Everything To Know About Twitter (X) Ghostwriting

Not everyone has the time or inclination to spend hours wading into the social media whirlpool that is Twitter aka X. Chief among those with not enough time in the day is the CEO of a prominent company. For busy leaders, the idea of not just going on the platform but adding to it, and in an intelligent and beneficial fashion, is the stuff of fantasy.

That’s where the Twitter/X ghostwriter comes in.

This is a person well-versed not only in the ways of the platform but also, when brought up to speed, the CEO, the company, and the company’s industry.

In other words, the Twitter/X ghostwriter is the specialist you want to call in when you want to make the most of the social media platform for your boss, company or brand.

What is Twitter/X ghostwriting?

At its simplest, Twitter/X ghostwriting is tweeting on behalf of another person or entity—for our purposes, a company or brand.

But behind that simple statement lies a complex set of requirements.

Someone who is ghost-tweeting needs to have knowledge of the industry, the company, and perhaps the CEO (if that’s who they’re tweeting for/under). The professional ghost-tweeter has experience interviewing and researching. The expert ghost-tweeter knows best practices on the platform. The in-demand ghost-tweeter may even know how to go viral.

So let’s break this down and look at what it takes to be an exceptional ghostwriter on Twitter/X.

How ghost-writing on Twitter is different from ghostwriting on other social media platforms

The medium is the message, as Marshall McLuhan once stated. It’s an oft-repeated refrain but certainly applies in this case.

Twitter brings its own requirements, features, and bugs to the practice of promoting a brand or product. Because of the nature of the platform—the brevity of its content, not to mention the attention span of its users, its real-time response mode—the skilled Twitter/X ghostwriter should be able to:

• have an instinct for the zeitgeist (i.e. the mood of Twitter/X at that moment)
• be aware of hashtags and trends
• offer hot takes … while avoiding controversy (unless that’s what you’re after)
• know how to maximize the platform’s limitations and potential
• understand the platform’s retweet and like culture

What a ghost-tweeter does

A ghost-tweeter tweets, of course. But that means more than stringing a few words or sentences together. Among other things, writing on behalf of a corporation or CEO means capturing voice and tone, researching and interviewing, creating content, proofreading and editing, and publishing and community management.

Let’s break these down.

Capturing Voice and Tone

One of the most important skills that a professional ghostwriter brings to the Twitter/X table is the ability to capture the voice and tone of the brand, company, or CEO who they are posting for.

Getting to know the CEO, understanding the way they talk and the way they think, even their values and standards, and then being able to project that voice on Twitter/X is one of a professional ghostwriter’s most valuable tools.

Likewise, what are the brand’s values? What is its target audience? Is it trying to be young and hip, trendy or casual, staid or formal? A skilled ghostwriter can emulate this tone to a T.

As one Silicon Valley Twitter ghostwriter (who wished to stay anonymous) put it on Business Insider, “At the end of the day, I don’t view this as me putting things into the world. All I’m doing is taking thoughts that my clients would have and putting them into a language that resonates with their followers.”

Researching and interviewing

A skilled ghostwriter will research your company and its industry; some ghostwriters may already be experts in your field.

But the ghostwriter will also talk to execs and/or CEOs to unearth even more. What the CEO, who possibly has worked at Company X for years, takes for granted, the skilled ghostwriter will extract, often turning it into social media gold.

For example, everyone knows that Shopify lets home-based sellers start an online business. But not everyone knows that the idea for the company grew out of CEO Tobias Lutke’s desire to sell snowboarding equipment online. A software engineer, Lutke created an online portal to sell the equipment, and then realized that his idea could benefit millions of home-based retailers.

Now, granted, Shopify hasn’t made a secret about this, and even recently posted a very well-received video that explained the company’s origins. But it’s this kind of detail that other companies might overlook or downplay. A skilled Twitter/X ghostwriter can unearth these and other kinds of details that companies and CEOs might take for granted.

Creating content

The skilled Twitter/X ghostwriter will be tasked with creating content. This could include not just short-form tweets but visual content such as GIFs, photos, and memes; links to articles, blog posts, news stories and other relevant online content; original videos; and polls and other special features like Q&As.

Polls in particular are an effective way of encouraging engagement. A proper Twitter ghostwriter will also know best practices when it comes to utilizing retweets, mentions and tags, also for maximum engagement.

They will have knowledge of the client’s target demographic and which kind of content resonates with that demographic’s interests.

And, of course, if not able to create these kinds of content themselves, the experienced Twitter/X ghostwriter will know where and how to source the materials.

