Daniel Benneworth-Gray on Twitter and Creative Review

In 2011, our design correspondent Daniel Benneworth-Gray was a guest editor on CR’s Twitter feed. Here, he reflects on how the social media channel has changed in the intervening years

Nine years ago, this square magazine carried out an experiment in social media foolhardiness. A handful of guest editors were entrusted with the keys to @CreativeReview on Twitter, each granted a day of tweeting whatever they pleased. Along with Tom Actman, Nick Asbury, and Anna Gerber and Britt Iversen from Visual Editions, I was among ‘the chosen’. Together we tried to bring our own voices to Creative Review and not cause too much damage in the process.

Twitter was still relatively new – it had only been around for five years, and the CR account had existed for only two of those. Magazines were exploring the purpose of the platform as rhythms and conventions fell into place. This guest editorship thing was an exercise in blending the personal with the corporate, finding how editorial voices could work in this faster-paced new space.

Projecting whatever personality I might have onto this esteemed magazine, with all its employees and advertisers and heritage to consider, seemed like an awfully big responsibility. Sharing my precious bookmarks with a not inconsiderable several hundred thousand followers, it was an education in identifying, acknowledging and ultimately second-guessing a target audience – and trying not to lose them.