Twitter workshop with the European Jewish Congress

By
Tuesday, 1 November 2016

The annual meeting of The European Jewish Congress (ECJ) took place in late September, where its affiliated national bodies gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the regional community. With Brussels as their meeting point, the group invited Twitter to speak about how the platform can be used to tell the positive story of the European Jewish community and to promote positive messages.

For over 25 years, the EJC (@eurojewcong) has been advocating on behalf of the Jewish community in Europe, representing its interests with EU institutions and preserving its culture and story. Public communication is, of course, an essential part of this effort and it has embraced platforms like Twitter in its mission to reach people where they now congregate most frequently: online.

When discussing how best to communicate on Twitter, we talked about how to speak with an authentic voice - one that conveys the seriousness of the organisation while also being conversational and human. We also talked about the importance of embracing media-rich content, particularly Tweets that make use of embedded images or videos.

Participants then had a chance to engage in an open discussion on the policies Twitter has developed to deal with abuse, harassment and hateful conduct. We outlined how each policy is enforced, the features Twitter has developed such as mute and block to help users to feel more empowered and how our reporting functions work, noting the progress that has been made in simplifying the reporting tools for users. Our work in this area is ongoing - there will be more announcements very soon.

We followed the presentation with a thorough and constructive conversation on how the EJC and the community it represents can incorporate our advice into its day-to-day activities and, also, how Twitter can improve the experience of its users by welcoming feedback from organisations like the European Jewish Congress.

You can read the EJC’s account of its meeting here. We look forward to continued dialogue and engagement.