Are You Risking Twitter Account Suspension?
January 21, 2010 by BuzzEdition
Filed under Social Media, Twitter
Seems the person in charge of Twitter’s suspension button has been a little trigger happy lately. You have all seen the messages of panic flow through the streams just as I have. With all the spammers still busy tweeting away, the Twitter staff must have something that is triggering these suspensions. Makes you wonder what each suspended user was doing that caused the death of their account. Could you be nearing the dreaded suspension? Something you may be doing right now could be digging your Twitter grave. Here I present a few reasons that could be the end your Twitter fun.
1. Are You Spamming People Inadvertently?
Are you spamming people with links? Do you find yourself sending the same link to several people in a row begging them to RT your new post or find? Begging for votes for some contest? Begging to support your cause or charity? I have seen this happen with even high profile users. They simply take the same link and the same sentence and spam it to everyone trying to get their service, blog, or latest charity seen.
No matter what the reason, it’s against Twitter Terms of Service to repeatedly spam users like this and you can be suspended. If you are following the user you send these messages to, they will be less than thrilled to receive one, but if you are not following the user, it often is enough to warrant a quick block of your account.
Keep in mind the users contacted in this graphic have been spammed and are not spammers.
2. Are You Churning Your Followers?
I knew it was happening before, but until I turned off auto-follow several months ago and now manually view each twitter profile, I did not know how bad it was. I set up my new follow emails to be sent to me by twitter, and I check the folder daily to follow people back. Often I will see two or three emails from the same person. At first I thought it to be a Twitter glitch, but after getting emails from people I was already following on a weekly basis, I realized, I was being churned. Their goal? They want to land on the front page of followers in hopes they will get seen by others. Where they fail? I end up unfollowing these people, and often times blocking them to stop the incessant emails and the extra work load for me.
Churning people by following and unfollowing is against Twitter Terms of Service and will land you a suspended account once the pattern is revealed.
3. Are You Mass Unfollowing?
Following groups of people and then unfollowing them a day later or even a week later when they do not follow you back is against Twitter Terms of Service. Jesse Stay of SocialToo even posted on his blog that Twitter was ending services that unfollow users. Many people recently suspended were actually suspended for this reason. A pattern was picked up by Twitter staff of this behavior, and the accounts were suspended.
I realize why Twitter is doing this, as I see on a daily basis spam accounts created that follow nearly 2000 people, then rapidly drop those people that don’t follow back. When Twitter puts an official stop to this script use, it makes it so much tougher for these spam accounts to grow. I have been ridding my own personal account of these spammy accounts by blocking them. Often they only have a few tweets and thousands of followers. My main purpose in blocking these spam accounts is something I read in an article about how Google ranks tweets. Basically Google considers follows an endorsement, and I definitely am not looking to endorse this behavior, or associate with it.
4. Are You Spamming Users With DMs?
I used to get this same message on nearly a daily basis from several different users. Often I would get it 10 to 15 times a day. I had to block the users one by one to stop the incessant demanding I attend this event. But it’s not just this event, DM spam for quizzes, mafia invites, and other spammy offers used to haunt my Direct Message inbox. I must thank Jesse Stay again for his incredible Spam Filter offered with SocialToo that allows me to block, unfollow or ignore useless DMs such as these automatically by keywords and phrases.
Spamming people with DMs can get you suspended on Twitter, most likely from the large numbers of blocks you will generate from people fed up with the spam.
5. What Does Twitter Consider Spam ?
You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes “spamming” will evolve as Twitter responds to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that are taken into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are listed below, with entries for those you are probably least aware of in italics.
* If you have followed a large amount of users in a short amount of time;
* If you have followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive follower churn);
* If you repeatedly follow and unfollow people, whether to build followers or to garner more attention for your profile;
* If you have a small number of followers compared to the amount of people you are following;
* If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;
* If a large number of people are blocking you;
* The number of spam complaints that have been filed against you;
* If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account;
* If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #;
* If you post multiple unrelated updates to a trending or popular topic;
* If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies;
* If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies in an attempt to spam a service or link;
* If you add a large number of unrelated users to lists in an attempt to spam a service or link;
* If you repeatedly post other users’ Tweets as your own;
* If you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn;
* Using or promoting third-party sites that claim to get you more followers (such as follower trains, sites promising “more followers fast,” or any other site that offers to automatically add followers to your account).
