I have had an upsetting day today as my Twitter account @thecreativepenn was suspended. I assumed that it was because of my multiple links, but it turns out there was a spam attack on Twitter and I got hit in the crossfire. Click Play below to hear me talk about it (before it was reactivated!)
The experience was an interesting one because it made me realise how much I use Twitter when I am working from home and want to connect with people all over the world. I am a huge Twitter fan and spend a lot of time on it. I consider this productive time and don’t really use any other social media to the same extent.
I provide a lot of useful links every day about writing, publishing, book sales and promotion. People seem to like it as I have grown my 7000+ followers organically over time, and many of my followers say they enjoy my links. Twitter has a policy about too many links, but wouldn’t you rather hear about interesting posts than about my dinner?
Now my account is back up, I will be paying more attention to my links and also how I use tools like TweetLater. I don’t auto-follow people so don’t get too much spam, but I will certainly try to make sure I am not suspended again. If you don’t use Twitter yet, consider joining and following me @thecreativepenn !
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m like you I have come to use twitter as my primary social media source.While I did not get catch in the spam scam, I regret to learn that you did. I enjoy your posts and the links you provide. I bookmark many of them for future references. Thanks for adding so much value to the twitter community and I look forward to reading your posts.
Hi! Did twitter notify you of the suspension before they did it? Wow. Yeah, I guess it pays to be careful
Thanks Michael – I’m glad you enjoy the links!
Hi Gianna – it was just a spam attack or something so wasn’t something I did after all.
I certainly noticed your absence! I started following you for the links so I think it’s a bit silly for Twitter to suspend people who post heaps of links when that is what people want to follow.
I mostly post links too on my twitter, to promote my blog.
Dear Joanna,
Your links are virtually always useful and informative (though I do wish you’d post more about your dinner) and I would be forced to seek you out elsewhere on the web should Twitter decide for some inane reason to 86 your account for good.
Aloha,
Douglas M. MacIlroy
Ironwoodwind
Welcome back, I think the links thing with twitter is if you post repeatedly the same links. I.e. “Go look at my spam it’s at http;\\spam-master”. So I am hoping that although you promote author2.0 on twitter, since it is (a guess) about 5% of your links it is safe.
I promote my regular page into four time zones on Sunday (= 4 near identical tweets) but each week the URL is different, so I believe it is a safe practice.
Must admit every time I see your avatar on twitter, it will be the tweet I read first. I have no idea how you cover so much neat material (presuming it is the smaller % of what you read) and still have time to do anything else.
Would love for you to post how you plan your week and days. Then do a brief run down on a typical day. If you have done it already, sorry but I have been too busy reading your tweets.
Joanna, wishing you health and happiness
Thanks everyone! Now I am back up, I will get back to tweeting useful links but will also post more personal info and @replies to ensure this doesn’t happen again! What a crazy day!
Andy, my secret weapon is tweetlater because I schedule 80% of my tweets when I read blogs – but great idea, I will do a post on it!
Thanks, Joanna
Welcome back! I was shocked to read that your Twitter account suspended, but I’m glad you’re back online now!
I’m enjoying Twitter more and more and use it as a source of information and to share links and ideas. You nudged me into finally getting on Twitter – thank you!
Nice to know you are back on Twitter. I know it must have been stressful for you. I have not begun using Twitter yet although I do occasionally peek at a few including yours. As I noted on Facebook, I have read one or more of the companies serving up the truncated links has been hacked in the past and Twitter links hijacked.
I’m sure you can see why the bad guys are interested in any system that hides the true link. I always try to scan links using LinkScanner before clicking them but that is not possible with Twitter links. Your links and references are always useful but would be nice if the links would be posed in full on your blog. I suspect, I am a “wee” be more security conscious than most … perhaps a natural disposition given all the Security Blogs and Podcasts I subscribe to and the years of software support we offered to our customers. Thanks again for the fantastic blog and podcasts.
Sam
iNetSynch
I’m glad it was only a temporary suspension but now I’m a bit concerned that my use of TweetLater’s scheduling option looks fishy to Twitter somehow, even though they say that TweetLater is not violating their TOS.
Hi Hugh,
I am concerned re Tweetlater as well and have changed all my scheduled times to random ones so it doesn’t look so regular.
I might try to use su.pr instead – but the interface is more complicated. I know what you mean though – makes one nervous!
Hi Sam – I’m glad you find the links useful. All the twitter services shorten links, mostly automatically. With only 140 characters, you can never really include whole links. Thanks, Joanna