Lessons Learned From Temporary Twitter Account Suspension

Mari,

Saw this come over the wires (or air)… tough showing but a great lesson to be aware of.

Glad to see you were back in action, and that Mashable had the ability to push this issue out to the mass following they have.

Best,

Dean Holmes

Mari;

Thanks for that phone call Sun. afternoon! It was comforting to discover that you and I were not alone and that some of our good friends were stuck in this situation.

But it was pretty scary there for a few hours without any way to really connect with our main followers to get the word out, eh!

As I had said, “Thank God,” for Facebook as that really helped mobilize folks.

Glad to be back!

Mike

P.S. Now we know what the Iranians are feeling!

So glad to read this–My acct was suspended (ack!) and not back up until today. So glad to know it was not just me
Thanks for the insight,

Judi

Mari,

You are so right on. So many of us are addicted to Twitter so when it’s down we panic. There are literally hundreds of other networking sites out there. As the saying goes…don’t put all of your eggs in one basket! (as the @TheSCICoach reminded us all today)

Many folks were peeved, I was anxioius. Not so much about my account but for the accounts my clients entrust in my care to manage for them. Thankfully I was alerted last night and was proactive letting those clients know what’s going on.

So what did I learn?

Stuff happens! No need to get mad or boycott Twitter. It was a mistake. We all make them. As long as they learned a lesson from it and are taking steps to prevent it from happening again, then I’m satisfied.

Just let it roll off, and get back to Tweeting!

I can totally relate to your “freak out” stage! I was in the same boat last night.

My best friend, @archrlatina was also in the same boat and we were sympathizing with one another.

Thankfully all is well this morning! Whew hew!

Thanks for posting this.

Michelle Flores
@michelleflores

So, happy ending means you did NOT lose your followers, your account was restored, all for free. After a massive spam attack on Twitter. So what exactly is your BEEF, since it’s the responsibility of the user to back up their followers/follows (and a program that does it)?

Mari…I, too, was more than shocked to see that my acct. had been suspended….especially since Britney and Horny Hottie have been going to strong for so long! And, I, too realized how much Twitter and all of the other social networks mean to us as a real means of communicating and making connections. Felt a whole lot better when I realized I wasn’t the only one and knew Twitter were working on the problem. However, that switch-flipping is a little frightening! It’s good to be back though.

Ooops I hit send too soon! Anyhoo, the temp Twitter bounce made me think long and hard about my Twitter habits. Am I contributing enough? Am I pitching too much? Time to rethink and assess! Glad to be back, though!

thanks SO much Mari for the heads up on Twitter! I am so glad you are such a voice in the social market place to let so many people know what is going on! Thank you as well for sharing the constant sharing of very helpful tools for those of us just getting the understanding of the power of social networking and branding!You are definitely leading the charge and I just wanted you to know how very much I personally appreciate you and what you give to SO many!

Blessings Mari, keep up the great work!
Susan Walsh
South carolina

Hey Mari - I was in the same boat as you with the twitter suspension. I linked up my blog post that gave my perspective. I’m back on Twitter now as well - was really freaky to get knocked off. Made me realize how fragile things can be!

Just discovered that you were suspended by accident. I don’t use bots so I never unfollowed you, but will alert my followers to make sure they refollow you if they do. Good post!
Sorry this happened to you, Mari.
@judyrey

Amazed about the line ” inextricable part of my life”.. Wow!

- Wakish -

Your comments are very valuable, as usual! A couple of years ago, I learned the hard way that free sites can be gone in a flash. My whole business model was based being a lead in a free community.

They changed platforms deleting the thousands of posts I had created over 3 years time.

Never again.

Diversify, diversify, diversify!

Thanks for all you BE and DO!

Pat

Mari,
I learned about the Twitter problem through your Facebook update. Had I not seen it, I would have been it a total panic, had I logged on to see that 90% of the Twitter accounts I managed had been terminated. I did feel better that it had happened to you too, and knowing that since so many peeps had been put out by the problem, it would get resolved more efficiently.

A

[...] Mari Smith added an interesting post on Lessons Learned From Temporary Twitter Account Suspension …Here’s a small excerptWith any of these social networking services you don’t actually own the list (like you do with your email list as an example). If a service goes down all the hard work of building a following would be wiped out. … [...]

That happened to my account too. I’m so glad you posted this Mari. Now I know it wasn’t something I did. You are a great resource. I totally agree with you about twitter and other social media sites. That having more than one is a superb strategy.

Mari,

I was one of the ones whose account was down. I almost panicked as well. Why? There is an image problem that is in my mind associated with getting suspended account. If I was suspended for spamming or breaking other rules then what does that say to followers or tweeple who want to follow you? I also wondered whether it is prudent in the future to get a second account as a back up. I don’t think this is the way to go but what do you do?

Thanks for the post! I am glad that we are both back up.

Gary Dale Cearley

[...] Mari Smith, a very helpful and well known personality on the social media circuit, was one of the casualties. Thankfully Mari is back in the loop now and she has written a great article on the “Lessons Learned From Temporary Twitter Account Suspension.” [...]

The Twitter account mess just reminds me how important it is to diversify your social media accounts. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket and Twitter should not be the only basket you use. There are lots of different social media platforms available to you and it’s important to have a presence on at least 3-4.
I also agree with Denise Wakeman, who says the center of your social media networking plan should be your self- hosted Blog. This is where you should be sending people from the social networking sites and because if it is self-hosted no one can ever kick you off. You own the content and you pay for the server.

