X’s (formerly Twitter’s) Open Source Algorithm: What B2B Marketers Should Know 

X’s recommendation algorithm might be open source, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to understand. It’s a key way to know how to spread your content as widely as possible, but knowing it well is tougher than it looks.

That’s why Foundation has tried to make sense of the code and jargon to deliver this complete guide on X’s algorithm and all the most important factors that affect who sees your posts. Read on for insights, statistics, and actionable recommendations you can start using today.

What is X’s recommendation algorithm?

X made news by releasing its recommendation algorithm to the public — you can see it for yourself here. But that doesn’t mean that it’s simple to understand, and some parts were even redacted. Still, it’s important to understand how to cut through the more than 10,000 posts sent per second to the hundreds of millions of daily active users on X.

First, you need to know what a recommendation algorithm is in the first place.

What is a recommendation algorithm?

A recommendation algorithm is a formula that decides what content a platform puts in front of you. For example, X’s recommendation algorithm decides what posts you see on your “for you” feed. 

How does X pick what posts to recommend?

Before X’s algorithm starts recommending posts, it first sorts posts into ones that are within your network and ones that aren’t. It views those posts within your network as one source for posts to recommend to you, called the In-Network source.

X also uses two Out-of-Network sources to recommend posts. The first is the Social Graph. The Social Graph is a representation of what posts the people you follow and the people who like similar posts to you interacted with. By grouping those posts together, X can deliver new content you’re likely to enjoy.

The other Out-of-Network source is made up of embedding spaces. It works in a similar way, identifying users who behave in very similar ways. Those users are grouped according to their interests and are recommended similar content.

This combination of In-Network and Out-of-Network sources forms the pool of posts you may be recommended by X. As a marketer, you should think about what groups you’re interacting with to determine who is in your network and whose embedding spaces you’ll appear in. 

You can intentionally cultivate an audience by becoming a part of someone’s network and targeting a niche audience so X will add your post to an embedding space. Next, X’s algorithm ranks which posts should show up on your “for you” feed first. 

What factors affect how X ranks content on the “for you” feed?

X takes quite a few different factors into account when it chooses what posts to rank higher than others. These could shape your social media distribution tactics, so as you read, consider how you can combine these to amplify their effects and bring your content to even more people.

​​Likes, reposts, and replies

You probably could’ve guessed that likes, reposts, and replies make your posts more visible to others. But as the post from a data scientist below shows, we now have the exact amount by which different interactions multiply the visibility of posts.

According to the Heavy Ranker readme, it looks like this is the “For you” feed ranking formula is

Each “is_X” is a predicted probability the user will take that action on the post.

Replies are the most important signal. Very similar to MSI for FB.https://t.co/Bmv7qg4voc pic.twitter.com/lWfaUboT6q

— Jeff Allen (@jeff4llen) March 31, 2023

According to this, “favoriting” a post is worth about half as much as reposting it in terms of boosting its visibility. Replies are worth 27 reposts, and a reply that the post’s poster replies to is worth 75. 

That means that as a marketer, the best way to boost social media optimization is to engage in meaningful conversations with multiple people in your replies. You should also create posts that drive replies — start conversations and participate in them politely but wholeheartedly. Reports can seriously harm the visibility of a post, so try to avoid getting into any arguments.

Engagement with other posts from the account

Another key ranking factor is whether a person has replied to, favorited, or reposted something from you in the past. If they have, they’re much more likely to see your content again. 

That makes it a good idea to create multiple different kinds of content. If you talk about a few different themes, or post a mix of jokes and informative threads, a wider range of people will engage with your content and see it again later.

Engagement with similar posts

Similarly, if a person has engaged with other posts on the same topic as the one you’re talking about, X will boost your post in their “for you” feed. 

In order to apply this, X needs to clearly understand what you’re talking about. You can use two strategies here: First, you can use common, key terms to signal what topic you’re talking about so that your posts are sent to the right audience. Second, you can specialize your posts to talk about a specific topic regularly, which means you’ll be consistently categorized the same way.

Relevance to trending topics

Because many people keep up on current events via X, it makes sense that its algorithm boosts the visibility of posts about trending topics. One of the platform’s unique advantages is how rapidly you can find information about events as they develop, and as a marketer, you need to engage with that feature.

You can do that by staying on top of current events and trends yourself. Make sure your posts are relevant to the general conversations your audience is having, and make unique and interesting contributions to those topics yourself.

Don’t forget — the algorithm measures relevance with the text of your post but doesn’t pay close attention to hashtags, so using those isn’t necessary anymore.

Reputation score

As you establish your presence on X, the site will create a “reputation score” for you. This numerically represents whether you engage in behavior that other users strongly dislike. For example, if your posts are consistently reported for abusive language, that will lower your reputation score.

As a marketer, what you need to do is simple: Don’t get in fights. People who are angry tend to report things more, and posts using crude language or that take strong stances on controversial issues also receive the ire of users. Instead, stay away from controversial topics, and don’t engage with people who are trying to pick a fight with you.

Visual media

Adding visual media to a post boosts its visibility significantly. X lets you include up to four photos or videos, and while there isn’t any indication that adding multiple images or videos is better than one, using at least one piece of visual media will double your posts’ visibility.

That gives you a great opportunity to use photos, graphs, infographics, or anything else you can think of to engage with your audience. You have plenty of tools as a marketer; it’s just up to you to use them to maximize engagement. 

External links

Whereas the other factors listed here are ones you can use to boost your posts’ visibility, this is one you need to steer clear of. X wants to keep the conversation on-site, which means it deprioritizes posts that include links to other websites.

That doesn’t mean you can’t ever link back to your own site, but you have to do it intelligently. For example, you can reply to your own post with a link to a website, and that won’t lower the posts’s rank. Alternatively, you can link to the homepage in your X bio and tell people to check it out at the end of your posts.

As the chart below shows, while external links do show up in the chronological feed, the “for you” feed rarely includes them from injected or algorithmic sources.

In-niche topics

As discussed above, X does a lot of work to determine what you’re talking about and who would be most interested in it. It will rank your posts more highly if they’re on a specific topic that it knows many of its users will want to engage with.

For example, if you want to target B2B marketing experts, you should regularly post about topics they care about. That can include obvious topics like SEO, but it could also mean you could talk about remote work, tools for marketers, authors, or speakers in the marketing industry, or marketing trends that are changing the marketing industry.

X verification

This is the easiest way to boost your posts’ visibility: pay $8. 

At that low cost, X Blue will boost the visibility of both your posts and your replies and provide you with that sweet, blue checkmark. 

You can even get your whole organization verified for free if you spend over $1,000 a month in advertising. That can be especially useful for marketers who are already using a social media advertising strategy.

Heuristics & filtering

Once X is through processing all the factors above, the company goes through one more layer of processing called heuristics and filtering. This filters the recommended content so it doesn’t include posts from authors you’ve blocked, repeat posts from the same author, or posts from accounts nobody you follow has engaged with.

How to get more X algorithm and social media marketing insights

Now that you have the information you need to make the most of X’s algorithm, you can start using it to your advantage. Keep up with the latest trends and developments, and use the factors above to maximize the reach of your posts. 

For even more digital marketing insights, make sure to sign up for Foundation Labs. You’ll learn about the latest tools to reach and engage your audience, the most effective strategies for content marketing, and so much more.