Looking for ways to increase Twitter engagement for your brand account, or maybe for your personal profile, so you can tap into Twitter’s new ad revenue share program?
This could help – a day after Twitter sent out millions in payments to creators participating in its new revenue re-distribution offering, several of the platform’s highest-paid users have shared some key insights into what they’re focusing on, and how that relates to Twitter’s current algorithms.
The notes align with the initial findings of those looking into Twitter’s recently open-sourced algorithm – Twitter’s increasingly looking to incentivize long-form content, with replies now driving the strongest signal for algorithmic amplification.
And also, Twitter’s putting more weight into time spent.
Here are some of the key notes to consider in your process:
- You need to buy Twitter Blue to maximize tweet reach. You also need to be a Twitter Blue subscriber to monetize, as only paying users can sign up to the revenue share program, but the new prioritization of Blue replies also means that your tweets will get a lot more reach if you pay the $8 per month. You may not agree with the principle of buying a blue tick (I don’t), but it will improve your tweet performance.
- Avoid outbound links. Twitter wants users to stay on-platform for as long as possible, and as such, tweets with outbound links now get less reach on average. Ideally, Twitter would prefer you to post your long-form content in the app, rather than linking people off to your website. Of course, this is not feasible for many brands, but it’s another consideration for your planning.
- Use great visuals. This is a universal note for all social apps, but standout visuals will stop users in the feed, and get you more attention. Considering your visual elements, and how they look to users, could be a big element in boosting tweet engagement.
- Avoid hashtags. Twitter has actually been advising this for a while – if you want to maximize attention on your tweets, stop using hashtags to link people off to other conversations. The counter to this argument is that using the right hashtags will ensure your tweets appear in related searches in the app, which can also increase exposure, but the guiding principle here is that you want users spending more time with your content when they see it, and hashtags can distract from this. May be worth experimenting with.
Essentially, you want to ensure that you focus on getting people to spend as much time as possible with each of your tweets, as Twitter looks to emphasize long-form content to boost its own engagement stats.
Indeed, Twitter owner Elon Musk has also noted that Twitter’s feed algorithm now ‘increasingly gives weight to time spent on a post’.
Twitter very much wants to become a bigger content destination, as opposed to an intermediary, and it’s this element that the current Twitter algorithm is focused on, which is a key point for your planning.
If Twitter remains a key focus for your strategy, these are some important notes.