The key here is to always follow the Twitter rules to ensure you don’t get banned from the service you enjoy so much. Don’t accidentally fall into the spam trap. Complete list of Twitter Rules available here.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Just when I thought I knew it all. LOL! I couldn’t figure out why people would follow, unfollow & re-follow. It’s called churning. This is so annoying. Seems like a lot effort to get notice. Thanks for sharing this info! I’ll be sure not to do any of the above.
Nice to see you dear!
churn… nice name… even before i knew of it… i decided to turn off e’mail all notifications within days of joining twitter…
i pay absolutely no attention to who is following or unfollowing me…
instead of wasting time on follow/unfollow and dm notifications… i spend my time interacting with the folks who actually respond via twitter…
Thanks for this info. I’d never knowingly spam anyone but it helps to have the specifics explained more carefully. I too was unaware of churning. Useful to know.
Re-tweeting now
Eleanor
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..How to Bottle What Makes Your Soul Sing =-.
Glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for the Rt!
I have been a bit confused by the following:i get followers in a row of 7-10 /receive messages in my inbox to let me know of them/and in meantime ,while opening their profiles to follow them back,i see they already unfollowed me.I am not able to answer immediately-to follow them, for we are in different time zones,so i need a little more time for doing it.I suppose they use automatic ways for following,i don’t, i check every one twitter account and make it manual.
And i must say it annoys me..
All you can do is block them when they repeatedly do it, sometimes I play nice and just ask them to stop.
I think all these rules are a bit much. I was just doin’ what came natural.I did follow and unfollow a couple people, but it was because of mistake. I also thought that posting links was what twitter was for. I guess I am wrong. And I follow people and lists…but there are about just under half following me. I didn’t sweat it before because I didn’t give a rat’s hairy one but now I have to wonder if my account could get suspended? what is this , a Nazi Networking Site? Who cares how many followers I have? I like following people because they have cool links.
And I still don’t know what the # is for or how it works….someone plz explain.
And I didn’t like those get lots of followers sites. They were weird. So I guess I am glad I didn’t, since they are apparently a bad idea.
How do I know if people have blocked me or complained I was spamming them?
Tha hashtag or the # sign is just a simple way to create a topic. If enough people use the same hashtag, it becomes a trending topic.
I’d be happy to take a look at your twitter account if you give me the link, and I can let you know if you are doing anything users may not like.
And as far as the rules, well it’s a free service and most importantly it’s Twitter’s free service, so their is not much we can do about their rules, unless we simply decide not to use the service because we do not like the rules.
Personally I feel that the good outweighs the bad on Twitter.
I’ve written a number of posts about how hash tags work on my blog:
http://www.techforluddites.com/2009/12/t4l-redux-the-twitter-hash-tag.html
Regarding #3, On the Twitter blog this is referred to as following spam and it’s been a no no for quite sometime. I’m glad to see that Twitter is cracking down and doing something about it now.
.-= Gerald Weber´s last blog ..How To Get Backlinks From Optimal Link Targets =-.
I’m just happy you stopped by to comment on my blog. I think I love you! ~Hugs~
Awww shucks. You are too nice to me.
.-= Gerald Weber´s last blog ..How To Get Backlinks From Optimal Link Targets =-.
Thank you for this very informative article! I started w/ Twitter last Fall & learn new things all the time. I really wondered when I saw accounts with only 1, or maybe 3 or 4, posts yet had 1,000 followers. Now I understand.
I do sometimes go on a binge & manually follow alot of people at one time. A few days ago, I laboriously searched my followers to unfollow those who haven’t tweeted in the last 3 months.
Sure hope Twitter doesn’t see a bad “pattern” in this type of activity.
I’m having a great time with Twitter!
Thanks for the info. on the churning! I didn’t understand the follow, unfollow, follow thing. Just had it happen to me recently!!
