Twitter

Twitter Update April 2023

You shouldn’t be surprised to hear that there’s yet another round of changes coming to Twitter, this time around how the platform’s various verification systems will affect the scrolling experience. Here’s what we know:

  • This week, Elon Musk announced that, as of April 15th, only tweets from verified users will be recommended in the “For You” feed. This should include Twitter Blue subscribers, gold checkmark business subscribers, and grey checkmark government entities.
  • In the same announcement, he claimed that this is the “only way” to fight the presence of bots on the app, and said that voting in polls will also require verification for the same reason.
  • Legacy blue checkmarks are also on their way out and will likely be completely gone by the “For You” feed update. From here on, only paid subscribers will have that verification tick and access to the features it provides.

Here’s what we recommended

Musk often makes bold claims and near-threats about Twitter changes like this one, and the platform doesn’t end up following through. Or changes again days later. For example, he had previously announced that the platform would begin sharing ad revenue with Twitter Blue subscribers by February, and that has yet to come to pass.

In theory, Musk is right that these moves will cut down on bot activity. At the same time, it’s also reducing  opportunities for organic discovery on the platform. During this shift, we recommend brands keep a few things in mind: 

  • This isn’t going to “fix” or restore Twitter. Increased restrictions on free users are going to result in lower engagement numbers in the short term as free users decide whether or not to pay up.
  • If your brand had deprioritised Twitter since the Musk purchase, you won’t be hurting by waiting this out, too.
  • If brands are eager to start testing the Twitter waters again, we suggest starting with Twitter Blue for now. You can learn about that user’s experience as your new target user while waiting for additional value to be added to the gold tier.
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