Everything About the New Twitter Communities Feature
Twitter’s new ‘Communities’ feature is now available for a limited audience with limited features. This exciting new feature surely will bring a new lease of life to Twitter. With this feature, it becomes very easy for people with similar interests to connect. The ‘Community’ feature is very similar to the ‘Groups’ feature in Facebook. However, it is not exactly the same as ‘Facebook Groups’, and the ‘Community’ feature has its own advantages.
The test version of Twitter’s ‘Communities’ is already live from this month. Here is everything about this new feature and what you can look forward to, in the Twitter Communities.
How Exactly does a Twitter Community Work?
A new ‘Communities’ option will be available for all the eligible users. When you click on the Communities option, you will be listed with the set of Communities you are a part of. You can now tweet to any respective Community based on your interest.
A tweet sent to one Community will be in the Community timeline for every member of the Community to see. The tweet will not be sent to your followers’ timeline. Instead, the tweets will be sent to the Community members’ timeline. Tweets sent to a Community will not be shown on your Twitter profile too.
Remember Communities are public and hence, anyone who is visiting your Community page can see your tweet. Even if he is not a member of your Community.
Joining a Community
Once the “Communities” feature is live for everyone, any Twitter user can search for a Community matching his interests and join. Currently, in the pilot run, only ‘Public’ accounts are allowed to join a Community. Also, in the pilot version, you can join a Community only if you receive an invitation from an already existing member. Once you become a member of a Community, you receive five invitations to send.
Leaving a Community
Leaving a Community is simple. Open the Communities page and you will see a button labeled “Joined”. Click on the button and select “Leave” and you are out of the Community. Changed your mind after leaving? Use the old invite to join back.
Creating a Community
Currently, Twitter takes care of most part of Communities creation. This is expected to change once the feature is made available to all. If you want to create a Community now, you can apply to Twitter with the relevant details here. Do not forget to go through the eligibility criteria for a Community creation before sending in the request.
Who drives a Community?
Running a Community responsibly is the duty of ‘Moderators’ and the ‘Admins’ of the Community. What exactly is the role of a ‘Moderator’ and an ‘Admin’?. We will explain,
Admin
An Admin is the owner of his Community. Adding/ removing people, reviewing reported tweets, monitoring the Community activities – all these activities are an admin’s responsibility. He can be a rule-maker for his Community. Twitter expects an ‘Admin’ to be an active user. There are a few basic criteria an account must satisfy to be a Community admin. They are:
- The account must be at least six months old.
- The account must be a public account.
- Two-factor authentication must have been enabled for the account.
- The account must have a verified phone number and e-mail address.
- The account must not have a history of violating any Twitter terms of service.
Moderator
Moderators are primarily created by Admins to share their roles and responsibilities. A Moderator’s role is limited when compared to that of Admins. Remember an Admin can appoint any number of Moderators for a Community.
According to Twitter, these are the three critical roles of a Moderator:
- Facilitating meaningful conversation.
- Connecting like-minded people.
- Developing Community culture.
Moderators are expected to start and run healthy conversations in a Community. Their role involves keeping track of the conversations and report anything that does not abide by the general Twitter guidelines.
This concept is new to Twitter and the moderators may have a lot of queries and doubts in the early period. To tackle this, Twitter will be forming a Community comprising only of Moderators and Admins. There they can interact with other moderators and can improve themselves. Moderators will also be able to send DMs directly to Twitter employees in case of any special help is needed.
The eligibility criteria for an account to be a Moderator is the same as for an Admin.
Conclusion
The ‘Community’ feature has excitement written all over it. There is no doubt Twitterati will love this feature.
What is your feeling about the new ‘Twitter Community’?. Write to us in the comments.
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