Twitter is a great platform. You can meet, learn from, and have fun with many amazing people. If you’re a Twitter newbie, you might be hesitant or sceptical about Twitter. Don’t worry, I had this feeling too when I started back in 2020.
But if you follow the right people, curate your timeline and use Twitter’s functions to the fullest, you can have a valuable and enjoyable time on the ‘Bird App.’ Here are 8 ways to optimize your Twitter timeline.
Before joining Twitter, ask yourself why you want to be on Twitter: “What do I want to talk about? Who do I want to follow? Which topics am I interested in?”
You can follow whoever you want. But I suggest not following people who talk about topics you don’t like, or people who get on your nerves. Instead, follow people who add value to your timeline: Those who make you laugh, who have nice conversations with you, and who give useful insights.
The more diverse your follow list is, the more perspectives you’ll get in your feed, the more value you’ll get from others.
If you are a Marketer, it’s okay to follow Marketers who talk about Marketing. But make sure to follow people with different backgrounds and unique perspectives. And consider following comedians, graphic designers, travel bloggers, friends, artists, and people who just talk about their daily lives. This will keep your timeline fresh and fun.
Twitter has two timelines: The regular timeline and ‘Latest Tweets.’ The regular timeline shows you the most relevant and popular Tweets, whereas ‘Latest Tweets’ shows all Tweets in chronological order.
You can switch between both timelines, by clicking on the stars icon on the upper right side of your timeline
You can create customized timelines with Twitter Lists. Create a list, give it a name and add an unlimited amount of profiles to that list. The List function is useful if you want to keep your timelines categorized and organized. You can also create a timeline that is completely different from your regular feed.
For instance, I love following brands like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Walmart, and Disney. But some brands tweet so much, that my regular timeline would literally be a chaos. So I created a ‘Brands on Twitter’ List, to which I’ve added more than 60 brands I like. When I need inspiration for content, I open that list and look at what brands are tweeting.
I also have lists of my favourite Twitter follows, Great Copywriters, people who talk about SEO, and Community Builders
Twitter is rolling out new feature right now: Communities. With communities, you can create and join groups where you can talk about one specific topic. I, for instance, just joined a group full of Community Builders, where people share insights and advice on how to grow and maintain a community.
If you want to discover conversations about topics you’re interested in, use Twitter’s ‘Topics’ function and start following topics you like. If you like dancing, follow the ‘Dance’ topic. If you’re an NBA fan, follow the ‘NBA’ topic.
When you follow a topic, Twitter will show you the most popular tweets about the topic you’re following in your feed.
If some accounts repeatedly ruin your Twitter experience, you can mute or block them. Think of people spreading fake news, insulting others, or spamming your timeline and notifications with potentially harmful links.
When you mute a profile, the muted person can still see your Tweets and interact with you, but you won’t see their Tweets appear in your timeline anymore. When you block a profile, this person will not be able to see or interact with your Tweets anymore.
I personally use the mute and block function as little as possible. But I do block bot accounts who spam me with potentially harmful links.
When you mute words, Twitter stops showing you Tweets that include words you’ve muted. Imagine: You don’t want your Twitter friends to spoil you the newest Spiderman movie. Mute the words ‘Spiderman’, and ‘Marvel’ for a little while. As result, Twitter will hide conversations about the Spiderman movie for you, and you can watch the movie without having seen any spoilers!
Hi, I’m Jelle! A 23-year old Junior Marketer who is currently on the job hunt! I’m active on Twitter and LinkedIn to learn from other Marketers and to share my own insights. I also regularly write blogs and I have my own newsletter.
If you want to get in touch with me, follow me on Twitter or Linkedin, contact me at contact@socijel.com or let’s hop on a phone call: +31 614970933.
