For a small business, the optional timeline means a tweet's timing matters a little less and whether people reply to it matters more. Post fewer, more useful tweets, answer people, and judge Twitter by the conversations it produces.

What Twitter announced

On Wednesday Twitter introduced an option that changes the order of a person's timeline. Instead of strictly the newest tweets first, it can put the tweets it thinks that person will care about most at the top.

It is a setting people choose to switch on, labelled show me the best Tweets first. Those who leave it off see their timeline as before.

For someone who switches it on, the change appears when they open Twitter after time away. A handful of selected tweets from accounts they follow sit at the top, and the usual newest-first timeline continues beneath them.

Pull down to refresh and the live timeline is back. Nothing is hidden; some things are moved.

How Twitter picks the tweets

Twitter has not published the recipe, and it is likely to change. What it has said is that the choice draws on signals such as the accounts a person interacts with most and the tweets they engage with.

The fifth is the one a small business can build deliberately. Twitter says the accounts a person interacts with most count, and every reply you exchange with a customer is an interaction.

The perfect minute matters less

Much of the advice about business tweeting has been about timing: post at the hour your followers are online, because a tweet slides out of sight within minutes.

For people using the new option, that slide is softened. A good tweet posted at an awkward hour can still reach the top for someone who opens the app that evening.

Timing still matters for everyone reading newest first, which is anyone who has not switched the option on. But it stops being the only lever.

Posting the same message three times a day to catch every shift of followers was always tiring to read. With the option on, it is even harder to justify.

Posting things worth replying to

If interaction decides what rises, the useful question for each tweet is whether anyone would answer it.

A question to customers, a photograph of today's work with a line of explanation, a useful tip, a reply to someone who mentioned you: these invite a response.

A tweet that only links to your home page, or repeats the same promotion, gives followers nothing to answer.

It has little to recommend it for the top of a timeline. On the old timeline it was easy to scroll past anyway.

A worked example

A functional fitness gym in an industrial unit posts the day's workout on Twitter at five each morning, followed by the class times. It has done so for three years, and the tweets get almost no replies.

Members read them, but had no reason to answer.

The tweets that did draw replies were different: a photograph of a member's first pull-up, a question about Saturday's partner workout, a note that the gym would open late after a snowfall.

The gym kept the daily workout, since members check it, but moved the full version to its website, with a short tweet linking there.

It began asking members one question a week, and replying to every member who tweeted at it.

The owner now judges the account by the conversations in it rather than the number of tweets sent, a measure that suits the new timeline.

Answer the people who mention you

Replies run both ways. When someone mentions your business, answering them is the most direct interaction available, and everyone who looks can see it.

Check mentions daily, including tweets that name the business without using its handle. Twitter's search finds those.

Turn on mention notifications on the phone of whoever looks after the account, so a question asked at lunchtime is answered at lunchtime rather than next week.

A complaint answered politely in public, with an offer to continue by phone or direct message, says more about the business than a week of scheduled posts.

What does not change

Your profile still shows your own tweets in order, newest first, and Twitter's search works as before.

Twitter has offered a short recap called While you were away since early last year, and this option builds on it rather than replacing the timeline.

The 140-character limit is the same, and so is the basic test of any tweet: whether it is worth reading on its own.

Whether Twitter is worth the time

The announcement is a good moment to ask a plainer question.

Twitter suits businesses with news that changes daily, customers who are already on it, or a local community that talks there: restaurants with specials, venues, gyms, shops with new stock.

It suits a business with nothing new to say each week much less. An account that last tweeted in August looks abandoned to anyone who finds it.

A fair test is the last month. If nobody replied, retweeted or asked a question, the account is broadcasting to people who are not listening.

If you keep the account, keep it active. If you do not, say so in the profile and point people to where you do answer.

The counter-case

The option is optional, and many followers will never switch it on. For them nothing has changed, and timing still counts.

Twitter also tests changes freely and may adjust this one, so it is not worth rebuilding a whole approach around a setting announced two days ago.

And for many small businesses, Twitter is a minor channel next to the website, the Google listing and email.

For a business that does use it, the sound response is the same either way: fewer, better tweets that people want to answer, and answers for the people who talk to you.

Fewer, better tweets

  1. Read your last twenty tweets as a follower would.
  2. Count how many anyone replied to.
  3. Cut the tweets that only repeat a promotion.
  4. Ask one question your customers can answer.
  5. Reply to every mention within a day.
  6. Search your business name for untagged mentions.
  7. Decide whether to keep the account active.

Step five is the one that pays under either timeline. Replying is the interaction Twitter can see most clearly, and it is the kind of exchange the new option was built to notice.

Keeping control of the business's other social accounts is covered in a YouTube channel under the owner's personal account.

Frequently asked questions

What did Twitter announce this week?

An optional timeline that shows the tweets Twitter thinks a person cares about most at the top when they return, with the usual newest-first timeline continuing below.

Does everyone see the new timeline?

No. It is a setting people choose to switch on. Anyone who leaves it off sees their timeline in the usual newest-first order.

How does Twitter choose the top tweets?

It has not published the details, but says it draws on signals such as the accounts a person interacts with most and the tweets they engage with.

Does posting time still matter?

Less than before for people using the option, since a good tweet can still reach the top later. For everyone reading newest first, timing still counts.

What should a business tweet more of?

Things people would answer: questions, photographs of today's work with an explanation, useful tips, and replies to customers who mentioned the business.

Is Twitter worth it for every business?

No. It suits businesses with daily news or customers who talk there. An account nobody updates looks abandoned, so keep it active or say where you do answer.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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