Great idea sharing the “Best of...”. I’m still hoping things can get back to normal on Twitter, but the recent changes have made me double down on long-form articles (which led to my Substack) and now it’s unlikely I’ll return to long threads ever.
In the past, the long threads came first and a long-form article, perhaps, later. But now I view my long-form articles as the first output, and then maybe summarise on Twitter.
Should Twitter, and the community there, return to its former glory, would you return to writing long threads or are those days over?
I'm not sure. It's a lot of work to write a good thread and at the same time a long-form article. But I did have a had a lot of fun. So maybe if I can get threads for free out of my writing process, perhaps after outlining but before fully developing every idea --that kind of semi-structured outline could easily become a thread with just the main takeaways so that the extra effort is maybe 10% of what will take to do an entire thread-- maybe, in that case, I could think about doing it again. But only if that means that threads gather engagement enough to lead people to the main article.
Basically that I get almost zero views for the more or less the same type of content that used to drive easily 50k views, and with the same number of followers. I guess we can always blame the quality of the content but I have a sense that something radically changed in the recommendation formula.
That’s interesting and I wonder whether it’s linked to account size. I’m on only 8k on Twitter (Alejandro I think is larger but smaller than yours). In my case, I can see a clear fall in engagement and other metrics (follower increase) since the last week of April. With all the effort that goes into posting stuff daily for Twitter, seeing such a fall in reach just because of some algorithm change is disheartening. It may work well for Twitter, but not for me. But that led me to commit to Substack, so silver lining and all that!
My friend @rauljuncov has a much smaller audience and he has seen the opposite effect: more engagement and followers. But it’s his content: he has gotten much better and consistent.
So many different experiences. I now can no longer compare with "before" as in recent weeks I've scaled down what I post on Twitter to focus on writing more here on Substack, so too many variables have changed now. But when the sustained drop happened, almost overnight, I hadn't changed anything to what and I how I post, as far as I know… The suddenness of the fall-off was very clear in my case, too, so it's hardly the case that my quality fell so much overnight!
That was my hypothesis at first but then I got a verified account and haven't noticed any improvement. Then again, like Stephen, too many variables have changed and I'm not longer posting like I used to do.
I've been reading these threads all week long... Enjoying them all so far
Thanks man! I discovered all the markdowns on an old private repo so I'll be turning them into posts one by one. The first one is almost ready.
Oh the old times 😂... I even got mentioned in one of those.
Great idea BTW!
Great idea sharing the “Best of...”. I’m still hoping things can get back to normal on Twitter, but the recent changes have made me double down on long-form articles (which led to my Substack) and now it’s unlikely I’ll return to long threads ever.
In the past, the long threads came first and a long-form article, perhaps, later. But now I view my long-form articles as the first output, and then maybe summarise on Twitter.
Should Twitter, and the community there, return to its former glory, would you return to writing long threads or are those days over?
I'm not sure. It's a lot of work to write a good thread and at the same time a long-form article. But I did have a had a lot of fun. So maybe if I can get threads for free out of my writing process, perhaps after outlining but before fully developing every idea --that kind of semi-structured outline could easily become a thread with just the main takeaways so that the extra effort is maybe 10% of what will take to do an entire thread-- maybe, in that case, I could think about doing it again. But only if that means that threads gather engagement enough to lead people to the main article.
RIP Twitter; I hardly knew ye.
I read from several people that Twitter is done, or isn't working for them as it used to.
Curious on how does this manifest for you? Why do you feel is broken?
The reason I ask is because, albeit disagreeing with the new ownership in pretty much everything, Twitter has gotten better for me, not worse.
Basically that I get almost zero views for the more or less the same type of content that used to drive easily 50k views, and with the same number of followers. I guess we can always blame the quality of the content but I have a sense that something radically changed in the recommendation formula.
That’s interesting and I wonder whether it’s linked to account size. I’m on only 8k on Twitter (Alejandro I think is larger but smaller than yours). In my case, I can see a clear fall in engagement and other metrics (follower increase) since the last week of April. With all the effort that goes into posting stuff daily for Twitter, seeing such a fall in reach just because of some algorithm change is disheartening. It may work well for Twitter, but not for me. But that led me to commit to Substack, so silver lining and all that!
My friend @rauljuncov has a much smaller audience and he has seen the opposite effect: more engagement and followers. But it’s his content: he has gotten much better and consistent.
So I don’t think it’s about account size.
So many different experiences. I now can no longer compare with "before" as in recent weeks I've scaled down what I post on Twitter to focus on writing more here on Substack, so too many variables have changed now. But when the sustained drop happened, almost overnight, I hadn't changed anything to what and I how I post, as far as I know… The suddenness of the fall-off was very clear in my case, too, so it's hardly the case that my quality fell so much overnight!
We'll never know, perhaps…
Could it be the introduction of verified accounts?
That was my hypothesis at first but then I got a verified account and haven't noticed any improvement. Then again, like Stephen, too many variables have changed and I'm not longer posting like I used to do.
Yeah, getting verified alone won't make a change if you don't get back to the previous posting schedule.