Kiana Fitzgerald has been to a lot of panels and talks about black twitter. She never felt like they appropriately talked about her feelings about the whole thing. So, she decided to use SXSX as a way to talk about the topic in the way she wanted. Her panel “Not Enough Of Us—We Are Not Black Twitter” will address how black twitter users are being categorized into black twitter, why that needs to change, and how using your personality is the best thing you can do to make social media work for your personal brand. 

As an alumni of the sxtxstate project, Kiana knew she wanted to come back to SXSW. Her panel started as part of the sxtxstate class but she says since then she has grown and changed. She acknowledges that the panel is her entire doing and having assembled a diverse group of panelists who have strong social media backgrounds, she hopes to challenge current ideas.

“Basically, black twitter doesn’t align how we feel as twitter users. It puts us into a group instead of acknowledging that everyone uses it differently.”

Kiana describes when she started using social media. “I would tweet what I thought people wanted me to tweet, but when I started tweeting about comics and hip hop, that’s when I gained more followers that were doing things I was interested in.”

Through some of these connections she has made on social media, Kiana has recruited a strong group of diverse social media users who have leveraged the platform in different ways.

Justin Roberson from Mostly Food Junk is a Caucasian user who understands how people of color use twitter. He knows what lines to cross and what lines not to. He has a strong digital presence with a unique voice.

John Nichols produced the viral video “Titty’s and Carrot Cake” which was reposted on dozens of sites and received numerous media mentions. He attains he simply made the video because it was a fun thing to do.

Adrian Walker was a photography major in college. He had a regular 9-5 job for a while. Through a connection he made at SXSW, he kept in touch mostly through social media. Adrian was given the opportunity to be the photographer for Lupe Fiasco’s 45-day tour.

Kiana hopes that people who come to the panel leave with the following knowledge:

1)   Black people who use twitter are not black twitter and don’t want to be black twitter. They are being categorized as one group of people instead of unique social media users.

2)   How to develop an online personality to help make more opportunities for yourself online.

3)   You can be yourself and get opportunities from being yourself online.

Follow Kiana @Kianafitz and read more about her panel here.