Writer Claims To Have Manipulated Twitter's New 'For You' Feed To Go Viral Again

Elon Musk's constantly changing vision for Twitter has dented the reach of many users on the platform. One of them is Ryan Broderick, a writer. It appears that Broderick used to get a few hundred to a few thousand retweets on his posts once a week or every other week for several years, until Musk took over.

Broderick told Business Insider that around the time Elon Musk took over, his retweets dropped to 5 per tweet, an sometimes 10 if he made the extra effort. Let's not forget that Elon Musk was also very pissed about his dropping engagement, over which he also fired a Twitter employee.

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Manipulating Twitter's "For You" algorithm

In January, Twitter unveiled its "For You" tab that is largely seen as its TikTok feed equivalent. Later, Musk announced another change to the platform regarding block counts and its impact on Twitter's "recommendation algorithm."

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Broderick, at this point, started to apply what he had learned, sharing the secrets on his Substack newsletter "Garbage Day." His first Tweet that used the newly found knowledge got 1,500 retweets and over half a million views. The second post garnered even more views, touching 13.8 million by Friday.

I put together a hypothesis about Twitter's For You algorithm and have used it twice now to get a tweet over 1,000 retweets (which is something I haven't been able to do since last November).

*Very sad man who pays for Twitter voice* Here¡¯s how I did it¡­

¡ª Ryan Broderick (@broderick) February 27, 2023

Also read: Elon Musk Likely To Appoint The Boring Company's CEO Steve Davis As Twitter CEO

Essentially, what Broderick learned is that Twitter's "For You" page prioritises evergreen content that is already viral and caters to very basic topics, explaining why most people end up seeing the same content on their feeds. In addition, Broderick found that For You also leverages Twitter Topics and accounts tagged in certain topics.

And, finally, I recently noticed Musk doing a very specific trick that is mainly done by teenage tweetdeckers trying to sell dildos and promote Telegram channels for hentai: He was replying to his own tweets. pic.twitter.com/rupUP8nSBv

¡ª Ryan Broderick (@broderick) February 27, 2023

Videos, too, were prioritised by Twitter's algorithm, which makes sense, for Musk had shown interest in the same when he took over. Broderick told Business Insider that the For You tab wants users to engage with viral videos through quote tweets and replies.

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Also read: Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey's New Social Platform 'Bluesky' Now On App Store

While Broderick claims that Tweets that get "stuck" in the For You tab have very obvious numbers to show the same, he believes that Twitter is now dependent on a "basic algorithm" wherein engagement is of paramount importance, not the content itself.

Want to go viral on Twitter again? According to Broderick, you have to be a "little controversial" - something that is true for all social media platforms, if you think about it. In the meanwhile, if you gave his strategy a try on Twitter and if it worked for you, share your thoughts with us in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.