Most threads lose their readers at the second post. The first one promised something, the second one cleared its throat, and the reader moved on. Writing a thread that people finish is mostly a matter of structure, and the structure is simple enough to learn in one sitting.
First, decide whether it should be a thread
A thread is the right form when you have one idea that needs several steps: a story with a beginning and an end, a process, a list where each item needs a sentence of explanation.
It is the wrong form when:
- the idea fits in one post. Then one post is stronger.
- you have five unrelated tips. Those are five posts.
- the piece is long and continuous. A long post or an article reads better than twenty fragments.
A useful test: can you say what the thread is about in one sentence? If not, you are not ready to write it.
Write the last post before the first
Start at the end. Write down the one thing you want the reader to know or do when they finish. Everything else in the thread exists to get them there, and anything that does not help can go.
This also fixes the most common problem in threads, which is that they stop instead of ending.
The first post has one job
The first post does not need to summarize the thread. It needs to make someone want the second post. Three openings work reliably:
- A result. "We cut our support tickets in half in six weeks. Here is what we changed."
- A surprising claim. "The best pricing page I have seen has no prices on it."
- A problem the reader has. "Your onboarding emails are being opened and ignored. The reason is in the first line."
Avoid openings that announce instead of saying: "A thread on pricing" tells the reader the topic and gives them no reason to care. Skip the pointing emojis and the "let's dive in". Start with the substance.
One point per post
Each post in the thread should carry exactly one point, and should make sense to someone who sees it alone. People share single posts from the middle of threads, and X shows them out of context.
A pattern that works for the middle posts:
- State the point in the first sentence.
- Give the reason or the example in the second.
- Stop.
If a post needs a third sentence to be understood, it is usually two posts.
How long should a thread be?
As short as the idea allows. Three to eight posts covers most ideas worth a thread. Every extra post is another place for the reader to leave, so a ten-post thread has to be better than a five-post thread to earn the same finish rate.
When your draft is done, cut a third of it. The posts you remove are almost always the second one, where you were warming up, and one in the middle where you repeated yourself.
Make it easy to follow
- Keep posts a similar length. A wall of text in the middle of short posts is where people stop.
- Use numbers only if the count matters. "7 mistakes" earns its numbers. A story does not need "3/9".
- Put a line break between thoughts. White space is free.
- One link, at the end. Links in the first post pull people away before they have read anything.
End by asking for something
The last post is where the reader decides what to do. Tell them. Good endings:
- A one-line summary of the idea, for people who skimmed.
- A question that is easy to answer: "Which of these have you tried?"
- A next step: a link, a follow, a reply.
Pick one. A final post that asks for a follow, a repost, a newsletter signup and a reply gets none of them.
Edit like a reader
Leave the draft for an hour, then read it on your phone, which is where most people will see it. At each post ask: would I keep going? Where the answer is no, cut or rewrite that post.
Then check the facts. A thread is quoted and shared for longer than a single post, and a wrong number in post four will be the part people remember.
After you post
Stay for the first hour. Replies to a thread are the start of the conversations it was written to create, and answering them is what turns readers into followers. The types of reply that work are the same as anywhere else. We listed them in nine types of replies that start conversations.
Drafting a thread with a tool
The hard part of a thread is getting from an idea to a first structure. A drafting tool is quick at that. In XAICG, you open the popup from Chrome's toolbar, type the idea in a sentence or two, choose a length from three to eight posts and get a thread to work on. It can also rewrite a post you have already drafted so that it is tighter and keeps your facts, names and links.
Treat what comes back the way you would treat a draft from a colleague. Keep the order if it is good, replace the examples with your own, and cut a third. The idea, the evidence and the ending are still your work, and they are the parts readers finish a thread for.