How to write a Twitter thread?

Threads dominate Twitter. But any beginner will tell you how tough it’s to write an engaging thread that increases followers, awareness, and overall branding.
I’ve written threads for top CEOs with engagement rates between 3-10% (the average is 0.04%).

Here are 6 tips to get you started:
1. Choose the right topic
Gary Vee has built a 3.1M following on Twitter by writing only about marketing, startups, and self-help. You won’t find him talking about geopolitics or healthcare policies because that’s not what he’s about. By narrowing his niche, he’s attracted an ocean of fans who trust and promote him.
Similarly, short-list 3-4 topics you want your readers to view you as an expert on. Ideally, choose the topics that you’ve experience in and know better than most. If you’re a marketer, you could speak about marketing strategies, personal case studies, and anything related to marketing.
Once you narrow the topics and publish a few threads, scan through comments to find which topics resonate with your readers the most. Double down on them.
Now, onto the actual writing part.
2. Write an attention-grabbing hook
If your hook doesn’t persuade your readers to read more, your thread won’t do well, no matter how good the rest of the content is. So, ensure you put 80% of your effort into writing a hook that makes the reader curious to know more.
Key ingredients of a successful hook:
a) Addresses why the readers should care about it and what they will learn.
b) Shares credibility to highlight why they should trust you.
c) Builds intrigue by giving the spiciest information upfront before expanding on them later.
Here are 5 examples of a great hook to get you started:
a) Teach something by proving why they should learn from you
I made $0 online in 2019.
— Justin Welsh (@thejustinwelsh) January 26, 2022
3 years later:
- 100M+ impressions
- $1.7M in online income
- 4 successful revenue streams
What changed?
I started writing online every day.
Here's my simple 4-step process.
[Short 🧵]
b) Intrigue readers and withhold information
A father confronted Target about why they sent emails to his teen girl to buy baby products.
— Aleksandr Volodarsky 🇺🇦 (@volodarik) October 27, 2022
"Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?" he shouted, only to find out she was already pregnant.
Here's how Target predicted such pregnancies and grew its revenue by $23B pic.twitter.com/21uJuvYkBc
c) Give personal references to educate your audience
Preparing for my first board meeting as Gusto's Head of Marketing was painful.
— Jaleh Rezaei (@jalehr) August 30, 2022
I felt lost, scared and self-conscious.
I wish I had a playbook for navigating the board.
So I put one together.
Here's my 3C framework—everything CMOs need to nail the board meeting:
d) Make it about the readers (“here’s how IKEA makes you spend money”)
IKEA is the world's largest furniture brand. With annual sales hitting ~$50B+, it's the King of "buy stuff you never planned to buy".
— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) October 20, 2021
Unsurprisingly, IKEA designs its stores with various psychological tricks to get you to spend more money.
Here's are 12 of them 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Bl6CWoiAeF
e) Provide a common goal, but the problem to achieve it, and then provide the solution
Everyone wants to rank on page 1.
— Tom Whatley (@tomwhtley) July 13, 2022
But articles optimised for search alone kill credibility.
Here’s why (and what to do instead):
3. Maintain a proper structure
The best writing is lost if you don’t write in a proper structure. The antidote to this is to maintain a logical structure throughout. Here’s how:
- Make a claim
- Support your argument
- Give further context
- Explain how
For example,
Email is the best marketing asset.
You can’t lose your audience overnight, unlike with other platforms.
Plus, you generate $31 for every $1 spent.
Start building your email audience.
4. Fill your thread body with examples and visuals
Once you hook your readers, you’ve to persuade them to keep reading until the end. Share personal anecdotes, add visuals (images and videos) and examples to simplify concepts, and back your arguments with data and research.
Another thing you should do is to ensure every tweet of the thread has at least one unique insight or a statement that makes the reader read further.
For example, read the last sentence of this tweet from the thread:
He started with the Guest ID number to know each customer's purchase, card history, email details, and fav products.
— Aleksandr Volodarsky 🇺🇦 (@volodarik) October 27, 2022
After this, Pole looked at how shopping habits changed as a woman approached her due date.
He analyzed the data and found some patterns:
The writer intentionally spoke about the patterns, which he later mentions in the next tweet, so readers scroll to the next one and continue reading.
5. Follow the basic writing techniques
Twitter rewards good writing, so follow these guidelines:
a) Write short sentences and shorter paragraphs.
b) Use simple words instead of jargon (understand vs comprehend)
c) Readers skim—so use whitespace
d) Use active voice.
6. Add a CTA
Don’t let your effort go to waste. Tell the readers what to do next at the end of the thread. It could be “follow me,” “subscribe to my newsletter,” “sign up for an event,” “buy this,” or “read more of my threads.”
Thread your way to more awareness, followers, and leads
By writing threads, you’ll attract followers and build your personal brand. Ultimately, you can turn your followers into paid customers. So, what are you waiting for? Use these tips to get started.