Chapter 1: What this book is for

This book explains five things. How a post on X reaches people. What can stop it from reaching them. How that reach turns into numbers. How those numbers get you into X's Original Content Rewards Program. And how to run an account so it gets there. It's written for people who have never read a line of code. The examples of what works come from live accounts, every post measured.

Every rule in this book comes from one of four places. First, X's own published code, all of it. Second, X's published rules, program terms, and help pages. Third, the real numbers from live accounts, every post measured with our own software through the X API. Most numbers in here are facts, read straight from X's code or your analytics. A few are estimates, like the date you'll reach 500,000 impressions, and those are labeled as estimates where they appear. Every rule carries the date it was read, because X changes them. And where X has kept part of its code private, the book says so rather than guessing at it.

How the book is organized

Part One is this introduction, the short version of the whole book, and the account types. Part Two explains how X decides what people see. Part Three explains what can limit a post or an account. Part Four explains every number X gives you. Part Five is the Original Content Rewards Program, rule by rule. Part Six is how to write posts that do well. Part Seven is how to grow followers. Part Eight is what to know if you use a posting tool. Part Nine is every advantage, in one list. Part Ten is the plan to get into the program, with dates. Part Eleven is what to do every month. Part Twelve is what to do when something breaks. The glossary and the full tables are at the back.

You can read it front to back, or jump. Each chapter stands on its own, and when a chapter depends on another it says so.

Words used on every page

Chapter 2: The short version, how to post

This chapter is the whole book in five pages. Each line points to the chapter that explains it in full. If you read nothing else, read this.

The one idea

X does not show your post to all of your followers. X guesses which people are likely to do something with your post, and shows it to those people. The thing X wants most is a reply. Every rule below comes from that one fact. (Chapter 4)

What each thing is worth

When somebody sees your post, they can do things with it. They can like it, reply to it, repost it, send it to a friend, or hide it. X keeps score of those things. Each one is worth a set number of points. A like is worth 1 point. A reply is worth 10 points, because X wants replies most. Hiding your post, muting you, or reporting the post takes points away, shown below with a minus sign. The more points X expects your post to earn from a person, the higher your post appears in that person's feed.

Two things to remember. A reply is worth ten likes, so a post that gets people to reply beats a post that gets people to like it. And the negative actions cost far more than the positive actions earn. A post that reaches the wrong people, who then hide it or mute you, does worse than a post that reaches nobody. (Chapter 6)

Before you post

The Do list