Although Twitter Communities have not yet sold the way Twitter had hoped, that’s not to say that it won’t be valuable. In reality, some Communities have even grown quite popular, but just how many Twitter users are actively engaging in Communities? How many want to, given the app’s ‘Public Square’ ethos?
Sorting Things Out
Either way, Twitter seems determined to go through with the project. The latest addition to its Communities being algorithmic sorting within its streams. Users now have the option to sort their Communities Feed by either ‘For You’ or ‘Latest’. The former will display top Tweets in each community based on engagement history, while the latter will prioritize the newest community contributions, making them appear at the top.
As Twitter explains:
“The setting each person chooses will become the new default every time they visit that Community. The setting is unique to each Community and can be changed at any given moment, giving people the ability to choose and customize how they view each of their Communities separately based on their preference.”
This could make it easier to engage with your chosen Communities by surfacing the most relevant Tweets, especially in more popular groups, provided that Twitter’s algorithms are good enough to highlight the best Tweets for each user that is. So far, Twitter algorithm matching hasn’t been that great when it comes to personalization; people you engage with the most or the most popular Tweets are what takes priority in algorithm-defined feeds.
While that does make sense, not a lot of advanced learning is being applied. For example, Twitter is a bit lacking when it comes to showing you content that you might find interesting based on your previous activity. Spaces also serve as a good example – tap on over to the Spaces tab and you might find yourself in a bit of a jam trying to locate in-progress Spaces that are relevant to you. The listing will only likely show you the most popular Spaces currently being broadcasted.
As shown by TikTok, personalizing the algorithm is key if you aim to maximize user engagement. The TikTok system can very quickly adjust to your preferences, thus allowing it to ‘feed’ you more of what you want. Twitter’s systems are nowhere near that level yet, with its ‘Account Follows’ and ‘Topics’ recommendations regularly being way off than anything close to relevant for most users. This is largely the reason why Twitter had failed to capitalize on its position as a key source for real-time discussion. Twitter has more access to trending conversations than any other platform but has never found a way to highlight such to each individual user.
The Wrap
Theoretically, it still could, which might be part of Elon Musk’s grand plan. Things could still play out differently for Communities, where the OP is already interested in the main topic, which could help uncover more relevant and interesting discussions. As such, this might be the last Communities update as Twitter refocusses its resources on its core elements.
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