Meet Karen Wickre, the editor who helped Twitter and Google find their voice

We often think of tech companies as faceless platforms; social networks where we imprint our personalities, empty documents we fill, and conduits for communicating.

But tech giants do have their own voices, carefully crafted by editors, designers, and product developers. Karen Wickre is one such editor, and she’s helped define the voices of some of the most important tech companies on the planet.

Back in 1994, Wickre was publishing some of the earliest guides to the world wide web — for some perspective, this is when there were about a thousand websites, by her estimate. She went on to work for Google and Twitter, the latter of which she left three years ago to work as an editorial consultant.

Her most recent project is her own book, Taking the Work Out of Networking: An Introvert’s Guide to Making Connections That Count, where she puts into words all the ways she has learned to communicate and build professional networks over her decades-long tech career.

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We spoke with Karen Wickre at TNW2019 about the early internet, how she stays connected, and whether or not major tech companies can change their voice:

How do you craft a tone of voice for a company like Twitter? Is it ever too late to rebrand? What are the best apps and tools you can use to maintain your professional networks? How do you approach people when you’re shy?

You can ask Wickre all this and more — she’s hosting an AMA with us on Monday, May 27. You can already drop your questions here.

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