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Case · M2 × Start (social network)

Twitter: follow about 30 accounts

Twitter's growth team found that new users who followed about 30 accounts became long-term users, and improved how it suggested people to follow. Hooked also traces Twitter's homepage shift from explaining the product to getting people signed up and following.

M2 ×StartContent / community

The outcome · 2017

Users who followed about 30 accounts became long-term active users, per Twitter's Josh Elman (Hacking Growth excerpt, Apr 25, 2017; also in Hooked, Ch8). Correlational; a variant of 5-10 follows on day one circulates secondhand. Twitter was renamed X in 2023.

Case grade for the number: B. Evidence grade for the mechanism link: B.

CorrelationalCompany-reported

Read the source

Stage cell: M2 × Start (social network).

What they did. Analyzed which early behaviors retained users shared, found the follow count, and refined how the product suggested accounts to follow. Earlier, the homepage had moved from explaining Twitter to two clear calls to action: sign up, or look around first HK-ACT20 (Hooked Ch.3).

The mechanism. Habit Path mining HK-MEA04 (Hooked Ch.8) followed by an onboarding redesign that pushes the critical action HK-MEA05 (Hooked Ch.8). Each follow is investment: curating the graph HK-INV14 (Hooked Ch.5) makes the feed better, and followers become stored value for people who post HK-INV15 (Hooked Ch.5).

The outcome. About 30 follows (2017) Case grade B. Company-reported numbers. separated long-term users; correlational.

What it means at your stage. At M2, mine your own habit path: compare retained and churned cohorts on early actions, pick the count that separates them, and shorten the path to it. Then test it, because a threshold is a correlation until an experiment moves it.

Caveats. Company account via a book excerpt; the exact method isn't public. Mechanism link Evidence grade B. Moderate evidence: solid studies with some limits., correlational.

Would you have called it?

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The techniques behind it

Each one is a starting point, not a recipe. Gamify It turns a technique into an experiment card for your product: the change, the metric, the guardrail and how long the test needs at your traffic.

  • TechniqueEvidence grade C. Limited evidence: few or small studies.

    Steer new users down the Habit Path

    make the action that predicts retention the easy path

    Find the early action that predicts who stays, confirm it with a test, then make it the easiest thing to do in onboarding. The easiest action is not always the habit-forming one: on one network, searching was the likeliest first step, but following accounts built the habit.

  • TechniqueEvidence grade D. Practitioner framework or anecdote: plausible, untested.Practitioner heuristic

    Codify: count habitual users and map the path they share

    habitual-user rate and Habit Path

    Set a realistic cadence for a devoted user, count the share of each signup cohort who meet it, and compare what those users did in their first days with users who left. The book's rule of thumb: below about 5% habitual, you have the wrong audience or a product to rethink.

  • TechniqueEvidence grade B. Moderate evidence: solid studies with some limits.

    Value before sign-up: let people try the core

    try before registering

    Let visitors use the core of the product before creating an account, and ask for one only when it unlocks something they want to keep, such as saving, syncing or a plan. Landing pages show the product working instead of explaining it.

Limits

What we don’t claim

  • The Hook Model is a practical design tool, not a validated or complete theory of behavior.Hooked, Introduction
  • The evidence is correlational until it is tested in your product.
  • The threshold is a heuristic, not a measured cut-off.
  • No success is attributed to a single technique: real outcomes have many causes.
  • Company names are used editorially; no endorsement is implied.

Sources

Source IDs: HK-MEA04HK-MEA05HK-ACT20HK-INV14HK-INV15

Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.

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