Frustrated by the X algorithm suppressing the reach of your posts?
Soon, you may have a partial solution, with X owner Elon Musk announcing that all Pinned posts will be seen by all of your followers in the app.
A change is coming to our recommendation algorithm that will ensure that all your followers see your pinned posts.
This only applies to one pinned post every ~48 hours to prevent gaming of the system.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 28, 2024
As Musk notes, you’ll only be able to get this boost from one post every 48 hours, so you won’t be able to get the same level of amplification with every update that you pin. But if you have an important message that you want all of your followers to see, you’ll now have at least one way to maximize messaging reach, in limited form.
Which inadvertently also highlights a current issue that many are having on X, in that their posts are simply never going to be seen by even those who have specifically chosen to follow their account. Which many would assume would be the default, given that people have explicitly signaled their interest in said content. But algorithmic amplification means that X, like all social platforms, is able to show users the most engaging updates in-stream, in order to maximize engagement.
And maybe, within that, some of your boring posts simply don’t fit the bill.
Also, X has reduced the reach of all accounts that don’t pay for X Premium, as another incentive to get more people to sign-up for the program. Which hasn’t seemingly had much impact as yet, given that only around 0.5% of X users are currently paying to use the app.
But now, even for non-paying subscribers (it seems), you will be able to boost a post by pinning it.
Though, in reality, it probably won’t have a big impact.
The vast (vast) majority of X users never post in the app at all, so they’re unlikely to use this as an amplification tool either way. But it could be a means for those who do post regularly to boost their best updates to more people, and maximize their exposure. And with X also providing direct revenue generation options based on post engagement, there is an incentive for highly active users to implement this strategically.
On the opposite side, the risk for X here is that too many people could choose to pin posts on any given day, and if it has to then ensure that all of the followers of each of these profiles get shown all of those posts, there could suddenly be a lot of competition for space in the main feed.
X will also lose a level of quality control, as it won’t be able to only show the posts that its algorithm recommends. Also, you can bet that some users are going to complain when their post reach doesn’t match their follower count, and on balance, when you factor in all of these elements, I don’t really understand why X is doing this at all.
I mean, as an act of goodwill, it’s a limited amplification offer, which could offer some posting incentive. But the benefits are limited, for X and creators, and the potential risks seem far greater.
If I had to guess, I would predict creator backlash about two weeks after this is rolled out, then X will roll it back.
But maybe it adds something. It’s an extra consideration for those posting on X either way.