Nice to see you, and thanks for reading the article!
Great info!
I try to only tweet a link to my own blog posts over again if it actually fits properly as a reply to a later tweet of someone else’s, but I’ve noticed that ‘famous’ users do retweet links (the alltop guy for example) over again at different times of the day. How do they not get nabbed for doing that?
.-= fracas´s last blog ..Help Haiti (even if you can’t donate) =-.
It’s fine to RT your links a couple of times a day to hit different time zones. But doing it more than twice a day can probably get you in spammer territory.
I think the key is to simply keep them spread out and make sure that’s not the only content you share. Just be sure to be social with other and share their content as well.
Thanks for this concise summary, Susan. It’s got to be difficult for Twitter to battle the ever-evolving tactics of the serious spammers.
Thank you! And it’s an honor to have you stop by and take the time to comment!
Really awesome information Susan! Been following your tweets for a while and have recommended that startups I advise do so as well. Thank you!
Corey, I must say I am honored you not only read this, but took the time to comment as well. And thanks for the recommendations, they are much appreciated.
I noticed earlier this week that Twitter Karma had their bulk unfollow function shut down. When I saw it, I had to do some manual cleaning out of folks I follow who stopped following back, because if they’re not following, I’d assume they won’t be engaging with me either. Is there anything in place to ding us for unfollowing dozens (or hundreds for those of us with a lot of followers) of folks in this way? I haven’t seen it, but just curious.
The link thing is also a new one for me. I’d assume they actually investigate what the links are before suspending, no?
Keep up the great work,
Tommy Landry
ReturnOnNow.com
As far as the links, it doesn’t matter if it’s a link to Forbes Magazine or a spam link, either way if you repeatedly share it, you can be suspended.
And no…there is no replacement for the unfollow scripts. Twitter contacted developers and warned them their services would be shut down entirely if they did not remove that feature.
Now I am sure at some point there will be rogue apps available that will do this function, but I will not be using them, and I don’t advise anyone to use them.
Great post! I’ve often wondered what gets you in to spammer territory on Twitter. I recently ran in to it when I figured out I couldn’t follow more than 2000 until I got more followers (I was at 1300 at the time I think). I had some spare time over the holidays and went on a spree looking for other Mom’s on Twitter. Now I have to unfollow people that didn’t follow back after a couple weeks so I can make room to follow people who found me! Eventually here I’ll gain more followers than I follow. (newish to Twitter, so I’m not worried!).
Can’t wait to go explore more of your blog for tips!
-Katie aka @OCMomActivities
.-= OCMomActivities – Katie´s last blog ..School Lunch Idea =-.
This is very thoughtful article with practical advice. Really an eye opened. I would watch out for each of these and would try to make sure not to lead to twitter suspension.
Thanks for deep research and resourceful post.
I must confess that what I originally considered to be proper Twitter protocol — just tweeting personal status and also occasionally cross posting to my own blog – became what I was told to be “newbie” naivete. Other users, those publishing guides to “effective” Twitter use, etc. then held out much more effective, venture-oriented “wise use” of Twitter.
While I don’t use spamming or auto-generating mailing or following techniques, I have found and individually chosen a large number of interesting people to follow. This has been largely due to the fact that, as one might subscribe to a list-serve, I actually enjoy being connected to such a close level of information from people and insights all over the globe. A former doctoral student, I find the wealth of info fun and helpful for my work.
How does this not represent an appropriate use of Twitter? Further, why would Twitter want to so discourage the USE of a service it created and offers?
I really don’t understand this kind of policing of folks with truly good intentions. Why should we use a service that seems to want to read a kind of antogonism into the behaviors of its own user-base?
How does this serve your business or your own strategies? People who create bad Karma will lose by the Karma. Most of us are your good customers. I think you might re-think this “threat’ strategy. It sends a negative message.
