Dive Brief:

• Twitter is testing displaying tweets based on curation rather than organically in chronological as they appear now.
• The move would have marketers rethinking their Twitter strategies, bumping relevancy and engagement up in importance ahead of tweet volume.
• Nothing is changing for now, but Twitter has been giving agencies hints that organic reach is on the way out in favor of curated tweets, according to Digiday.

Dive Insight:

Orli LeWinter, vp of strategy and social marketing at 360i, told Digiday, “The fact that Twitter is moving toward an algorithmic model is not surprising and may actually help marketers in the long run. With the new model, high-engagement levels and relevancy will count.”

Twitter offering users curated tweets is a short step away from moving to an algorithm model like Facebook. Facebook has been making tweaks to its news feed algorithm in the past year, most notably favoring videos users are more likely to watch. If Twitter goes to an algorithm for displaying tweets, marketers will likely be forced to buy into Twitter’s increasingly large advertising marketplace to continue reaching an audience on the social media platform.

The micro-blogging site has had a rocky year, but in recent months has solidified its C-Suite and bolstered its ad stack for marketers. Twitter improved marketers' targeting and performance measurement by adding events to its targeting mix, and offering conversion metrics to its ad performance reports. 

An anonymous digital agency exec said to Digiday, “We’ve been warned about relying on organic reach, and they’re starting to give us nudges about where we need to go.”