Will Twitter ban me for following too many
Image via CrunchBase
This is probably one of the most asked question regarding twitter. When you find a person whom you know or who you find is like minded with you, it is very natural to be tempted to click on that ‘Follow’ button in her profile page. Have you ever get warning from Twitter that your account will get banned?
To give life to twitter account, its necessary to follow some people and some other who follow you. What’s the use to stand in the midst of a large auditorium that is empty? If it is true, why not to get some instant twitter followers?
You got the secret – “What goes around comes around”. You must follow others to get some followers for you. You might love to know the secret of twitter followers too. To get thousands of twitter followers, you are inclined to follow each and everybody on your way with a hope that you’ll be noticed and get following? Did you ever think that you might get suspended for this?
I got more interested and wished to list out the reasons “Why Twitter suspends your account?” There are piles of blog posts crying, shouting and grumbling – “My account is suspended. I did nothing. Twitter is not fair” and so on.
What to do if your account is suspended?
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Thomas Arie Setiawan on a blog post “How to get your suspended Twitter account back?” describes his story about how he lifted the suspension on twitter account. It can be a good reference to anybody who has fallen victim. Everybody might not be as lucky as Setiawan. Many have lost their account for ever.
Following is a video from GrandMarryShow where she relates the story about how she was suspended and what she did to lift out the suspension?
Human Error
Though it is rare and a sheer misfortune if you find your account suspended due to some human error but, there are lots of traces of these incidents really happened.
In a post “Influx of Twitter Account Suspensions Creating Confusion” he quotes the response from Twitter crew:
“We regret the human error that led to these mistaken suspensions and we are working to restore the affected accounts—we expect this to be completed in the next several hours.”
Another lucky guy who got his account back, though had to wait for several hours.
Spamming and Malware DMs
Twitter is very effective in promoting your blog or brand or product. Due to its great effectiveness and apparently momentary action, the online marketers are growing greedy to push sell their product, compel you to digest the flood of messages. But it is found that Twitter is putting a sharp eye to the tweets and Direct Messages that are spamming or sending links to Malware! I wish their suspended account never be active again.
Reasons of Twitter banning an account
If you never get time to, or overlooked on, at least once, you must go through the Twitter Rules. If you start using twitter without knowing what you can and can’t do with the account, you always risk of loosing it any time. Following are some most probable reasons why an account is suspended:
User Abuse:
A large number of people block the profile or write in with spam complaints. Higher the flags up, more probable you fall in ditch!
Aggressive following:
Having numerous followers is not just fun but a desire of every user. Why won’t anybody interested to get easy followers instantly? Using programs out there that claim to get you 1000’s of follow in just days could get you suspended. Quality is better than quantity.
Misuse of the reply feature:
It’s on the list of things not to do.
Updates consist of duplicate links and/or text:
Sending out the same tweet over and over again can get you suspended. You will also lose all your followers doing this.
Stealing:
Updates poached from others’ timelines, passed off as one’s own can risk your account. Putting your own spin on a tweet will keep you safe.
Technical Abuse:
Updates consist of links pointing to phishing sites, malware, or other harmful material. This is the most prominent deed for you to ban immediately!
Multiple Accounts:
A large number of accounts is created in a short amount of time. You can have more then one account just don’t create several in a short time.
Spam:
An account is identified as belonging to a spam cluster.
Doing Nothing
Funny, but just make a Google search, you’ll find hundreds of blog posts complaining their account got suspended for doing nothing?
30 Responses to “Will Twitter ban me for following too many”
a2zreviews on March 16, 2010
Wow, I never knew that twitter could/would ban you for following too many people. I wonder if anyone knows what the magical formula is for getting banned (number of new follows in how many hours/days?)
.-= a2zreviews´s last blog ..Drinkwell 360 Replacement Filter, 3-Pack =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on March 17, 2010
From very intuitive thoughts it is clear that any unfair play is subject to ban sooner or later. As long as your number of followers per hour is natural, you won’t get that golden chance of being suspended!
Kevin@ShootingtheBreeze
Twitter: KevinMartineau
on March 17, 2010
What do you do if Twitter doesn’t allow you in #hashtag searches?
.-= Kevin@ShootingtheBreeze´s last blog ..3 Questions That Will Change You =-.
Jack@Internet Marketing on March 17, 2010
Twitter will definitely ban your account if you unfollow AND follow too many people in a day. Not sure what the threshold is before you get banned but I’ve heard some people do as many as 999 actions.
Now keep in mind that an action can be a follow or unfollow.
.-= Jack@Internet Marketing´s last blog ..The Art of Smart Commenting…For Dummies. =-.
Luigi | Postcard Printing on March 17, 2010
“I wish their suspended account never be active again.” Haha. I agree. Those kind of accounts should not even exist. Let’s make Twitter spam-free.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on March 18, 2010
Yes Luigi, Genuine users are always happy if the spammers are blocked for EVER!
icttrends on March 17, 2010
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manisvce on March 17, 2010
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uberVU - social comments on March 17, 2010
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Garen @ Best Web Hosting Service on March 17, 2010
I recently had one suspended. The reason was “aggressive following.” I was using TweetAdder. However, I did get the it suspended I got it back within a couple of weeks. You have to fill out a form and they will turn it back on. You can directly email them too.
