Earlier this year, I went through all the accounts I follow on X and what I saw was both surprising and kinda sad:
At the time I was following around 350 people, and now I’m following 219.
Here’s what happened:
As I was going through the list I started seeing names I haven’t seen in a while, and with all the algorithm changes over the last few years, that was to be expected.
But when I clicked over to their profile, it turned out they haven’t posted in years.
People who were posting great content just… stopped posting.
Even those who had built accounts with thousands of followers.
Some with multiples more than that.
And it got me wondering…
Why?
(before I get into my thoughts on that, I have to confess that my account has been in 4 different niches since I opened it in 2016 so I’m not exactly the epitome of consistency as far as X goes… yet…)
The only reason I can think of is simply burnout.
And the biggest reason for burnout is the input not meeting the expected output, and in the case of X this usually means the time spent posting wasn’t worth it.
I’m no stranger to this app not giving a big return, especially lately as some of my posts are getting a pathetic 10 views even with over 2,700 followers.
(my posts aren’t THAT bad, right? Right??)
Maybe I’m crazy for posting anyway…
But what I’ve found over a near-decade of posting on Twitter/X is pushing through the algorithm-driven slumps always works itself out and the other side of it is always better.
And X isn’t the only platform to do this either:
- IG Reels will randomly get 50 views or go viral
- TikTok has a glitch where you’ll sometimes get stuck at 0-5 views
- The blogging game can get you thousands of visitors from Google then go to zero overnight with a simple update
This lack of algorithm stability is enough to make anyone’s head spin.
So what can you do?
You really have two options:
- Complain about it and eventually give up
- Work WITH the changes and figure out how to navigate them
And if you always go into posting with the goal of entertaining, educating, or inspiring your ideal customer, show up every single day, and focus more on improving your content than “reach” and “likes” then it’s a whole lot easier to stick with it.
This is especially important in the beginning because it really can feel like you’re speaking on a podium to a crowd of absolutely no one.
My final note on all of this to help you avoid burnout is:
Views don’t pay the bills anyway.
I’ve made sales from posts with less than 100 views while another post that got nearly 100k views only brought me a metaphorical headache from virtually endless comments.
Stop chasing views.
Start focusing on impact.
Talk soon,
-Gabe