Author: zarazhangrui

Translated by: XinGPT

Editor's note: Zhang Zala was a famous AI blogger on Xiaohongshu before coming to X, positioning herself with her Harvard undergraduate background and experience in Silicon Valley AI companies, renowned for content related to Vibe coding products.

The following is the full translation: “

Most people fail to succeed on X because their mental model is wrong. They treat X as a stage, thinking they need to go on stage and deliver a speech to the audience.

The correct mental model is: X is a party. When you walk into a party, you don’t run to the corner and start talking to the air. You look for a group of people who are already gathered, listen to what they are talking about, and then join their conversation.

This mental model forms the basis of all my growth strategies:

1. Curate your feed

Understand this step as "figuring out which parties to attend and which groups of people you want to hang out with." If your feed is filled with junk content and clickbait, you won’t feel inspired to post, and you will participate in the wrong conversations.

Before I started posting regularly, I spent about two weeks intentionally curating my X algorithm. Specifically, every time I saw clickbait or a topic I didn’t care about, I clicked the three dots in the upper right corner -> "Not Interested." Whenever I saw in-depth and valuable content, I interacted with it through likes, retweets, replies, or bookmarks. Over time, the algorithm learned to push more high-quality content to me. Now, my X feed is filled with AI, new product releases, and various in-depth discussions—these are the topics I genuinely want to engage with, both inspiring and educational.

2. Respond sincerely

Do not use AI bots to help you reply in bulk. Let me say it again, do not use AI bots to help you reply in bulk.

Replying just for the sake of replying is meaningless. When I see those replies under my posts that are clearly generated by AI and simply restate what I’ve said, I actually feel offended. That feeling is extremely perfunctory, insincere, and lazy.

Returning to the party analogy, responding is like sticking your head into a circle of people and joining their ongoing conversation. You need to say something genuinely interesting so that people will notice you and welcome you into their circle.

Suppose you are A, wanting to interact with B by replying under B’s post—while B has many more followers than you. When you interact sincerely and meaningfully, B will respond to you—by liking your reply, replying to your reply, or following you back. This tells the algorithm: "These two people like each other, let me push more of A’s content to B." Then next time you post something on your timeline, it’s more likely to appear on B’s timeline, and B might share it. This is how you grow.

3. Post consistently to form a reflex

This is the most important rule. If you do not follow this rule, everything else doesn’t matter. I set a goal for myself to post three times a day.

This isn’t a time management issue. Those extremely busy founders, CEOs, and investors can post 5 to 10 times a day. It’s about lowering the threshold to a point where it becomes second nature. It needs to become a natural extension of what you are already doing every day. Don’t overthink it.

What are those reflexes? Here are a few habits that really help me maintain consistent output:

1. Public learning

I often watch video podcasts and newsletters about AI and entrepreneurship. Whenever I see something that resonates with me, I take a screenshot and post that quote on X. Importantly, I make sure to @ the person who said it. This is both a friendly gesture of respect for the original creator and a way to get that person to notice you. They might retweet (people love to hear good things about themselves) or follow you back. If you’ve learned something new, share that knowledge with the world. I use X as an open notebook.

2. Public feedback

As part of my work, I try out a lot of new AI products. Whenever I encounter an impressive product or feature, I write a public praise or feedback post on X, ensuring to @ their official account and founder. Founders of startups—especially in the early stages—absolutely love product feedback. In my experience, if you share in-depth feedback as a user, 90% of the time the founder will respond, retweet, or DM you.

3. Public building

This year I started experimenting with vibe coding, and many of my most popular posts are product demonstrations I created using vibe coding. People on X love product demos. All the developer relations heads at major AI labs are actively watching what people are doing with their technology (I have had two projects promoted by the official X account of Google AI Developer). Use tools like Screen Studio to record your screen and yourself simultaneously, creating a 1 to 2-minute demo video. It doesn’t need to be extremely polished. Especially when new models are released, hurry and create something with it and share it, even if it’s just a rough prototype.

Do not start by promoting your product or company. With all of the above habits, I am providing value to the community without expecting anything in return. People first need to see you as a genuine individual capable of providing value before they will want to engage with what you want to share or sell in the future.

4. Don’t use AI to write until you’ve developed your own taste and voice

Using AI to write things isn’t inherently bad. The danger lies in using AI to write before you’ve developed a sense of what constitutes good content. If AI produces junk content, you may not even realize it’s junk.

X values authenticity above all. Rough is better than polished. It’s not about perfect grammar or fancy wording. Write as you would speak in real life.

Read extensively to understand what good content looks like. Post extensively to recognize what your voice sounds like. Only after that, use AI to assist you in writing, but ensure what is produced truly sounds like you.

The ultimate goal is not to grow on X itself but to remain authentic while growing.”

A few growth secrets Zhang Zala did not tell you:

1. The algorithm of X places great weight on social relationships, and Zhang Zala has built a strong network of top AI connections in Silicon Valley, along with her previous experience at large platforms, giving her an excellent mutual following network.

For example, some of her followers include top AI companies like Tencent AI, Minimax, and Kimi, as well as many entrepreneurs and notable figures in AI. The essence of X's algorithm is also a monetization of social relationships. (So asking influential individuals for mutual follows is indeed beneficial; big platforms provide an edge!)

2. Before she operated X, she was already a big influencer in the AI field on Xiaohongshu, accumulating a group of seed followers. When she started on X, she naturally had a batch of fans who had already followed her as seed users.

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