Finding Your First 10 Accounts to Follow

Who you follow determines what you see. This sounds obvious but the implications run deeper than most people realise. Combine this with X lists for even more powerful organization. Your feed trains your sense of what works on 𝕏. The accounts you engage with shape which audiences discover you. Your follow choices compound into your growth trajectory.

Starting with intention beats starting with random accumulation.

What Makes an Account Worth Following

Four criteria separate valuable follows from noise:

Relevance. The account operates in or adjacent to your niche. Their audience overlaps with the audience you want to build. When you engage with their content, you're visible to people who might care about your perspective.

Activity. The account posts regularly enough to create engagement opportunities. An account that tweets once a month, however brilliant, offers limited chances to show up in their replies. Look for accounts posting daily or at least several times per week.

Engagement quality. The account has an active comment section where people actually discuss the posts. Accounts with high follower counts but empty replies offer less value than smaller accounts with genuine conversation happening.

Responsiveness. The account interacts with their replies. When the poster responds to comments, your reply has a chance to become a conversation. Accounts that broadcast without engaging offer one-way visibility at best.

Where to Start Looking

Begin with accounts you already know. Industry leaders, creators whose content you've found valuable, people whose work you respect. Write down three names without overthinking it.

Search for keywords in your niche. The search function on 𝕏 surfaces recent posts containing specific terms. Browse the results. When you find valuable content, check the poster's profile. If they meet the four criteria, they're a candidate.

Look at who the accounts you like are following. Many creators follow peers in their space. Browse their following lists for names that appear repeatedly across multiple accounts. These tend to be well-established figures in the community.

Check who engages in the replies of your initial accounts. Quality repliers often have their own valuable presences. When you see someone adding genuine insight in a comment thread, check their profile. These are the kinds of high-value replies that signal accounts worth following.

The Selection Process

Start a list. Add every candidate without filtering too strictly. You're gathering options, not making final decisions.

Review each candidate against the four criteria. Open their profile and spend two minutes scrolling their recent posts. Do they meet the relevance, activity, engagement, and responsiveness tests?

Narrow to your top 10. These will form the core of your initial engagement strategy. You'll add more over time, but starting focused prevents dilution.

Balancing Your Portfolio

Aim for a mix across account sizes. Include two or three larger accounts with 50,000+ followers, which offer visibility to bigger audiences but are harder to get noticed by. Your replies here are lottery tickets with good odds on the upside (learn more in replying to big accounts). The bulk of your list should be four or five mid-sized accounts with 5,000 to 50,000 followers. These are your primary engagement targets because the accounts are large enough to offer meaningful reach, small enough that your consistent presence can be noticed. Round out your list with two or three smaller accounts at your level or slightly above. These are potential peers, and mutual growth often happens between accounts building together. The relationships you form here may become valuable as everyone scales.

Beyond the Initial 10

Your first 10 is a starting point. As you engage, you'll discover new accounts through replies and quote tweets. Follow the ones that meet your criteria. Unfollow the ones that stop being valuable.

Most accounts benefit from following 200-500 carefully selected accounts rather than thousands. Quality of your follow list directly impacts quality of your feed and therefore quality of your opportunities.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Following everyone who follows you creates a feed full of accounts you didn't choose. Use the follow-back judiciously if at all. Your feed is a tool, not a popularity contest.

Following aspirational accounts exclusively means you're engaging with people who are unlikely to notice or engage back. The largest accounts receive thousands of interactions. Your consistent presence matters less when you're one of hundreds.

Following too many news and entertainment accounts dilutes your niche focus. These can be fine in moderation but shouldn't dominate your feed when your goal is growth in a specific area.

Following without engaging defeats the purpose. The value of following comes from the engagement opportunities the follow creates. A follow without subsequent interaction is just noise in your timeline. Understand why replies are the fastest path to growth to make the most of who you follow.

The Ongoing Process

Revisit your following list monthly. Unfollow accounts that no longer meet your criteria. Add new ones you've discovered. Your follow list should evolve as you learn more about your space and refine your strategy.

The accounts you follow influence more than your feed. They shape your understanding of what works, who matters, and where opportunities live. Choose intentionally. Then follow the first 100 followers playbook to put this into action.