How to tell a story with Twitter Moments

Twitter today rolled out its storytelling tool Twitter Moments in India. And what a tool it is. You don’t have to be a journalist to tell a story. All that you need is a Twitter account, and you can string related tweets to tell a story.

Within hours of its launch, there were several Twitter Moments stories with Indian themes. One of these was on the word ‘rodomontade’ that Shashi Tharoor used in one of his tweets. The story was aptly titled “Do you know what rodomontade means?” Another was titled “Shahid Kapoor dethrones Zayn Malik as Sexiest Asian Man 2017”.

Each Moment had the best tweets on the topic. So, now you don’t have to go through tweet after tweet. Instead, you can use Tweet Moments to read curated stories every day. These Moments have the power to showcase the very best of what’s happening on Twitter.

# How to create Twitter Moments

This is how you too can string tweets to tell a story. On logging into your Twitter account, you will notice a lightning logo with Moments tab next to it.

# Step 1
Click on the Moments tab. It will open the Moments page. In the right hand corner is the Create new Moment button. Click on it.

Twitter Moments

 

# Step 2
You will now be asked to give a title to your Twitter Moment. Beneath it you can enter a description to explain what the story is about.

Twitter Moments

# Step 3
You will now be asked to enter a picture that best symbolises the Moment. The picture can either be sourced from your picture basket or taken from the tweets.

# Step 4
Now you are ready to string the tweets. Pick out the tweets that tell the story best. Twitter helps you in this task by allowing you to search for the right tweets through the Tweet Search link at the bottom of the page. You also have the option to find the tweets from the following links: Tweets I’ve liked, Tweets by account and Tweet link.

# Step 5
You don’t have to add every tweet that figures in the search. Instead, you can select the best tweets, and click on the checkmark icon to its right.

# Step 6
To ensure that the story is told in a logical manner, you can move the selected tweets up and down by clicking on the up or down arrow buttons located on the right of a tweet.

You have the option to delete a tweet that is repetitive or does not add to the story by clicking on the delete button.

# Step 7
Once you are ready, click the Publish button at the top of the page. Your Twitter Moments story is live.

So don’t wait. As Twitter tells you, you can tell stories every day about “the biggest debates from Bigg Boss (@BiggBoss), conversations on #Jallikattu, #GST, or around the #GujaratElection, the latest Bollywood sensation #TigerZindaHai or Tamil films like #Mersal”.

In case, you don’t want to tell a story, you can find the best Twitter Moment stories by visiting the Explore Tab.

Twitter users can engage directly with a Tweet inside a Moment with buttons to retweet and like. You can also share the Twitter Moment by hitting the heart button.

At the end of a Moment, click the share button to Tweet your thoughts, and send it out to your followers.

About Sunil Saxena 20 Articles
Sunil Saxena is an award winning media professional with over three decades of experience in New Media, Social Media, Mobile Journalism, Print Journalism, Media Education and Research. He incubated the award-winning Gaon Ki Awaaz, India’s first voice-based news and information service for rural India that won two South Asian awards and one National award for innovation. Sunil has authored three media books that are referred texts in most Indian Universities. His current passion is Social Media, and its integration with industry and traditional media. Among other things he is keenly interested in content management, website development, social media consultancy, development of mobile content and media training.

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