Source:
Ish Verduzco
Translation: Odaily Planet Daily Wenser
Editor’s Note: The operation of investment institutions’ social media accounts has always been a “black box”. We know very little about the mechanisms behind the operation of these authoritative or entertaining accounts, the focus of their planning, the methods of increasing followers, and so on. Due to internal confidentiality or institutional management considerations, there are also few responsible persons of related institutions who share or disclose this information. Today, Odaily Planet Daily will share with you the operational experience of a16zcrypto’s social media manager, Ish Verduzco, on how to grow the account from 0 to 100,000 followers for your reference and learning.
Operational Philosophy: Useful Content Speaks for Itself
In general, my social media philosophy is very simple: be helpful.
I believe that if you can provide assistance to others in a specific field, people will consider you as their first choice for a long time. This will make people more willing to pay attention to, participate in, and share your content (which allows your content to enter more levels of the communication network). You can also use content to entertain or inspire people, but it should be based on helping them solve specific problems. As for the strategy, here are the specific details (on X/Twitter):
7 Social Media Operation Strategies
1. High-quality content that is easy to share
Your content should be easy for the target audience to share, bookmark, and forward to their friends.
This is the best way to expand your followers. By producing high-quality content that people are willing to share on their social media networks, you can attract new audiences. The working principle is like a funnel with multiple levels of conversion:
Produce high-quality content > Followers share it with their fans > New users discover your account > Some people click on your account homepage > Some of them will follow you (if the rest of your profile is good) > You have an initial audience with a larger base > Repeat this process.
Example tweet:
Screenshot of the tweet
2. Community questions
Attract the target audience by asking sincere questions.
I have seen many people make mistakes in this regard because they use it as a gimmick to promote short-term data engagement. If you want to do well in this regard, you should make sure that every reply to your tweet adds value to the people who view or reply to it. So, try to avoid doing things that only focus on short-term benefits, and make an effort to respond to high-quality comments. This will help drive “engagement flywheel” in your post:
You ask a question > Someone gives a reply > You reply again > Some of their followers see the post in their feed > Some of them comment on your post > You reply to them > Repeat this process.
Example tweet:
Screenshot of the tweet
3. Tireless community management
In terms of increasing followers (in addition to high-quality content), community management is a less visible but critical factor.
The number of posts you make every day should be limited, otherwise, you will eventually become annoying, which will make many people unlikely to interact with you (or worse, unfollow you). But you can reply and participate in the interaction of other posts. In the past year and a half, I have spent at least a few hours every day liking, replying, and handling direct messages. Overall, I have tried to establish one-on-one deep communication relationships with people in the cryptocurrency field.
Continuing to do this will bring you compound effects.
You can check the likes and replies on our account @a16zcrypto. We can clearly see that this account has had thousands or even tens of thousands of interactions.
My community management goal is to “cultivate diehard fans” one by one. Doing this every day is time-consuming and hard work, but in the long run, it is extremely valuable.
4. Marketing efforts beyond the platform
We usually use newsletters, podcasts, and other social channels to guide early followers on Twitter/X.
A simple sentence like “Hey, if you want to receive useful content every day, please follow us” can be very helpful. You can add social media account links to your website, email signature, and other places that might attract people to click.
If you really want to unleash your unique creativity, you can also start creating content that can only be found on Twitter/X. Then, you can promote it on LinkedIn, Instagram, newsletters, or other established distribution channels.
This should be more effective because it gives people a reason to leave the app they are currently using and follow your social media account.
5. Utilize existing communication networks
This seems obvious, but you would be surprised how many teams forget about it.
It’s simple: if the staff of your company (even friends, consultants, investors, etc.) have their own social media accounts and a certain number of followers, mobilize them to bring more traffic to your brand account.
We usually use methods such as retweets, @/tag, and collaborative tweets to attract internal employees to become followers of our account.
It really helps when personal accounts recommend other people to follow our official account.
Example tweet:
Screenshot of the tweet
6. Smart use of Memes
In the early stages of account creation, use as many emojis as possible in the official account.
Over time, I started encouraging our team members to share emojis from their personal accounts and then retweet them through the official account. This seems to resonate with more fans.
Overall, I believe that if Memes are done well and in line with your target audience, they can be very valuable.
If not, don’t force it.
For more advice on Memes, follow this expert @iamjasonlevin.
Example tweet:
Screenshot of the tweet
7. Replicable framework
It is worth mentioning that all of the above is based on the framework I have developed for operating Twitter/X platform accounts and attracting followers. Many of these principles can also be used on other social platforms.
There is also a tweet about Twitter account operation strategies that can be referred to:
Screenshot of the tweet
A summary of the specific strategies is as follows (for those who don’t want to click and view):
Be an affable person.
Increase the value of your content.
Don’t take things too seriously.
Have fun on the platform.
Maintain the frequency of content publishing, but don’t make people feel bored.
Engage in interactive communication in the flow of information every day.
Share your stories and insights.
Always remember your fans.
Give 5 times more than you expect.
Conclusion: Social media operation is an art of seeking consensus.
Last but not least, although I am only a “one-person social media operation team”, I cannot grow the account quickly without the other members of the official account operation team. Many people have provided us with help, and the content they provided has been incorporated into my social media operation strategy (including editing, dissemination, engineering, research, etc.). I believe that the social media manager is like a coordinator, and our job is to help everyone reach a consensus, help them leverage their accounts, and keep the content aligned with the interests of the fans.
Attached are high-quality articles related to a16z for readers’ reference and learning:
“a16z crypto: Roasting Meme Coins”
“a16z: A Hollywood-style Victory”
“a16z: The Evolution of NFT Ladder and Brand”
“a16z: 8 Challenges in Exploring Blockchain Mechanism Design”
“a16z: In-depth Analysis of the Impact of the FIT 21 Bill on the Cryptocurrency Industry”
“a16z: Porter’s Five Forces Framework and Competitive Strategy in the Web3 Era”
