These people built their careers on Twitter. Here's how they did it.

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1. Kathryn Shea Duncan, Director of Social Media at Visit Lake Charles
2. Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro
3. Brett Dashevsky, Creator and Content Operations at Workweek
4. Momina Asif, B2B and SaaS Freelance Writer
5. Adrienne Barnes, Content Strategist and Founder at Best Buyer Persona
6. Mark Vlaskamp, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at The Folde
7. Jay B Sauceda, Founder at Texas Humor and Sauceda Industries / Head of Corporate Comms at Cart.com

Kathryn Shea Duncan, Director of Social Media at Visit Lake Charles (@kat_dunc)

Even in college, Kathryn Duncan knew she’d end up working in the tourism industry. “People in the industry already knew me. I wasn’t shy about letting people know I wanted to work in tourism one day [laughs].”

She got her big break in an unlikely way — as a pageant queen on Twitter. In 2017, she won the title of 81st International Rice Festival Queen in Crowley, LA. Around the time she was crowned, the Louisiana Office of Tourism (@LouisianaTravel) launched the Bayou Krewe, an ambassador program and social media campaign encouraging residents and visitors to showcase Louisiana using the hashtag #OnlyLouisiana.

“I used Twitter a lot, so I would post pictures and use the hashtag.” Little did she know, her future boss, Kyle Edmiston (@EdmistonKyle), took notice. “At the time, Kyle was Assistant Secretary for the Louisiana Office of Tourism. He found me through my Tweets and started following my journey from International Rice Festival Queen to my first job at Crowley Area Chamber of Commerce. I was completely oblivious this was happening [laughs].”

Eventually, Kyle took a new role as President & CEO of Visit Lake Charles (@LakeCharlesCVB) in Lake Charles, LA. He needed help and, thanks to Twitter, he knew just who to call. “One day, he emailed me and asked if I’d consider moving to Lake Charles to be their Media & Public Relations Manager.”

Three years later, Kathryn is now Visit Lake Charles' Director of Social Media, and she attributes much of her career growth to Twitter. “It has the ability to help me find journalists, story opportunities, and to just maintain really good relationships with media. I don’t feel like I would be at Visit Lake Charles if it wasn’t for Twitter.” 

Kathryn’s Twitter advice:

“I thought about my Tweets as ‘What would a future employer think about this?’ or ‘What if someone is watching me? And they were!” You never know what's gonna show up in other people’s timelines. I want to show my personality and be authentic, but also be professional.”

Amanda Natividad, VP Marketing at SparkToro (@amandanat)

Amanda Natividad originally used Twitter as a way to keep up with the media industry when she was a journalist. “I was doing tech news, so most of the people I followed were in media or were news-related.” As a result, she says, her Twitter feed wasn’t a very fun place. “Everything in my feed was a little doom-and-gloom because of everything going on in the world. I didn’t really post anything for ten years because it felt like with all this terrible stuff happening, why should I talk about anything else?”

Eventually she found corners of the platform where people weren’t just talking about what was going wrong in the world — they were talking about their work, careers, and just generally offering a more positive experience. “Once I noticed, I started to see “Oh, you can talk about other stuff [besides world events] and people won’t get upset with you.”

Amanda started using Twitter to talk marketing in the summer of 2020 to help grow a podcast and newsletter for work, but also because she enjoyed growing her personal brand. One of her first big lessons in developing a personal brand came from entrepreneur and marketing thought leader, Rand Fishkin (@randfish).

“In February 2021, Rand Fishkin followed me. And I was like 'What? This is insane.' He followed me after a mutual friend mentioned my newsletter where I write about marketing as well as my favorite recipes. Rand’s a huge foodie, so I knew he followed me based on food and marketing was second to that. Rand doesn’t need me to tell him about marketing [laughs].

In a strange way, it validated my feeling that I can talk about marketing but also be a normal person who writes about stuff I enjoy. It was nice to see that Rand, someone who’s super seasoned and highly influential in marketing, was also someone who thought I was interesting just based on who I am as a person.”

After their budding Twitter friendship developed, Rand and Amanda took things IRL to chat about marketing and life over lunch. Realizing they were somewhat kindred spirits, they started to discuss what it might look like to work together. “I wasn’t looking for a new job. That was helpful for me because I was able to be fully transparent in my thoughts [on the industry] and didn’t have to worry about whether I’d be off-putting to him.”

Clearly not put off, Rand offered Amanda a role as VP of Marketing at his new company, SparkToro (@sparktoro), just one year after she decided to double-down on using Twitter as a professional tool.

Amanda’s Twitter advice: 

“I only write about things I know well or know personally. Strategy 'teardowns' are popular and helpful, but my POV is unless I’m on that team, I can’t know how they really make those decisions. I tend to write from a place of ‘this is something I did’ or ‘this is something I know really well’. 

