How I Handled a Twitter Slap
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by: JanShimano
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Word Count: 721
I was introduced to Twitter about three months ago along with many other Web 2.0 sites. I decided to sign up as it looked like a great place to interact with others and meet people with similar interests as myself. I signed up for Facebook and YouTube at the same time.
I started to be active on all three sites and was learning as I went along. As far as Twitter was concerned, I was told that it was proper etiquette to follow back everyone that followed me. There was a tool available where you could automatically follow those following you and also post a tweet to them thanking them for following you. I set this up and started following people that I thought were interesting. Some of those people also were using this particular tool so they automatically followed me back. However, a number of people did not have the tool and for whatever reason decided not to follow me back.
I was having fun, and as the weeks went on I paid little or no attention to the numbers. Twitter posts three sets of numbers at all times. They are those you are following, those who are following you, and updates. A few times each day I would go on the site for a few minutes and post a 'tweet' or reply to someone that was asking for information. I would also add more people each time I went on. However, I didn't pay any attention to how many people were actually following me back.
So just about a week ago I was adding more people that I wanted to follow when one of the follow requests would not activate. I thought that Twitter was having a technical problem so left it for a while. However, when I tried again, the same thing happened. I had no idea what was going on. I was still able to send out "tweets" (twitter messages) so I asked if this was happening to anyone else. I received a reply that I had received a "Twitter Slap". Perhaps you have heard of the very common "Google Slap" where Google punishes you for not adhering to their rules and regulations. Well, this is much the same thing but obviously not anywhere near as serious.
Someone explained that as I was now following 2000 people, Twitter examines your ratio of following to followers and if you fall outside the parameters, then they shut you down and don't allow you to follow anyone else, until you get your figures in order. So now I understood what the problem was, but how was I supposed to fix it?
I did a little research and was amazed to find literally over one hundred different tools that you could use to enhance your Twitter experience. I was searching for something that would help me reduce the number of people I was following. I didn't just want to go in and arbitrarily unfollow others, so I was looking for something that would make the job easier. For one thing I needed to know the people that were not following me back.
Here are the two tools that I highly recommend to get the job done.
www.friendorfollow.com...this site lists all the people who are not following you back; www.twitoria.com...this site lists all the people who have not posted for a while;
With the aid of these tools, it then became quite easy to choose the people I wanted to unfollow. By doing this I could have my account unfrozen and then continue to follow more targeted people. It did exactly as I had hoped.
If you are getting close to following 2000 people, it would be a good idea to start to take action now before you run into this same problem. I will periodically go into the website and do a little housecleaning. There are probably other Twitter slaps but this is the only one I have knowledge of right now.
If you are already on Twitter please follow me. If you are not on Twitter, then I suggest you go to twitter.com and sign up. It's free....and then you can follow me. My twitter name is janshimano. I will follow you back.
About the Author
Jan Shimano was District Manager for Health & Welfare Canada for many years. She was also self-employed as a Nutritional Consultant. She is presently a Business & Health Coach and operates her own internet marketing company from her home in British Columbia. Jan invites you to visit her website and also to check out her videos at http://www.youtube.com/1jinny
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