It's impossible to build in public consistently and not hit a writing block so here is my fix for you

Photo by Chris J. Davis on Unsplash

Most people approach building in public as a one-time crash diet.

They create 2-3 tweets daily for 2-3 weeks and think “Well, where are my results?” or “I must suck so bad because no one seems to respond/engage with my content.”

But really it is more like a lifestyle. Like being vegan or being a Buddhist or being a musician. Your transformation doesn’t happen over night and the results will definitely not show up in a rush.

I’ve written nearly 30,000 tweets since 2018.

And I just surpassed 34,000 followers on Twitter.

For the first 1.5 years, I had less than 1k followers and yet I was pumping out tons of content and sharing my work in public. It’s about the reps and sets and exercising the ‘building in public’ muscles.

Here’s the thing: I am not a superman. When I sit down to write, I too struggle with coming up with new tweet ideas but I push through. I am sure you feel stuck sometimes too.

Overtime, I found a fix to this problem without having to use will power. I have come up with a document which contains a diverse selection of ‘tweet prompts’ to spark my imagination. I don’t use these daily but they are SO handy when I need them badly. Today, I wanted to share those with you for free.

Here are the 12 tweet templates to inspire you:

1. Tweet a tiny tip

Share a simple but specific tip that can help someone who might be 2 steps behind you in whatever journey you’ve been on

Example:

2. Tweet a shower thought

Share a “what if” scenario or a curious exploration about the future publicly. The key is NOT holding back your hunch and judging yourself about how dumb it may sound.

Example:

3. Tweet a lesson you learned the hard way

Share a specific lesson via reflection. Like something you’d put in your daily journal … just make that lesson public so it may help 1 person who needs to hear it today.

Example:

4. Tweet an open question

There are millions of people on Twitter and hundreds within your niche/orbit. If ask a genuinely curious question, a lot of SMART people can’t resist chiming in. LOL. But seriously, it helps to ask questions that you might be thinking because someone might have a better perspective on it than you. Learn by asking open questions.

Example:

5. Tweet a Request For A Startup

This is a popular prompt I’ve seen many founders and investors use. I love it too. It helps you exercise your founder muscles. Find one use case that can make your life easier and tweet about it.

Example:

6. Tweet a shoutout

This is such a low-hanging fruit. Anytime I am stuck with a new tweet idea, I think of elevating and lifting up one other creator instead.

a) I get to create content by writing it

b) I help that person feel warm and fuzzy (and get some attention/distribution)

Such a win-win.

Example:

7. Tweet a small win

Most people are waiting on huge milestones months/years away and forgetting to count their blessing and small wins along the way. Make sure you are remembering to document your little victories publicly.

With reference to the example below, my ego first said “KP, are you nuts? 100 subscribers on Youtube is nothing for someone with your personal brand. Compared to your peers, in fact this is a failure.”

That’s my ego talking. I still tweeted and made a video celebrating the 100 subs.

Example:

8. Tweet a hot take

Say something that goes against the popular conventional wisdom. I wouldn’t recommend this too much .. especially if you’re using it as an “attention tactic”. But if you deeply believe in a point of view which you’ve gathered through your own life experiences, sure, go ahead and share it. But be open and ready to critical feedback. It’s worth it because it can expand your view.

Example:

9. Tweet a prediction

Share a bet about the future of your niche. There’s a good chance you might be right and you’ll have the tweet to look back on. And in the rare chance that you’re wrong, it’s okay. People make bad predictions sometimes. Better than NOT sharing your pov at all.

Example:

10. Tweet about a common myth in your niche

If you pause and reflect, you can think of at least 3-4 popular myths about your niche that everyone outside seems to believe. Sometimes even the insiders believe that. So, just share your unique take and dispel the myth.

Example:

11. Tweet a thread about tools in your niche

CONFESSION: I have a love-hate relationship with sharing tools.

On the one hand, it is actually helpful to beginners if you share which tools you use and how the newest cutting-edge tools help you do your job better.

But Twitter’s algorithm has turned sharing about tools into a viral tactic. It’s rewarding the tweets and threads which mention a lot of tools in a huge way. Like by helping those accounts land 500-1000 followers each thread. Not sure why but this is a relatively newer phenomenon in my experience on Twitter. For a while, I shied away from creating threads on tools because everyone is doing it. (and doing it poorly)

Recently I realized, that was a puritanical perspective .. similar to saying “I don’t want to become a founder because everyone is becoming one.” The better approach is to do what you love, share what you believe in, leverage the algorithm’s quirks while sticking to your niches.

Example:

12. Tweet a thread about a helpful detailed playbook (how-to)

Share a how-to guide as a thread to help people achieve an X or Y outcome. The closer this thread is to your area of expertise, the better your reception will be.

Example:

Well, those are my fixes for you to attack your writer’s block on Twitter.

In summary, here are the major takeaways for you to remember from this post:

• Building in public on Twitter is not a crash diet but a lifestyle change.
• To become prolific at it, you have to create 10x more content than you think.
• Feeling stuck is quite normal .. even for the top creators. They just push through.
• Will power isn’t always helpful, so leverage the 12 tweet templates to re-ignite your writing muscles when stuck.
• Make sure you create content on 1-2 niches you belong to/part of and make sure you are speaking about you own area of expertise for better results.

What did you think?

Thank you for giving your attention and checking this out.