Twitter is rolling out a version of Moments, its storytelling feature, that’s going to be exciting for many content creators. But what is it exactly, and why does it matter?
Last week, the company announced that Moments would be opened to everyone, so you can create stories consisting of any content – tweets, photos, videos – that have been uploaded to the microblogging platform. Think of Moments as curated slideshows perfect for news, especially real-time events, though they can technically be used for just about anything.
Now, it’s not a surprise that Twitter went in this direction. It was just two months ago that Twitter opened up Moments to influencers and brands, with the intent of a launch to everyday consumers in the “coming months,” said Twitter Product Manager Gaby Peña back in August. “By extending this creative format to more people, and eventually to everyone on Twitter, we are giving people a new and dynamic way to tell their stories.”
Will Moments matter? It started as a direct response to user growth that’s slowed down dramatically. More likely than not, this feature won’t attract all-new consumers, but it may make a subset of Twitter diehards (as well as brands) spend more time on the platform. There’s a legitimate needs for powerful and quick creation tools, and that’s something Twitter Moments arguably provide. The question is: where will Moments get their traffic from? Referral traffic from other social platforms – and by this we mean Facebook – will be key. But just as Facebook decreased reach of YouTube videos from within its own platform, it would be naive to expect that Facebook would be a strong proponent of giving Twitter Moments the referral traffic they need in order to be relevant.
Some of the problem here is timing. Many have argued that Moments would have been a perfect feature for consumers from the start, enough so that third parties like Storify jumped in years ago to help build that type of functionality. Or, at the very least, Twitter could have rolled this functionality out to end users far sooner than they have. The feature initially debuted, to a small group of publishers, back in October of 2015. A year ago. It’s safe to say it doesn’t take Facebook a year to release an innovation of this nature, and that’s a big problem for a platform like Twitter trying to play catch-up.
For brands looking to create their open Moments, simply click into the “Moments” tab within their profile, where Moments you’ve already created can be found alongside a button that lets you create a new one. In addition to selecting the content of the Moment itself, you can set a “Cover” photo (or video) from the tweets within your Moment — or an entirely new image.
Finding tweets to include is very easy. You can go to “Tweets I’ve liked” to look at your favorites, search by account, or run a quick Twitter search to find relevant tweets. Or, simply use each tweet’s link to add them directly.
Once you’ve compiled your Moment, you can share it out via a tweet, where your followers can read through your entire Moment within the main Twitter interface (for now, web-only; they’ll be available via the mobile app shortly). Of course, other Twitter users have the ability to embed your Moment anywhere on the web.
Looking to learn more about Moments? Twitter has unveiled a how-to guide to help you get started – in Moment format, of course. If you’re reading this, you’re in the 1% of Twitter that should absolutely give Moments a try. But how much of the remaining 99% will jump on board? The next few months will be key to the functionality’s success.