How to Get 100K Followers on Twitter and Reddit

Hitting 100,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit isn't about luck, it's about mastering two completely different digital worlds. Each platform demands its own unique strategy, and what works on one will almost certainly fail on the other. This guide breaks down the specific playbooks you need to build a massive, engaged audience by understanding the core principles of each ecosystem.

Foundations for Growth: What Works Everywhere

Before we get into platform specifics, a few universal truths underpin any successful growth strategy. Whether you're tweeting into the void or posting in a niche subreddit, these principles are your foundation.

Find Your Hyper-Specific Niche

You cannot be everything to everyone and expect to grow. The path to 100,000 followers doesn’t start with broad topics like "marketing" or "fitness." It starts by becoming the undeniable authority for a tiny, passionate subgroup. Think "AI-powered attribution for SaaS companies" instead of just "marketing." Or "no-equipment bodyweight workouts for frequent travelers" instead of just "fitness." Your first goal is to be the go-to resource for 1,000 true fans. The next 99,000 will follow because strong communities create their own gravity.

Consistency Isn't Just Frequency - It's Predictability

Many people mistake consistency for a rigid posting schedule. While rhythm helps, true consistency is about being predictable in the value you provide. Your audience should know exactly what they're getting when they see your username. Are you the person who provides the sharpest analysis on a new technology? The one who shares the most practical freelance tips? The one who finds the funniest memes about office life? Delivering on that expectation, over and over, builds trust and transforms passive viewers into loyal followers.

From Content Creator to Community Builder

A large following is the byproduct of a strong community, not the other way around. Shift your mindset from broadcasting to hosting. You aren't just creating content, you're creating a space where people with a shared interest want to gather. Ask questions. Reply to every single relevant comment. Spark conversations between your followers. A responsive, engaged account feels alive and gives people a reason to stick around long after they’ve consumed a single piece of content.

How to Reach 100K Followers on X (Twitter)

X is a fast-paced public square where authority, personality, and velocity reign supreme. Growth here is about mastering the art of the public conversation and manufacturing visibility.

Step 1: Architect Your Content Framework

Success on X requires a strategic mix of content formats designed for different purposes: building authority and driving daily engagement.

• Your Authority Builder: High-Value Threads. Threads are your cornerstone content. This is where you prove you know your stuff. Use them to teach something valuable, tell a compelling story, or break down a complex topic. Formatted correctly, a thread can act as a mini-blog post that establishes you as a credible expert. This is what makes people hit "follow."
• Your Engagement Driver: High-Impact Single Tweets. In between your powerhouse threads, you need to stay top-of-mind. Use single tweets for quick insights, controversial (but well-reasoned) opinions, relatable observations, questions, and visual content like charts or memes. These tweets are the lifeblood of your account, driving conversations and showing off your personality.

For example, a creator in the "sustainable finance" niche might post a weekly thread ranking ESG funds (Authority Builder) while posting daily stats on green energy adoption or asking questions like, "What's one 'green' company you refuse to invest in?" (Engagement Driver).

Step 2: Engineer Your Growth Loop

You can't just post and pray. You need a proactive system for getting your content in front of the right people.

• The "Smart-Reply" Strategy: Identify 15-20 big accounts in your niche. Turn on their post notifications. When they post, be one of the first people to leave a valuable, additive reply. Don't just say "Great point!" or "This is cool." Add a follow-up statistic, propose a counter-argument, or share a related insight. Your reply gets seen by their massive audience, and if it's smart enough, people will check out your profile.
• Leverage Virality (Yours and Theirs): When one of your tweets starts getting traction, don’t just let it fade. At the peak of its engagement, add a reply to your own tweet that plugs your newsletter, links to your best thread, or simply says, "If you liked this, follow me for more insights on [your niche]."
• Connect with Your Peers: Find other creators in your niche who have a similar follower count. Engage with them regularly. Quote-tweet their great threads and add your own thoughts. Shout them out. Building a network of peers amplifies everyone's reach. Growth on X is a team sport.

Step 3: Optimize for the Attention Economy

On a platform where people are scrolling a mile a minute, presentation is everything.