Allison, I really like what you said. I joined Twitter in September, and I never used any software to gain followers, and am proud of that fact (b/c I know the number I have are based on people enjoying my tweets or companies/brands that follow back). I ignore the “follow me, and I’ll follow you back” requests and certainly don’t just follow someone b/c they follow me. I read their tweets first and see if there’s anything
Bottom line, I really enjoy reading the musings of people who make me laugh and/or are informative or shows/showrunners I enjoy (to a point – some people are drastically different on Twitter than in interviews, etc… and I don’t share their views), but my ratio of following to followers is almost 2:1 (i’m in the upper hundreds, followers in mid-hundreds). I do sometimes worry that people might think I’m “one of those” accounts, but don’t put too much stock in someone only looking at that ratio and not what I have to say, or wondering what it was about them that led me to their tweets.
Besides – a follow from Winnie is like a Hallmark card. #delusionsofgrandeur #usinghashtagsofftwitter
*anything to their tweets/personally worth keeping up with.
.-= Winnie´s last blog ..PumpUpTheValium: @michaelianblack In HS,Student Govt had PJ Day b/c girls wanted to show off cute Victoria Secret stuff&guys wanted to see.I wore a Moo-Moo. =-.
Hey, thats nice info. I did not know its called churning. Thank goodness I have not been doing that !!
But I got one question – Those people who have been doin churning since past 1 year on twitter have got a ton of followers. and now the rule says it should not be done.
Wont it be unfair to people who just joined twitter ??
.-= Raj´s last blog ..World’s Richest man Bill Gates Joined Twitter, Got 160,000 followers in 15 hours =-.
Great article, Susan! Gr8 that someone clarified the concept of “churning” I wish Twitter did away with their unfollowing policies.
.-= @mlomb´s last blog ..mlomb: "Never tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon." =-.
Thanks for this list BE
I’m currently building a Twitter App and it helps to know what is considered spamming since the App will be using an Auto-invite feature.
Kofi C
ps: I’d love for you to be a private beta tester if you are available in a couple of weeks
.-= KofiC´s last blog ..kofic: RT @oxfamgb: Extraordinary – @carooxfam was on the phone to Canadian TV when Wed’s aftershock hit #Haiti. Captured live: http://bit.ly/6 … =-.
This is great. I didn’t know any of this. I’m still learning Twitter.
Now I’m worried that I will run afoul of #1. Example: Yesterday I mentioned several fellow Tweeps in a newsletter that I posted online. I sent each of them an @ message that said, “You’re mentioned in this week’s newsletter! http://link….etc.” My intention was to do something nice (tell them that I had mentioned them,) but it looks like Twitter’s bots will assume that I’m sending them ads for diet pills.
Is there some kind of cut-off number to stay under the radar? Like, if I send the same message and link to five people that’s fine, but ten is bad? Or do you have to send it to hundreds of people before it gets noticed?
.-= Angelique´s last blog ..Spicoli invades WordPress! =-.
This is a really good read. Thank you for taking the time to share it with us.
“THINK, PLAN, EXECUTE!”-JAWAR
Thank you for this post! I never spam people but post quite many links – I didn’t know it was against the rules… I also knew nothing about the churning. However, now I understand why one and the same person followed me at least 3 times (it stopped when I unfollowed them)
Huh? You can get suspended for unfollowing people? That’s a bit insane. I’m sorry, but most of us are not celebrities. The only way anyone will discover us is to follow them. If they like us, they follow back. If they aren’t interested, they don’t. Since they can’t see you, why would you keep them? It’s nothing personal on either side.
I’m an aspiring writer trying to promote myself. Publishers won’t even look at you nowadays unless you can prove you already have a following. Crazy, I know, but that’s the nature of the beast today.
Now I could just tweet “Go here and read my first chapter” over and over. Instead I’m tweeting as my character on his daily adventures. I follow lists of sci-fi fans, book lovers, historians, etc. that look like they might be interested. I have hundreds tweeting me how much they love my twitter feed and telling others to follow me. 90% of these people would never have discovered me, if I hadn’t followed them first.
I don’t believe I’m doing anything wrong. I’m not intentially bothering anyone and I’m certainly hurting no one. And I seem to be entertaining a lot of people. If Twitter ever suspended @Wendell_Howe I think there might be a riot!
Does Twitter automatically suspend people, or do they look at what you are doing first? People are finding all kinds of clever and harmless applications for Twitter that Twitter doesn’t seem to even know about. Twitter should remember to follow the spirit of the law rather the letter.
