FAMU becomes the first HBCU to partner with Twitter

Photo courtesy: FAMU Athletics

Florida A&M University Athletics is partnering with Twitter to create a Twitter community. FAMU is the first HBCU to get this partnership.

According to Twitter, these communities were created to “give people a dedicated place to connect, share, and get closer to the discussions they care about most.” Admins and moderators manage them, enforce community guidelines and keep the conversations clean and fun.

Joshua Padilla, director of athletic communications and digital strategy for FAMU Athletics, said the partnership stems from an interaction between Evan Galloway, CPG In-Market at Twitter, and FAMU Director of Athletics Kortne Gosha.

“Galloway, a FAMU alum, then reached out to Kortne and me to set up a Zoom with him and other colleagues (also FAMU alums) to discuss having us as one of their first schools to create a Twitter Community,” Padilla said.

FAMU has had several “firsts” in the past couple of years. The school is the first HBCU to partner with Nike, the first HBCU to have their ensemble play at Carnegie Hall and is the highest-ranked public HBCU in the nation. According to Padilla, this is why partnering with Twitter was a great opportunity.

“Florida A&M is known for being a school of firsts, so being the first HBCU to partner with Twitter was a no-brainer for us,” Padilla said. “It is one of the largest social media networks available, and many Rattlers are actively using it, so creating something exclusively for Rattlers to interact with each other is essential to us.”

The FAMU Community will allow athletics to give information directly to students and fans, like game promotions, schedules and more. Exclusive news will also be shared here, like giveaways or important announcements. Athletics already has a Lebron James x FAMU jersey giveaway introduced exclusively to the community.

The goal for the community is to have a place for Rattlers to hear about opportunities at FAMU and beyond, share information about athletics and have space to interact with each other. Padilla says the long-term plan for the community is to add more FAMU accounts to create a place exclusively for “Rattler Nation.”

“Digital communications like the new community are the future for communicating to students, alumni, donors, and the world. We are excited that FAMU Athletics continues to lead the way,” Gosha said. “It was equally refreshing to meet a team of five Rattler alumni leaders at Twitter
and helped turn this vision into a reality.”

To join the community, you can go to Twitter and request to join.