If there is one thing you can say about Jack Dorsey pretty brief tenure as CEO of Twitter (he’s only been inthe job less than six months) so far it has been a willingness to shake up what had become, frankly, astagnant company.
Even more importantly, though, he has shown that he will change things about Twitter that have existed since its conception, which he believes have been holding the company back in terms of gaining new users.
That includes its reverse chronological timeline, which is something that Dorsey had previously mentioned in the last two quarterly earnings calls, and now he is making good on that, as Twitter is currently testing out a change in the way users see their timeline, by putting Tweets into order by relevance, it was confirmed to VatorNews on Tuesday.
“This is an experiment,” a company spokeswoman told me. “We’re continuing to explore ways to surfacethe best content for people using Twitter.”
As I mentioned above, Dorsey has been talking about doing this for a while now.
“You will see us continue to question our reverse chronological timeline and all of the work it takes to build one by finding and following accounts through experiences like why you are away and Project Lightning which launches this fall,” Dorsey said in the second quarter earnings call.
“We continue to show a questioning of our fundamentals in order to make the product easier and more accessible to more people.”
Project Lightening eventually became Moments, a feature that is designed to curate content by aggregating Tweets and photos from live events and breaking-news situations.
In the third quarter call, Dorsey said that the feature ” represents a real, fundamental shift in our thinking,” one that makes it easier for new users to come onto Twitter without feeling intimidated or left out.
Previously users had to “do a bunch of work to find the right accounts to follow,” he said, but Moments allows them to “open it up and you can actually see everything that’s happened in the world that’s most meaningful,” and which is organized by topic so that they can see “really unique insights and commentary the particular event that you’re interested in.”
“So it questions the reverse chronological timeline, provides a chronological narrative, a complete story that is human curated, that gives you much deeper insights and, at the same time, you don’t have to do any of the work to find and follow accounts.”
So far only a small percentage of users are seeing these new timelines.
The timeline is not the only fundemental feature that Dosrey is said to be willing to change. Reports have also come saying the company is looking into breaking the traditional 140-character limit, which would allow Twitter users to publish long-form content to the service.
What all of this, Moments, new timelines, longer content, comes down to is getting new users to feel comfortable on Twitter, as the company has had a major problem with growing its user base. The company has been slammed repeatedly over the last couple of years, as quarter after quarter showed a slowing number of new users.
The company tried numerous initiatives to help, including overhauling the sign in process, and finding ways to monetize non-users by running ads on third-party Tweets. None of it worked that well, and its partially what cost Dick Costolo his job as CEO.
These are some bold ideas on Dorsey’s part, and that willingness to throw out sacred cows may be just the kind of leadership that Twitter needs.
(Image source: youtube.com)
