How To Understand The Twitter Algorithm And Change It To Increase Your Reach?
Back in March of 2015, Twitter made a change which many of their users didn’t like. Twitter decided to stop showing the most recent Tweets at the top of your feed, and instead, started to order all your feeds based on when people were active on the service. This meant that people with active accounts would see more activity from people who are online now, than they would from people who were online earlier in the day. It also meant that people who were active on the site a long time ago would once again see more recent Tweets, than they would older Tweets.
Twitter has been a great source of traffic and leads for many of my clients over the years. However, it can also be a bit of a nightmare if you aren’t careful. Especially when it comes to managing your Twitter feed. In this post, I’m going to cover six ways you can make sure your tweets get seen by as many people as possible… and stay seen by them for as long as possible. These tips are based on some very hard-earned first-hand experience from both me and my clients.
The Algorithm That Changes Every Day And Makes Tweets More or Less Important To You.
Imagine Tweets in 3 main sections:
- The first section (RANKED TWEETS) shows the 20 most recent tweets displayed in rank order from most recent to least recent. section is for those tweets that you want to catch your readers’ attention but don’t quite have the clout to make the first cut.
- The second section (“IN CASE YOU MISSED IT”) shows tweets that have been mentioned most often in the last 24 hours. This section is for those tweets that you want to catch your readers’ attention but don’t quite have the clout to make the first cut.
- The third section (THE REMAINING TWEETS IN REVERSE-CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER) displays the rest of the tweets that are not included in either of the two previous sections. Here are all the tweets that didn’t make it onto your timeline because they weren’t important enough. They are listed in reverse-chronological order.
The algorithm will study all of the tweets from accounts you follow and give each of them a “relevance” score based on several factors. Here’s a short list of what Twitter says the algorithm weighs most heavily:
Newsworthiness: How recent is the tweet? Is it from someone you know or follow, or from a source that isn’t as familiar to you?
Influence: How many followers does the account have? Who are those followers? Are they more likely to be people who are more likely to be interested in your topic or subject matter?
Re-tweet: Did the author of the tweet retweet another user’s tweet about the same subject or not? If so, that’s a sign the first tweeter/author probably agreed with the second tweeter/author.
Find your right audience, if you want to increase your engagement.
The Algorithm Will Study All The Tweets From Accounts You Follow And Give Each Of Them A Relevance Score Based On Several Factors! Here Are Some Of The Factors The Algorithm Uses To Calculate These Scores!
Here are some of the factors which will affect how relevant your tweets are:
- Retweets: Lots of people retweet others all the time for a number of reasons. Some do it because they agree with what they’re reading. Others do it to get the message out to a wider audience. And, of course, sometimes people just do it as a joke. Whatever the reason, if someone retweets your tweet, it will definitely boost your relevance score.
- Followers: The more people you follow, the higher your relevance score. If you unfollow a lot of people, your score will go down.
- Tweet Frequency: The more often you tweet, the higher your relevance score.
- Interacting With Others: Interacting with others in real time through retweets, replies, likes, and favorites all have a positive impact on your relevance score.
- Time of Day: Engaging with others at certain times of day has a positive impact on your relevance score. For example, between 6 a.m.
The algorithm will now also consider the content of your Tweets, and give it a relevance score. This means if you are tweeting about something interesting, your Tweet will be more relevant to your followers and more likely to be seen.
Then, Twitter will think about what you might want to read and suggest it to you in the first two sections — ranked tweets and “In case you missed it”.
The idea is to give you a quick glimpse of the best Tweets, and then allow you to delve deeper into the other ones.
Let’s go into details..
Ranked Tweets
At the top of your timeline is a section called “Top Tweets.” It displays only the most recent tweets in your timeline, which are deemed to be the most important by Twitter. These tweets are displayed in chronological order, but are not necessarily the most important tweets in reverse-chronological order.
From my own personal experience, they probably aren’t.
Twitter has a function called “Trending Topics”. As far as I know, they don’t reveal their formula for determining what is trending, but it is safe to say they use a combination of what people are tweeting about, what people are re-tweeting, what people are mentioning, and so forth.
Based on the photo above, it looks like these are the tweets most likely to interest me. Twitter took the liberty to put them at the top of my timeline. They did this because they know I’m most likely to be interested in what others are saying about what they are interested in.
“In Case You Missed It” – On your Timeline
This module only appears when you’ve been away from Twitter for several hours or days. It’s a way for Twitter to make sure you are still interested in what’s happening on their site and gives you a quick glance at some of the recent things you might have missed.
This is where the magic happens. Here are the most relevant tweets according to Twitter’s relevance algorithm. These are the tweets that Twitter thinks you will most likely respond to and be interested in. The tweets are not ordered reverse-chronologically.
