Twitter is tweaking its timeline so that users see tweets they are “most likely to care about” at the top, while also launching its First View product for marketers.

Timeline
The new timeline feature will deliver selected Tweets at the top, in standard reverse chronological order, with other content positioned below. The idea is to help users “catch up on the best tweets” they may have missed while away.

“We’ve already seen that people who use this new feature tend to retweet and tweet more, creating more live commentary and conversations, which is great for everyone,” Mike Jahr, senior engineering manager, wrote.

For now, users will need to choose ‘show me the best tweets first’ in settings if they want to try out the feature, which will be rolled out in coming weeks.

News of this update was first posted by Buzzfeed, with users showing concerns with the hashtag ‘#RIPTwitter’.

This was followed by a tweet from CEO Jack Dorsey: “Regarding : I want you all to know we’re always listening. We never planned to reorder timelines next week”.

However, a few days later the update was announced, with an opt-in.

First View
Meanwhile, the company is set to launch First View, a way for marketers to get their message across via “exclusive ownership of Twitter’s most valuable advertising real estate for a 24-hour period”.

When users visit the Twitter app (or the website) the top ad slot in their timelines will be a ‘Promoted Video’ from a particular brand, which can be used to “tell a powerful visual story” and reach a “significant audience”, the company explained.

The product will roll out gradually to managed clients in the US, with plans to expand it globally.

This appears to be an extension of Twitter’s Promoted Trends and Promoted Moments products, through which brands have been advertising product launches and film premieres, among other things.

“Word of mouth is more important than it has ever been in movie marketing. And there is no better word of mouth social platform than Twitter… We are able to hit a broad movie-going audience with great video in a way that not just garners views, but actually creates social momentum,” said Marc Weinstock, president of domestic theatrical marketing at 20th Century Fox.

A big chunk of Twitter’s recently announced Q4 2015 revenue – $641 million – came from ad revenue, which was up 48 per cent year on year.

However, the size of its user base did not budge from the previous quarter.