It was a presentation that brought God-is-Rivera his dream job: in 2016, Rivera, then associate director of social media strategy at global ad agency VMLY&R, prepared a talk called "Woke, Lit & Ready: A Guide to Understanding Black Twitter" and prepared a talk titled "Understanding Black Twitter. At the time, Rivera used Twitter regularly as a marketing tool and was amazed at how the platform could give people, organizations, and communities a voice. 'Twitter has always been like the Holy Grail,' he said. 'What I love about Twitter is that it's changing the dynamics of discourse in a big way. The idea is to democratize the conversation. So everyone has access to the same amount of character. You can get global exposure based on how real or authentic your statements are or how they resonate with people."

Despite this built-in equality, Rivera felt that historically, some voices have not been heard at the same volume and instead have been silenced, marginalized, or ignored. Before the advent of social media, critics, pundits, activists, and others "had to be chosen to appear on CNN or ABC. [and] someone had to make that choice. [And someone had to make that choice. Her presentation was a challenge to advertising agencies to be more inclusive of who creates content and for whom. She brought this presentation to the attention of Twitter's upper management, who asked her to give it at a plenary employee meeting. Later, she says: "As someone who loves apps, I want to lead the work on how we as a company connect with consumers. Later, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey invited her to speak one-on-one. Then she got to design her role - something unusual in the business world, especially for a woman of color. In a corporate culture where some diversity hires get great reviews, but not true equity when it counts, she says. I admire Twitter so much for recognizing and trusting my abilities and my vision." And when I walked through their doors, I was positioned, empowered, and supported as a leader." It's something that many Black women, women of color, or all Black people pray to feel," she added.As Global Director of Culture and Community for the social media platform since November 2018, Rivera has been a user voice helping them feel heard and seen." What this job does, she says, is "focus specifically on groups that have been on the margins to make sure we are integrated into the way people think about consumers and customers."

"And we can't do that without actually asking them how they feel."

One program Rivera, 35, has created for this purpose is called #TwitterVoices, which consists of events aimed at facilitating sustained communication between the platform and marginalized groups. For the past two years, she has brought together participants from black, Latino, and LGBTQ+ communities in Brazil, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Panama, and Bermuda. Last year concluded with #TwitterVoices at Home, an event for UK Black Voices that brought together journalists, financial and tech industry leaders, and creatives from the UK. It was a night of "sharing your brilliance and truth," Rivera later tweeted." This is just the beginning of our connection." These events are usually dinner parties (during the pandemic, Twitter sent UberEats credit to invitees), where invited "voices" can ask questions directly to Twitter leaders and topics that affect the community The event is an opportunity for the invited "voices" to ask questions directly to Twitter leaders and to talk to each other about topics that impact the community.

Rivera doesn't stop at one event; she helps Twitter build long-term, meaningful relationships. The most tense moment of her career, she says, occurred after the social unrest following the deaths of Breanna Taylor and George Floyd; between May 25 and June 19, 2020, Twitter saw the most spike in conversation since the "Black Lives Matter" movement began . Over the past three weeks, the number of tweets about "black lives" and related topics has averaged a staggering 230 per second. Rivera said, "These people's sentiments matter. People needed to hear what they had to say." Her team took the conversation offline and created a billboard campaign that amplified about 30 tweets about racial justice. In cities like Philadelphia, Louisville, Oakland, and Minneapolis, Americans could read all the emotions people were feeling. 'It felt like the right moment and the right way to show support for this community,' she says. 'I was a black woman myself, and it was the pinnacle of my career.'

During the election cycle, Rivera's team held a virtual meeting with members of the Latino community about the platform's election policies, including labeling and adding context to tweets containing misinformation, banning ads from political accounts, and providing a public reporting tool for misinformation.

In a way, Rivera feels her work as a social media catalyst was meant to be. Says she, "I blended into my husband's DMs on Myspace." Social media helps her love of storytelling. She says, "Social media is an incredibly vast encyclopedia of people's thoughts, feelings, and user behavior." She has known the power of words since she was young, studying journalism at Clark Atlanta University. Yes, I tell people's stories. She felt that her older family members and neighbors, despite their vast knowledge, were not valued by the mainstream media. She says, "I felt that society was ignoring a lot of voices, a lot of stories."

One of the positives for Rivera as her voice events went virtual was that her family became more involved in her work. Rivera is spearheading the campaign while helping her 9-year-old daughter adjust to virtual learning. Her family has witnessed her career milestones firsthand from their living room. Now, Rivera says. 'They see me doing it and feel as if it's part of our family legacy.'

What will that legacy be in the future? Her plans include creating #TwitterVoices events with the disabled and indigenous communities. As she puts it, despite all the "chaos" and challenges of 2020, she looks back with a sense of accomplishment and looks forward with excitement. 'I'm really, really proud of myself. I'm in a good, good space right now." In high school, she did a project in which she told the story of black people from the 1960s to the 1990s through poetry and dance. It's crazy." [This article appears in the Spring 2021 issue of Marie Claire.

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