How should creators grow their presence on Twitter? Utsudo noticed that many VTubers focus more on Twitter than Instagram or Facebook, because of its broad audience and anonymity—a short post that hits the mark can reach thousands. Riding a trending topic once, she gained two to three hundred followers in two days. Tactics she observed include posting a silhouette of a new outfit for fans to guess, and revealing it piece by piece as likes hit set thresholds. To use it, just master the post text, hashtags and tags, and mind the character limit.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Getting serious about Twitter again

Recently, since everyone around me uses Twitter, I signed up for an account too. Strictly speaking, I’ve lost count of how many accounts I’ve registered—I forgot the password to the old one, so I can’t log in or delete it, and it just lingers.

But this time I plan to run it seriously. I read some articles online and occasionally browse Twitter to observe the ecosystem, trying to understand how growing an account works. I’ll also start testing things like setting goals and calls to action.

How VTubers use Twitter

Maybe because of Twitter’s broad audience and anonymity, I’ve found many VTubers focus more on Twitter than on Instagram or Facebook, and I’ve seen all sorts of fun event tweets.

For example, a VTuber posts a silhouette of a new outfit ahead of the reveal and invites everyone to get creative drawing what it looks like, with prizes for anyone who guesses right. The replies were full of “creative” entries—outfits assembled from cardboard boxes or things that aren’t clothes at all. I laughed so hard. So talented XD

I also noticed another pattern for outfit reveals: each time the likes reach a threshold, another part is revealed. It keeps boosting their visibility—pretty clever.

Twitter’s high reach

I’ve adapted to Twitter pretty well so far. Once I happened to ride a trending topic and gained two to three hundred followers in two days. That made me realize Twitter’s potential—its reach is unmatched by other social platforms.

As long as your short post hits the mark, it can easily reach over a thousand people. I once heard Heimao-sensei say he has over 200,000 likes on Facebook and only just over 20,000 followers on Twitter, yet Twitter wins by far in reach. So, everyone, in an era when social media is overrun by ads, Twitter really is a lifeline.

It works a bit differently from other platforms, but it’s well worth learning.

How to post on Twitter

At first I didn’t really understand it, but after using it a few times I found it pretty simple. A post basically has three parts: the text, hashtags and tags. Anyone who’s used social media should find them familiar.

Twitter posts do have a character limit, though, so you need to choose your words carefully.

FAQ

Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #191: My First Audio Drama Adaptation
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.