Hi Mari,

My account was also suspended but I didn’t realise until the following day that thousands of accounts were suspended. I sent an appeal to Twitter because it didn’t make sense to me especially when every day I come across accounts that are blatantly spammers and other accounts that are either in violation of Twitter’s regulations.

I don’t consider myself a prolific Twitter user yet it made me realise how Twitter has become a part of my life. It also made me realise that no matter how effective Twitter is as a Social Media platform, ultimately, I don’t have control over it and in a heartbeat my account can be shutdown. So it’s vital not to be over-reliant upon any one networking tool.

Best wishes

Nickolove

Ouch… glad you’re back on, Mari Human errors are not the most pleasant. I’m actually for Twitter enforcing tighter restrictions for spammers. The last several months of seeing so much spam has been super annoying.

Love the posts!

[...] Apparently while I was gone, Twitter had experienced a massive spammer attack which then resulted in their system suspending hundreds, if not thousands of legitimate tweeters like myself and my buddy Mari Smith. Mari shared her experience in her post, Lessons Learned From Temporary Twitter Suspension. [...]

This is completely true. If my account was suspended if could feel that im living in a hell.
Sine facebook has become something important in our lives And also it has become the only way to find all of our friends classmates co-workers and you know meetings are being arranged in that so many important things happening. I dont like even to imagine what will happen when i got my account suspended.

Twitter back to normal? What a strange & rewarding experience that was? Strange, because we expect to use all the modern Tec facilities and can’t understand it when they don’t work. Rewarding, because “the blitz spirit” suddenly appeared as everyone jumped to comfort and support each other. That’s what I call a positive outcome. Massive Hugggz to all, Roy

OH YEAH and little ol’ me too. In the blink of an eye. My story, and sticking to it. I’m a developer, not a big coder but work in flash and implementing social API’s using Gigya and a few other services. Stumbled across something few people understand right now but will be aware of “socially” in the next few weeks/months after familiarizing what I do for a client.

Mari, I love your presence on Twitter and all around the web. SO darn cute and refreshing.

I also got “the boot” and it freaked me out. Lasted about two hours cuz I got on the horn with Twitter Support. Of course I never got an official determination but I was put back in good standing because I voiced my concern and defined my position.

Testing API’s includes just that, testing. My application for the OAUTH for 12flat never was suspended but my personal Twitter page, 12flat got stomped for whatever reason I’ll never know. On my site, people can login using facebook, myspace or twitter (and OpenID). Once logged in, the power of true social networking gets unleashed by being able to send out messages to everyone in all the social networks at the click of your mouse. I don’t do it often, but did once through the Gigya interface I was testing and maybe that led them to a short investigation.

The good news, which you bring out in this article, is that there are humans at the other end, just like our good selves, which can see we are humans too. Had I never voiced my concern using the support mechanism, I could well have been locked out forever. I like that they are on top of all this, and like better that someone is actually listening which makes twitter a smaller more personal place to do business, vast as it is . . .

Thanks, I’m so glad you made it back too.

Stuart Liedtke

Thanks for sharing, as I was totally mystified when I also got suspended but then saw in Mashable, that it happened to lots of folks.

Hey ,
Yes even my account was suspended and I too started freeking out . I just started this account 3 months ago and I was surprised how much addicted I was with Twitter.
I also realised that my blog was seen by many people if twitter account is fine .. If twitter is down .. my blog popularity goes down .. wohhhh .. cannot believe it ..
Thanks for your post .

[...] Mari Smith says in her post about lessons learned from the twitter incident: Twitter [and Facebook] is only one platform for visibility, branding, community building and [...]

Mari, the same thing happened to my account today. I can’t log in, and it says “unauthorized”on tweetdeck. I set up a new account just to see if I could do a search for original username “Coachbarb” and I’m still there. I hope it can be resolved!

So sorry to know about your account suspension Mari. I was ty logging into twitter but I cannot open the home page since 1 hr. So, just to check out I came to your blog and shocked after reading this post.
Hope to get a good news from twitter on your account soon.
Regards,
zazo.

I dont know guys, but I find that twitter staff or twitter support are difficult to contact with.
From long time ago, I have blocked the URLs in the profiles in 2 of my twitter accounts. They blocked because the target urls were attacked by malware, but today (long time already) google has unblocked those sites (because I’ve cleaned up both) but there is no way to contact twitter support about this, and tell them to let me insert the urls again.

Mari what a pain in the neck this must have been! But it shows what a wonderful network you’ve created. So many people immediately came to your aid and blogged or tweeted about what was happening. No matter what platform we’re on, it’s that engagement that makes the difference. And you have that in spades.

[...] had been made. Mari Smith was among those whose account was suspended in July and she blogged about some of the lessons she learned from her temporary suspension. Losing her account made her aware of how important [...]

[...] Suspension” .. nothing of significance showed up apart from a blog post titled “Lessons Learned From Temporary Twitter Account Suspension“ from “Mari Smith of Facebook Fame” that revealed she had experienced a similiar [...]

Mari you always do such great and informative posts some of those twitter tools, I have never heard of. I will be checking them out and thanks for watching out for us FB People. come see me sometime on my FB page Blogging for Dollars

[...] Mari Smith, a very helpful and well known personality on the social media circuit, was one of the casualties. Thankfully Mari is back in the loop now and she has written a great article on the “Lessons Learned From Temporary Twitter Account Suspension.” [...]