The other thing I think of is ‘do I want to have a conversation about this with strangers one hour from now?’ If it’s a half-baked hot take on something, I don’t Tweet it because it’s not gonna be great for my mental health to debate with a bunch of strangers on a thing I haven’t really thought through. If it’s a hill I’m willing to die on because I’ve thought a lot about it, then yeah, I Tweet it.”

Brett Dashevsky, Creator & Content Operations at Workweek (@brettdash_)

Brett Dashevsky started using Twitter in early 2020 to help create some buzz for his new healthcare media startup, Healthcare Huddle (@hchuddle). “My co-founder and I heard a lot of healthcare and newsletter buzz taking place on Twitter during that time and thought it'd be a good move to get on there.” Twitter allowed Brett to engage in thoughtful, honest healthcare discussions while promoting their platform to future subscribers.

As they grew, Brett says he got a free education in the emerging creator space. “Twitter ultimately allowed me to learn more about the media and creator economy world while furthering my own business. It was like getting free courses daily.” About a year later, Brett got a Direct Message from then-President of The Hustle, Adam Ryan (@AdamRy_n), who took an interest in Healthcare Huddle. After a few conversations, he joined Brett’s team as an advisor.

“Eventually, Adam had an idea for a media company of his own and wanted to acquire us as part of the Workweek (@workweekinc) founding team. That deal went through in November 2021, all because of Twitter!” Brett now works with Workweek as a full-time operator helping other creators scale and build out their newsletters.

“Twitter's impact on my career has only gone up from there. I have learned so much about the media and creator economy space, become a better writer, and met so many new people. I essentially consider my Twitter account a mini-company I am working to build. I have found a niche and topics I can write about daily and I engage with people who genuinely care about the same issues. Slowly it's allowing me to build influence.”

Brett continues to take advantage of everything Twitter has to offer, including the new Communities feature. “Twitter recently launched Communities (@HiCommunities), and I am using it to connect creator economy folks in the NYC area. I think that will be an excellent move for helping to network and grow people's careers and businesses.”

Brett’s Twitter advice:

“My advice would be to find an area you're passionate about and go all-in to start producing content. Reply to people in those areas and make yourself seen. Keep consistent and you'll ultimately get discovered by the right people.

There is no platform more authentic than Twitter if you want to find career or business opportunities. Just be yourself and prove through your content why you or your product is valuable!”

Momina Asif, B2B and SaaS Freelance Writer (@contentbymomina)

When Momina went to school for a degree in chemical engineering, she never thought she’d end up a content marketer who ran her own business. But eventually, her interest in creativity and content won out. “When I decided to make the switch [into content marketing], I ended up working in a corporate 9-5 job for about three years.” Then, during the pandemic, Momina’s perspective shifted.

“The company I worked for was forcing people to go back to the office. I didn't feel comfortable, so I decided to try freelancing instead. My confidence [to make that decision] came from Twitter and the people I’d met since joining.” Once Momina made the decision to step out on her own, she did what she’d been doing every day for the past year—she Tweeted.

“The people I call my friends on this bird app responded immediately, and the connections and recommendations started pouring in.” She got three jobs the next day.

“I joined Twitter in January 2021 and by January 2022, I was using it as a full-time income stream through personal branding, connecting with my community, and most importantly, putting out useful content.” Since January, Momina has been working steadily. “From January to now, I’ve gotten five or six more clients from people following me, interacting with my Tweets, and finding my portfolio.”

Momina’s Twitter advice:

“You can be yourself 100% on Twitter. I talk about work, struggles, mental health, TV shows I like, all that stuff. Content writing Tweets perform well, but they are for a select group of individuals. Your experiences as a human, as a marketer, as a person living through [the pandemic] these past two years — those are the things people can relate to and show the human behind the personal brand.

You just need to be authentic. I know people say that word a lot [laughs], but just because something is working for someone else doesn’t mean it will work for you. I wrote down a few words and topics that were really important to me and I wanted to talk about, and that’s what I decided to build my personal brand around.”

Adrienne Barnes, Content Strategist and Founder at Best Buyer Persona (@adriennenakohl)

Content strategist Adrienne Barnes started using Twitter in 2018 as a way to grow her network, but she was pretty hesitant to get started.

“I didn't ‘get it’ at first, but my mentor, Kaleigh Moore (@kaleighf), wrote about how great it was, so I decided to give it a shot. It felt like I was shouting into the void at first, but after consistently showing up, following interesting people, and joining in conversations through comments and Direct Messages, it started to become community.”

After finding her groove, she went all-in. Not a “shy Tweeter”, Adrienne started putting her career goals out there for her followers to see. One such goal was to write for one of her dream companies, HubSpot (@hubspot).

In February 2021, she shot her shot with a simple Tweet.

“That Tweet was seen by the right people and I was connected to the people on the Hubspot social team,” she says. Sure enough, by May she had not only pitched a piece to HubSpot, but was already published on their blog.

