor. his top 5 posts ever are ALL memes or sarcastic dev takes. 3K-5K likes, 200K-340K views. "HTML, CSS and JavaScript" meme hit 267K views. "Frontend is just easier" hit 291K views. this was his peak era (2023) and he basically abandoned it
2. milestone announcements with real numbers. "$15K contract signed" pulled 1,779 likes. "course still printing money after 5 years" got 1,201 likes. "bought our first apartment" hit 897 likes. specificity + personal stakes = his sweet spot
3. tactical proof posts. "proof you don't need a big following to make money" got 243 likes but 195 bookmarks. that's a 0.80 bookmark-to-like ratio, which is insane. his audience is hungry for actionable stuff
the problems:
reach collapse is brutal.
2023 he was regularly hitting 250K-340K views. now most posts get 800-3,000 views. that's a 99% drop. on 203K followers, his average post gets seen by 0.4-1.5% of his audience. healthy would be 5-15%
identity crisis killed his distribution.
he pivoted from "dev meme guy" to "indie hacker documenting the journey." 203K people followed for dev humor. they're getting travel photos and motivational one-liners. the algorithm noticed the mismatch
60% of his output is low-effort replies.
"True", "Huh", "Golden!!", "Never!" these get 20-60 views each. massive volume, zero ROI. worse, it trains the algorithm to suppress him because most of his content gets near-zero engagement
the pinned tweet is a newsletter promo with 27 likes. first thing a new visitor sees on a 203K account. underwhelming.
bio is generic. "Documenting my business adventures" doesn't tell you what he does, who he helps, or why to follow. no social proof, no specificity
no threads. he completely abandoned the format. that's one of the highest-reach formats on X just sitting unused
the lifestyle content doesn't land. "A short walk for today" (16 likes), food photos (18 likes), gym selfies. his audience didn't follow for this
vague motivational posts fall flat. "There is no right universal way, there's just your way" got 12 likes on 766 views. generic wisdom gets ignored
the opportunities he's missing:
1. his meme muscle is his biggest asset and he stopped using it. even one dev meme a week would outperform everything else he posts combined
2. the bookmark ratio on his tactical posts proves his audience wants "how I did X" content. a weekly thread breaking down one business move would crush
3. no threads means no compounding reach. a single thread per week combining his build-in-public numbers with his dev humor voice would bridge both audiences
4. the Marketing OS newsletter has zero visible traction signals. no subscriber count, no testimonials, no proof in the pin or bio. hard to convert cold visitors
5. his "contrarian take" format works when he uses it. "What happened to Devin?" hit 1.14M views. "I block people who use AI to reply" sparked 200 replies. he should do one polarizing take per week minimum
6. the engagement-to-follower gap (35 avg likes on 203K followers = 0.017% ratio) means he has a massive dormant audience. a strategic reactivation campaign (best-of meme series, "I've been doing this wrong" confession post) could wake them up
what he should double down on:
1. dev memes are his unfair advantage. his top 5 posts of all time are ALL humor. "HTML, CSS and JavaScript" meme hit 267K views, "Frontend is just easier" hit 291K. no other format comes close. one dev meme a week would outperform his entire monthly output. he doesn't need new ideas, he needs to go back to what made him
2. milestone posts with real numbers. "$15K contract" (1,779 likes), "course still printing money" (1,201 likes), "bought our first apartment" (897 likes). every time he shares a specific number attached to a personal stake, it hits. this should be a weekly rhythm, not random
3. the contrarian hot take. "What happened to Devin?" hit 1.14 MILLION views. "I block people who use AI to reply" sparked 200 replies. when he picks a fight with a topic, the algorithm rewards him massively. one polarizing take per week minimum
4. tactical "proof" posts. "Proof you don't need a big following to make money" got 195 bookmarks on 243 likes. that's a 0.80 bookmark-to-like ratio which is almost unheard of. his audience is screaming for "here's exactly how I did X" content and he barely makes any
wins he's leaving on the table:
1. 85,000 posts is a goldmine he's ignoring. he has 13 years of content sitting there. his best 2023 memes could be reposted today and outperform his current stuff. a "greatest hits" repackaging series would reactivate his dormant audience overnight
2. the bookmark-heavy posts prove people want to LEARN from him. but he never follows up. every post with 100+ bookmarks should spawn a thread going deeper. the demand is there, the supply isn't
3. his build-in-public numbers are real. $15K contracts, courses still making money 5 years later, buying an apartment from creator income. most people on X are faking these numbers. he has actual receipts and barely uses them