• Hooks, Hooks, Hooks: The very first sentence of your tweet or thread is the single most important part. If it doesn't immediately grab attention, the rest of your content is invisible. Master writing powerful hooks by using numbers ("6 mistakes marketers make..."), making a bold claim ("99% of people get this wrong."), or asking a provocative question.
• Write for Skimmers: No one on X wants to read a dense paragraph. Use short sentences. Add line breaks between every one or two sentences. Use bullet points and numbered lists to make your points digestible. Great formatting makes your content feel easy to read and significantly increases the chance that people will actually finish it.

How to Reach 100K Followers & Karma on Reddit

Reddit is the complete opposite of X. It's not one platform, it's a collection of thousands of highly specific micro-communities (subreddits). Brash self-promotion will get you banned in an instant. Your goal here is to build unshakable credibility within a few key communities.

Step 1: Pursue Credibility, Not Followers

Followers on your Reddit profile are a vanity metric. What truly matters is your karma score and your reputation within specific subreddits. A user with 200,000 Karma and trusted-contributor status in r/personalfinance is far more influential than someone with 5,000 random profile followers.

• Become a Student of the Subreddit: Before you post anything, lurk. Spend at least a week reading the top posts, the most common comments, the sidebar rules, and learning the community's inside jokes and pet peeves. Every subreddit has its own culture. Violating it is the fastest way to get shunned.
• Start Small, Build Karma: Your first mission is to become a helpful community member. Find a few subreddits in your niche that are relevant and active. Your earliest contributions should be exclusively helpful comments. Answer questions in the daily "help" threads. Add useful information to existing discussions. Provide 10x more value to the community than you ever intend to ask for. Karma is the gamified representation of this trust.

Step 2: Master the High-Value Contribution

Once you’ve built a foundation of trust, you can move on to creating your own posts. But they can’t be simple promos, they must be genuine contributions.

• Create the Ultimate Resource Post: What question gets asked constantly in your target subreddit? Write the single best, most comprehensive guide on it and post it directly to the community. For example, if you're in r/excel, you could create "A Beginner's Definitive Guide to Pivot Tables (With Gifs)." This becomes a long-term asset that people will reference for months.
• Share Original Case Studies and Data: Redditors love genuine, original content. Instead of linking to a blog post, share the entire thing as a text post on Reddit. Include screenshots, data charts, and personal results. Show your work. Be transparent about your failures. This "Behind the Scenes" style of content builds deep trust.
• Comment on Rising Stars: Go to a target subreddit and filter for "Top" posts from the "Past Week" or "Past Month." This shows you exactly what type of content performs well. More importantly, leave an insightful comment on posts that are currently on the "Rising" or "Hot" page. This allows you to ride the wave of visibility as the post hits the front page.

Step 3: Scale Without Getting Banned

Growth on Reddit is a delicate dance between giving back and gently guiding people to your work.

• Respect the 90/10 Rule: At least 90% of your activity on Reddit should be purely for the benefit of the community (comments, non-promotional posts). At most, 10% can have a self-promotional element. Moderators look at your overall posting history. If they see you're an active, helpful member, they're much more likely to be lenient with an occasional link to your own site.
• Use Your Profile as a Landing Page: This is a newer feature and a game-changer. Your own user profile is the *only* place on Reddit where you can shamelessly self-promote. As you build credibility in subreddits, people will naturally get curious and click on your username. Make sure your profile is ready for them. Pin a post to the top that introduces you and links out to your social channels, your website, your newsletter, etc. This is how you convert your Reddit reputation into tangible followers elsewhere.

Final Thoughts

Building a following of 100,000 is an enormous achievement that requires two distinct skill sets. On X, you win by becoming a master of public performance - crafting high-impact content and strategically engineering conversations. On Reddit, you win by becoming a respected community leader - patiently building trust and giving exponentially more value than you take. Neither path is easy, but both are achievable with a clear, dedicated strategy.

Staying on top of these different strategies for X and Reddit requires a crazy amount of organization. I found that managing separate content calendars, especially trying to keep up with the high-frequency posting needed for X's algorithm, quickly became unsustainable with spreadsheets and notes. That's why we built Postbase. Our visual calendar lets us plan out our X threads and videos for other platforms all in one place, so we can see our entire strategy at a glance instead of jumping between apps. We designed Postbase to be the simple, modern tool that handles the complex scheduling and engagement work so we can focus on creating the content that actually grows our brand.