Most Twitter users find Twitter very time consuming with its constant deluge of disorganised information. It’s difficult to see who you’re reaching with your tweets or how much followers are interacting with your content. In an effort to combat this, Twitter has introduced a new companion app, Engage.
Engage highlights a Twitter user’s most important interactions so the user gets notifications for mentions and follows from influencers and loyal fans. Engage highlights mentions from users who are verified, followed by a lot of your followers or users who interact with you often.
Engage provides a detailed account of statistics so that a Twitter user can see who their tweets reach. A user can see how many likes, retweets, mentions and impressions they’ve achieved in a certain duration. Engage also accumulates weekly totals so the user can track their influence over time.
Engage makes it easier for celebrities and Twitter users with large amounts of followers to more easily manage their daily interactions and measure their success. However, it has been criticised for its obvious targeting of the celebrity market. The lack of timeline is a particular sore spot for Twitter users who would like to engage in broader Twitter conversations in real time, rather than selective interactions.
Despite this isolating aspect of Engage, the app is also being celebrated as a filter for Twitter trolls and online abuse. Twitter has long been criticised for its refusal to filter out abusive or unwelcome messages, so Engage marks a move towards appeasing Twitter’s dwindling user base.
The social media company is currently experiencing a slump in earnings and performance in general. Engage is the latest in a number of moves targeting the company’s first and most enthusiastic consumers; celebrities and marketers. Earlier this year, Twitter rolled out apps Q&A, which also aims to facilitate easy conversation with followers, and Twitter Camera, which provides shortcuts to emojis and photo tags.
Clearly, Engage is another move towards bolstering Twitter’s standing with its most avid users but critics of the app claim there is still some way to go before Twitter can feel comfortable again.
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