A Twitter follow “hack” I’m using in my latest product

I’m currently working on a product called Sets. In short, Sets helps you build curated lists of related links, either by yourself, or with collaborators. Naturally, there’s a Sets Twitter account (@MakeSets), and naturally, I’d like to maximize the number of Sets users who are following that account.

I don’t have to tell you that doing anything without a user’s permission isn’t going to have a very good outcome, and having been on that side of the fence before, I wanted to solve my problem as a product builder, while not stepping on the toes of my users. So, here’s what I did.

You sign up for Sets using your Twitter account, and you’re taken to an interstitial page where you’re asked to complete your profile by adding your name and email address. There’s also a checkbox that, if checked, will cause you to follow @MakeSets.

Pretty basic stuff. Where the real fun happens is the interaction around the Follow on Twitter checkbox: regardless of what happens with the rest of the form, you’ll only see the follow prompt once and only once. I’m setting a flag on user records to never show that checkbox again once it’s been saved, whether the user checked it or not. If they check it, great. If not, no problem. It solves a product problem without being annoying.

I’m simply not interested in playing the dark UX game with users, just to gain perhaps a few more followers. Nonetheless, I’ve doubled the followers on the account in just over a day with this small bit of (hopefully) thoughtful UX.