Original Title: "Outsmarting the X Platform: Why Is Your Traffic So Strange?"
Original Author: Hongyu, Crypto Researcher
If you are a Twitter blogger who has been experiencing abnormal phenomena for nearly half a year.
Specifically, traffic and interaction data suddenly plummets at a certain time, and the tone of viral content is very strange—deep analysis gets dozens of views with zero interaction, while posting a controversial statement leads to a surge in followers.
The main content of this article is about why this phenomenon occurs. Or rather, how the clever design of the X platform has ruined the vertical users you have worked so hard to accumulate.
The platform weakens the following page, defaulting to guide users to the recommendation page
This is actually caused by two measures taken by the platform:
Weakening the following page, defaulting to guide users to the recommendation page; this phenomenon is so severe that some bloggers need to write custom scripts to force a switch back to the following page.
Diminishing the chronological display of follower content, shifting to algorithmic recommendations.
The reason is that last year the platform introduced Grok as a weight for algorithmic judgment. I won’t elaborate on those complex details, but the result is: this makes posts either completely silent or suddenly blessed by the algorithm, starting to spread virally, with no middle ground.
The motivation for this is also easy to understand; if users only look at followed content, then the insertion of platform ads will be very awkward. For example, ads can only be inserted very abruptly like on WeChat, and then fake comments and likes from friends are fabricated below the ads.
It seems that this approach will enhance the platform's commercial value in the short term, but the execution is not so simple, especially in the heavily casino-like atmosphere of the crypto circle.
@supermao has a precise discussion on this in the article: Everyone is saying that CT content has declined? So what is the root cause? Have you been to Las Vegas? Do you see big gamblers in casinos needing to read newspapers or books? What they need are presidential suites, luxurious beauties; the crypto circle is essentially a casino narrative, everything revolves around rises and falls, wins and losses, and bets. More and more smart people realize that if their entire life is directly tied to market conditions, it is very difficult for a person to maintain mental and physical health and think long-term.
The result of these two measures is that a large amount of paid promotional content, such as AI ghostwriting, adult content, controversial topics, occupies users' recommendation page timelines, and malicious matrix accounts have become mainstream.
You definitely understand the principles of algorithms better than I do; the more users click on these things, the system will automatically determine your interests, and you will receive more of these things, ultimately leading to a recommendation feed full of such content.
The Destruction of Deep Content
The result is: many relatively vertical bloggers will find their tweet traffic to be very strange, writing deep content gets dozens of views with zero interaction, while posting a provocative image or some anti-social statement suddenly gains hundreds of followers.
In fact, their attention channels for vertical distribution have been hijacked by the recommendation mechanism, and their followers have not seen what they are posting for a long time.
The following image depicts a common scenario:
In the end, vertical bloggers, in order to survive, are forced to post some content that pleases the basic audience; otherwise, it’s best to leave this platform and seek a new one.
The result is a massive loss of quality creators; social platforms are very atmosphere-sensitive places. Weibo, Zhihu, and Bilibili once turned into public toilets, filled with misogyny, misandry, political trolling, and various anti-social content, all stemming from the loss of community atmosphere. After all, content that creates division and adult content attracts the most attention; it can increase interaction in the short term but will lead to a dual loss of quality content and commercial value in the long run.
Many bloggers like @nic_carter and @notboringco are actually slowly turning to Substack subscriptions.
Rebuilding Your Influence with Network Value Strategy
Throughout the week, Dan Koe's "Restart in One Day" long article became a viral hit.
This article has over 150 million views; non-celebrity presidents and wealthy individuals certainly have this level of traffic due to official boosts; Elon Musk's retweet and the million-dollar new concept essay competition illustrate the point and somewhat support Nikita Bier's product-driven growth strategy.
I have written about Nikita Bier's thoughts in his biography; it actually revolves around one point of network value:
Increase interaction between network user nodes—content that incites debate, recommendation flow.
What kind of content can enhance network value—deep articles, preferably with a touch of professional inspiration.
Increase in network value—subscriptions + ad investment up.
Creating high network value is very necessary; although major advertisers like Apple and Disney are returning and the number of subscription users is growing, Twitter still reported a net loss of $577 million in the third quarter last year, and this effort needs to be intensified.
Thinking about it this way, our action guide can be divided into three parts:
- If you can't beat them, join them:
First, you need to buy a premium account; you have to have the ability to write articles, right? Now traffic revolves around blue V accounts, which at least allows paid promotions to reach more users.
Wait for algorithmic blessings, mix deep articles with high-interaction hooks (like questions, controversial statements).
2. Customized Services: Once traffic arrives, create WeChat/Twitter/Telegram small groups or newsletters to ensure point-to-point reach; I have already developed a habit of reading deep content in my email.
3. Wait: Do nothing, just focus on posting content; I have a feeling that @nikitabier will soon start addressing this issue.
I can't write any further; in short, that slogan:
Let’s stand up and make our accounts thrive!
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