Twitter May Look to Stop Brands from Trendjacking via Replies on Trending Tweets

Here’s something that might have an effect in your tweet strategy, depending on exactly how Twitter looks to implement it.

Over the weekend, Twitter CTO Elon Musk tweeted this comment in response to complaints about scammers gaming replies to popular tweets within the app.

Now, again, depending on the way you read this, it could have an effect on traditional Twitter strategies. Tapping into trending topics – or ‘newsjacking’ – has long been a way to realize more exposure and promotion within the app, and loads of brands do use this as a tactic to maximise awareness.

But, after all, loads of these replies are also spammy, and Elon later clarified that it was these spammers that he was specifically targeting along with his comment.

So initially, Musk appeared to imply that each one brands who look to get ‘free promoting’ via tweet replies could fall foul of, seemingly, a brand new Twitter rule, but he later added the ‘non-sequitur self-promotion’ element, which principally implies that replies that are out of context, and that seek to advertise a brand in a tweet’s replies, will now be suspended if caught.

With that additional qualification, that ought to mean that trendjacking and fascinating with trending events continues to be okay, however it does depend upon how Twitter looks to implement such, if that is indeed implemented as a brand new rule. Immediately, we’re only occurring Elon’s comments, and there’s no specific ruling on what this implies, exactly, inside Twitter’s Ad Policies.

Though it could possibly be covered by Twitter’s Platform Manipulation and Spam Policy, which states that (I’m paraphrasing barely):

“Chances are you’ll not use Twitter’s services in a fashion intended to artificially amplify information, or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience.”

Technically, spammy replies to trending tweets could possibly be a component inside this, though it’s not, as yet, identified in the precise, noted actions that violate this policy.

Perhaps it’ll be added soon, and it’ll be interesting to see the precise wording on this front, and the way Twitter seeks to institute more direct bans of spammy replies for promoting purposes, and what that then means for Twitter strategies moving forward.

Perhaps it’s nothing, however it could possibly be one other consideration for latest Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino to sort out, as she goes about managing the expectations of brand name partners, in alignment with Musk’s whims.