Remaining tweet
You’ll discover retweets, promoted tweets, and suggested accounts to follow. You should check out all these retweets, promoted tweets, and suggested accounts to follow. Sometimes they’re tweets you won’t want to follow because they are not relevant or interesting to you. But other times they will be relevant or interesting to you, in which case you should follow them.
Retweets are when someone republishes the message of another person. Usually, it is someone they know and trust. Promoted tweets are similar to retweets except that the original tweet has been paid for by the advertiser. If you see a lot of retweets, odds are high that at least a few of them are from people you know and trust. And if you see a lot of promoted tweets, the same thing is probably true. However, just because someone is retweeting or promoting something doesn’t mean they necessarily agree with it. It just means that they found it relevant and interesting.
Suggested accounts to follow are accounts that Twitter thinks you might be interested in following. These are often people who have something to say that is relevant and interesting and might help you stay on top of the topics you are interested in. Sometimes, these are accounts that have a lot to say but whose messages you won’t find particularly relevant or interesting. These are often accounts that just like or dislike something or someone without any real reason. Just remember that these are only suggestions; you are not obligated to follow them.
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR REACH ON TWITTER?
It doesn’t matter if you have a low number of followers!
In this section, we’re going to look at how you can use a few simple techniques to make sure your Tweets get seen by more people. These techniques are especially important now that Twitter has rolled out their new “timeline algorithm.” As we all know, the timeline algorithm is the secret sauce that determines which of your Tweets get seen first by other users. Here are five simple techniques you can use to help your Tweets get seen by more people:
- Have a clear call-to-action in each Tweet. People read from top to bottom on a web page. And, they read from left to right on a web page. Put your CTA (call-to-action) in the first sentence or two of your Tweet and make it as compelling as possible. For example, if your Tweet instructs people to click a link and buy something, write something like this: “Click here to get a free copy ”.
- Use hashtags strategically. Don’t overdo it, but do use them strategically. If you use too many hashtags, your Tweet won’t be read at all. But if you use the right ones, you can greatly increase the chance that your Tweet will be read. The way you use them is by using the right ones in the right places. For example, if you are selling an eBook, you might use the following hashtags: #ebooks, #eBooks, #freebooks, #book, #reading, etc.
- Include an image. People love to look at pictures, and including one in your Tweet makes it more likely to be read. Make sure the picture you choose is relevant to your Tweet and includes all of the important elements. If you’re trying to sell something, make sure the picture you use depicts what you are trying to sell and isn’t just some pretty face with a stupid smile.
- Be succinct. People are busy. They don’t have time to read long-winded, boring messages. So, if possible, make each of your Tweets as short as possible. But, don’t worry too much about being clever. Choose the right words that are most likely to get your message across. Don’t use “salesmanship” instead of clarity.
- Monitor your performance. Keep track of how many people click on the links you post in your Tweets. And, keep an eye out for other indicators such as impressions (how many times your Tweet was seen by other users), retweets (how many people have copied and pasted your Tweet into their own), favorites (how many people like your Tweet enough to mark it as “favorited”), and replies (how many people discuss your Tweet with you).
So how do you increase your Twitter reach with the new timeline algorithm? The answer is simple: You do more than just post tweets. You see, with the new timeline algorithm, the first thing that happens when you post a new tweet is that it gets pushed down into the “Past” section of your followers’ feeds. The goal is that your tweets will be seen, but not over-shadowed by newer tweets. Therefore, one of the most important things that you can do is to interact with your followers. Interacting with your followers means a number of things:
* Responding to their tweets
* Retweeting their tweets
* Giving them “likes”
* Giving them “follows”
* And much, much more …
The way that the algorithm works is that it looks at how often you interact with your followers and determines how important you are to them. If you are very important to them, your older tweets will not get pushed down as much as the tweets of people who are less important to them.
My tips to you!
Here are a few tips to help you get a head start on increasing your Twitter reach:
Tip #1: Get to know your followers. Who are the people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to say? Are they the ones who re-tweet (share) your Tweets? If so, pay attention to them – they may be good leads! Are they the ones who reply to your Tweets? If so, reply to them too! Do they like your Tweets? Do they retweet them and/or reply to them? If so, you’ve found yourself a potential lead!
Tip #2: Create a list of lists. On Twitter you can create as many lists as you want, and assign those lists to different categories or groups. For example, you might have one list for people who live in Middle East or a specific country, another for people who live in USA, another for people who follow you personally, and so on. This will help you to discover new people or accounts to follow who might be good leads for your next marketing campaign.
