Twitter MomentsWhat would Twitter Moments look like if you were in control of it? It might not be long before you have the chance to use the feature as you see fit.

Twitter has announced that it plans to make Moments available to everyone in the next few months.

The company will open the product to more influencers, partners and brands initially, before eventually allowing the rest of us to tell our stories using Moments.

It’s an exciting development, even if it’s not yet clear how the process of creating Moments will work.

We like the idea of being able to document an event from within our industry in the Moments format – combining our own tweets with those of influencers from the world of content marketing.

What is Twitter Moments?

If you’ve not yet got your head around what Moments is all about, here’s a recently created Moment by American civil rights activist and educator DeRay Mckesson. In it he charts the movement following the death of Mike Brown at the hands of the Ferguson Police Department:

Mckesson chronicles the movement as it happened, using tweets posted over a two-week period to show how it all unfolded. It’s as good as a documentary, and displays how powerful Twitter can be when it’s at its best.

As the social media giant puts it: “When things happen in the world, people come to Twitter to see, experience and comment about what’s happening as it unfolds.”

While Moments don’t tend to have the same reach that a single tweet can enjoy, they are an opportunity to tell the whole story, rather than just a snippet, as Mckesson demonstrates.

What does Moments look like currently?

The feature is proving pretty handy at the moment, with a Moment tab dedicated to the Olympics in Rio. With half of the events taking place overnight, due to the time difference, it’s a one-stop shop in the morning to see how Great Britain have got on.

There’s a great mix of text posts, photos and videos to help tell the story of the Games. It’s that video and fan element that make it a worthwhile stop when browsing for news.

Taking the story about Siobhan-Marie O’Connor – who won a silver in the women’s 200m individual medley – as an example, with just one click you are presented with a picture of O’Connor holding her medal, a picture of her in action, a congratulatory tweet from Team GB, a GIF from BBC 5 live Sport, radio commentary of the moment, and fans expressing their joy.

How will Moments change?

To date, Moments – like Rio 2016 – have been created by Twitter’s curation team and a select group of publishing partners, but the social platform will soon be rolling this creative format out to everyone.

For fans of storytelling in content marketing, it’s a mouth-watering prospect to be able to create personal brand stories on the platform.

It remains to be seen whether it will work in practice, but if it works out the way we envisage, it could prove to be a fantastic way for brands to tell their stories.