Twitter wants to increase engagement with topics in Communities after adding a new top hashtags feature to its app.
In a tweet published on Monday, Twitter said it was testing a trending hashtags design on Community pages to help users “find the convos” they want to engage in.
A picture included in the tweet showed a row of hashtags presented near the top of Community pages, underneath the Home and About sections.
Twitter is hoping that the hashtags, which are served based on popularity, will get more users to click through to additional content about specific topics.
The change has been made specifically for Communities, which is a feature that hasn’t exactly set the world alight since its addition late last year.
Twitter added Communities to foster more topical, in-depth discussion between like-minded users.
The feature works in a similar way to Reddit’s subreddit categorising and Facebook Groups.
However, the fact that users have to post content within Communities specifically has limited their appeal and engagement.
It’s obvious that many users will simply opt to post something on their own profile, especially if they have a large number of followers, as this will lead to more likes and retweets.
Twitter’s ‘invite-only’ and ‘open to all’ options were also criticised, as the former made it difficult for people to access groups they were interested in, while the latter resulted in heavy spamming.
A move to a ‘request to join’ process has improved things but Communities have yet to capture the imagination of Twitter’s user base.
The social media platform is not giving up, though, and is now hoping a more refined experience and new features will boost interest and engagement.