I have heard as a general rules of thumb, you should only follow and unfollow 150 a day, max.
.-= Garen @ Best Web Hosting Service´s last blog ..Sitemeter vs Google Analytics – Got Sitetracking =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on March 18, 2010
Thank you Garen for sharing your experience. It is very surprising to know that you will be suspended for “following”, isn’t it?
Garen @ Best Web Hosting Service on March 18, 2010
Yeah get this they suspended my Twitter account for http://www.report-online-scams.com a site I run that reports scams online. All I was trying to do was help people out. Crazy how they go after people that are spreading the word.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on March 18, 2010
Might be it is automated blocking for the filter word scam? Funny though!
lena on March 18, 2010
I had my first twitter account suspended, but i guess due to my own silly mistakes when I was trying some recommended techniques to get more followers.
I made a new one and decided to go slow and for now it all pays off.
Great article
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on March 18, 2010
Hi Lena,
Its great to find you here in my blog. Hartley welcome.
The lesson learned is always “Follow natural methods and appear natural”.
Small Business Factoring on March 20, 2010
i can not believe that twitter would ban you for following too many people. though i CAN understand aggressive following, for the benefit of followers. but for just regular people, interested in others lives? that is ridiculous.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on March 20, 2010
That is what I am arguing. I recently did lots of reading about Twitter Banned Me for doing nothing’ sort of posts. I believe you will be safe as long as you are natural.
Ileane
Twitter: Ileane
on March 21, 2010
Suresh,
I found that some bloggers were told they reached a limit and could not add any new followers. I think this happens when you reach 2,000 and they feel that you have done it too quickly.
It’s nice to have a good following on Twitter but getting banned could be very frustrating. I think that if you use hashtags # on your tweets it makes it easier for people to find you in your niche. Whenever I use them I get a big handful of followers.
.-= Ileane´s last blog ..Dealing with Negative Blog Comments =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on March 21, 2010
There are some tweeples who are having more than that 2000 followers. They must be real genius!
Archon Digital
Twitter: archondigital
on March 21, 2010
I experienced one of my Twitter accounts being suspended once and it lasted for two weeks until Twitter restored the account.
.-= Archon Digital´s last blog ..Twitter vs Plurk – Which is Better? =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on March 21, 2010
Was it restored by itself or you made some actions to regain it?
Garen @ Best Web Hosting Service on March 21, 2010
Yeah, if you do ever get suspended it will take about a week to get reinstated. You do have to write them to prove that you actually care about your Twitter account. I was using TweetAdder, which I would follow and unfollow 600 a day. However, I now keep it to 150 a day and haven’t had a problem. I guess just learn from my mistakes.
.-= Garen @ Best Web Hosting Service´s last blog ..Sitemeter vs Google Analytics – Got Sitetracking =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on March 22, 2010
Its so nice of you to share the real experience. Thanks a lot for that.
Still, can you say 150 a day is safe. I have found some tools that stops you from unfollowing on 50. As you are practicing 150 should be acceptable.
.-= shkhanal´s last blog ..Does your blog load too slow? =-.
Featured in MMO Social Network on March 22, 2010
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Edwin
Twitter: YesVictory
on March 29, 2010
i hate people on twitter who just autofollow to get followers. besides most of the people who follow you are spammers
.-= Edwin´s last blog ..How To Browse Blocked Websites =-.
shkhanal
Twitter: icttrends
on April 3, 2010
One of the funny thing is that there are some twitter accounts that just post message “Free 1000 followers……”
I wonder are they really earning anything with those messages other than causing many twitter accounts getting banned!
.-= shkhanal´s last blog ..Domain Names – Longer the better =-.
Garen @ Best Web Hosting Service on March 30, 2010
not to mention they will just spam your inbox with spam to sell you.
.-= Garen @ Best Web Hosting Service´s last blog ..Sitemeter vs Google Analytics – Got Sitetracking =-.
Net Age | Web Design
Twitter: Net_Age
on June 29, 2010
I think that generally you’ll be OK with twitter if you actually do everything manually. The moment you start looking at automated software that does things for you on twitter you are heading for trouble. Rather work on steadily building your followers than trying to hit a short cut and getting banned for your troubles. John Chow had an interesting experience recently with automated software that actually forced people to follow him without their consent, leading to loads of complaints and grumbling over this fact. Twitter is very much an unexplored frontier in the internet world, and I urge caution, rather than exuberance when approaching it. Rather be safe than sorry
Sam @ webcam modeling jobs
Twitter: BecomePerformer
on July 21, 2010
I did a google search for "how many twitter friend before ban" and this site was the first hit so I feel that I can trust this information!
I am a complete beginner to Twitter, and I have avoided it for the longest time, until finally accepting the fact that it is a successful way to market my business.
I've had my account banned before on other social netoworking sites such as Facebook, so this is a very helpful introduction to what I need to do to avoid being banned on my brand new twitter account!
meditationguru on October 20, 2010
thanks 4 good advice, people should know what they are doing before they make a mistake and get suspended.