7 New Facts about Twitter’s Algorithm + how to make them work for You

If you are an avid Twitter user or trying to grow on the platform, these seven facts will be a game changer for the success of your posts…

by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

It’s not news that so many hard-core and casual users have bailed from Twitter after its “turmoil” this year. That said, if you’re still a user then you probably want to know these new facts about Twitter’s algorithm. It doesn’t work the way it did before, and some of the things it does are counter-intuitive now. 

Here are 7 facts about how it works, thanks to Twitter’s own site and Symphonic.

1 – It thinks links are spam

That’s right, if it sees a tweet with a link it’s going to react negatively, which will keep you out of your followers feed. If you need to use a link, put it in the thread below.

2 – Spam or abuse will affect you for a while

Although we always read about Twitter not acting on abusive or inappropriate posts, it’s not worth taking the chance. If the platform decides you’re annoying people then it will act by showing your posts to fewer and fewer people.

3 – A blue checkmark means more reach

It seems like everyone’s upset about the changes in the meaning of the blue checkmark. It now means that you have an active account that you’re paying for and you’ve met the eligibility requirements. What more important is that it also means that your content will now be shown to more people.

4 – Images and videos also extend your reach

Just like always, you will reach more people if you include an image or video in your post. How much? 2X, which is worth taking the extra time to search for that image.

5 – Stay in your lane

Twitter groups similar topics together, so if you suddenly begin to post outside your niche, the algorithm will penalize you.

6 – Stop using a ton of hashtags

For some reason the word got around that you needed to load up your post with multiple hashtags to get the algorithm to take notice. That’s never been the case, as Twitter itself has always stated that one or two was sufficient. In fact, in this article the platform says,“One to two relevant hashtags per Tweet is the sweet spot so you can keep your message concise. It’s best practice to keep every Tweet focused on one specific message, rather than trying to communicate multiple ideas. If you do need to say more, that’s where Tweet threads come in.”

7 – You really want Likes

This one is hard to believe, but Twitter values Likes above retweets or replies, which flies against the conventional wisdom. Each Like gets a 30x boost, each Retweet gets 20x, while each reply only gets a 1x boost.

Like all social algorithms, Twitter’s algorithm works in mysterious ways. But we do know what it doesn’t like and that’s a big step in posting right in its sweet spot, which will get more eyeballs on your tweets.

Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He has authored 24 books on recording, music, the music business and social media.