Wednesday, March 20, 2013

How to Stay Out of Twitter Jail


There’s No Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free Card for Twitter Jail!

How to stay out of Twitter’s overuse jail.






          After I published my first book, She’s Not There, it wasn’t long before I became overwhelmed by how many social media sites there were and how many I was “supposed” to be active on. It quickly became frustrating trying to keep up with  with them all.
Then I found a book recommending that an author, rather than do a poor job on all of them, pick two and do them right. This spoke to my state of angst, and I quickly settled on doing the two things I actually enjoyed: Twitter and blogging.
I clipped along on Twitter for more than a year, acquired 5000+ followers and a long list of folks I regularly exchanged RTs with. It became a comfortable routine.
Imagine my distress the first time I received a Twitter message informing me I’d gone over the allowed transaction limit and wouldn’t be able to tweet or RT for an undisclosed number of hours—a dilemma quickly dubbed “Twitter Jail” by someone much more clever than myself.

 Twitter “tweet allotment” facts:
1.    Twitter allows an individual user 1,000 tweets a day. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, not really.
2.    Those thousand tweets permitted, which include RTs, are broken down into semi-hourly intervals. What does this mean to the user?
3.    You cannot use more than the amount allowed for a semi-hourly break down without risking having your tweeting ability frozen for hours. If you use automated tweets, they will not be run.
4.    Twitter doesn’t give exact details, but if you divide 1000 by 24, that means roughly 41 Twitter transactions allowed per hour.
5.    To be safe, I limit myself to 20 every half hour since Twitter’s descriptor is “semi-hourly,” which defines as twice per hour.

What this means for authors who practice a regular RT exchange with other authors and readers, is you can’t sit down at your computer in the morning, run a huge number of RTs, and consider yourself done for the day. Not if your own scheduled tweets are important to you! By scheduled tweets, I’m referring to those that you set up on sites like Hootsuite and Gremlin.
The only way to beat the system is to stagger your RTs. Don’t groan, I know it’s a lot more work. On days I’m home, sometimes I set a small timer to remind myself to do my 30-minute RT allotment! Unfortunately, the end result on busy days is I just don’t get to give back as many RTs as I would like.
Use your transactions wisely. When RTing for someone, find one that will help his or her cause. And if you want people to RT for you, make sure you have something there you’d like RT’d, other than a long list of thank-you’s.

Dear Readers,
I decided to address this topic because I’m often disappointed that I cannot always RT for everyone who does it for me. There is just not enough time in a day to do it with the new restrictions. Hope this helps you understand Twitter Jail--I've been there--the food is awful!
Have a great week,
Marla

23 comments:

  1. Thanks for the information. I was wondering about that and didn't know who to ask. I appreciate your info.

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    1. Hi Diana,
      I think I have it right! I imagine a lot of people don't care; they just dump on the RTs and let it happen. It really only affects you if you use scheduled tweets or if it's important to you to be able to use Twitter without interruption. I know we follow each other on Twitter, nice to see you here.
      Thanks for stopping by ,have a great weekend,
      Marla

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  2. Top tips Marla, and very interesting. I love Twitter too and have around 10,000 followers now. I don't tend to fall into Twitter jail as I perhaps don't send out quite enough messages - but I do message in short bursts in the way you describe and it's a shame to think that two or three simulanious conversations over a half hour period would be enough to get you banged up in the clnk!

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    1. Hi 'song,
      I don't think two or three conversations would do it. It only happened to me when I did a lot more than twenty RTs within a half hour's time. I don't think Twitter is as concerned about conversations as they are about what they perceive as "spam." RTs, while not spam, if occur too rapidly, spike the spam alert. Or so I imagine!
      Have a great weekend,
      Marla

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  3. Great tips, Marla. One truly must pace the RTs and activity on Twitter and Facebook as well. Wishing you all the best, MG.

