From the category archives:

Twitter Rules

How I Uncovered Twitter’s Trending Topics “Secrets”

October 9, 2011

Some people asked where I got my information from for the article “Six Secrets About Whether Twitter Censors Trending Topics” at the Buffer Twitter Tools and Twitter Management blog. I have written this post to address that. (And if you haven’t, you should read that first.) 99% of the “controversy” about Trending Topics that I’ve [...]

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Did you know Twitter hides some tweets, preventing you from eavesdropping?

August 27, 2011

Did you know Twitter hides some tweets from you? You can still see them if you do a Twitter search, or look at someone’s Twitter page (e.g. twitter.com/username), or set up a Twitter client such as TweetDeck to show you everything. But you won’t see all of the tweets from people you follow in your [...]

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How to get Twitter to give you a username held by someone else

August 20, 2011

Twitter releases accounts on request in certain situations if you contact them. How to get Twitter’s attention You must be aware of how Twitter’s ticket system works. You must file a ticket with the appropriate link. Click the links in the appropriate section below to file the right kind of ticket. If you’ve filed a ticket [...]

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Twitter admits editing offensive Trending Topics, plans more

August 1, 2011

Today Twitter’s CEO said they may in the future “edit out any…clearly offensive [trending topics].” He also said “we edit out any [trending topics] with obscenities.” Thanks to @rachelsklar for finding this tweet and @AbigailCollazo for pointing it out to me: This is major news from Twitter. Probably they have not already begun removing “clearly offensive” trends because they [...]

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Fake outrage on Twitter

July 31, 2011

UPDATE: Twitter’s CEO today said (to @CandaceKuss) they may in the future “edit out any…clearly offensive [trending topics].” He also said “we edit out any [trending topics] with obscenities.” Thanks to @rachelsklar for finding this tweet and @AbigailCollazo for pointing it out to me. Note that Twitter doesn’t censor tweets (though Twitter will remove content promoting child pornography), and Trending Topics [...]

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10 Guidelines to do doing well on Twitter

May 29, 2011

I was asked to summarize our approach to Twitter and Social Media into ten rules for an interview with Canada’s Sun newspaper chain. While I find that I’m always learning, I thought I’d share the response I gave: Seek others that you can help, and help them. Seek others that can help you, and take [...]

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Should you ever repeat the same tweets?

December 28, 2010

UPDATE: You may want to also read “The most complete guide to finding the best time to Tweet.” The most famous example of someone who repeats the same tweets is @GuyKawasaki. He’s tested and found that repeating the same tweet three times nearly triples the number of clicks the link in the tweet gets. So, [...]

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Help! My Tweets Are Missing!

November 14, 2010

Do NOT leave a comment here that your tweet count is wrong—you need to visit the Twitter page for your issue. Leave a comment only if you have already visited the Twitter page for your issue (see below for links). UPDATE: Twitter has put out updated statuses from time to time: · November 27 status [...]

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In the Belly of the Whale: How to get your Twitter problem fixed

July 11, 2010

Update: If you follow @Support, you can DM them (even though they don’t follow you) and ask your question that way. Though it doesn’t always work. For what is often a better but sometimes slower way to contact Twitter support, read on: Top Issues Why Twitter closed your support request without reading it Each time you [...]

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Twitter rule #1

June 16, 2010

Twitter the company does have rules and suggested best practices you should follow. But beyond that, what’s true is: Twitter rule #1: Make your own rules. If someone tells you you’re doing Twitter wrong, feel free to ignore them. Did you know that many of Twitter’s features were invented by users? @msgs, #hashtags and retweets were [...]

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