4. the April Fools bait format crushed. "I'm going back to a 9-5" hit 178K views and 482 likes. manufactured controversy is a repeatable format for him, not just a once-a-year gimmick
5. 203K followers is a sleeping giant. most posts reach 0.4-1.5% of his audience. a single "I've been doing this wrong, here's what's changing" confession post would hit the algorithm reset button. vulnerability + specificity from a large account always goes viral
opportunities he hasn't seen:
1. bridge content between his two audiences. 203K followed for dev humor. he pivoted to indie hacker. instead of choosing one, combine them. "how I used my dev skills to build a $15K/month business" threads would serve both audiences simultaneously
2. the Marketing OS newsletter has zero social proof anywhere. no subscriber count in bio, no testimonials in pinned tweet, no "10,000 people read this" flex. he's asking cold visitors to trust a link with nothing backing it
3. threads are his biggest untapped format. he completely abandoned them. a single thread per week combining his real numbers with his humor voice would be his highest-reach content instantly
4. he replies 60+ times a day with one-word comments. if he redirected even half that energy into 10 thoughtful replies on bigger accounts, the network effects would dwarf the volume play
5. his course is still making money after 5 years and he mentioned it ONCE. that's a whole content series. "what I'd change if I launched it today," "the one module people actually finish," "passive income math after 5 years." each one is a standalone post
6. a "reactivation campaign" would work perfectly for his account. best-of meme week + a confession post about the pivot + a fresh pinned banger = algorithm reset. accounts this size bounce back fast when the content matches what the audience originally followed for
what do you say @FlorinPop17, did i get it right? hit me up if you want to brainstorm more ideas together.
day 1 of documenting the 30 articles in 30 days experiment.
yesterday's post announcing it:
2 comments, 23 retweets, 56 likes, 7400 impressions.
the experiment hasn't even started properly yet and it's already proving the point: people follow experiments over experts.
What happens if you post 30 articles in 30 days?
This guy is about to find out.
I'll share the impressions and follower numbers from this experiment on my profile too:
I'm doing a public 30 day challenge.
The goal is to grow Stanley.
As of today, Stanley has 2,200 active users.
Our goal is to get him in the hands of 10,000 people.
To do so, for the next 30 days, I will run 3 growth experiments in public and document it:
Experiment 1:
- Send 500+ hyper-personal DM's to prospects
I will use Stanley to find me 500+ people who would be a good fit to use him, then use Stanley to come up with personalized outreach to these people.
Will measure and share the results of each DM.
Experiment 2:
- 30 long-form account audits in 30 days
One of the things Stanley does best is spot the gaps on your Twitter account and in your strategy.
So, I'll have Stanley analyze 30 accounts and post a long form audit every single day.
The experiment here is simple.
Can Stanley attract high-level users by simply doing what he does best... in public?
Experiment 3:
- Spend $2,000 on Twitter Ads in the next 30 days
Can paid acquisition lead to more users? And is Twitter Ads a good way to get people to your Twitter-native product? We'll find out.
Each week, I will create a new ad and allocate a budget of $500, experimenting with different ad styles + audience targeting.
And I'll document it all along the way.
The Overall Goal:
"How many total new users can we generate across these 3 initiatives in 30 days of focused effort?"
Hopefully, you can then apply what I learn along the way, to your own product that you want to market.
Follow me @iampascio and enable notifications on my profile (the lil' bell icon) to not miss a single update.
- Pascio
P.S.
One more thing
I'm also running 2 other separate experiments that my interest you.
1.
On @xgrowthpascal, I'm growing this fresh account from 0 to 10,000 followers in the next 3 months, using only Stanley.
Learn more here: https://t.co/ELhWxkE6Wv
2.
On @creatorpascal, I'm posting 30 long form articles in 30 days just to see what the f*ck happens.
Learn more here + read the first one here:
https://t.co/VZtSBaUJFE
@LukeScalesX I like to go wide in the beginning to attract the wider audience and then niche down as you go.
Had pretty good success with it so far.
What are your thoughts?
@HeyAlexLeonard That most tools are solving the wrong problem.
I've managed 20+ creator accounts. Not once was the bottleneck a scheduling tool or an analytics dashboard. Every single time it was the creator not knowing what to post next.
Build something that fixes that and you win.
@seeker_builds I once heard someone say:
"We overestimate what we can do in a day, and underestimate what we can do in a decade"
And it's always so f*cking true.