If you play fair on Twitter, then you're unlikely to get your account suspended. Playing fair means staying below their follow limits. If you try following thousands of people every day and then unfollow these same people shortly thereafter (this is called follower churning or aggressive follower churn), you're likely to be suspended eventually.
Twitter doesn't mind you having lot's of followers, in fact they encourage it. That's why they feature users on the sign-up page, and why their founders have millions of followers already. You can have 100,000 followers and they won't bat an eyelid, but if you aggressively unfollow people, spam tweets all day long, or do other naughty things, then expect to be suspended.
Naturally, people are concerned about having their accounts suspended on Twitter, especially if they've put a lot of hard work into growing them. I want to share a few more thoughts on this.
Firstly, no one really knows what Twitter is looking for when it comes to suspensions. We know the general guidelines they publish, but we don't really know exactly what they look for. To be honest this makes sense. If they published that they will suspend accounts that unfollow 1000 people a day, then everyone would just unfollow 999 people a day. With this in mind, we have to make our own principles and stick to them. These principles need to be good so that we can build our accounts safely and consistently over time.
I don't know about you, but I'm in this for the long-haul, so I'd rather grow a community that will still be there in a few years time.
Principle One: Play Nice
Try and use Twitter in the spirit it was built, even if you are promoting a business or yourself. This will go a long way to keeping you on the right side of the "law" so-to-speak. It was built as a medium for people to broadcast what they were doing or thinking. Spamming a hundred links a day obviously doesn't fit into this philosophy.
Principle Two: Smooth Gradual Growth
Smooth gradual growth of followers is far better than irregular spikes of lots of new followers. Twitter looks for this. Set yourself a target and try and meet it on average every day, instead of once a month. Adding 25-50 followers a day is far better than adding 1500 followers three days in a month. As your account becomes more mature, you can adjust this upwards.
Principle Three: Avoid Playing Games
Unfollowing people as soon as they've followed you is a game. It's not a nice game, and you probably don't want people to do it to you. Twitter knows this, so if you consistently unfollow people who have followed you back, then you're likely to raise some alarms. It perfectly fine not to want to follow others, but if this is the case then don't try trick people into following you. Unfollowing people that don't follow you back is a different story of course.
People will one-way follow you in the long run, especially if you have something interesting to say. Twiends.com offers you the ability to grow your audience in this way without playing games.
Principle Four: Don't Spam
Communicate. Influencing people through conversation will get you far better results than spamming ever will. Twitter was not built for spam, so this is a big thing that they look for.
The bottom line is, if you keep those principles in mind, you're far more likely to keep a clean account. If you are ever suspended, you'll have good case for getting yourself unsuspended. Twitter does make mistakes from time to time, so if they review your case, you don't want to give them an excuse to keep a suspension in place.
Play nice, grow smoothly, and don't spam.
NOTE: If you're looking to increase your Twitter followers or Facebook fans, try using the service Twiends. With Twiends, you can earn credits for connecting with other Twiends users and use those credits to let others connect with you. Sort of like a marketplace. You can even tweak your setting to get higher quality followers and there is an option to purchase credits if you don't have the time to earn credits manually. For more information, visit the Twiends website.
Related Articles:
Tips & Tools On How To Grow Your Twitter Following
As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on Facebook or subscribe to our feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog
You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509 and on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/djones1509
http://www.facebook.com/DereksHomeandBusinessBlog
Have a wonderful week!
Twitter doesn't mind you having lot's of followers, in fact they encourage it. That's why they feature users on the sign-up page, and why their founders have millions of followers already. You can have 100,000 followers and they won't bat an eyelid, but if you aggressively unfollow people, spam tweets all day long, or do other naughty things, then expect to be suspended.
Naturally, people are concerned about having their accounts suspended on Twitter, especially if they've put a lot of hard work into growing them. I want to share a few more thoughts on this.
Firstly, no one really knows what Twitter is looking for when it comes to suspensions. We know the general guidelines they publish, but we don't really know exactly what they look for. To be honest this makes sense. If they published that they will suspend accounts that unfollow 1000 people a day, then everyone would just unfollow 999 people a day. With this in mind, we have to make our own principles and stick to them. These principles need to be good so that we can build our accounts safely and consistently over time.
I don't know about you, but I'm in this for the long-haul, so I'd rather grow a community that will still be there in a few years time.
Principle One: Play Nice
Try and use Twitter in the spirit it was built, even if you are promoting a business or yourself. This will go a long way to keeping you on the right side of the "law" so-to-speak. It was built as a medium for people to broadcast what they were doing or thinking. Spamming a hundred links a day obviously doesn't fit into this philosophy.
Principle Two: Smooth Gradual Growth
Smooth gradual growth of followers is far better than irregular spikes of lots of new followers. Twitter looks for this. Set yourself a target and try and meet it on average every day, instead of once a month. Adding 25-50 followers a day is far better than adding 1500 followers three days in a month. As your account becomes more mature, you can adjust this upwards.
Principle Three: Avoid Playing Games
Unfollowing people as soon as they've followed you is a game. It's not a nice game, and you probably don't want people to do it to you. Twitter knows this, so if you consistently unfollow people who have followed you back, then you're likely to raise some alarms. It perfectly fine not to want to follow others, but if this is the case then don't try trick people into following you. Unfollowing people that don't follow you back is a different story of course.
People will one-way follow you in the long run, especially if you have something interesting to say. Twiends.com offers you the ability to grow your audience in this way without playing games.
Principle Four: Don't Spam
Communicate. Influencing people through conversation will get you far better results than spamming ever will. Twitter was not built for spam, so this is a big thing that they look for.
The bottom line is, if you keep those principles in mind, you're far more likely to keep a clean account. If you are ever suspended, you'll have good case for getting yourself unsuspended. Twitter does make mistakes from time to time, so if they review your case, you don't want to give them an excuse to keep a suspension in place.
Play nice, grow smoothly, and don't spam.
NOTE: If you're looking to increase your Twitter followers or Facebook fans, try using the service Twiends. With Twiends, you can earn credits for connecting with other Twiends users and use those credits to let others connect with you. Sort of like a marketplace. You can even tweak your setting to get higher quality followers and there is an option to purchase credits if you don't have the time to earn credits manually. For more information, visit the Twiends website.
Related Articles:
Tips & Tools On How To Grow Your Twitter Following
As ever, if you want to stay up to date with the latest blog posts, don't forget to follow via Google Friend Connect (button on sidebar), on Facebook or subscribe to our feed at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DereksHomeAndBusinessBlog
You can also follow me on Twitter @djones1509 and on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/djones1509
http://www.facebook.com/DereksHomeandBusinessBlog
Have a wonderful week!
As always some good info
ReplyDeleteDerek do comments and likes help us in more ways then our ego???
I guess I mean seo?
http://jpweddingphotograpy.blogspot.com/2011/04/day-dreaming-with-lovin-spoonbills.html
Thanks Jim :)
ReplyDeleteAs well as SEO and Social Media, I find comments and likes help me determine what kind of posts my readers like most. It also shows new visitors that your blog has an active readership which in return, could help increase your followers and traffic to you blog.
Hope this helps Jim.
Nice post Derek. This is very important post for every blogger, because most of them spam twitter. So I think all should read this prior to make an account on twitter. Happy blogging...!!
ReplyDeleteReally cool tips Derek - tweeting this now - LOL
ReplyDeleteReally very important information. I know there are many that will abuse to help their growth, but in the long run steady following and communication helps us grow. Thanks Derek for such useful information we need to work on.
ReplyDelete