How Zeneca_33 Grew From 0 Twitter Followers To 309,000 Followers In 1.5 years
If you’d like to increase your presence on Twitter, this post is for you.
State of play: @Zeneca_33 is one of the most popular individuals in the NFT space. The interesting part is that he's neither a founder of a PFP (Profile Pictures) project just yet nor a so-called “influencer”. I’d like to describe him as an NFT missionary, a positive evangelist, a media professional, a web3 coach, and a founder & CEO of two successful NFT projects: @ZenAcademy_ and @The333Club.
Why he matters: He had a humble beginning just like everyone else. He didn’t have an unfair advantage - he started tweeting only 1.5 years ago, he’s not an OG of the space, not a smart contract developer, not a VC with money, and not a previously successful entrepreneur with multiple exits. In fact, he was a professional poker player before jumping into NFTs. His very first tweet is below. No likes, no retweets, no nothing.
He is relatable: just like us degens, he made bets early on in different projects. Some of them were hits: he recognized the potential of Art Blocks in April 2021(!) The others were misses: he aped into the project called ApeOnly 😅. Also, just like us, he didn’t tweet every day back then. Don’t get me wrong - now he’s everywhere on Twitter.
Zeneca loves the NFT space. He’s not gotten traction for more than two months since he started tweeting, but I could feel his LOVE for the NFT space from his every single tweet.
His BAYC profile picture is real: He bought BAYC in May 2021 for 0.7 ETH (!) However, contrary to what some people believe, the purchase of BAYC didn’t seem to have helped him significantly increase his Twitter presence. Only the tweets in which he mentioned big projects like BAYC or Gutter Cat Gang got some reactions and other tweets were not getting much attention.
He lived on Twitter: In June 2021, Zeneca was still grinding his way out of space. He actually started tweeting more and engaged with the big Twitter accounts every day. He replied to 20+ tweets from big Twitter accounts, posted at least one tweet, and replied to every single comment from his tweet every day. Posts and replies were mostly about his thoughts on the specific NFT projects or the NFT industry in general and the reasonings behind them.
The first inflection point: On his podcast, he occasionally talked about how we could grow his presence on Twitter by updating daily floor prices of NFT projects. He’s absolutely right. He started sharing daily floor price updates in late June 2021 and it was an immediate hit.
The consistency: Zeneca had posted the floor price update every day for 6 months until he eventually stopped in February 2022. More than 180 days of grinding. The result? He had collected 170,000+ Twitter followers in January 2022. He figured out what was working for him and doubled down on it.
The ZenAcademy: he launched the ZenAcademy, an “one-stop shop” for learning about NFTs in November 2021. The Genesis Membership NFT gives you a lifetime membership to his academy. It was not about going into the hype trying to do some short-term NFT flips, but about learning all things NFT from Zeneca, having a long-term relationship with the community, and growing together. It was a big success thanks to the trust Zeneca had built with the community over 7 months.
What’s brewing now: A PFP project. Zeneca plans to launch a PFP project that’s value-additive to the space without raising VC funding. I can’t wait to witness how much more value he’ll add to the Web3 space and recommend you stay tuned for his PFP project, engage with him, and learn from him.
Here are key takeaways from Zeneca’s success:
You have to love the NFT space.
Building an audience takes time. Zeneca had no significant traction for months but kept tweeting and talking to people.
Purchasing some NFTs helps you understand the space better and increase your Twitter presence (NFA, though 😅).
Engage with people in an unscalable way. Try replying to big names in the NFT space, helping them with something, and replying to every single response to your tweet.
Find your own way to provide value to your audience. For Zeneca, it was sharing the daily NFT price updates.
Be consistent, be authentic, and don’t lose the beginner’s mindset. Zeneca still tries to reply to every single response to his tweets with his 309,000+ followers. What’s your excuse?
Thanks for reading and have a great day 😊
Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.