Proofreading and editing

Let’s face it, if left to their own devices, many CEO’s tweets would look like this:

Proofreading, editing, and grammar are not necessarily the reason that your client has ascended to the C-Suite.

But all are second nature to our Twitter/X ghoster, whose shelves are lined with books like The Elements of Style, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, and Confessions of a Shopaholic. Two of which are classics of grammar/editing/punctuation etc.

Scheduling, publishing, and promotion

Once the content is created, the skilled ghoster will schedule it for maximum impact. Often, though not always (see: our Silicon Valley spook) the ghostwriter will also hit the publish button. Social media management platforms like Hootsuite and Buffer can be invaluable when coordinating scheduling and publishing across different teams.

The ghostwriter might also be put in charge of promoting the tweets through paid ads to boost the reach and impact of posts.

Community management

A Twitter ghostwriter’s duties don’t necessarily end with creating and posting content. Many will be employed to manage the Twitter/X account’s community as well.

This means that the ghostwriter will identify and connect with target audiences, followers and customers. They’ll reply to comments, manage conversations with followers, and comment on others’ posts. This might mean ensuring that discussions remain respectful and align with the brand’s values.

Other Twitter/X community management tasks might include hosting events on the platform, chats, or campaigns to encourage community involvement. They will often seek and collect feedback from the community.

How to hire a ghostwriter

For many companies, a go-to ghostwriting first move is to source internally. While there may be a qualified communications professional already on your team, be sure not to fall into the classic trap of delegating Twitter to an intern or junior employee. In a real-time, public forum, the stakes are high and having an experienced writer and strategist is critical.

This is one of several reasons to consider going external and hiring a professional freelancer or agency. An outside agency will have knowledge of best practices on the platform, as well as experience working with various companies and CEOs. They might be experts in your industry, but they also might have knowledge of other fields that they can bring to your messaging.

Review their portfolio, especially regarding Twitter content creation. Determine their level of writing skill. Also see if they are able to write in different tones—serious and humorous, casual and formal, millennial and Gen X. See how much engagement their previous campaigns have garnered. As with any employee, check their references. You don’t want to be stuck with someone who can’t keep to a schedule, especially one that they’ve devised.

How to work with a ghostwriter

Working with a Twitter/X ghostwriter is a collaborative process. To start, the ghostwriter and client will discuss expectations. The ghostwriter will most likely want to interview execs and/or the CEO to better be able to capture his or her voice.

The process will vary from ghostwriter to ghostwriter. Our aforementioned anonymous Silicon Valley tweet-ghost writes that he never logs into a client’s account. “I just write things and they send them out into the world.” He drafts his tweets in the project management platform Trello for the client to see. The client then chooses to send them if and when they want.

Range of rates for a Twitter/X ghostwriter

The range of rates for a Twitter/X ghostwriter ranges from barista to astronomical.

For less experienced ghostwriters, rates may range from $20 to $50 per hour or $0.10 to $0.25 per word. The midlevel types with experience may charge between $50 and $100 per hour or $0.25 to $0.50 per word.

Those with lots of experience, or who specialize, or who, unicorn-like, have a gift for writing tweets that go viral charge a lot more. For example, our friendly neighborhood writing spook mentioned above writes that he made $500k in 2021 “ghostwriting tweets for superstar VCs,” working five hours a week on his “side hustle.” That works out to be about $729/hour.

Another option is paying a flat-rate on a per-project basis. The amount can vary from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the project’s length and complexity.

Ethics of ghost-tweeting

With bots taking over, authenticity is a trend on social media platforms. Since ghostwriting involves hiring someone from (often) outside the company, some might question whether the practice is fair, like bringing in a ringer for an amateur baseball team.

Transparency is key to cutting controversy off at the pass. Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and John Legere (former CEO of T-Mobile), have all admitted to receiving help with their tweets. Granted, Elon might want to ask for even more help in the future.

It’s also critical to remember that leaders of all stripes receive support with their communications. It’s standard practice for CEOs and executives to have speechwriters help them with keynotes and big presentations. The stakes on Twitter can be just as high and having a trusted ghostwriter is no less important.

Because all of us use it so much, it’s tempting to consider ourselves a “social media expert.” But the truth is, some people actually eat, sleep, and breathe social media. When it’s a company or CEO’s reputation or brand at stake, it’s time to call in the ghost-experts. The right agency or professional will bring in the experience, knowledge, and skills to take your Twitter/X presence to the next level.