Lately, Elon Musk has been the conversation starter on Twitter. Sure, he and Twitter have reached a deal but people who are using the platform are more interested in other conversations, like the one about making connections. Lately, some personal dialogues on the service have become long-lasting, like those revolving around #WeMetOnTwitter.
Some people come on Twitter to express opinions, some want to talk about their trade, many speak about literature, music, films and sports and then there are those who want to engage with like-minded folks in a deep, meaningful way. It is these dialogues that are forming bonds of friendship, sparking romantic relationships, teaming up for a shared business goal or just simply becoming each other’s confidantes.
Take the case of a student named Sejal (@SejalSud), who turned to Twitter to learn more about finance and entrepreneurship. She soon came across Aditya (@thefaadguy) and Dr. Tanmay (@Least_ordinary). Or Prarthana (@PrarthanaVyava1) meeting Ashish (@evolvedSapien) and Manoj (@ManojKhetan18). Then there is the love story of Nipun (@nipunyyy) and Mohit (@mohitmamoria).
Pallavi Walia, head of communications, Twitter India, tells us why #WeMetOnTwitter continues to be popular.
What makes Twitter perfect for bringing people together?
Twitter is the conversational layer of the Internet; it is where people come to talk about what’s happening and the things that they care about, exchange views on their shared interests, pastimes and passions. In fact, our global data shows that 80 per cent of the conversation is about people’s passions — such as gaming, lifestyle, music, movies, TV, or sports. People can also follow their specific interests through a number of features, including Topics, which use machine learning to deliver subject-related Tweets to one’s timeline, and Lists, which let you put together a list of accounts on a specific subject that you can follow as a separate timeline. Another emerging trend that we’ve seen is that people are now increasingly engaging with community-based conversations, and leaning towards this behaviour, we started testing Communities in September 2021 as a way for people to easily find and connect with others who want to talk about the same things as them.
Further, with Twitter Spaces, there is a way to instantly connect people with the power of the human voice. The live audio chats open up the floor for authentic conversations, providing an intimate setting to discuss thoughts and ideas. Oftentimes on Twitter, people find those who ‘get them’, forming meaningful bonds. In fact, people go on to share such stories on the service, recounting how they met on Twitter, with the hashtag #WeMetOnTwitter. The conversation about #WeMetOnTwitter is steadily growing in India with 370 per cent more usage for the hashtag from the last year (2021) than in 2020. Not only that, this year (2022) in just one month (January-February) we have seen the conversation increase by 28 per cent.
The service’s real-time, conversational nature has been opening up gateways to some of the most unique and heart-warming stories of connections, and we will continue to bring newer ways for people to connect in meaningful conversations.
How is Twitter becoming a safer place for people to engage in and what are your suggestions to stay away from getting trolled?
Protecting the voices of all those who use our service is a top priority and one we are constantly working on. We have clear rules in place to address abuse and harassment, hateful conduct and take action in line with our range of enforcement options when we identify accounts that violate these rules. We already have deployed tools backed by technology, to detect and surface abusive content more efficiently. As a result today, more than 65 per cent of abusive content that’s enforced on our service is surfaced proactively for human review rather than relying on reports from people using our service.
We continue to expand on and invest in our approaches to tackle abuse on the service — including through proactive interventions. For instance,
• We recently began testing Safety Mode with a select set of female journalists among others. This feature temporarily blocks accounts for seven days for using potentially harmful language — such as insults or hateful remarks — or sending repetitive and uninvited replies or mentions.
• When we detect potentially harmful or offensive language in a reply, we may ask people via a prompt if they’d like to review the reply before sending, and consider a more considerate reply. We’re also testing a feature to make it easier to remove followers from public and protected accounts, giving people more control, and not requiring that they use the ‘block’ function.
• We’ve built out a series of conversation settings that allow people to decide who can reply to their Tweets and hide unwanted replies to their own Tweets. We’re seeing this feature used by people who have reported experiencing harassment in the past, and in those cases, these people are seeing an estimated 85 per cent reduction in toxic and abusive replies. Now, you can adjust who can reply mid-conversation, after you’ve tweeted.
• When receiving Direct Messages, we include the sender’s profile information and indicate how the sender is connected to the receiver, which can help people quickly identify potentially abusive content.
We also strongly encourage everyone on the service to familiarise themselves with the Twitter rules, and report anything they believe is in violation. Our work will never be done, and our product, policy and engineering teams continue to work at scale and pace to build a healthier Twitter.
How are users taking advantage of new tools like Revue and so on to reach a bigger audience?
Twitter has become the go-to hub for writers and creators across different walks of life for acquiring an audience, building their network, and engaging with like-minded individuals and communities. It is these writers and creators that Revue is best suited for, especially if they’re looking to build an engaged following out of their writing. On Twitter, every subject and conversation has an audience. Revue is the writer’s tool to bank on these audience’s leaned-in nature, share their work with the world, and add more meaning and reward to it. People can subscribe to interesting newsletters across diverse topics such as Indian crypto industry or Cryptocurrencies in India, Startups in India, Music Therapy & Well Being amongst others.
