The day has finally come. After much chatter about the possibility an updated timeline, it’s become a reality. The new Twitter timeline now shows tweets at the top based on relevancy, rather than chronology.
With every change to any social network, there are many marketers that worry it will negatively impact their ability to reach their audiences. Many see any change as a negative, as it means having to learn a new way of doing things. Don’t worry. Here’s what marketers need to know about the new Twitter timeline.
The New Twitter Timeline
The new Twitter timeline ensures that you don’t miss the important stuff happening from those you follow. Like the “While you were away…” update that Twitter made just over a year ago, this change will help surface tweets you’re most likely to engage with.
Unlike the ‘While you were away…’ update, the new ‘Show me the best Tweets first’ option uses an algorithm to determine what you’re most likely to enjoy seeing. Where ‘While you were away…’ shows popular tweets of those you follow, this update uses information from past engagements to surface the most relevant content. By looking at the type of tweets you engage with (click, Like, retweet, and reply to), Twitter is able to serve up those you’re most likely to enjoy, every time you check your timeline.
The best tweets aren’t just limited to accounts you follow. They can also be accounts sharing relevant tweets to your interests. This is a great way to find new accounts and make sure you stay on top of the topics you find most relevant, even if you aren’t following everyone talking about them.
This change isn’t the Earth-shattering end that many believed it would be. It’s completely optional and can easily be turned on and off from your Twitter settings. Simply check or uncheck the ‘Show me the best Tweets first.’ box in the settings, under the timeline section. Over time, Twitter will begin turning the feature on for everyone by default but you can always disable it if you don’t find it useful.
Why Twitter Changed The Timeline
As time goes on, the number of accounts we follow on Twitter continues to rise. With the increase in accounts comes an increase in the number of tweets filling our timeline. Eventually, we reach a point where we simply can’t scroll through and take in every tweet posted each day. Facebook ran into a similar problem years ago when the average user began seeing around 1,500 updates in their News Feed every day.
Obviously there’s little chance most people are going to scroll through that many updates. There just isn’t time in the day for most of us. This is where technology steps in and helps show us the messages with the most meaning. That’s exactly what this the new Twitter timeline (and the Facebook News Feed before it) is doing.
By surfacing the messages we can’t miss, and letting the lesser-important ones fall away, Twitter is helping you stay on top of your ever-growing feed.
What The New Twitter Timeline Means To Marketers
The change to Twitter’s timeline means new opportunity for marketers. While some have been screaming that it will only hurt, this update means good things for those looking to reach an engaged audience.
The update means your messages don’t have to get buried under a pile of irrelevant tweets. Twitter can now show your audience important messages without having them lost in the noise. This should not only increase impression levels, but, since the messages being shown are the most relevant to the users interests, it should also increase engagement rates. Twitter’s own research has already shown a great increase in engagement with the tweets brought forth by the new timeline.
The new timeline will also show your tweets to those not following you, if they’re found to be relevant to their interests. This is a huge opportunity to be seen outside of your own following, so make sure you make the topic of your shares clear so Twitter knows who it’s relevant to.
To profit the most from this change, marketers need to increase the signs that followers want to see their updates. This means increasing engagement with your tweets. Link clicks, image expands, retweets, replies, and Likes are all signs taken into account by the new algorithm. The more a user engages with your messages, the more likely they are to be shown them when they first return to their news feed.
Put Your Best Tweets Forward
The new update to the Twitter timeline means additional opportunities to get in front of your followers and relevant users not following you (hopefully you can convert them to followers too). It helps sift through the more than 500 million messages being sent each day on the social site.
By sharing content relevant to your audience and creating great engagement, you can further the reach of your messages and increase engagement too, thank to this Twitter update. Consider a strategy that increases Twitter engagement, and start getting even greater rewards today.
