“She just blew the doors off of the whole conference,” said Stacy Minero, global head of Twitter ArtHouse, the division that works with brand marketers, who was connected to Digiday by Twitter to speak on behalf of the company. “She really comes from this place of advocacy and activism in a very purpose-driven way.”

With that presentation, the now-36-year-old, Bronx-bred Rivera had turned heads, including those of Twitter leadership, landing her in her current role as global director of culture and community, where she focuses on building real-world relationships between historically marginalized communities on Twitter and in media and advertising. “We’re talking about groups that have been historically excluded from a number of different parts of the process when it comes to media, advertising and the representation therein,” Rivera said.

Since stepping into her role in 2018, Rivera has worked to beef up Twitter’s culture community team by bringing in senior manager Olubunkola “Bukky” Ojeifo and art curator Ariel Adkins. It’s a team that works across the company to integrate diverse voices into the fabric of how Twitter works by partnering with Twitter’s enforcement group, research arm, ad business and customers, per Rivera.

Since its inception, the team has rolled out several initiatives to give influential voices a platform, like #TwitterVoices, a regular event series that personally connects influential diverse users to one another as well as to Twitter leadership — or as Rivera calls it, “breaking bread.” There’s also #TwitterPrism, a tool to help advertising partners develop more inclusive marketing strategies.

Rivera’s team’s latest project is one that has yet to be formally announced, but the team has quietly started rolling out a new creator program, Voices X, which connects diverse and influential voices on Twitter with paid opportunities to collaborate and co-create with brands. That new program could mean those users create content with those brands or partner with them to amplify messaging. The team is also exploring ways to push influential voices on the platform to be brand strategy consultants, she said.

The team’s work came to a fever pitch in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, solidifying the importance of Rivera and her team. At the time, tweets around the Black Lives Matter movement took off, racking up more than 390 million tweets about the topic. And at one point, more than 200 tweets per second, she said. In response, Rivera’s team and Twitter moved to bolster marginalized voices, launching a multi-city out-of-home campaign to further support those voices.

For Rivera, all of these initiatives are Twitter’s way of putting its money where its mouth is, a goal of the director’s since she started.

“If I had to circle one goal when I walked in the door at Twitter, it was that I …read more

Source:: Digiday