Read time: 3 minutes

Hey there - it's Brian 👋

“What if I only have 7 followers?”

Can you really test your business ideas on Twitter & LinkedIn if no one sees it?

I hear you!

So in the next 3 min - I’ll show you how to use the quick hack I used to get people to respond to my first test posts (when I didn’t have followers).

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

Quick survey: tell me which topics you need to build your business

I get this question a lot:

“How do I quickly figure out what customers want? I don’t want to build something they don’t buy.”

I’m advising founders 1:1 on the Micro-MVP technique, but I believe everyone deserves to quickly find their business model (not just my coachees).

So my goal is to make you a video guide customized to you so it feels like 1-on-1, (but in video format to be accessible to you all).

I need your help to know which topics you need the most help on so I can customize the guides for you.

So if you could, click the button below (or click here) to go to this quick survey. Let me know which topics would be most helpful to put in your guide. Thanks!

It’s hard to get views with 7 followers

So back in March of last year, I had 7 followers. SEVEN.

I’d post an idea on Twitter. No one commented.

I was trying to get feedback on my business ideas to figure out which niche to focus on.

I was still working at Deloitte so I needed to get validation that my business made sense to jump from my full-time job.

So I was in Sahil Bloom’s audience building course and he gave me an idea:

Post ideas under a big account

I thought: "Well if creators can post content under a big account to get followers, can’t business builders post ideas to get feedback?”

I made a list of the business ideas I wanted to test. Made a list of the big accounts who had my target customers in their audience. And turned on notifications for their content, I was ready to post.

At the time, I was helping companies with their business growth strategy. So I found Shreyas Doshi. He must have had ~200,000 followers at the time (and zero reason to talk to me).

So I turned notifications on, got my tests ready, and tracked his tweets.

• Tweet 1: Wasn’t related to my tests
• Tweet 2: Wasn’t related
• Tweet 3: BOOM! Customer segmentation question. I was ready

I tweaked my customer test to relate to his content and was one of the first to comment.

This test led to 14 likes (compared to every other comment on his post with 1), a DM from a CEO of a consulting company (now a lifelong friend), and a Zoom call with Shreyas to talk about launching a related offer together.

It took some preparation, but the test was a wild success (even with only 14 likes).

I’ve kept doing mini-content tests ever since. I now have 77,000 followers across LinkedIn and Twitter.

So here’s how you hijack a big account’s audience for your own tests:

Here’s how you borrow your target customer from a big account (by commenting on their post)

1. Find big accounts (with engaged audiences)

Big accounts get a lot of views on their posts.

Look for accounts where your target customer is in their audience and that’s an easy way to reach them!

Tip to find them: use a leaderboard. Here’s a leaderboard for Twitter. And one for LinkedIn.

Topics for a future issue: how to connect with them. How to tell if their audience is engaged. Vote at the end. 🙋

2. Prep your tests

When the big accounts posts you’ll want to move fast! You want to be one of the first ones commenting to get the boost. Have a list of tests ready.

If you’re testing if people resonate with your way of solving a problem, write out a list of different ways to explain your way of doing things:

Tip, story, graphic, framework, stat etc. (see the visual below for all 12 formats).

3. Turn on notifications and comment early

The earlier you comment the more views you get. The comment is seen by more people who care about the topic. Early on the big account is watching engagement and may reply to your comment.

This boosts your test even further.

Warning: do not spam! Spamming is when your test is not related to the original post. It won’t get you many views and the author won’t like you.

Make sure your test is related to the post and adds a valuable insight that the account would love to share with their audience.

For you auditory learners, I made you a quick video summary of today’s post:

Click here for the video summary.

Boom! That’s your quick tip for the week.

As a reminder, it would be amazing if you could let me know which topics you’d like explained in a video guide. Here’s the link to the survey to guide which topics we cover in the course.

There’s so much to cover and so many of you to help. I’d love to make it as impactful for you as possible!

See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
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Whenever you’re ready there’s 2 ways I can help you:

1. Want help with your own Micro-MVP? Grab time with me and I’ll walk you through the steps to make you stand out.

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🛠️ Outlier Links

A few links to things I’ve found this week to help you grow your business

1. Grow your business with SEO:
Struggling to get more customers to your website? This agency gets customers to your site by ranking you higher in search engines.

2. Example of a cold DM that actually worked (on Neil Patel’s podcast co-host)

3. If you run an agency, here’s a glimpse behind the curtain to see how much people are willing to buy your agency for

Get to know Brian:
Tomorrow, I’m off to Singapore to work with a group of entrepreneurs for the week.

I took the photo below from my last Singapore trip, it’s beautiful. Any Singapore tips off the beaten path?

🙋 Vote: Next Week’s Topic

People like you make this community amazing.

So I want to give you the opportunity to pick the topic that will help you grow your business the most (vote to choose next week’s topic below):