New Twitter “Unfollow” Recommendations

Hanna Kircher
Aug 31, 2018 · 2 min read

Twitter is attempting to make the Twitter timeline more engaging for its users by testing a new feature where it recommends profiles to unfollow. Twitter has been recommending certain users to unfollow accounts that they have little to no interaction with. This feature is meant to encourage interaction between Twitter users and cleanup users’ timelines from content they may not be engaging with. As Twitter is still testing this feature, it is not super effective yet because there may be accounts that users are following that they may never engage with because they are a celebrity or large account. This algorithm will likely have to be adjusted to be based off more than two-way interaction.

Assuming Twitter decides to make this into a permanent feature, this could mean that businesses will have to put even more emphasis on Twitter engagement in order to avoid ending up on users’ suggested unfollow list. Businesses with lower rates of interaction with their followers may see a noticeable decrease in their follower count if they don’t make changes in the way they run their Twitter accounts. I think that this story is just another example of why two-way interaction with followers is so important for any organization’s social media accounts. Users are more likely to want to follow a brand that actively engages with its followers than one that rarely, if ever, engages.

I believe that if Twitter can successfully implement this feature, it will be a good thing for both businesses and users. Hopefully, it will create higher levels of engagement on both ends and encourage businesses to place more emphasis on interacting with their followers.

Link to source: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/twitter-has-been-recommending-profiles-to-unfollow-to-improve-engagement/531265/

Hanna Kircher

Written by

senior public relations student at UF