Two weeks ago, Twitter announced that it will be introducing major restrictions on the use of automation and “bulk-tweeting” tools. The restrictions are meant to fight against spam, bots, and various other false information throughout the social platform. It’s expected to go into effect this month, on March 23, 2018.
“Bulk-tweeting” is a term used when identical tweets are being scheduled to post, in advance, by multiple accounts. These accounts then gain attention from other accounts in the form of retweets, which gets them in front of a larger audience.
It’s clear Twitter’s goal is to facilitate a safe and accurate social environment for us all. Yoel Roth, API Policy and Product Trust at Twitter, said, “Keeping Twitter safe and free from spam is a top priority for us. Today we're announcing an important step in ensuring we stay ahead of malicious activity targeting conversations on Twitter.”
The popular Twitter platform, TweetDeck, is endorsing these changes on their account according to their tweet on February 21st.
Today we discovered an issue affecting accounts that manage teams. The bug has now been fixed and we apologize for the inconvenience. Please note that this bug is unrelated to the change described in this blog post https://t.co/QDgMjnEJe2
— TweetDeck (@TweetDeck) February 21, 2018
Eliminating the repetitive activity could restrict the widespread misinformation on Twitter, but it could also hinder the performance of accounts that are using it for their own marketing purposes. According to Yoel Roth, “Your service should not permit a user to select several accounts they control from which to publish a given Tweet.” Posting of such information as a real-time tweet, will still be permitted through automation, but only in the case that it pertains to emergencies or disasters. It also will be limited to just one account, not multiple.
Keep an eye on algorithm changes in the Twitter platform. Although automation is not available in this form anymore, it can still be of use to you. You can still schedule tweets in advance for a single account, as long as they adhere to the Twitter Automation rules.
It’s also important that you diversify what you share on your accounts. No channel, account, or platform should have identical information. It risks losing your audience by looking superficial or robotic. Diversifying shared content makes for a better user experience, as it’s likely that they are following your brand on more than one social platform.
Written March 5, 2018 by
Semi-functioning adult and social media aficionado.