Wednesday 10th of February was the date that Twitter made the algorithmic changes to the timeline, although not all users are currently seeing the new timeline structure. The changes are a fundamental shift away from the exiting Twitter timeline format but don’t worry, if you don’t like it you can revert back to the old format through the settings within Twitter.
What does this change really mean? Well it should start to subdivide the massive volume of tweets into new categories such as most popular, most relevant, most retweeted etc. which in turn allows the user to be more specific and hone in on highly relevant tweets and tweeters based on subjects they are interested in. A hugely significant improvement for most tweeters in every sense.
There is a lot said and written about tweet strategies within social media lore and this change to the timeline will render most of those strategies redundant. It’s also the first step towards a more commercialised Twitter with add supported tweets and links being injected into timelines based around the filtering applied by the user. At the end of the day, Twitter needs to make money and this was an inevitable development.
Expect more changes. Social networks are now likely to consult less with their audience and change more rapidly in an attempt to keep ahead of the competition – the necessary activity of a company that has a product that’s maturing and a transient user base.
Koios as a technology company recognises that some companies may now struggle to understand these changes and how it effects their core business. The new format for Twitters timeline provides a range of new opportunities for SME’s to connect with new customers, give us a call if you want to know how software solutions can allow you to access these new opportunities.