2020-03-16 Adweek

56 MARCH 16, 2020 | ADWEEK®

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LY

ON

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TALENT POOL

Rembert

Browne

TWITTER’S CREATIVE

LEAD, BRAND AND

VOICE HAS A PASSION

FOR POLITICS.

BY DAVID COHEN

Social networking companies

employ people from all

backgrounds and walks of

life, not just technology and

engineering majors. Rembert

Browne, creative lead, brand

and voice at Twitter, certainly

fits that bill.

“I wanted to be the mayor

of Atlanta until I was 22,”

Browne said. “I still kind of do.”

The Atlanta native

graduated from Dartmouth

University in 2009, earning a

Bachelor of Arts after studying

sociology, geography and

public policy. After finding that

“there were no jobs anywhere,”

he started graduate school at

Columbia University, studying

urban planning.

Browne said columns

he wrote on student life at

Dartmouth “ended up being

a thing,” and his blog was

noticed by people at an early

iteration of Grantland, where

he ended up working until

the now-defunct sports and

pop culture blog’s last day

in October 2015. “Because

everything, in the right light, is

a blog post,” he added.

Browne decided he “didn’t

want another election to go by

without being in the mix,” and

he became a writer at large

for New York magazine with a

focus on politics, calling 2016

“an unforgettable time to be

on the trail.”

Browne left New York in

March 2017, saying he was

“beginning to have that feeling

that there’s other stuff I wanted

to work on.” When the Twitter

opportunity emerged, he was

freelancing and contributing to

outlets including Bon Appétit,

Bleacher Report, The Fader,

The New York Times, The

Ringer and Time.

He started at Twitter last

September, and thus far, it has

been a great fit.

“Twitter is a company

built on words, and to me,

words matter,” Browne said.

“And as a company, we want

to make sure—internally and

externally—we are talking with

a consistent voice.”

Browne said he had been

considered part of Black

Twitter for years, adding, “I

wouldn’t be working at Twitter

had Twitter not been so

complementary to what was

happening in my writing career.

I wouldn’t have the colleagues

I have without Twitter.”

He concluded: “It’s funny

that I’m working at Twitter

because I’ve had amazing

highs and amazing lows on

the platform. It’s exciting to

be able to really have a good

number of black folks that

come from similar places

trying to fix things internally

and externally so that it

doesn’t feel like there’s one

person having to speak up.

That’s a moment I don’t take

lightly every single day.”

Big Mistake

“I used to tell

myself that having

a growing platform

and having growing

eyes on you was

not threatening.

As I look back, it

definitely was,”

Browne said.

Lesson

Learned

“A lot of

professional stuff

would have gone a

lot better if I started

to work that out.

That’s the time

when you need

to talk out things

instead of keeping

them in your head,”

he advised.

How He

Got the Gig

A friend who

worked at Twitter

was asking about

someone with a

similar background,

and, “I was like, ‘Hey,

what about me?’”

Browne recalled.

Pro Tip

“Twitter is really

important for

people who are

isolated,” Browne

said. “I got to

connect with people

who work in the

newsroom and live

in the big city.”

‘Twitter is a

company built

on words, and

to me, words

matter.’