Going through changes

There’s only one thing that stays the same.

The days are getting colder and darker in my part of the world. If it’s the same for you, I hope you’re taking care of yourself too.

The last quarter of the year is always a time of reflection for me. It’s a time when I look back at where I started this year, what I was thinking about, what my plans were and what they ended up being.

I know earlier this year, I made a pretty big deal about taking my job out of my bio, but now I’m at this place where I want to be loud about the work that I do. So it’s back on there, but it’s with a disclaimer that I’m only tweeting about my job in the daytime. Balance, people. It’s all about balance!

If anything is constant in the digital space — in any space — it is change. It’s change in how we use platforms, how people see us online and what we can do with the spaces we build for ourselves.

Change. That seemed to be a theme on the timeline this week.

Facebook safety chief Antigone Davis had to explain to Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal that finstas aren’t an actual feature on Instagram. This exchange had people cringing, but it’s a reminder that we should keep up with what users are doing on platforms and how user behavior can influence the evolution of platforms — from features to privacy and security.

Still think stan Twitter is a joke? A judge approved the petition to remove Britney Spears’ father as conservator of her estate. California Gov. Gavin Newsom then signed the #FreeBritney bill into law which, among other provisions, allows conservatees to choose their own lawyers. Many credit the #FreeBritney movement fueled by Spears’ fans for bringing attention to her case and, in turn, influencing lawmakers to look into conservatorship reform. Also, the bill was literally called the Free Britney Conservatorship Reform Bill. So there’s that.

Lastly and in case you missed it, we were featured on Revue’s Twitter page! And by we, I mean you and me! The Timeline was part of Revue’s introduction to its new design features, specifically for the profile page. I was excited to learn they even considered this newsletter, but it made me feel so encouraged to continue this work and so grateful to all of you.

Tell me if you see this new profile page. How does it look?

🎞 Reels are now available on Facebook in the U.S. I know there are people who are asking: Did we really need this?

While it might seem like many platforms are turning into clones of other platforms, we have to remember users and creators can still be quite segmented. It’s normal for people to use and create on multiple platforms, but there are people who stay on one where they thrive the most and focus their efforts there. For me, that’s Twitter. For others, that’s YouTube, Instagram or TikTok. So it makes sense that platforms are paying attention to each other to see what should be offered to their creators.

✂️ Clubhouse is now letting people share audio from rooms. Moderators can choose whether rooms can be recorded and people have to be in the room for at least 30 seconds before they can start recording.

This seems like a smart decision for Clubhouse. People have asked for recordings on the platform for as long as I can remember, and I hope this helps clubs promote their rooms. Also, the ability to disable recordings is great for musicians who use the app for performances and don’t necessarily want those sessions to be recorded.

💼 Twitter will be rolling out Twitter for Professionals. Businesses and creators will be able to use the new profiles to tap into more of Twitter’s monetization tools. Professional profiles will have three different modules: About, Shop and Newsletter. I haven’t been given the ability to convert my profile into Twitter for Professionals yet, but it seems like I do have the Newsletter Module. If you want to see how that looks, you can visit my profile.

I don’t know if people at Twitter actually sleep. They also recently rolled out Communities, which I’ve tested out too. There have been so many additions this year that I can’t keep up.

While I appreciate how they build publicly and center creators, I hope they can maintain this momentum and keep up with the quality we expect. We don’t need another problem like what we have with Facebook/Instagram, where creators are given new features that are dupes of other platforms but feel like they’re half done.

If you like it here, please consider becoming a paying member. I have a special edition of the newsletter for members only coming out soon.

If you’re in the audience engagement space, (looking at you, journalists) you might want to become a member soon. 😉

I know there was so much more happening on the timeline, but I’m not in front of a screen all day so if you have anything you want to share with me, let me know! My DMs are always open or you can send me an email.

Until next time,

Shayne