AI Unleashed: Transforming a Neglected Twitter Account into a Viral Sensation

How much AI is too much AI? When have you gone too far?

This is a story of how I used AI on Twitter and what it taught me about posting AI generated content.

In April of 2023, AI generated images were just getting good enough to blur the line of easily identifiable as AI generated. The quality passed a threshold to be more useful.

I had the idea of using this new capability to re-invigorate a neglected Twitter account. The plan was to post 3x a day, using AI to help write and provide images for the posts. It would take less time, and I’d batch up and schedule a week of content at a time. 7 days times 3 per day = 21 posts created every Monday morning. I’d try to keep the time commitment for this below 2 hours per week.

To be fully transparent – I used my personal account to comment about how each post was created, and share more information about the performance of this test.

So what happened?

This took what was an account that reached zero people, and instead we reached over 300k people with our brand. Considering the only cost was my time it seems like a decent return.

However, you’ll immediately notice that big spike. This was a learning moment. Twitter’s algorithm is not geared towards discovery like TikTok – it’s not easy to ‘go viral’ with a post unless you have a big follower count.

You can see that the posts from April 1st up to mid April received just a trickle of engagement.

While the increase in posts saw an increase in impressions as a result (and no complaints) our organic reach was limited by our follower count. Around April 20 the strategy shifted.

Instead of posting to the public feed, I’d spend most of the time going after trending topics and conversations. Jump into the replies with a relevant on-brand take that contributes some fun into the conversations that were already happening.

Lesson: Use social media to be social.

Tapping into the attention that already exists proved to be a 10x multiplier. In contrast, yelling into the void and expecting someone to hear is not a great strategy.

The great thing is that AI enabled a much broader set of conversations than I could have handled on my own, and add a comment or graphic that was more on point and stood out. I could jump from a reply about what happened at the Oscars and then right into a science question before dropping some heat on a live play-by-play of the NBA game.

AI can fill in the knowledge gaps about who the actor is, what position the player has or parsing some research paper while also mixing in jokes and adding creative flair. It’s super-human, and a great example of how a person with AI can do better than either on their own.

Using an LLM to ask “What is an on-brand response to this tweet: XXXX” was all that was needed to get the inspiration for a quick reply. And if it made sense – “Write the description of an image to go along with that reply” which could be converted into an image in a minute or two.

With this kind of workflow, I could write more timely, more engaged and more relevant replies. Instead of 200 impressions on a post, some of those replies got 10,000+ impressions by grabbing the attention of bigger accounts.

This is how I used AI to wield social media with super-human skill.

If you liked this story – please share it with your social media manager.