.-= Jeanette Bennett´s last blog ..A Debate on the Ramifications of Time Manipulation =-.
I believe there is a general difference between unfollowing people, churning, and then spam follow/unfollowing people. How long are you waiting between when you follow someone, and then unfollow them?
Mike´s last [type] ..“ladies” – The King of Chocolate
Great post, Susan!
Twitter has not been very clear about expressing the rules, perhaps they should hire you to write them. Or at least adopt this post as official =) Very well communicated great content as usual!
x0x
Anita @ModelSupplies
Fairly new to Twitter and always spending a few minutes a day to figure out how all this works. I pleased beyond measure to have come across this article because I have found myself perplexed and bafffled by some of things that occur, reoccur and then disappear. I’ve tried honestly to grow a list from an organic source of basic business & marketing and have often wondered how so can have the massive amounts of followers???? It’s kind of like karma, it either works for you or it works against you. I’ve made honest learning mistakes and hope to keep learning the dos and dont’s along the way. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO WRITE THIS ARTICLE!
I need help I dont’ do any of those things.. I do have a couple of fave tweets that I send out to new people following me but twitter now thinks Im a spammer
serious crying.. no one can find me ina search..
I have messages everywhere but twitter doesn;t seem to hear…any ideas?
Excellent post Susan! Thanks for helping keep people current with Twitter’s policies.
You #RAWK! LOL XOX
Lori Moreno
.-= Lori Moreno´s last blog ..Welcome to LoriMoreno.com! =-.
Thank you for the info, esp. about churning, which has happened to me a number of times, but I too thought it was a glitch or something I’d done. I follow you for informative material that is sure to be relevant. Your effort is appreciated. Blessings.
My question is, what’s the point of getting more followers automatically? Who are those people? Are they real? Will any of them pay attention to your content? Follower growth should be done naturally so you get quality followers that are following you because they actually want to follow you. It’s not a numbers game. I wish people would stop trying to turn every social network into a popularity contest based on the number of ‘friends’ they have.
.-= Brad F.´s last blog ..Save Your Lawn Clippings =-.
I’m not going to panic , If twitter decides to cancel my account. I’m too busy worrying about frost getting on my roses , and trying desparately to find new ways – to keep the cable guy from leaving teethmarks – on the windshield of my Landrover.
I have been suspended (too “automated”) and it was a lesson well-learnt… GREAT article btw.
Thanks for the great article explaining a lot of this – I didn’t know quite a bit of that so I’ll be careful! I did use an unfollow ap not long ago – I had closed my account, restarted it and wanted to severely limit the # of people I was following. They didn’t close me out but I’ll have to be much more careful!
And now I have to go find you on Twitter to follow you. haha
Matt
.-= Matt A´s last blog ..Broccoli & Cheddar Frittata Muffins =-.
This is my first time in your blog and I really liked your articles, great work
Thank you for explaining that odd behavior some folks do, churning. I could never figure it out, because that’s not how I operate on Twitter. But I’m glad you explained what it was (they wanted to be on the front page). I find churning annoying.
I’m blocking someone because of it. I don’t know if that will be enough to get their account suspended, but they’ve been doing this follow-unfollow behavior on my page 5x now. And each time they follow, I have never followed them back. Makes me wonder if they ever got the hint.
Appreciate your list on Twitter’s policy. I plan on sharing your article with others.
I’m going to be honest and say- Why doesn’t Twitter 1. Crack down on actual spammers-those who mass follow, post links to make money fast schemes in every Tweet and 2. Those who have 10,000 followers, but only follow 10? It seems like the more I block, the more spam I receive.
It also seems the rules don’t apply to all, especially the so-called “elite” Tweeters and celebrities. When you sign up for Twitter you agree to their terms- just as everyone else- it should be enforced despite who you are in real life, (or Twitter itself).
The two below are examples of what the most notable get away with:
If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates.
If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account.
