If you’re beginning to feel like Twitter is inching closer and closer to becoming the next Facebook, you aren’t alone, but the social media platform is also stepping up their game in ways others haven’t. They’re working hard to increase user engagement, and it’s more evident than ever. So, what might you expect to see on your new and improved Twitter Timeline?
Favorites: Sometimes you’re going to see Tweets that you didn’t ask to see.
Twitter has officially updated the definition of “What’s a Twitter timeline?” with a new bullet point:
“Additionally, when we identify a Tweet, an account to follow, or other content that’s popular or relevant, we may add it to your timeline. This means you will sometimes see Tweets from accounts you don’t follow. We select each Tweet using a variety of signals, including how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it. Our goal is to make your home timeline even more relevant and interesting.”
What does this mean for you? Until now, when scrolling through your Timeline you would only see Tweets by those you personally chose to follow. Now Twitter is rolling out an experimental feature inside select groups that places Tweets into your stream that have been Favorited by people you follow. Just like it’s always been, whenever a social network makes a new change, there is plenty of user backlash. Is this enough to make users so fed up that they leave the site? Most likely, they’ll stay.
Verified: You might see more and more of your favorite celebrities interacting.
Twitter is working really hard to make sure that celebrities on the platform talk to each other. In a recent update, it was made much easier for celebrities, and any other Verified Users, to interact with one another on the site. Two new features were just introduced: one that allows Verified Users to easily shift their timeline to show only Verified Accounts, and another that sends a mobile alert when another Verified User becomes their Follower. Why would they do this? First of all, it gives them a leg up on real-time celebrity interaction that can’t be found elsewhere. It’s been well known for quite a while that Twitter, like most other social media platforms, allows users to feel as though they know these stars. It’s much more personal, and it makes Twitter the go-to source for all things celebrity. For example, during the most recent World Cup, Twitter was where Luis Suarez apologized for the biting incident:
Secondly, this encourages more potential users to join the site, in order to be one of those “in the know,” with a real-time connection to their favorite stars.
Analytics: How many people are paying attention to your Tweets?
It’s official: Twitter Analytics are now available to everyone, not just businesses.
Over the summer, Twitter experimented with opening its analytics dashboard to users outside the realm of marketing. What does this mean for you? Now you can see how many impressions each Tweet has received, the number of Favorites a Tweet has received, how many times other users have clicked on your profile, and the number of Retweets and Replies on any specific Tweet. On top of all of these numbers, Twitter Analytics also allows you to see how many times users engaged with a Tweet and what kind of engagement that was. If you’re looking to personally become internet famous, then this might be your chance to see what works for you.
Ultimately, your Timeline isn’t sacred anymore, but it’s also a great way to find new users to follow that you might not have found on your own. These changes are likely to have a huge impact on the amount of engagement on the site, which Twitter is hopeful for, and the cons of seeing random Tweets aren’t large enough to push longtime users onto another platform. Your move, Facebook.