I've been hosting spaces on X for a few months already, and I've attended around 500 - if not more. I've learned a ton, from being a host, to managing a panel with people with way more followers than me, keeping the audience interested and engaged and much more.
Hosting and participating in X spaces is the fastest route to grow your audience and increase your reach. It's simple, imagine 6-10 people sharing a stage where all the combined followers of the panel hear - and get suggested - about the space.
It's not enough to just host or participate in a space though, you need to drive amazing conversations, talk about kickass topics, and know to manage the flow of the conversation:
So here's what I've learned about Spaces so far in case anyone wants to jump in on this and grow their follower base by the hundreds per week.
Learn how to cut off people. It sounds harsh, but someone who rambles for too long or is not adding value to the conversation, or even worse, someone who is just boring, is hurting your space and you need to find a way to interrupt them without being rude. You definitely do not want to insult them or come off as an asshole, but you definitely need to be able to cut people off.
Find kickass titles. This is incredibly important for the space announcement and promotion, but it is also key to keep bringing in people throughout the space. Change the title of the space as it progresses, and benchmark on what works and what gets the people going - and joining, in the end you want more people to join. Clickbait is good as long as you don't overdo it or bring fake news.
Constantly reset the space. As a host, you have speaking privileges. When you notice a new wave of listeners has joined, take a moment to reintroduce the space and keep everyone in the loop of things so this new audience sticks around.
Constantly drive conversation to the purple pill. Replies help the Space grow big time but also gets the audience participating which makes it a much more fun experience.
The cohosts make or break a space, pick them carefully. They need to be able to carry on with the conversation, bring in new topics or concepts, manage the audience as well, but most importantly, who will pick up when the conversation is dying or when you need to cut off someone.
Some people drag their space for too long, this is a mistake in my opinion. Spaces are easily slowed down, so if you hit a moot point, kill it, don't try to revive it after several mini revivals from you and your cohosts. Also, who the hell wants to stay for 4 hours listening to some bozos online? You want people to remember your Space for being fun beginning to end. But also you want people to listen to it afterwards, and if it's too long then peeps will definitely won't care about it.
Thank all of your speakers through DMs after the Space ends. They took the time out of their days to contribute to your Space. Time isn’t cheap.
99% of people are supremely boring. If one of your speakers turns out to be interesting, do everything you can to build a relationship with them. They’re diamonds in the rough and you want to keep them coming back to your space.
Don’t be afraid to plug yourself and the cohosts. People forget to follow, so calls to action help.
Your speaker panelist is everything. You can be the most interesting host in the world but if your panelists suck, your space will tank. 99% of your job as a host is to build the best panel of interesting speakers you possibly can. Mercilessly Boot anyone not contributing to it
Support people who support you. Add anyone who supports your Spaces into an X List and do everything you can to support them. Reply to their posts, join their Spaces. Karma is real and what goes around comes back around.
Do you know of any other tips?
Now go host your first space! Make sure to invite me so I can help you out with everything.