How to Build an Audience on Twitter (with Matthew Kobach)

December 2, 2020·19 min·1 clip

Matthew Kobach grew his Twitter following from a couple thousand to 80,000 in just over a year—here's how he did it.

The episode opens with host Dave Chapman introducing Matthew Kobach, Director of Content Marketing at e-commerce startup Fast, as a guest for the show's 200th episode. Kobach previously served as Digital and Social Manager at the New York Stock Exchange, where he ran social campaigns around IPOs and product launches. He also holds a PhD research background in predicting audience reactions to product launches. Kobach describes deciding in spring 2019 to deliberately apply brand-building principles to his personal Twitter account, starting from about 2,000 followers. His two core principles were consistency — posting twice daily for six months — and adding value by finding his voice. He experimented in April 2019 and by May had settled on sharing observations about marketing, creativity, and psychology, topics he was already reading and thinking about personally. He explains that his posts resonated because he occupied a credible, authentic intersection: practitioners in social media who knew his observations were true, backed by his real experience, posted while he was actively doing the work. Kobach reframes the concept of finding your voice as reducing competition: imitating others makes you a lesser version of them, but being genuinely yourself means no one can compete with you. He draws an analogy between personal and brand accounts, comparing the difference to switching from soccer to hockey — same fundamentals, different execution. The major difference at Fast versus NYSE was that no one knew Fast yet, requiring more audience-building from scratch. Two tactics at Fast exceeded all expectations. The first was the Fastronaut helmet campaign, where Kobach offered to draw custom MS Paint space helmets on the profile pictures of anyone who retweeted — the campaign generated a thousand retweets, and he manually produced thousands of customized images across multiple rounds. The second was a merchandise program selling Fast hoodies at or near cost, which turned buyers into organic social content creators who proudly posted photos wearing the hoodie. Kobach describes content inspiration as a continuous ambient process rather than a scheduled activity: he keeps iPhone notes full of ideas captured on the fly from any platform. When a concept is too signature to adapt, he contacts the creator directly to collaborate. He stresses maintaining a backlog so consistency is never at risk even on low-inspiration days. On the question of brand growth tactics, Kobach argues that companies dramatically underuse internal personalities — employees and founders who can serve as mini-influencers. At Fast, this includes his own Twitter account, the co-founders' active presence, and general employee advocacy. By blurring the line between personal content and brand promotion, Fast gets organic reach that feels more trustworthy than traditional advertising. The goal is brand familiarity: audiences encounter Fast people on social media informally, so when they see the Fast checkout button on a retail site, they already feel trust and recognition.

As heard by us

Practical Twitter growth advice, centered on consistent habits and one memorable community idea.

This episode looks at how a brand can build an audience on Twitter, with practical attention on getting people to follow, engage, and care. Dave Chapman sets up the question, and Matthew Kobach draws on his experience helping Fast grow quickly as a new company.

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Why you'd press play

Build a Twitter audience with practical tactics focused on consistency, voice, and giving people a reason to engage.

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