Community based interaction has been a big priority for social media platforms because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up giving users a reason to stay that goes beyond user experience and platform performance. Facebook has found a lot of success with this method in the past, with many of its users sticking by the platform not because they have any love for it but rather because they can’t let go of the Facebook Groups they are a part of.
Twitter has been trying to do something rather similar with its Communities tab, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that this Communities section is about to get a new feature that will let users pin tweets to them. This feature will only be accessible by community mods and admins, and the purpose seems to be to boost engagement and make Communities more popular.
Twitter launched Communities a while ago, but in spite of the fact that this is the case the feature has not seen much success as of yet. That might be because of Twitter’s status as a public forum rather than one that people use for interpersonal interactions. Most Twitter users use the platform as their public face, and they might not be willing to share anything personal, private or intimate on a Community which is something that Facebook’s more group oriented approach made easier.
That has led some to say that Twitter is giving mixed signals to its users, and it might be trying to alter the organic usage case that many Twitter users abide by. The prevalence of private twitter accounts that public figures can use to speak more freely might give Communities some legs, and this new feature that would let admins pin tweets will give them some more organizational control and engagement. However, it remains to be seen whether this experiment will go over successfully or if Twitter is just wasting its time trying to be something that it is not.
Read next: Twitter Settles Privacy Lawsuit for $150 Million
Twitter has been trying to do something rather similar with its Communities tab, and with all of that having been said and now out of the way it is important to note that this Communities section is about to get a new feature that will let users pin tweets to them. This feature will only be accessible by community mods and admins, and the purpose seems to be to boost engagement and make Communities more popular.
Twitter launched Communities a while ago, but in spite of the fact that this is the case the feature has not seen much success as of yet. That might be because of Twitter’s status as a public forum rather than one that people use for interpersonal interactions. Most Twitter users use the platform as their public face, and they might not be willing to share anything personal, private or intimate on a Community which is something that Facebook’s more group oriented approach made easier.
That has led some to say that Twitter is giving mixed signals to its users, and it might be trying to alter the organic usage case that many Twitter users abide by. The prevalence of private twitter accounts that public figures can use to speak more freely might give Communities some legs, and this new feature that would let admins pin tweets will give them some more organizational control and engagement. However, it remains to be seen whether this experiment will go over successfully or if Twitter is just wasting its time trying to be something that it is not.
Read next: Twitter Settles Privacy Lawsuit for $150 Million