I am a conversationalist on Twitter, with the exception of promoting charities. Do I post links? Yes- as do the charity accounts- how else are they to inform people of what they do? It’s no different than a self-proclaimed guru telling people to follow a certain person over and over again. At least I’m providing information and helping good causes who need recognition. This is how social functions work in life- you converse, engage and provide information. And this is how Twitter should work.
Susan once again you have came up with some remarkable advice for people
as you are always helpful.A REMARKABLE lady and a great friend.
Happy Valentines day to you one of a kind.
If you get time would you please take a look at my website and tell me what you think just finishing it up a couple weeks from launch. I have created away like you to help people manage there twitter accounts and get followers while using twitter apis great tool saving so much time.
kindest regards
AL ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND
Why not suspend all those autoreply folks? I reply back to everyone who follows me with a real message.. not one of those thank you for following me without any care in the world.
.-= Warren Bobrow´s last blog ..food poetry.. tea reviews and musings on Park Avenue Winter =-.
Wow, this was so eye opening. I think I have done some of this..yikes. I better make sure I stay on the straight and narrow and I suppose…if I keep getting annoying DM’s I know have some ammunition!
.-= Syl Wilson´s last blog ..Recession meets angry marketers =-.
Just as I was getting ready to unleash my can o’spam on the twitter community…. Ah, I kid, I kid.
Eye opening article. Am I ever glad that none of the undesirable mentioned could come back and haunt me, as I never participated in any of it. Sure, I’ve posted maybe a couple of links, if that. I’m a read-o-holic, unfortunately for my own account. I get so absorbed by everyone else’s wonder-tweets that I foget all about my own.
Thanks for the heads up, in any event.
Ok what happens with people who follow but don’t get the people they follow to follow back? I follow 203 people but only 76 follow me in return. It’s been like this for a while. I don’t care if they follow back or not, some reply some don’t but they haven’t blocked me either. Am I at risk of being suspended? Please help. I like twitter because of the fan interaction by a few celebs. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
This is a great article. Thanks for the time and trouble of putting it together. Unfortunately, Twitter has these horrible follow-limits on me that make it impossible for me to follow more people. I am being very good and not spamming anyone, yet I’m treated like a step-child. Very annoying.
Always a good idea to refresh oneself on these rules. Thanks for posting them.
I wish I would of followed your advice before yesterday…. I lost aprox 750,000 followers in 1 day… yes on multiple accounts. each account targeted a specific keyword in the same niche. Now I am screwed… I just wasted a year on social networking and now I am going back to my basic SEO articles, press releases, etc ….. foxtrot uniform charlie kilo.
I am not a spammer but, all my accounts were pointing at the same url. and my tweets were dripping over all the accounts, but they were the same tweet on each of the accounts, I should of used a spinner….
I would tweet this article but I lost all 200 accounts.
I still have all the ping.fm integration connected…. maybe i can salvage that.
All I can say is wtf!!
Very interesting and information post for the rest of us.
Thanks,
Sarah Baron
I like the quality of your website which theme are you using?
hey erm i recently got suspended from twitter i dont know why i read your thing and i havnt really done anything i have said a trending topic repeatedly but everybody does that and they havnt been suspended i also sent a message to a girl because she had set up hate account to my idol demi lovato and her tweets were voilent and threatening there are a number of accounts like this and they havnt been suspended its seem very unfairk, if i have broken one of the rules above im not aware becus they didnt send an email explaining anything im fine with taking the suspension but i just wondered do you know if theyll restore my followers because i worked really hard to earn them and some of them were celebrities and i would be horrible to loose for something stupid xx thnx pls reply in email :]
have been visiting ur blog for several days. really enjoy your posts. by the way i am doing a study concerning this topic. do you happen to know any other great blogs or maybe online forums that I might get more? many thanks.
grrr. one of my accounts is suspended and i cant figure out how to dispute it.
mike´s last [type] ..Website- Lakes Heating and Air
There’s a grey area there, and there will be some victims. I feel sorry for them.
I made more than 90 accounts for my work, after that I found all the accounts are suspended,I couldn`t fix the problem.
Is the reason because of all these accounts I made??
I never knew there was a term for the follow-un follow-follow action.
Wonderful and informative article, Susan!