Tip #3: Use hashtags. When you post a Tweet, you have the option of including hashtags. A hashtag is a word or a few words preceded by a pound sign (#). Hashtags are used to categorize and search for Tweets. For example, if you are selling real estate, you might use the hashtag #realestate to indicate that you are talking about that subject. If you are having a Twitter chat related to marketing, you could use the hashtag #marketingchat. You can also use hashtags to find other people who are interested in the same things you are. To find out what people are interested in, you can type a hashtag into the search box at the top of your Twitter page. The results will be people who use that hashtag. You can then follow those people and see what they are interested in.
Tip #4: Be interesting! Don’t try to sell everybody on everything. Instead, concentrate on selling one or two things to one or two groups of people. If you do this well, your Tweets will spread like wildfire.
Tips #5: The new timeline algorithm makes it possible for you to easily identify the most influential users on Twitter. You can then use these users as “seeds” to re-tweet your most important messages. In this way, you can maximize the reach of your tweets without having to worry about running out of tweets to send out.
Tips #6: Twitter algorithm will take posting times into account but it won’t be the only factor used to rank tweets. Some tweets will always be more highly ranked than others for reasons unrelated to the posting time. For example, some tweets may be more useful or interesting than other tweets. Also, there are a few variables that are difficult if not impossible to control. For example, how many people are following you; how many people are reading your tweets; what time of day you post; whether you are posting in your local time zone or someone else’s; whether you are posting on a weekday or weekend; and so forth. All of these variables will affect your ranking but the algorithm will take them into account. However, controlling for these variables is much more difficult and often impossible. This is why it is important to keep testing. Posting times can sometimes increase your engagement by 50% or more. But, more often than not, posting times will have no effect at all. It all depends on the data you are using. If you are just starting out and don’t have many followers, then posting times probably won’t make much difference in your rankings. On the other hand, if you already have thousands of followers and you post several times a day anyway, then maybe you should experiment with posting times.
Tips #7: Engage with others frequently, to increase your Tweets impressions as well. Engagement is measured by the number of times your Tweet was clicked on (clicks), minus the number of times it was viewed (impressions). A high level of engagement means that your Tweet was interesting to a lot of people, but that they didn’t actually read it.
Tips #8: Try Twitter videos: If you haven’t already, you should start using Twitter videos. They are very easy to create and share. And if the video has a strong story behind it, it can be an effective way to gain attention and get people interested in what you have to say. Videos have an important role to play on Twitter. According to a study by HubSpot, videos on a brand’s Twitter page get 42% more retweets than text posts. Also, videos are 4 times more likely to result in a purchase than text posts. The reason for this is simple. People like to share things that are interesting or amusing. And sharing something that is interesting or amusing increases the chances that your message will be passed along and that your followers will pay attention to it.
Tips #9: Reply to mentions. It is a way to get people to respond to your tweets. Basically, all you do is mention another person in your tweet (by including his or her username), and then you ask that person if he or she would like to chat with you about something. If the person does want to chat with you, he or she will send you an @reply message which you can then reply to with a message of your own. You can also use reply to mention to let people know they have been mentioned in your tweet. This will give them the option of replying “thanks” or “that’s me” or something else. The idea is to get people to interact with your tweets. It is a useful technique for getting more people to read your tweets and for increasing your retweets.
Tips #10: Promote your tweets. If you use Twitter, you should definitely know about the “Promote Your Tweets” feature. With this feature, you can tell Twitter which of your tweets are most interesting to other people and therefore get more attention. The idea is that if a person is reading through his or her Twitter stream and comes across one of your tweets that is particularly interesting, he or she will click on the Promote button to send your tweet to his or her followers. This increases the likelihood that your tweet will be seen by more people and get more engagement.
Here are some sales tips.
One of the primary ways that people use social media is to get information. In fact, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, 88% of social media users get their news from these sites. And the same study found that 73% of social media users turn to their social networks for advice on “things to buy”. As a marketer, this is an enormous opportunity to reach a huge audience with a message that is relevant to them. If you have a product or service that is of interest to this audience, you should consider using social media to promote your tweets. This will cause your tweets to be “shared” on the various social networks and increase the number of people who see them. This, in turn, will cause more people to read your tweets and, hopefully, to become interested in what you are selling and to purchase it from you.
One of the things I like best about Twitter is that you get to know people on a very personal basis. Some people you will never meet again. But with Twitter, you get a second chance to connect with almost everyone you follow.
I have met many people through Twitter who I would not have known otherwise. And sometimes, when someone is having a bad day, it is good to be able to reach out and offer a bit of cheer.
I’ve had some pretty amazing conversations on Twitter. Sometimes it starts off as a simple question, “What do you think about…?” and before you know it, you’re talking about life, the universe, and everything.
I’m sure you can think of many other ways to use Twitter to expand your horizons and increase your knowledge. So go ahead. Try one or more of these ideas out and see how they work for you. I promise – you won’t be disappointed.
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