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    1. Nice to see you here, MG! Thanks for visiting the blog. I didn't know Facebook had any restrictions, but then I'm not a big FB user. Always seems too complicated to use!
      One of these days I'll have to spend some time on learning it.
      Have a great Sunday,
      Marla

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  4. Glad I could finally read some of your blogs, Marla. There are so many. Wish I have the time to blog. I find yours helpful and inspirational. I started Facebook and now wish I did not. Most share amusing/inspirational photos, quotes or promos there. It's free, yet I feel it was geared to stay in touch with friends and family. Now, it's being used for business. Enjoy your Sunday and best wishes with your book, MG

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    1. Hi,
      Love it that you stopped in, and thanks for the potistive comments! At one time, I got so frustrated with all the social media demands that I decided to focus on the ones I liked, which were Twitter and blogging. I try to blog every week, but sometimes it's every other. Biggest problem is coming up with new ideas for a theme! I'm not into FB much, but I think it's a great way for families and friends to keep each other updated with life events.
      Having a rather lazy Sunday here, watching the ice-fishing on the lake in front of our house. Last year at this time all the ice was off the lake! Been a cold March here in NW Wisconsin!
      Stay warm,
      Marla

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  5. Writer Dave Here! Hi, Marla,
    I don't tweet much, my blog stories go out on Twitter.
    As far as FB, I got upset with them too! I do a lot of networking with writers on FB.One time I sent a message to a person I wasn't FB friends with. I talked about my blog and ebook and then I sent a friend request. The next thing I know, FB is telling me not to message of friend request people I don't know! Then they put a ban on me, so I couldn't send new messages for two weeks! Writers use FB for marketing all the time, so as far as I was concerned this was silliness! There are a lot of silly restrictions on many of the social sites.
    I find my blog is the best method for reaching out to people. I've even sold a few ebooks because of my blog.
    Well, that's the end of my rant!
    Happy, Tortuous, Marketing, everyone!!!

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    1. Hi Dave,
      Yes, marketing IS tortuous!!
      I have to admit, I don't care for FB, either. They kept send me all these people for "friend suggestions" and then when I started "friending" some of them, I got a warning letter not to friend people who I don't know. Strange.
      I like Twitter because it's relatively uncomplicated. How bad can it be when it's limited to one sentence comments? Short and to the point. I like it because I meet a lot of great people with it, and also can have scheduled tweets telling them about my books. I use Gremlin for that.
      I like blogging, too, although it does take a lot of time.
      Glad you've found your marketing niche!
      Marla

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  6. Hi Marla,
    great post again, compliments!
    Does the marla_ann address help with the twitter issues?
    I tried the same, and for some reason my name appears anyway, even I used my sisters name/IP address/email address.

    Had the same experience on FB with their friend suggestions.Twice! and then they send me pics of people to identify, sometimes not even people, but interiors of houses ... still not back on FB, as I could not identify them. Don't miss it, as my blogs go automatically there, and I don't like these LIKE functions.

    I am a lot into Goodreads, which I find the best of all for writers. It is amazing how many features it has for authors. Can highly recommend it! For example if you have a book launch, you can advertise it as an event, then they have hundreds of communities for all genres, lots of reviewers etc.

    And then Pinterest, where you can pin your books with price and link to Amazon. It is a real fun site, but not very much used by authors, even so the time effort is minimal.

    When I was in Twitter Jail I spent this time on Google+, which is very useful as they also have about 20 forums for writer AND readers and you can post your blog everywhere. Visit me at my small forum and add your blog posts, would love to see you there.
    http://bit.ly/VmtVAS

    Cheers, and happy Easter,
    should be nice weather-wise,

    Doris

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    1. Hi Doris,
      Odd that you ask about that Twitter address! I'd forgotten all about it. I only use the one, and have often thought maybe using another one would help the whole "jail" issue. I should look into doing that.
      I had a horrendous experience with GR and still am not happy about it, although I do use their site. About a year or more ago, someone on GR took issue with a comment I made about reviewing.(on my blog.) I became inundated with slurs on Goodreads that were made on review screens.I found out later this is not all that uncommon and is referred to as a Troll attack. Goodreads has refused to remove them, but placed them at the back of my reviews. How they can leave nasty comments up there that are NOT reviews just boggles my mind. It has lowered the rating of She's Not There, when it has NOTHING to do with the book.
      Sorry, to bore you with this, but as you can see, I'm still provoked by it!
      I still have my books listed there, however, and leave reviews of the books I read. There are a lot of truly nice people that use GR, so I try hard to keep an open mind despite my issue with GR.

