Archive, 2011: growth hacks that still work.
Rewritten from a 2011 post that was technically correct at the time. Half the advice still works, half was a product of the Twitter API being open enough that everything eventually stopped working. Notes on which is which.
In 2011 we ran a post called "10 Twitter growth hacks that work in 2011." The original was written when Twitter had about 200 million users and the API allowed things that would be unthinkable in 2026. Going back through it now, roughly half the hacks still work and half died with API changes between 2013 and 2023. This is the rewrite.
Still works
Reply to bigger accounts with a signal dense take. Works in 2026 exactly as it did in 2011. Find accounts in your niche with 10 to 100 times your follower count. Reply to their tweets with genuine signal (not compliments, not arguments). Their follower graph sees the reply and a small percentage follow. The mechanic is identical.
Post consistently at the same times. The audience trains on your cadence. Works in 2026 because audience behavior has not changed even though the algorithm has. Consistency is a content layer advantage that the algorithm does not control.
Pin a tweet that explains what you do. Was useful in 2011, is more useful in 2026 because profile visits are higher leverage now than they were then. We have written about this elsewhere.
Stopped working
Follow people in your niche hoping they follow back. Worked in 2011 because Twitter rate limits were lax and the follow back norm was strong. By 2015 the follow back norm had collapsed. By 2018 rate limits made mass following impossible. In 2026 it is dead three different ways.
Tweet links with hashtags for discovery. Worked weakly in 2011 because hashtag search was a functional discovery surface. By 2020 hashtag search stopped being a meaningful discovery path. In 2026 hashtags are zero weight in the ranking model. Still fine for search indexing, irrelevant for For You.
Auto tweet your blog posts via IFTTT. Worked when Twitter allowed long lived third party app permissions. In 2026 the auth model, the auto tweet pattern itself, and the way X handles external links all make this net negative.
Still wrong in 2011 and 2026
Follow for follow exchanges. People did this in 2011. We wrote against it in 2011. Still did it. Still wrong.