Replying to 500 tweets/day and other tips for growing to 70k Twitter followers

Dagobert Renouf built his Twitter account from 0 to 73,000 followers within a few years, quickly turning it into his primary acquisition channel.

I spoke with him to understand how exactly he did it — and how other non-experts can do the same.

Why indie hackers should go all-in on Twitter

Dagobert and his wife, Lucy, started working on Logology back in 2018 and launched in 2020.

Their launch flopped because they didn't have an audience. They were expecting traction and didn't get it, which brought about that cold-sweat moment that many of us have faced… that "oh damn, I actually need to do marketing" moment

Of course, as a developer, he didn't want to do that. More to the point, he didn't know how to do that. But he did know his target market: founders.

So after struggling to get customers for a year, he took a very small step. He started contributing to founder communities: IH, Reddit, Slack channels, and (you guessed it) Twitter. The sentiment being:

Participating > Marketing

But "participating" wasn't just lollygagging with friends online. He made himself spend hours a day replying to people, which we'll dive deeper into later. And after a few weeks, one of his replies went mini-viral and brought traffic in the thousands. It even brought in a couple of sales.

He stayed consistent.

He had more wins.

He started making memes about the indie lifestyle, which people loved.

He found that he actually enjoyed doing it.

And Twitter became his primary acquisition channel. He mastered this single channel and forgot about the rest. And after a few months, he started noticing that Logology's sales were growing with the size of his following.

How to get to 70,000 followers on Twitter

These factors are fundamental to his approach:

Consistency

You've heard it a thousand times, but here it is again: The most important factor in Twitter growth is: Consistency

Dagobert is consistent AF.

Except for the last little bit (he's taking a break), he has posted twice a day (1 text tweet, 1 meme) every day except Sundays for years.

Here's his process:

He batches his work. He spends one or two days every month creating memes. For the first half of Day 1, he scours meme sites, reddit, etc. and takes screenshots of memes that inspire him. Then he goes through them and creates 30 memes for the month based on his previous tweets and comments on Twitter — he thinks about what he said that struck a nerve with people, and then he makes it funny.

Aside from his memes, Dagobert often shares little anecdotes and stories.

Nothing is done spontaneously. It's all scheduled via Hypefury.

And then there's the engagement. So much engagement. At the peak of his Twitter usage, he sometimes interacted with 500+ comments on Twitter in a day.

He aimed for 50+ replies to other people's tweets, and then replied to everyone who commented on his.

Relationships

This quote from Dagobert says it in a nutshell:

"Twitter is not a content media platform. It's a SOCIAL media platform. You gotta be social and make friends who will cheer for you."

This is key to what he does. And it pays dividends far beyond customer acquisition, as we'll see later.

He suggests focusing on connecting with others more than you focus on tweeting. He would spend time each day searching for folks who were writing about things in his niche, and he'd engage with them. He found them by finding people in his niche who inspired him and checking out who they followed. He also looked at related accounts that Twitter suggested.

💡 Tip: He suggests being very thoughtful in your responses and calling people by their first names. And when he interacts with someone a lot, he even invites them to chat over Zoom.

Remember: Replies are valuable, as your followers and their followers will both see them.

Which brings me to my next point.

Sourcing

Personally, my biggest issue with building an audience is probably figuring out what the heck to say.

But Dagobert doesn't seem to have that issue. He says that the huge amount of engagement that he does has an added benefit: It provides fodder for content.

What are people saying? How are you responding? Analyze both things and write about the best topics. If you're engaging enough, that's a lot of content ideas.

Replying to what your audience is asking is easier and more effective than dreaming up topics.

💡 Tip: Plug into existing topics. By using words like “startup” in his tweets, he was often able ride trends and get more exposure.

Authenticity (and strategy)

As I said before, he's not trying to sell anything. At least, not directly.

He's trying to be authentic. That's why he only talks about what feels authentic to him: Short stories about what's really happening for him and funny memes.

According to Dagobert, if you're authentic and you help your community, it'll end up helping you in the long run.

But it's not quite so easy. Because he also tries to be strategic. And doing both sounds to me like a bit of a tight-rope walk. But he's doing it.

Story

Humans love stories. Whether he's talking about his business or slinging hilarious memes, there's a story being told. And he tells it really well.

His recipe for a good story is simple:

1. Problematic situation

2. Emotional pain

3. Resolution and lesson

He doesn't ever really talk about his product — he talks about his journey. He says this allows people to see themselves in his stories and relate.

Personal brand

As you might have guessed, Dagobert is all about building a personal brand, as opposed to a company brand.

He notes that this isn't always the best way. For example, if you have the goal of selling your business and your audience is a primary acquisition channel, then that audience needs to be transferable. It can't be your personal audience.

But otherwise, it's personal brand all the way. People prefer to see a face over a logo. And they want behind-the-scenes content over product updates. That's why he says it's 10x easier to build.

And it's particularly powerful if you're building multiple related products.

Voice

Then there's the importance of finding your "inner voice", as he calls it. It's not an easy thing to do, and he says it's even harder to explain how to do it.

But the short of it is this: Start writing. And, "keep writing and trying until you know more about yourself and what you're about."

You'll know it when you find it, as you'll start growing quickly.

Just don't let it get stale. After you find what works, you have to find what else works. And the "what else" needs to be close enough to the "what works" that people don't get whiplash.

Grit

This is closely related to consistency but it deserves its own section.

In late 2021, Dagobert started picking up speed. He went from 1,000 to 10,000 followers and beyond. He was blowing up. And then… he wasn't.

There will be ups and downs. Don't give up too soon.

But don't get stuck working on something that doesn't work either.

When that happens, he suggests sticking with Twitter, but pivoting your strategy.

Don’t be afraid to quit

After putting in most of their savings, and a lot blood, sweat, and tears, Dago and Lucy shut down Logology.

In the end, the authentic relationships that he was so vehement about building — i.e. that community he built on Twitter — is where he found solace and encouragement. Remember that quote from above?

"Twitter is not a content media platform. It's a SOCIAL media platform. You gotta be social and make friends who will cheer for you."

That's helpful when you're trying to grow. But it's also helpful when you're licking your wounds and in need of support.

If you want to learn to grow your Twitter like Dagobert, here's is course.

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