AI influencer Zhang Zala's secrets to gaining 50,000 followers: Algorithms are connections; beware of AI's alienation...

Author: zarazhangrui

Compiled by: XinGPT

Editor's Note: Before joining X, Zhang Zala was a well-known AI blogger on Xiaohongshu, known for her content on Vibe coding, highlighting her Harvard undergraduate degree and her background at a major Silicon Valley AI company.

The following is a full translation:

Most people fail at X because they have the wrong mental model. They treat X as a stage, thinking they have to go on stage and give a speech to an audience.

The correct mental model is: X is a party. When you walk into a party, you don't go to a corner and talk to yourself. You find a group of people already gathered together, listen to what they're talking about, and then join in their conversation.

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

1. Adjust your information flow

Think of this step as "figure out which parties to attend and which groups of people you want to hang out with." If your feed is full of junk content and clickbait headlines, you won't have any inspiration for posting, and you'll get involved in the wrong conversations.

Before I started posting regularly, I spent about two weeks deliberately training my X algorithm. Specifically, whenever I saw clickbait titles or topics I didn't care about at all, I would click the three dots in the upper right corner -> "Not Interested". Whenever I saw in-depth and valuable content, I would interact with it by liking, sharing, replying, or saving it. Over time, the algorithm learned to push more high-quality content to me. My current X feed is full of AI, new product launches, and various in-depth discussions—content that I genuinely want to participate in, both inspiring and educational.

2. Reply sincerely

Do not use AI bots to reply in bulk for you. I'll say it again: do not use AI bots to reply in bulk for you.

Replying for the sake of replying is meaningless. When I see replies under my own posts that are clearly AI-generated and merely paraphrasing what I've said, I actually feel offended. It feels extremely perfunctory, insincere, and lazy.

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

Let's say you're A, and you want to interact with B by replying to B's posts—and B has far more followers than you. When you interact genuinely and meaningfully, B will respond—by liking your reply, replying to yours, or following you back. This tells the algorithm, "These two like each other, let me push more of A's content to B." Then, the next time you say something on your timeline, it's more likely to appear on B's timeline, and B is more likely to share it. That's how you grow.

3. Post continuously to create a conditioned reflex.

This is the most important rule. If you don't follow this rule, nothing else matters. My goal is to post 3 times a day.

This isn't a time management issue. Extremely busy founders, CEOs, and investors can post 5 to 10 times a day. It's about lowering the barrier to entry low enough to make it a conditioned reflex. It needs to become a natural extension of what you're already doing every day. Don't overthink it.

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

1. Open Learning

I frequently watch video podcasts and news briefings about AI and startups. Whenever I see something that resonates with me, I screenshot it and post that quote on X. Importantly, I make sure to tag the person who said it. This is both a friendly gesture of respect for the original creator and a way to get their attention. They might share it (people love to hear good things about themselves) or follow you. If you learn something new, share that knowledge with the world. I use X like an open notebook.

2. Public Feedback

As part of my job, I try out a lot of new AI products. Whenever I come across a product or feature that really impresses me, I write a public rave review or feedback post on X, making sure to tag their official account and the founder. Startup founders—especially those in the early stages—love product feedback. In my experience, if you share insightful feedback as a user, 90% of the time the founder will reply to you, share it, or message you privately.

3. Publicly built

This year I started playing around with Vibe Coding, and many of my most popular posts are product demos I created using Vibe Coding. People on X absolutely love product demos. Developer relations leaders from all the major AI labs are actively following what people are doing with their technology (two of my projects were retweeted and recommended by the official Google AI Developer X account). Use tools like Screen Studio to record both your screen and yourself simultaneously to make a 1-2 minute demo video. It doesn't need to be elaborate. Especially when a new model is released, quickly use it to create something and share it, even if it's just a rough prototype.

Don't start by selling your product or company. With all these habits, I'm providing value to the community without expecting anything in return. People need to see you as a genuine individual who can provide value before they'll pay attention to what you want to say or sell.

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

Using AI to write content isn't inherently a bad thing. The danger lies in using AI before you've developed a taste for what constitutes good content. If AI produces garbage content, you won't even realize it's garbage.

X values ​​authenticity above all else. Roughness is better than elegance. This isn't about perfect grammar or fancy vocabulary. It's about writing like you speak in real life.

Read extensively to understand what good content looks like. Post widely to learn what your voice sounds like. Only after that should you use AI to assist your writing, but make sure what you write truly sounds like yourself.

The ultimate goal is not growth in X itself, but to remain true to oneself while achieving growth.

Several growth secrets that Zhang Zala didn't tell you:

1. X's algorithm places a very high weight on social relationships, and Zhang Zala's top AI network accumulated in Silicon Valley and her previous experience on large companies have given her a very good network of mutual connections.

For example, her followers include top AI companies like Tencent AI, Minimax, and Kimi, as well as many AI entrepreneurs and industry leaders. X's algorithm is essentially a monetization of personal connections. (So, getting mutual follows from influential figures is really useful; large platforms are also an advantage!)

2. Before she started operating X, she was already a big influencer in the AI ​​field on Xiaohongshu and had accumulated a group of seed fans. When she started X, she naturally had a group of fans who had already followed her as seed users.