how to find clients on twitter without pitching anyone

how to find clients on twitter without pitching anyone: search for people describing the problem you solve, in their own words, reply with something genuinely useful, follow them, and let the conversation get to what you make on its own. underway's new conversations does the searching and writes the first reply in your voice. you press reply.

the short version

conversations is a new page on promote, part of series.

every day it searches x, linkedin, reddit, threads and hacker news for recent posts where someone says they have the problem your product deals with, and sorts what it finds by platform. not people talking about your product, not your competitors' fans, and not marketers. people with the problem, at the moment they say so.

each one links straight to the post, says what kind of moment the person is in (asking for help, frustrated, starting something, doing it the hard way, looking for a tool), gives the context and the search that found it, and suggests what you could say. the suggestion only helps: no link, no pitch, never your product's name. on x, reply on x opens x's own reply box with it filled in; everywhere else the post opens and the reply is copied. nothing is posted for you.

then press i replied, and they move to talking to: follow them, keep notes on what they said back, mark when they answer. when the conversation gets there, you bring up what you make, yourself.

how to find clients on twitter: why the usual way fails

the usual advice is to search for your keywords, find someone with a need, and send them a message. it works for a freelancer selling an hour of design. it mostly fails for a founder, for two reasons.

the first is the search. people do not post the words on your homepage. nobody tweets that they need an asynchronous bookkeeping workflow. they tweet that they spent the whole weekend on receipts again. the words a customer uses for a problem are almost never the words a founder uses for the solution, so a keyword search finds other founders, not customers.

the second is the reply. a stranger who answers a complaint with a product link reads as an advert, and on x it earns the reactions the ranking punishes hardest: not interested, mute, report. x's own published ranking weighs a report at minus 234, against plus 5 for a reply. a pitch under someone's post costs the founder more than it could ever earn.

what it searches for

your searches are written from your marketing brief, the page promote already writes from your website and your episodes. they come from three parts of it:

• the problem it solves, in the words the people who have it would use
• what they do instead today, because the workaround is often what they complain about
• the signs someone is ready, from who it's for

they are listed under your searches: a few written for x, and plain phrases searched on linkedin, reddit, threads and hacker news. you can change any of them. one post per person, and never someone you are already talking to. the searches run on your own treg key, the same one find guests uses, at a few cents a search.

what the first reply says

one practical thought they can use today, in answer to what they actually said, so it could only sit under their post. it might end on an honest question about their situation, when that is the natural end. it never names your product, never links anything, and never makes up anything about you: no customers you do not have, no story you did not tell.

it is written the way you sound, from how you sound in your brief, which is read from how you talk in your episodes. every draft is checked against the rules in code before you see it: no link, no hashtag, no pitch, no name of your product, short enough for x. a draft that breaks one is written once more, and otherwise the post is left out.

how to write a reply a stranger is glad to get

the draft is a start, and it is better once it is yours. a few things make the difference between a reply that starts a conversation and one that gets scrolled past.

• answer the thing they said, not the thing you sell. if they said the weekend went on receipts, the reply is about the weekend, not about software
• give one idea, not three. a single specific thought reads like a person. a list reads like a blog post pasted into the replies
• use their words back. if they called it a mess, it is a mess, not a workflow
• leave room for them. an honest question about their situation invites an answer; a finished lecture does not
• keep it short. on x, two or three sentences. on linkedin, a few more, never a post of its own
• say nothing you could not stand behind. no made-up results, no borrowed authority, no 'we help companies like yours'

the reply box under each post shows how long it is as x counts it, and a line under it says when a draft has slipped into a pitch, a link or a hashtag, so you can see it before you post it.

what to do when they answer

most will not, and that is fine: a helpful reply still sits under their post for everyone else who has the same problem to read. the ones who do answer usually say more about the problem. that is the conversation worth having.

• keep asking about them. what they tried, what it cost, what they do now. people buy from someone who understood the problem first
• follow them, if you have not, and read what else they post. it tells you whether they are a customer or just someone having a bad day
• bring up what you make only when it fits what they said, in a sentence, as yourself. 'i built something for exactly this, want me to send it?' is enough
• write down what they told you in the notes on talking to. three weeks later, that note is the difference between picking it up and starting again
• when it has run its course, press done with this one. the list stays the people you are actually talking to

the point is not volume. ten real conversations a week with people who have the problem will teach you more about your product than a hundred cold messages, and some of those ten become the first customers you can name.

linkedin is a different room

the same idea works on linkedin, with a different manner. people there post about their work under their own name, often at length, and a comment is read by their colleagues as well as by them. so the draft for linkedin runs a little longer, two to four sentences, and reads like someone who does the same kind of work, not like a reply on x.

linkedin has no reply box an app can fill in, so the comment is put on your clipboard and the post opens. paste it under the post, read it once more, and post it. if they answer, connect with them from their profile, and press i connected so talking to knows.

why you press the button

x and linkedin both forbid replying to strangers automatically, and both suspend accounts for it. more to the point, a conversation is only worth having if it is you having it. the app finds the people and writes the first line. the rest is you.

how to find clients on twitter and keep track of them

the part that usually goes wrong is the second week. you replied to twelve people, three answered, and by friday you cannot remember who. talking to keeps everyone you replied to, newest first, with what you said, whether you followed them, whether they answered, and your own notes. done with this one takes them off the list when it has run its course.

none of it reaches your interviews. like the rest of promote, it is the shop window beside the diary.

the searches are written from your brief, and this is how to write a good one: how to write a marketing brief.

the other place buyers ask now is an ai chat, and how to get named there: how to get your business recommended by chatgpt.

everything series includes is on the pricing table. see the plans.