Understanding Twitter’s Algorithm and Optimizing For It

A person browsing their Twitter feed

Twitter has extensively been in the headlines for the past few months. The company’s proposed takeover by Elon Musk was subject to an extended period of controversy and legal battles, which caused the platform to be a significant talking point for most people. The deal has closed since, but Twitter users remain uncertain about changes to the website.

Twitter is one of the most popular and oldest social media platforms. Launched in July 2006, the website is one of the few social media channels to still exist from the previous decade. However, what’s impressive is that Twitter has continued to grow despite facing several challenges.

Twitter has over 400 million registered users today. While the platform’s overall userbase continues to lag behind other websites, like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, it’s still highly valuable for marketing because it provides access to a large and dedicated audience. Research shows over 200 million daily active users exist on the platform. As a result, it’s not surprising that the world’s largest brands, like Nike, McDonald’s, and others, have claimed verified profiles on the platform and actively use the website to engage with customers.

Businesses want to increase their revenues by attracting new clients and generating leads. While various methods can be used for this purpose, the reality is that social media platforms already have an existing platform with a built-in audience that makes it easier to reach the business’s target audience. Research shows there are over 4.74 billion social media users today.

If your agency wants to use social media to grow its business, or you have a client looking to generate more leads through social channels, you shouldn’t overlook a popular platform like Twitter.

HubSpot’s 2022 State of Inbound Marketing Report shows that social media was the top marketing channel for marketers in 2022. Marketers also unanimously agreed that it was the most effective channel for generating new leads and acquiring new customers.

Stressing the importance of using social media would be an understatement. If your agency aims to help clients achieve their desired marketing goals, you must use social media channels to help them generate leads and revenue.

If your agency doesn’t offer social media marketing services, consider partnering with a white label marketing company like Rocket Driver. Their white label social media management and marketing services can help your clients generate traction and leads, contributing to their business growth.

What is Twitter’s algorithm?

Social media platforms are highly advanced creations because they have algorithms running things smoothly. These algorithms determine a user’s preferences and interests and show content accordingly.

Most social media platforms receive absurd traffic. Twitter users, for instance, post over 500 million tweets a day. Imagine you were a Twitter user opening your feed for the first time on any given day, and you were bombarded by 500 million tweets. Your user experience would be ruined because you couldn’t find relevant tweets, as sifting through 500 million tweets isn’t possible for a human being.

That’s where the algorithm becomes vital. It curates users’ feeds according to their interests and previous activity on the platform. Let’s assume you create a Twitter account. You’re interested in learning more about music. As a result, you follow some music-related Twitter accounts that provide information about the latest music releases and Billboard Hot 100 charts. You also like a few tweets showing helpful information and retweet posts about your favorite artists.

Twitter’s algorithm will assess your activity. It’ll determine that you’re interested in learning more about music and recommend accounts to consider following accordingly. Similarly, it’ll also use this information to show music-related tweets on your feed. You might not be following these accounts that show up on your feed, but that’s why the algorithm recommended them to you. It believes following these accounts will help you expand your connections, enabling you to gather more music-related data.

Understanding Twitter’s algorithm is essential because it’ll undoubtedly affect how you create content on the platform. It also impacts how agencies use the platform to promote their client’s products or services.

Optimizing content for Twitter’s algorithm

You’ll want to optimize your or your client’s content for Twitter’s algorithm to ensure it’s visible to the largest audience possible. It requires understanding the various factors Twitter’s algorithm considers before placing your content on users’ feeds.

Twitter’s algorithm considers the following factors when displaying content to users:

  • When the tweet was created
  • If the tweet is relevant to the topic at hand or your client’s market niche
  • The hashtags and keywords used
  • User engagement with the tweet
  • If the tweet includes visual elements like gifs, videos, images

Your agency will want to remember these factors when performing marketing activities on the platform. Tweets with visual elements outperform text-based tweets because they’re more engaging. As a result, they also have higher engagement, including more likes, retweets, and comments.  

Create a posting schedule and be consistent

Consider creating a posting schedule to ensure your client’s content gets as many eyeballs as possible. Tweeting once a week might seem like a good option, but you’ll notice that Twitter’s algorithm rewards consistency and activity. Research also shows that it’s a top-down-oriented platform, where the most active users are responsible for generating most of its content. Pew Research Center notes that approximately 25 percent of US adults are responsible for 97 percent of Tweets on the platform.

It’s also important to remember that while Twitter might have peak traffic times, users are unlikely to check their Twitter feeds simultaneously. Therefore, you’ll want to ensure you’re posting as much content as possible and spreading it throughout the day for the best results.

Posting multiple daily tweets is an excellent way to reach the broadest audience possible. Consistency also means a larger and more engaged following.  

Retweet strategically

Retweeting is another excellent way to improve content strategy. Sharing content from another brand or account on your client’s feed may seem counterproductive, but your goal should be to provide as much valuable information as possible to the audience. Creating engaging and helpful content is challenging, especially in Twitter’s micro-blogging format.

Retweeting reduces the burden of creating as much engaging content, while also allowing you to continue engaging your audience.

Keep content interesting

A consistent schedule allows you to increase engagement, but that’s not enough. You must also keep the content interesting. Otherwise, your client’s account will have significant followers but little interaction.

Creating tweets with media is an excellent way to ensure content remains interesting and engaging. You can use funny GIFs or share posts with witty captions to capture the audience’s interest. Similarly, consider using Twitter polls to keep engagement high.

The Twitter application on a smartphone

Utilize Twitter with Assistance from Rocket Driver

If you’re searching for white label marketing solutions, check out Rocket Driver. The industry leader offers several services to agencies, including White Label SEO, White Label Marketing, White Label Reputation Management, White Label Social Media, White Label SMS Marketing, White Label Content Marketing, and White Label Web Design.

Check out their website, www.rocketdriver.com/. You can also contact Rocket Driver to kickstart a white label partnership today.

Book a demo now with Tom Lombardi, one of the founding partners, who will give you a 45-minute, one-on-one tour of the Rocket Driver Partnership to show you how incredible they are!

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