Twitter Topics: how marketers can benefit from this new feature

Twitter Topics – relevant tweets on selected trends in user feeds

Twitter is a platform for constant conversation, commentary and updates. It can be hard for users to cut through the noise in the never-ending flow of news. To make it easier for them to stay on top of particular trends, Twitter unveiled Twitter Topics in November 2019. Twitter users can now follow not only profiles, but also certain topics.

When a user selects a topic, they are then shown relevant tweets, events and ads related to it directly in their regular timeline, without having to search for them anymore. “The conversation will come to you,” is how Twitter described this in its own blog. The short messaging service selects the tweets on the respective topic that it considers most relevant or interesting – from accounts that Twitter assumes to be experts on those topics.

Better serve users’ interests with Twitter Topics

Twitter suggests to users certain topics based on, among other things, the accounts and people that they already follow or with whom they interact. Topics are indicated by a speech bubble icon with two lines inside. A summary of the topics followed by the user is provided in the Topics section of the profile settings.

Twitter is especially interested in how the feature enables it to learn more about the interests of individual users and thus better personalize their timeline. Twitter writes: “Tap the Follow button in the prompt and we’ll personalize your Twitter experience based on your interest in this Topic.” The more that users engage with topics, the better Twitter can also target ads. Twitter expressly states in the description: “This Topic will be used to personalize your experience on Twitter.”

Twitter Topics opportunities for marketers

When users follow certain topics, they are also shown tweets from people and companies they are not yet following. This means that users regularly discover new accounts as well. Take advantage of this in your Twitter marketing: if you post relevant tweets on particular topics, users following those topics may find your content more easily – provided, of course, that the Twitter algorithm selects your tweets.

Twitter has not further explained how the Twitter Topics algorithm works or how marketers can use the feature. However, HubSpot has come up with ways in which marketers can leverage Twitter Topics.

Use Twitter Topics to follow marketing trends

Obviously, you can also follow topics related to your brand or company. This enables you to keep up with current trends and discussions in your sector and know what people are getting worked up about. Conversations around certain topics can be used to draw conclusions about your potential target groups’ delights and pain points. HubSpot suggests using this information to refine your buyer persona.

Learn from others

If certain accounts or people repeatedly show up in tweets related to topics, HubSpot recommends taking a closer look at their profile and following them. This will keep you up to date and you may even learn how to optimize your own content so that it also appears among the topic tweets.

Engage in conversation

If a topic related to your own product has a lot of people talking, you can leverage your tweets to address this trend. By using social listening and responding appropriately, you can engage in a valuable way with prospective customers and may even grow the reach of your Twitter account. However, surely the decisive advantage of Twitter Topics is that it enables users to discover new accounts that they would otherwise not have come across. While users may not want any one topic to overly dominate their timeline, Futurebiz states that the user experience as a whole has been noticeably changed through Topics and other content recommendations on Twitter.