They found love
The characters: Nipun (@nipunyyy) and Mohit (@mohitmamoria)
Status: Engaged
The storyteller: Nipun
I joined Twitter in 2009 as an introverted 17-year-old, with a hopeless crush on a pretty girl. Back then, I’d once tweeted to actor Uday Chopra asking for dating advice and he responded saying: “Just tell her how you feel!” Alas, I remained single. After school, when I veered into the professional sphere, I turned to Twitter for networking, to find other nerds like me and build my tribe. I went on to become an entrepreneur and in February 2020, I found my business partner, Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson), on Twitter. It was in response to a tweet from Andrew, that I emailed him with a business proposal and six days later, we decided to go into business together.
My life was on the right track until last May, when my grandparents contracted Covid-19. I resorted to Twitter to ask for help, and that’s how I met Nipun. She was helping people find resources, and she helped me too by replying to my tweet. But my grandparents didn’t make it. The first few weeks after their loss were terrible; I retracted into a shell. To cope with the loss, I turned to books. I was reading Animal Farm when a quote stuck with me and I tweeted it: ‘All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.’ Nipun replied to my tweet saying: ‘I want to read this book, but I need someone to guide me through it.’ Naively, I sent her a DM, saying: “Do you want to read together?” Although we never ended up reading together, we began talking. During our first video call, Nipun told me her favourite book was Little Prince, and I showed her my nightstand where the same book was placed. We were so alike. It was Nipun who pulled me out of my grief spiral.
My life has completely changed in the last nine months; Nipun is the best thing to have happened to me. Recently, we even started a company together. We always encourage each other to grow; and coming full circle, we finally read a book together last month! Shaadi ko time hai, but I already know she’s mine forever. We’re truly “mad” for each other.
Friends with a network
The characters: Sejal (@SejalSud), Aditya (@thefaadguy) and Dr. Tanmay (@Least_ordinary)
Status: They found Spaces
The storyteller: Sejal
Being a law and business student, I was always interested in learning about entrepreneurship and finance, and last year, following a friend’s suggestion, I joined Twitter to discover more. I started attending and hosting Spaces, and in no time, I’d made several friends and built a community through these conversations.
I was co-hosting a Spaces session on startups once, and that’s where I met Aditya (@thefaadguy). After the session, he sent me a DM and proposed that we host a Spaces session together. His background in investment and knowledge of entrepreneurship really intrigued me, and while our initial conversations revolved around start-ups, we soon moved to talking about movies, food, and other interests outside of work. We would talk every other week. I learnt that he was the best advice giver, and one piece of advice from him that I still go back to is, “Every day, work as hard as you did on day zero, and you will grow.” After a few months, Aditya texted me to ask if I would like to join him and some other Twitter users for a start-up Twitter greet and meet in Chandigarh. When we met, it was like meeting an old friend.
He is kind and empathetic, and my Twitter experience or professional journey wouldn’t be complete without his support. I’m glad to be able to call him a friend and associate.
Another person who I met on Twitter and became friends with is Dr. Tanmay (@Least_ordinary). After coming across his profile and learning that he was a content creator too, I reached out to him for collaboration through a comment on his Tweet. Thankfully, he shared my excitement and before we knew it, we were hosting our first Twitter Spaces talk about financial literacy.
Since starting out on Twitter, I’ve hosted over 100 sessions, and have even started a book club to build my personal network. Twitter has enabled me to build a network.
(Left to Right) Prarthana, Ashish and Manoj
The write stuff
The characters: Prarthana (@PrarthanaVyava1), Ashish (@evolvedSapien) and Manoj (@ManojKhetan18).
Status: Love for writing, rekindled
The storyteller: Prarthana
Before Covid-19 hit the world in 2019, I was preparing for my medical entrance exam. But the stresses of preparation got to me and I decided to take a gap year to focus on my health. Thankfully, Maa and Paa supported me.
With a lot of free time at hand, I decided to take up writing. I had always been an avid writer, in fact, my short stories even featured in a book called The Book of Stories, but I had felt out of touch recently. Rekindling my love for writing, I decided to pen blogs and for inspiration I followed people from different streams. That’s how I first chanced upon Ashish’s and Manoj’s profiles. Ashish is an astro enthusiast while Manoj is a graphic designer, both their portfolios and work really intrigued me.
One day, when I tweeted about my book, Ashish reached out to me saying, “I am trying my hand at writing, could you help me out?” I obliged and we both got on a call. Inspired by his enthusiasm, I agreed to help. We soon started promoting our articles on social media and that’s when my second connection on Twitter, Manoj, reached out to me. “I would love for an internship opportunity here if you would allow,” he said. I had always been a fan of Manoj’s work and so Ashish and I welcomed him to our small team. Despite each of us living in different cities, we’d get on calls and publish three articles a day. Our work allowed us to soon start growing our team and before long, we became an artist-promoting platform.
During the peak of the Covid-19 wave, my close friend’s father was in a hopeless state. There were no hospital beds, but despite being from another city, Ashish tried arranging for a bed and medicines. That’s when I knew I could always count on him. And while all this was happening, Manoj took up extra responsibilities and started editing videos for our blog. All our hard work recently did pay off — we were awarded the Indian Prime Award for co-founding our blog.
