Twitter CEO Asks Users How They'd Improve the Platform Jack Dorsey copied Airbnb's Brian Chesky's approach of crowdsourcing advice for his own company.

By Lydia Belanger

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

On Christmas night, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky tweeted, "If @Airbnb could launch anything in 2017, what would it be?" Inspired by this callout, Jack Dorsey used his own company's product yesterday to take a page out of Chesky's book.

On Thursday, Dorsey tweeted, "Following in the footsteps of Brian Chesky: what's the most important thing you want to see Twitter improve or create in 2017? #Twitter2017"

Related: Airbnb CEO Asks Twitter What His Company Should Launch in 2017

Earlier this week, Dorsey promoted Chesky's suggestions callout by quote-tweeting it with the caption, "Love this." Less than 24 hours after the thread began, Chesky tweeted that he had received more than 1,000 ideas -- everything from tips for improving Airbnb's booking interface to expanding the company to Mars.

Respondents to Dorsey's brainstorm session included techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie. As of Friday morning at 9:49 a.m., Dorsey's initial tweet had garnered 5,960 replies, 1,309 retweets and 2,520 likes. (He also created a similar thread for Square, the other company he leads, which has received 219 replies.)

Related: Twitter's Jack Dorsey on How Entrepreneurs Should Use Twitter

Dorsey received several suggestions about cracking down on bullying and harassment on Twitter, to which he replied that the company has done a lot of work but has a lot more to do.

The thread was also a forum for debate about a feature many users have demanded for quite some time: Tweet editing. Dozens of people weighed in with thoughts about time limits and clear labels for edited tweets.

Twitter has implemented a few product tweaks this year, such as removing usernames from the 140-character count of tweet replies, but the core service has largely remained static since 2006. Now, faced with executive resignations and an inability to close a sale, Dorsey's callout seems like less of a matter of curiosity or PR and more of a practical means of boosting Twitter's appeal. However, Dorsey has long admired the use of Twitter by business leaders to engage with the public.

Related: Jack Dorsey Explains Why Elon Musk Has One of the Best Twitter Accounts

The CEO followed-up with a note that he would summarize the Twitter conversation on Friday.

Lydia Belanger is a former associate editor at Entrepreneur. Follow her on Twitter: @LydiaBelanger.

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