3 Lessons Learned as a Secret Twitter Ghostwriter

This job is harder than I thought!

October 6, 2022: Greetings from Hamburg, Germany

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I’ve been a Twitter ghostwriter for one month.

That means I write Tweets for someone else to post under their name— without crediting me. My client is incredibly wealthy and has massively high expectations.

Here’s what I learned:

1. The Dunning Kruger Effect is Real

“It’s just writing tweets.”

Or so I thought…

In our first week, I sent 30 Tweets to my client. I felt on top of the world and ahead of the game. Until my client only accepted 6 out of 30.

That was my first wake up call.

In short, I overestimated my ability and underestimated the difficulty of the task.

Classic beginner move:

Title: Writing Ability

2. Being a “Practitioner” is Harder Than Being a “Professor”

Hear me out on this one.

I’ve never been a professor, but over the past five years, I’ve taught students from 6 continents. And I respect great teachers.

But what I mean is, it’s much easier to preach than it is to practice.

For example, I can sit here and tell you:

“Yes, contrast is a very important principle of persuasion.
You should use it in your writing often.”

But to actually use contrast to craft something persuasive is a whole ‘nother ball game.

In short, talk is cheap.

3. Quality Service Starts with Empathy—Understanding Your Counterpart

Most people want to grow on Twitter.

They want

• more likes,

• more followers

• and more clout.

But my client “doesn’t give a shit” about growth. They only care about providing depth and value to their target avatar. And even though I know this, I’ve still mistakenly pitched ideas around growth.

In short, If you want to provide value, you first need to understand what’s valuable to someone else.