This week, the geniuses at Twitter launched a new feature called “Moments,” and it’s quickly dividing the Twitterverse. Moments, already hailed by WIRED as “Twitter’s Most Important Feature Ever,” appears as a lightning bolt at the bottom of your mobile app, or at the top of your desktop page, and contains the top trending stories on Twitter organized by categories like Entertainment and Sports. The feature seeks to grab the casual (and perhaps slightly older) user who has written off using Twitter because of confusion on its use, or because they don’t have access to a web-enabled mobile device at all times, making them more likely to miss newsworthy ‘moments.’

One of the major arguments against Moments is how stories are curated. Your own Twitter feed is customized, populated by content from the accounts you’ve chosen to follow, along with some ads, of course. Moments, however, are updates hand selected by a team at Twitter, along with stories from a handful of publishers like BuzzFeed and The New York Times. Virality still plays a role in which tweets get selected, meaning things like hashtags and retweets still matter, but the likelihood of a regular Joe getting one of his tweets included in a Moment is pretty slim.

So how will Twitter’s newest feature impact the world of communications for PR professionals? Not a whole lot – for now.

Rumors are floating around that Moments could one day be curated by individual users, creating big opportunities for PR pros to tell dynamic stories on Twitter. And for the brands or organizations you represent, the Moments feature is best treated as a guide to which topics are driving conversations.

Here are three ways that Moments can help boost your PR strategy on Twitter:

1. Continue to use hashtags. Hashtags make your content searchable, both on Twitter and off, so they should continue to be an important piece of your Twitter strategy, even if your updates don’t make it into the limited Moments stream. Moments can help you step up your hashtag game by giving you a look at what’s trending at a given point in time, insights that you can use to piggyback your own PR stories. Plus, the stories within Moments can offer valuable context surrounding trends, helping you to avoid devastating hashtag hijack fails.
2. Media, media, and more media. Including photos and video (Vine or otherwise) with your tweets is huge, especially if you’re hoping to get your updates picked up by Moments curators. In general, the more tweets featuring photos or videos on your PR effort or campaign, the more users interact- it’s a proven fact. And the more interaction, the larger your story grows. Again, Moments will serve as an indicator of what is resonating with Twitter users, so pay attention to what types of media are hitting it out of the park.
3. Bring it home. Chances are, at one point or another, a stream on Moments could be tied to your brand. Whether it’s a playful news story or a trend affecting your industry, find a creative way to make a connection and share it with your followers. Each tweet within the Moments stream is an opportunity for your followers to make a connection between your brand and a trending story (so choose wisely).

As a brand new feature, Moments’ full impact, and its success or failure at drawing new and dormant users, is yet to be seen. But one thing holds true -Twitter needs to be a part of your brand’s overall PR program. For a fresh look at how to make Twitter Moments work for your brand, drop us a line.