Most advice about growing on X says “post good content” and stops there. This is the plan with the steps filled in. It takes about 45 minutes a day. Follow it for 90 days.
Step 1: Fix your profile (15 minutes, once)
Every follow happens on your profile. Someone sees a post or a reply, taps your name, and decides in a few seconds. Your profile must tell them what they get.
- Photo: your face, cropped close, on a plain background. Faces get more follows than logos, unless you are a brand.
- Name: your name plus your topic. For example, Sam Carter | Home baking. The name shows next to every reply you write.
- Bio: use this formula: what you post, who it is for, and one reason to trust you.
Simple bread recipes for busy people. Baking every day since 2019. New recipe every Monday.
- Pinned post: pin your best post, or a thread that shows what you post about. Change it when a new post does better.
Step 2: Choose one topic and three pillars
People follow an account for one reason. Pick your topic, then write down three sub-topics that you can post about forever. These are your pillars.
Topic: home baking. Pillars: easy recipes, common mistakes, kit worth buying.
Every post must fit one pillar. If a post idea fits none of them, save it for somewhere else.
Step 3: Reply to bigger accounts (30 minutes a day)
When you have few followers, almost nobody sees your posts. But thousands of people read the replies under a big account's posts. This is where small accounts grow fastest.
- Find 20 to 30 accounts in your topic that are 5 to 50 times bigger than you. Look at who the top people in your topic follow and reply to.
- Add them to a private X List. Now you can see only their posts, in one feed.
- Turn on notifications for your 5 favourites. The first replies get the most views, so try to reply in the first 30 minutes.
- Write 10 to 20 replies a day.
A good reply adds something. Use one of these:
- A fact: “This works better with bread flour. It has more protein, so the dough holds its shape.”
- Your own result: “I tried this last week. My loaf rose twice as high.”
- A polite disagreement: “I found the opposite. A cold oven start gave me a better crust. Here is why…”
“Great post!” and “So true” get nobody to your profile. Skip them.
Step 4: Post 1 to 3 times a day
Posting at the same pace every day matters more than any one post. The easiest way to keep it up is to write the whole week in one sitting, then schedule it. Our guide on how to schedule X posts walks through it step by step.
- Block one hour each week, for example Sunday evening.
- Write 7 to 14 posts, spread across your three pillars.
- Schedule them for times when your followers are awake. Start with 8am and 6pm in your followers' time zone. Change the times once you know which ones work.
Step 5: Use formats that work
You don't need new ideas every day. Take a pillar and put it into one of these formats:
- The list: “5 bread mistakes I made so you don't have to:” then the five, one per line.
- The lesson: “I baked 300 loaves this year. The one thing that changed everything:”
- The opinion: “You don't need a stand mixer. Here's what I use instead.”
- Before and after: two photos, with one line on what changed.
- The question: “What's the one recipe you keep failing at?” Questions get replies, and replies push a post to more people.
For every post:
- Keep the first line short, and make it a number, a promise or a surprise. Most people only read the first line.
- Add a photo or a short video when you have one.
- Put links in a reply to your own post, not in the post itself. X tends to show posts with outside links to fewer people.
- Use no hashtags, or one at most.
Step 6: Write one thread a week
A thread is a chain of posts that you publish together. It is the best format for a longer idea, and a good one can bring hundreds of follows in a day.
- Post 1: the promise. “How to bake your first sourdough loaf, in 7 steps:”
- Posts 2 to 8: one step per post. Add a photo where it helps.
- Last post: a short recap, then “I post a new recipe every Monday. Follow me for more.”
Step 7: Answer every reply
When someone replies to your post, reply back within the first hour. A post with a conversation under it gets shown to more people. And the person who replied is much more likely to follow you.
Step 8: Check what worked (20 minutes a week)
Once a week, look at your posts from the last seven days.
- Find the 3 posts with the most likes, replies and reposts.
- Write down the pillar, the format and the time of each one.
- Next week, write more posts like those three.
- Stop the pillar or format that did worst.
Your daily and weekly plan
- Every day, 45 minutes: 30 minutes of replies, 15 minutes answering replies on your own posts.
- Every week, 1 hour 20 minutes: one hour to write and schedule your posts and thread, 20 minutes to check what worked.
What not to do
- Don't buy followers. Fake accounts never like or reply, so X shows your posts to fewer people.
- Don't do “follow for follow”. Those followers don't care about your topic and will never read your posts.
- Don't delete posts that did badly. Learn from them in your weekly check instead.
Most people give up after two weeks. Your first 100 followers are the slowest. After that, each new follower helps your posts reach the next one, so growth gets faster.