Twitter Announces The Inclusion Of Tweets Beyond Who You Follow

In a controversial move, Twitter has announced that all users’ timelines will now include more than just Tweets from the people that they follow. In the announcement, Twitter explained that this decision is being made after a successful test that showed that the majority of users appreciate seeing additional Tweets based on various relevant criteria.

In a blog post entitled “The spirit of experimentation and the evolution of your home timeline”, Twitter product team member Trevor O’Brien explained the rationale of this move.

“As we’ve shared a few times, we constantly try new experiments around here, which serve to inform the evolution of the product,” wrote O’Brien. “We believe that each successful experiment, big or small, can make your Twitter experience simpler and more relevant to you. One of our goals for experimentation is to continue improving your home timeline. After all, that’s the best way to keep up with everything happening in your world. Choosing who to follow is a great first step – in many cases, the best Tweets come from people you already know, or know of. But there are times when you might miss out on Tweets we think you’d enjoy. To help you keep up with what’s happening, we’ve been testing ways to include these Tweets in your timeline – ones we think you’ll find interesting or entertaining.”

Certainly, there are some Twitter users who will be opposed to this change, and the likelihood of an at least minor backlash is quite high. However, based on Twitter’s testing, the company has determined that the majority of users will appreciate seeing the additional Tweets, and digital marketers will certainly be watching closely to come up with ways for their Tweets to make it onto the timelines of as many other users as possible. The possibility for a company’s Tweets to be seen by a larger audience than their number of followers marks a potential change in the way that marketers can utilize Twitter to expand the reach of their brand.

O’Brien’s blog post continues by explaining what will determine the additional tweets that users will see. “For example, we recently ran experiments that showed different types of content in your timeline: recommended Tweets, accounts and topics,” he wrote. “Testing indicated that most people enjoy seeing Tweets from accounts they may not follow, based on signals such as activity from accounts you do follow, the popularity of the Tweets, and how people in your network interact with them. These experiments now inform the timeline you see today.”

It will be interesting to see how users react to this change as it develops. Some may not even realize that they’re seeing Tweets from users that they don’t follow, while some may wish that they could regain full control over what they see. Others may find that these additional Tweets make their Twitter experience more enjoyable. However, one thing that’s certain is that the change is happening, and digital marketers of all types will be doing everything that they can to use this development to further the recognition of their brand through highly engaging content that may now be seen by users that have previously been out of reach.