Twitter is attempting to add more background information to popular tweets by adding a Related News section on individual permalink pages. The related news links that are offered are pages where that tweet had been embedded.
For example, when the Clarence House (part of the British Monarchy) posted about Katherine and William’s baby:
Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4.24pm
— Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) July 22, 2013
Any news outlets that embedded the above tweet would be considered to be linked to in the related news section of that tweet:
The official Twitter announcement of this new feature didn’t go into detail over how the headlines are chosen. They simply stated that related headlines provide context to a tweet that may not be immediately available on Twitter.
What Does This Mean For Marketers?
This lack of information as to how links are chosen may irritate many Twitter users, as TechCrunch is reporting. As you can see from the screenshot example above, Twitter showed me mainly french headlines, even though I am based in Kansas City and do not know much French.
Because of this, marketers will be unable to optimize the type of headlines that are chosen for certain permalink tweets. The only benefit to this new feature is that embedding tweets in your own posts may give you a higher likelihood of more visibility, if your article is chosen to appear as a headline.
While Twitter is trying to make itself known as a groundbreaking news source, it is frustrating to some that their process is unknown. However, the technique for choosing applicable headlines will surely be optimized over time. Perhaps Twitter will use a user’s followers, demographics, and search history to choose personalized headlines for every permalink tweet they view. Until then, some of us may have to learn French.
featured photo credit: ~Ilse via photopin cc
