Building in Public on Twitter/X: My Honest Experience

I want to give you an honest experience report — not a polished version of what a year of building in public on X did for my business, but the actual one. The growth that was slower than I expected, the engagement patterns that surprised me, and the real verdict on whether it's worth the effort.

Here's what happened.

What I Post on X

My posting cadence has evolved, but the core categories have stayed consistent:

• Weekly wins and losses: Usually one post per week with a specific number or milestone and the lesson behind it. What drove a traffic spike, what a new product launch looked like, what fell flat.
• Behind-the-scenes process: The decisions I'm making, the tools I'm testing, how I'm thinking about a problem. These posts tend to be longer than the milestone posts.
• Product updates: When I add something new to my storefront or update an existing product, I share it — with context about why I made the change and what I was trying to fix.
• Honest lessons: Posts that start with "I was wrong about X" or "I spent two months on Y before I realized Z" consistently outperform almost everything else I post. Counterintuitive but real.

I post about four to five times per week. That's been sustainable without taking over my schedule — probably 30–45 minutes of actual writing time per week, excluding the time I spend just reading and responding.

The Real Numbers

I'm not going to give you a specific follower count because it's not the metric that matters, and frankly the platform-to-business conversion isn't as linear as people make it sound. What I can tell you:

My follower growth on X has been slower than on any other channel I've tried. The platform rewards either high-frequency posting or viral moments, and I don't do either. Four to five genuine posts per week about a niche topic doesn't blow up — it builds slowly.

What has been consistent: traffic to my site from X is real, but it's small. Maybe 5–8% of my total traffic on a typical week. Not nothing, but not the primary driver. The email list drives more. SEO drives far more.

What surprised me: the engagement I get on X is almost entirely from other solopreneurs and builders — not from people who would buy my products. The people who reply, share, and follow are mostly peers. That's genuinely valuable for motivation and feedback, but it means X hasn't been a direct sales driver the way I originally hoped.

What Actually Surprised Me

I expected X to connect me with potential customers. Instead, it connected me primarily with peers — other people building similar businesses.

That sounds like a disappointment, but I've reconsidered it. The peer network has given me more useful feedback than most other channels, introduced me to collaborators and cross-promotion opportunities, and created genuine accountability. When you post publicly that you're working on something, you're more likely to finish it.

The other surprise: sharing product links from MadeThis directly in posts performs worse than sharing content that leads people to a product over time. The posts that say "I just launched X, here's the link" get clicks, but the posts that say "here's the thing I learned building X" and mention the product contextually are what actually convert. Twitter audiences don't want to be sold to directly. They want to discover something useful and arrive at the purchase on their own.

The Effort vs. Reward Trade-Off

Here's my honest assessment: X is worth it if you enjoy it. It's not worth it if you're doing it purely for ROI.

The time I spend on X is not the highest-leverage time I spend in my business. My SEO blog drives more traffic, more email sign-ups, and more sales per hour of effort invested. If I had to cut one channel tomorrow, it wouldn't be the blog.

But X has done things the blog can't. It's where I've gotten real-time feedback on product ideas before I built them. It's where I've found people to collaborate with. It's where some of the most interesting conversations about my niche happen. Those things have indirect but real value.

Who Twitter/X Is Best For

Based on my experience, X building-in-public is most valuable if:

• Your target audience is other founders, solopreneurs, or professionals who already spend time on X
• You're in a niche with an active Twitter community (SaaS, tech, startups, marketing — yes; very specialized niches that skew older or non-digital — maybe not)
• You genuinely enjoy the format and can be consistent without it feeling like a grind
• You have a product or destination to send people to when the posts get traction

That last point is critical. Posts that got unexpected engagement early on were frustrating because I didn't have a clean destination for people. When I started pointing to MadeThis product pages in my bio and contextually in posts, the traffic actually converted. Without a clear destination, engaged posts are just engagement — not business outcomes.

For a look at where I actually made mistakes in the building-in-public process — including which platform lessons took me longest to learn — see my post on building in public mistakes I made and what I'd do differently.

Would I start X building-in-public if I were starting over today? Yes — but as one channel, not the channel. Set realistic expectations, build genuine relationships, and make sure you have somewhere to send people when they're ready to take the next step.