“Those kinds of interactions are all over my career. I've had clients come to me from one Tweet. I've booked podcasts and conference events because of Twitter.”

Adrienne’s Twitter advice:

“The best thing you can do is to grow your network now. A Twitter friend of mine, Adam Marx (@adammarx13), says you want to build your network before you need one. And that's true for Twitter as well. If you start to use it for career opportunities the day you desperately need a new job or client, it isn't going to work well. Start making friends and let that be your only goal.

I'm not one of those people who say to pick one topic and only Tweet about that. I share work and life with Twitter, but I keep it professional in tone. Twitter is my office, so just like I'd share my kids or my weekend plans at the office — I'll share it with Twitter.”

Mark Vlaskamp, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at The Folde (@markvlaskamp)

The Folde (@thefolde) is a fresh take on an old industry. “We own laundromats, which are traditionally a pretty boring, not-so-sexy business. Our delivery service is tech-enabled, but when you get down to it, it’s an old-school business model.”

Their facilities are regular laundromats by day and private production facilities by night, offering full-service laundry for hotels, gyms, and “really everything you can think of,” says Mark. Despite the unique business model that keeps washing machines spinning nearly 24/7 to maximize revenue and efficiency, Mark initially found it hard to gain investor interest.

“[Laundromats] are expensive to buy and not a lot of people are interested in them, plus a lot of the 'old heads' in the industry are very closed-off to new people. We weren’t getting a lot of help from industry trade groups.”

To blow off some frustration and steam, Mark turned to Twitter. “I started Tweeting as a creative outlet to blow off steam about how it felt like we were trudging uphill with all the older industry groups. It turned out to be a great way to meet other people in small business Twitter who were interested in this old-school, cash-flow type of business. I didn’t know communities like this existed outside of the traditional industry organizations.”

Mark and his team started showing how the sausage is made, Tweeting everything from photos of them pulling dirty lint out of driers to talking about what it really takes to run a laundromat. Turns out, the people of small business Twitter really liked that. 

Soon, Mark turned likes into funding after connecting with investor Codie Sanchez (@Codie_Sanchez) and a handful of other small business investors via Direct Messages. Before he knew it, his team had the money they needed to fund their first project.

Mark still dives into the old forums every once in a while, but they’re not the same. “Twitter is now our main way to meet new connections and investors. Everyone is so open and the information is given so freely, versus those older forums where they tend to put a moat around their resources.”

Mark's Twitter advice:

"Twitter is a great place to meet other people in the small business community. Don't be afraid to be honest with what you're putting out there to attract the right people who can help give you information and resources." 

Jay B Sauceda, Founder at Texas Humor & Sauceda Industries / Head of Corporate Communications at Cart (@jaybsauceda)

In 2011, Jay Sauceda started the Twitter account @TexasHumor. He’d been a commercial photographer for several years and was looking for a different type of creative outlet. With Texas Humor, he was able to Tweet funny observations, jokes, and memes about Texas and his fellow Texans. “It took off really quickly. We picked up 100k followers within the first month.”

After a year or two of steady growth and engagement, Texas Humor went from monetizing solely through advertising to launching its own retail line for Texas fans. “Twitter was the primary driver of our business for the first two years. Building Texas Humor [on Twitter] was the impetus for what eventually became Sauceda Industries,” says Jay.

Sauceda Industries (@SaucedaHQ), a 3PL (third-party logistics) provider for e-comm brands, was born in 2014 to scratch Jay’s retail fulfillment itch for Texas Humor, which had gotten so busy they couldn’t keep up with fulfillment demand. “In the fall of 2014, we started shipping from our first warehouse. That Christmas was the first time our orders actually surpassed our ability to ship them out.”

Realizing there were no existing logistics companies that could be as nimble and adaptive as Texas Humor needed, Jay started his own. Over the next seven years, Jay and team grew Sauceda Industries to over 120 employees servicing 40-50 e-comm brands.

Jay continued to stay active and network on Twitter, often finding new talent to hire and industry peers to connect with. Through those connections, he was introduced to Omair Tariq (@omairtariq11), the future CEO of e-comm platform Cart.com (@cartdotcom). Little did he know, his casual new connection Omair would take a serious interest in Sauceda Industries once he started his role at Cart.

In 2021, Omair and Cart.com officially acquired Sauceda Industries to help scale their own fulfillment efforts. Not bad for a just-for-fun Twitter account about Texas! Jay has since put his networking abilities to good use on Twitter and beyond as Cart.com’s Head of Corporate Communications.

Jay's Twitter advice:

"A lot of people think that the only way to be an active participant in Twitter is to already have the thought leadership or street cred to have a voice and say something, but every person on Twitter started out with no credibility. It's just about starting, being present, and participating in the communities you're interested in."

Want more Twitter success stories?

Check out this really fun Tweet thread from Party Round's Dylan Abruscato (@dylanabruscato).