Twitter is taking a leap into content curation with their new “Moments” feature. Seeing that media companies such as Blavity and Buzzfeed have succeeded in taking tweets beyond their singular, ephemeral existences and curating them for secondary consumption, it’s clear that the people in Twitter towers have been inspired to join in.
The subtle balance between mere delivery and full curation of the many millions of tweets written daily is an interesting challenge and one that, in my opinion, should be approached with creativity and not a reliance on old media models. As a user of Twitter, but also as someone who is incredibly passionate about empowering people with information and producing compelling narratives, I’m always simultaneously excited and concerned by developments on the platform. Nevertheless, I do think that Moments could be a thriving part of the experience for Twitter users and I have a few thoughts on how this might be possible.
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A Moment for you
Platforms such as Blavity offer a great lesson in the mechanics of curating content for a specific audience. In this vein, the team at Twitter need to work to identify the many types of readers who they are seeking to engage. From those using Twitter to find out about the shifting national political landscape to young creative urbanites using Twitter to connect and collaborate nationally or even globally, the team at Twitter needs to craft Moments in a way that taps into the narratives that people have regarding their own experiences. And it should be done in a way that engages those narratives rather than interrupts them. In this regard, I’m surprised to see that, at least in the UK, Twitter does not have a “Tech” moments tab. Rather than taking a generalist approach, I think that Moments should tap into communities such as Tech Twitter, Black Twitter and Book Twitter in order to create experiences, rather than just content, that really resonate with people.
2. Engaging creators
I believe that a key to the future success of Moments will be engaging with the people who tell stories and share ideas on Twitter. Much like YouTube creators, I believe that key influencers and creators should be seen as partners of Twitter and supported in accordance with this perception. Moments is a great starting point from where Twitter can begin to engage with creators to enrich the experiences of all users of the platform. It’s not sufficient to simply provide content to a community, you must also engage the dynamic creators within it. For example, MyCreativeConnnection holds a regular Twitter Chat under the hashtag #blkcreatives. Turning a selection of the tweets into a Moment and then adding a view at the end with words to the effect of “Follow @_MYCC to join the next chat” would be a create way of acknowledging and supporting a Twitter creator.
3. Storytelling is key
One of my biggest passions is storytelling and I believe that Moments has the potential to be a powerful force because of the fundamental power of storytelling. Stories have the ability to move people and translate them from one emotion to another, or one perspective on an issue to a more informed perspective. Currently, the experience of Moments is very similar to scrolling through the top tweets when you search a particular hashtag. I must commend the Moments team on moments such as the recent Democratic debate. Yet, I feel that the team could take things to the next level by having related Moments at the end of each Moment.
Twitter is great and there many ways in which it could be better. I’m sure that the Moments team will continue to work hard to create a dynamic addition to the platform and I look forward to seeing future developments.