      You bring up good points about using Google + and Pinterest. I'm signed up for both but haven't really learned how to use them properly. You used your jail time wisely!!
      Thanks for commenting and thanks for your suggestions,
      Happy Easter, too, hope your area has a sunny day!
      Marla

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  7. Really interesting post and comments, Marla. Thank you!

    Jemima at Jemima's blog

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    1. Hi Jemima,
      So nice to see you here! Happy to hear that you enjoyed your visit.
      Have a wonderful Easter,
      Marla

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  8. I had no idea of the quota restrictions on Twitter. It's good to know this for when I do my upcoming promotions. I almost got shut out from Yahoo once for going over the limit. Also, I've gotten Facebook warnings to slow down.

    Also, Twitter won't post the same tweets in a row, so I do little things like putting in an extra space or taking one out, anything small, sometimes a different word somewhere , to make it different so the tweet will be accepted, and that works!

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    1. Hi Morgan,
      I don't know about the yahoo restrictions. Too bad you got hit with Twitter and Yahoo! Facebook send huge lists of people they suggest you "friend" but then when you do, they send warnings also. Hard to keep up since they are all different.
      I do know about the same tweet restrictions. I use Gremlin to tweet about my books, and find if I schedule the same one twice a day, I'm okay. Of course I do schedule them at least 5-6 hours apart.
      Glad the "small change" thing works for you. I recall hearing that sometime they did get you for those.
      So nice to meet you here Morgan,
      Have a wonderful Easter,
      Marla

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  9. Hi Marla,
    I just came across your site thanks to a re-tweet by Mike Finnicum who just started following me on Twitter. I'm striving to become a published author. I've written a non-fiction children's book, and I'm working on a book of writing prompts and a mystery novel. The past summer I started a blog and joined Twitter and Facebook to help publicize it. I'm still trying to figure both of them out. I had no clue about Twitter jail until I came across your tweet/blog. This was very informative for me. Thanks. I also think your blog will be very beneficial for me and will be following you here and on Twitter.
    Thanks again,
    Elizabeth Wilson

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  10. Something else I was not aware of - not that I am in danger of going to Twitter jail at the moment but who knows? I set up automatic Tweets when I started blogging about three years ago, just to tweet my posts. It was another year before I began tweeting with any vigour and I am still behind many. I gave up on the "mass tweet" sites and have recently got into Pinterest. Those wintry trees on the left are making me shiver by the way but gorgeous photo!

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    1. Thanks, Deborah!
      today is April 25 and we still have a few men ice-fishing on the lake in front of our house! Been a cold spring here in NW Wisconsin.
      I don't use the Mass Tweet sites, either. Don't see any real advantage to it unless mere numbers are what you're looking for. The only real problem with Twitter Jail is for people like us who do use scheduled tweets. The won't run for however many hours you're in "jail."
      Thanks for commenting and have a great weekend,
      Marla

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  11. Thanks for the info... I had no idea! I always learn something every time I visit your blog. :-)

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    1. Hi Beduwen,
      Glad you find the blog helpful and thanks for commenting. Twitter jail is probably only a concern to others who are big users, both with RTs and messages.
      Have a great day, hope you missed the big snowstorm!
      Marla

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  12. What I find so interesting about authors on twitter is that they DO spam the same set of tweets over and over. While I understand the need to generate traffic, the reality is that people catch on that they have seen that tweet seventeen times and start IGNORING the author's feed. While I repost tweets about what is on my blog I make sure that none is repeated in a two week span. The autotweeting of the same old thing over and over--I think--makes a person look lazy and opportunistic.

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    1. Ach! Guilty, of that too, I'm afraid. In my case it's time constraints, but you have a great point. I must get around to changing my repeating tweets at least as often as I change my blog.
      Part laziness, part lack of time.
      Thanks for the reminder!
      Have a great weekend,
      Marla

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