> If your goal is visibility, you are well advised to tailor your messaging to the medium. That means skewing to the visual and away from the linked article.
Images/videos were definitely boosted/prioritized, but external links also used to go viral pre-Elon, even a bit after he took over. Remember how mad he got about Substack?
Now all external links are effectively blackholed from the algo feed. It's a massive change.
Ok was just wondering because anecdotally images have been a staple of engagement optimizing posts/accounts. E.g. something like ESPN won’t post a minute clip of an interview or simply a transcript excerpt, it’s always a quote graphic with an animated expression of the athlete. Some fairly mundane quote from Tom Brady will instead include a picture of him yelling
Yea I like Strauss but this was a bit strange. He doesn’t seem to understand the profile and iq of the average Twitter user and the type that drives “virality.” Additionally one can immediately engage with an image (which is why every stupid engagement optimizing account would tweet with images), reading an external piece takes more work
One of those filters I want to apply to Mastodon is “images with text”, that is, it is frequently a screenshot of an X (yuck!) or some inflammatory message that I won’t repeat. People do click on them though which is what makes them so annoying.
Isn't that obvious?