Twitter new updates on automation
Updates on Twitter: New rules of automation
As a result of the U.S presidential election in 2016, Twitter was in the spotlight. The alleged use of this platform by several Russian bots with the objective of influencing the U.S elections, raised the alarm.
As a consequence, Twitter decided to take action…
With the next midterm elections in the United States in mind, Twitter announced on February 21, 2018 the introduction of new changes in their policies and rules. These changes are in effect as of March 23, 2018.
The objective of these updates is to counter some common uses and abuses of the system.
–> The main purpose: Reduce the influence of spam on Twitter.7
TWITTER UPDATES ON MASS TWEETS
Twitter limits the coordination of various accounts to publish and spread tweets
This social network has always been trying to prohibit automation to prevent spam. This is why, they have made changes in TweetDeck and Twitter API to limit coordinated actions to more than one account at the same time.
Twitter new policy, how does it affect you?
The new guidelines bring some changes in the way some users were making use of Twitter.
Most of us won’t notice the effects of these new rules. Or will they? Whatever the case may be, we need to be aware of Twitters new rules of the game.
Important changes
It is not allowed to simultaneously publish the same content to multiple accounts
It is also prohibited to retweet, interact or answer automatically from multiple accounts.
Users who manage more than one profile are the most affected by these new rules because now, they can’t publish the same or very similar original content to all their accounts.
There are restrictions if publications are programmed in a short period of time
Duplicated tweets give an error message when you try to publish them. In TweetDeck, the option of duplicating tweets had been eliminated before. Now, we should all get used to it.
With regard to scheduling tweets, Twitter is stricter with the space of time that must be left in between if you want to repeat content.7
MAKE A RESPONSIBLE USE WHEN YOU DUPLICATE CONTENT
Twitter asks for more requirements to duplicate a post. The objective is to prevent SPAM. Your publications won’t be affected if you duplicate responsibly.
How to post on Twitter from now on
The new Twitter updates bring some doubts:
- What happens if you use a tool that allows you to simultaneously post to multiple accounts?
- How often can you post identical tweets?
- What happens if you publish recurrent content?
- Can Twitter penalize you if you break the rules?
Let’s start analyzing step by step what we should do to adapt to Twitter’s new policy:
Do you use external tools to program on Twitter which allow you to simultaneously share the same content to several accounts?
All these tools are adapting to only allow posting to accounts individually.7
YOU WON’T HAVE ANY PROBLEM USING METRICOOL
Metricool’s planner doesn’t allow you to simultaneously publish to multiple accounts.
We’ve always avoided this type of automation because we think that it is bothersome for users and the results in the medium/long term don’t justify it.
How often can you post identical content?
We have known for a while now that if you try to publish the same tweet twice, the second tweet will fail.
However, Twitter has never confirmed how often you can repeat content.
Our experience tells us that at least 4 or 5 tweets in between are needed before you repeat content
Besides, you should also consider the space of time needed between publications.
Is it possible to publish recurrent content on Twitter going forward? Is it necessary to create different tweets for the same content?
Don’t panic
Yes, you can continue with your strategy. What you have to do is to create enough content before sharing a duplicated tweet again.
To do so, we recommend Metricool’s autolists. You can use them to schedule lists of content to publish on the different social networks.7
CAUTION
If you break Twitter’s new guidelines repeatedly, your account might be closed.
What will happen if you don’t follow Twitter policies?
What will happen if you publish duplicated content? In the beginning, there is no need to be worried if you do it sporadically.
The worst thing that could happen would be to get an error when you try to post the same tweet twice.
If this happens systematically, BE CAREFUL! Twitter might close your account.
Twitter updates summary: the new rules
- Don’t use tools that allow you to simultaneously publish to multiple accounts.
- Spread the time and share different content before repeating a tweet.
- Make use of a long list of content to separate publications.
- Change slightly duplicated tweets if you schedule them in similar dates.
Twitter changes were designed to prevent SPAM effectively and stop abuses. The ultimate goal is to improve Twitter’s use. These updates have set new rules of the game.
Do you think Twitter is improving with these changes? What’s your opinion about their last updates?
