Twitter is stuffing more content into the interfaces of its Android and iOS apps. Now, users of Twitter's app will see who the social network thinks they should follow.
Twitter is bringing its "Who to Follow" and "People You May Know" recommendations to mobile timelines in an effort to spotlight accounts it thinks are interesting. Twitter's algorithm for suggestions factors in various criteria for making recommendations.
"Who to follow suggestions on Twitter are based on many factors, including your email or phone contacts (if you have chosen to upload them) as well as patterns from your following history," said Twitter. "These suggestions are generated by an algorithm, which means you may or may not know the accounts or find them relevant."
Twitter will also make recommendations based on an individual's location and his or her proximity to other "interesting" accounts.
Some of Twitter's recommendations will appear solely because the suggested accounts have been promoted. For users who tweet around without protection, as in privacy settings, Twitter may recommend their accounts if they're sharing information that is of value to the general public.
Some of the criteria accounted for in Twitter's algorithms are existing connections. If someone has uploaded contacts containing another user's email address or phone number, Twitter will recommend the two accounts to each other.
For those who, for some reason, don't want to be recommended to a Twitter user who already has their email address or phone number, they can hide themselves with a quick visit to the Settings menu on Android or iOS.
They then need to tap on the account they'd like to hide from and then select the Android app's "Other" option or iOS' "Privacy" option. In the Privacy and Other menu, users can disable options such as "Find by email" or "Let others find me by my phone number."
There's also the option to just flat out delete connections that users don't want to contact on Twitter.
"By deleting contacts you have previously uploaded, we will no longer make suggestions based on those contacts, but we may make similar suggestions based on who you already follow," said Twitter.
Twitter's latest efforts to boost engagement rates across its network come as a new Forrester Research report found that interactions have been falling on all of the major platforms for social media. Marketers are posting more, but people are responding less, noted Forrester Research's Nate Elliott, vice president and co-author of the report.
"While B2C marketers are becoming more active on social networks, the vast majority of their followers haven't seemed to notice," Elliott said. "Marketers are doing more work but generating less attention."
