Hi everyone! So after an amazing few weeks sorting out all the stuff around the acquisition of Sphere, there was one thing I couldnāt really talk about at the time and that was what it meant for me personally. Thatās because, due to there never having been Community initiatives at Twitter in the UK before, the process ended up taking longer and so it was still getting worked out after we announced.
Today, I am absolutely thrilled to announce to you all, one of the communities Iāve loved most, that I am now officially the very first Community Manager for Twitter Communities!!! Iāve been on Twitter since 2007, so itās really a dream role for me And I canāt wait to get started!
If you arenāt sure whatās going on with Twitter Communities, you can learn all about here:
Thereās already a sizeable early cohort of Communities on the platform, and as we build out the product that will scale up pretty sizeablyā¦ And Iāll be sure to let those of you on Twitter know when thereās something you might be interested in joining, whether thatās a fintech, startup, crowdfunding community, or maybe even a Monzo specific one Excited to start building the future of digital communities at Twitter and supporting all the creators
First things first, @AlanDoe I think a change to my user info is required
Coincidentally, I actually opened a Twitter account this morning! First time Iāve had an account on there in close to a decade!
I used Sign In with Apple, which was nice, and was ultimately the reason why I went ahead with signing up. Donāt plan to use it much, I was just getting tired of all the pop ups from browsing without an account, but now I actually do have an account to check communities out and see what theyāre about once they launch.
Thanks Tom! Thereās really such a huge opportunity here, in the sense that we foresee there being users who may exclusively use Communities for interacting, because A) they know the groups they are in align with their interest, B) thereās an instant audience that cares about the same thing so you donāt have to work hard to build an audience of like-minded people and C) Communities can set and enforce their own rules, which will be huge for safety.
Over time, that may encourage them to sometimes tweet publicly too, but even if they donāt thereās still a place where theyāll feel safe and encouraged to discuss whatever they are passionate about
Congrats Simon, and great that Twitter was wise enough to appoint someone who really gets online communities and understands whatās needed for healthy diverse ones. Iām excited to see what you grow this into. What an opportunity, and very much deserved!!
Wow congrats @simonb how cool is that! Right in at the beginning of something huge to get an amazing foundation built - then the sky is the limit when you have the backing of Twitter!
Donāt forget to change your title on here to show off your fancy new role
Day 3! IT Onboarding is complete, Iām on Slack, all HR stuff filled in, and getting up to speed with 2022 strategy in general and what weāre planning for Communities
Product velocity is on at the moment here, and for everything thatās shipped in the last year, Iāve probably already seen just as much stuff thatās in the pipeline just from poking around on Slack and on the staff build of the app (which already has some cool feature flags and staff previews).
Make sure you follow me on Twitter and also follow the Communities account if youāre up for hearing more about what Iāll be working on on a day-to-day. As we open up the feature over the coming months, Iād love to get you guys involved and hear your feedback
Not as such, but Twitter Blue (premium product) has an option to set a time frame between you sending the tweet and it getting posted, during which you can cancel the posting if you spot a mistake and need to edit.
Q1 goal is 10,000, so weāve got some work to do. A big milestone for this will beā¦
Android! Expect to see full Android support in the next couple of weeks
Even though we first did a soft-launch in September, our largest Community to date is only 2 weeks old, and is a community about the anime show My Hero Academia
As of today, we have a Community for the hottest online puzzle game right nowā¦ Yep, itās Wordle!
Our Q1 roadmap is finalised and hopefully we can share more about it soon - one thing that is a key focus for us is content differentiation - ie, posting/replying/engagement formats beyond what you see on your regular timeline.
Iām totally open to the idea of someone/multiple folks from here starting a UK Fintech communityā¦ you know where my DMs are
Hoping everyone is doing OK - happy to answer any general questions if anyone has any!
Thatās super exciting! There is already an old school Roller Derby community on Twitter (just using hashtags to find each other) so I canāt wait for it to become a real thing.
Been a while since I posted an update, so for anyone interested:
We launched a bunch of new features in Q1! Most of this was foundational core work (or in other words, a lot of low hanging fruit). This is great, because it means the foundation of the product is much stronger, meaning weāve been able to expand access to far more Communities. It also means it frees up a big chunk of Q2 to work on āBig Betsā, or large scale changes to how the feature looks, feels and works.
Some of what weāve launched recently:
Community Search (You can now search for Communities on both mobile and web. All existing Communities will appear in Search, except for NSFW ones for now. Weāll work on a safe filter for folks who wish to search for NSFW Communities).
Request To Join (Communities can now set their membership access to Request To Join, which means members can send a request to join the community, and admins/mods have access to the approval queue)
Add/Remove Moderators directly from Community Settings
Suggested Communities (aka, early Discovery) - Users will now see a list of suggested Communities which is partially curated by us, and partially automated with machine learning based on your interests.
Finally, Iām pleased to announce we just launched the first version of our Admin and Mod info hub! Can you tell who wrote the copy?
I wanted to set one up but realised I have to have been registered on Twitter for 6 months I used to be on there years ago and have only just set up a new account. One dayā¦
Yeah, unfortunately we do have to have an eligibility criteria so early in the game. But definitely feel free to hit me up when you hit the 6 month mark
And I canāt wait to get started!
Excited to start building the future of digital communities at Twitter and supporting all the creators 
at the moment here, and for everything thatās shipped in the last year, Iāve probably already seen just as much stuff thatās in the pipeline just from poking around on Slack and on the staff build of the app (which already has some cool feature flags and staff previews).
I used to be on there years ago and have only just set up a new account. One dayā¦
