The rumors that Twitter will introduce an algorithm that displays the most relevant and trendy (not most recent) tweets on the top of each feed has caused a panic last week across the social media community, especially Twitter fans.
#riptwitter hashtag and thousands of negative comments flooded Twitter and the entire market, and even Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter has reacted. “Twitter is live, Twitter is real-time” was a statement that has calmed the market, but if you stop and think for a moment, Twitter can implement content curation (filtering) without leaving a real-time role.
The new timeline will see tweets from famous athletes, musicians and brands on top of the feeds helping users tune into trending discussions and ensure the best content “shine throughout”. The “Best tweets” feature will filter the content based on accounts users are following, the tweet they like or retweet and the activity of people similar to them (thedrum). Do we see Twitter transforming to Facebook?
It is true that Twitter is coming closer to its rival, but leaving a real-time world would be nonsense and that will not happen. “Best Tweet” feature is only a trial to slow down a fast moving timeline and to help the best content with high engagement stay visible. “Facebook feature”, how it was described under #riptwitter hashtag is nothing more than an extension of “while you were away” feature and can also be turned off in settings of iOS and Android mobile apps (the drum).
It’s true that Facebook and Twitter are inching closer with the features like Facebooks “Live stream for everyone” and “Stadium” and Twitters “Best tweets”, but they will never be the same.
More lists, less content missed!
As a twitter user I think the well organized lists in your settings is the best way to not miss the best things happening on Twitter. It’s impossible to stay updated if you follow a large number of accounts and have thousands of tweets coming in real-time, especially during weekends when hundreds of live sport events take place.
My advice is to take a few hours and create “ your own algorithm”, it helped me a lot.
Effect of more relevant over recent on sport brands?
Sport Brands and Athletes with the best content can only profit from this feature and will be awarded for efforts to provide the best content. They should only continue to work as usual and Twitter will help them to engage with their fans even better and even attract new followers.
Pure and unfiltered timelines give brand a small chance of being noted along with a large number of sometimes uninteresting posts just passing by. New algorithm definitely doesn’t mean that they should leave real-time tweets and focus only on content which will bring the biggest number of retweets and likes.
This situation will also force other sport brands to provide content which will launch them to the top of user feeds.
PHOTO: Flickr
