Twibble helps you easily post content from any RSS feed to Twitter. Unlike other RSS to Twitter applications, Twibble takes a design-first approach by embedding images in every tweet.
The Problem
At the time I was tasked to try to grow our social media accounts. I was using several different social media growth tools but there were none that I truly loved. All the other services were poorly designed and had a complicated user experience. I also was frustrated that none of the services allowed me to embed an image with my tweets. Lastly, none of the services were mobile-friendly and were impossible to use on my smartphone.
Creating Twibble
I partnered with a backend developer to try to create an MVP version of Twibble. Researching other competitors was my first step in the creation of Twibble. It was important for me to understand the current market to see if it would be a viable product. I also needed to really understand how to differentiate our product from our competitors. Since I do a lot of social media marketing, I was aware of various social media growth tool and Twitter applications and was already familiar with the current landscape.
Next step was to draft up all the features and sketch out the user interface. After working and reworking all the features out on paper.
I worked closely with the backend developer to create the MVP version of Twibble in 2 weeks. During this time I designed all the elements, flows and coded out the front-end experience from scratch and boilerplates.
Design → Code
I also coded out the entire front-end of the application and pages. I enjoy using grid systems which allow for rapid development and responsive design. I often consider how my designs will be coded out when I think about building applications and designing for development.
Onboarding Users
We opted for a simple 3-click onboarding flow that allows for a potential new user to signup with Twibble by clicking the signup button on our homepage, then authorizing their Twitter account and finally verifying an email address.
Once the user has completed this process, they are dropped on the ‘Add Feed’ view to begin adding their content sources.
1
Single-click authorization with Twitter
Since we are a Twitter-only service, we decided to opt for a single-click signup process using Twitter authorization allowing for a more frictionless signup.
2
Email verification window
We require an email so that we can communicate with our users and prevent people from creating duplicate accounts.
3
Add your first feed
Once you’ve entered your email address, we allow the user to start adding their first feed. In 3 simple steps, a person can go from learning about Twibble to using it.
Welcome email
I coded and designed several responsive emails, one of them being the welcome email that we send to users upon signing up.
Welcome email animation
Responsive design scales for mobile
Launching Twibble
It took 2 weeks to build an MVP product that was usable and it took roughly 2 more weeks to polish it up after sharing Twibble with a small user group to test. Once we were confident that Twibble was ready for the public, I started letting people know.
We published Twibble on popular websites such as hacker news, product hunt, and other startup forums. I also identified influencers in the space, relevant media and so forth to get the ball rolling.
In the next few weeks, we kept a close eye on our users to see what issues they were having. We kept a very open channel of communication, listened and adjusted.
We also wanted our users to be able to easily share their content and allow other Twitter users to easily subscribe and share the content as well. To make this a seamless process, we created elegant share pages. Twibble users could create a share page with a click of a button and then allow any Twitter user to share that content.
We felt it would be a powerful tool for non-profit companies who are constantly sharing impactful information with their followers. Twitter users could then easily amplify their message by automatically sharing their content.
The results after a year
- We had over 40,000 users
- Twibble sent out over 17M tweets on behalf of our users
- Notable mentions from Neil Patel, Buffer, Lifehacker, and more