We all like control, so the good news is that Twitter are giving us a little more of it; specifically, with what appears on our newsfeeds each time we login. These changes will be affecting everyone, so let’s explain a little further what they include, and what they’ll mean for your tweeting activity.

What are the changes?

If you haven’t noticed a change already, then there’s no need to feel ashamed as the changes are in your Notifications (desktop) or Notification Settings (mobile), and who spends time delving around in their settings hey!

The first of these is a new option which allows you to only receive notifications from people you follow. When would this be helpful we hear you cry? Well picture this; you’re famous (we’ll let you choose what for!) and each time you post you get thousands of your adoring fans comment, like and retweet that post (we know, it’s a hard life isn’t it!). Problem is, you only want to know when someone you actually know is commenting. This is setting is for you!

Would you use this for business

Same applies to your business; you post a tweet and you get lots of interaction on that post but it’s too much for you to handle and you miss the comments from those that matter. In that case you’d want to use this setting. However, we’d recommend you don’t, because you’re on Twitter to interact with people, not just those who you’re following but anyone that wants to interact with you and your brand. This could potentially mean you would miss out on opportunities to do that.

What else has Twitter been changing?

They’ve only been and added a ‘Quality Filter’ to its Notifications Settings (and when was ‘quality’ ever a bad thing). This little feature has been designed to improve the quality of posts you see in your timeline i.e. reduce duplicate and automatic posts and cut out spam content, which given there’s so much to see on Twitter, is definitely a good move!

Want to make sure you’re on the right side of the filter yourself? Then ensure you’re not repeatedly tweeting the same thing time and again (third party applications like Hootsuite won’t let you do this anymore either), and don’t be putting any spammy content out there!

What should you be doing?

At the risk of bleating on with the same message each and every time we talk about Twitter, it is unfortunately the same line we give all the time; share great content and make sure you’re on it, and interacting on a regular basis!