Technology

Monday Buzz: Did Twitter Automation Just Get Harder?

Has a social media best practice just been upended? At least one company is switching up its approach in response to new rules—but others aren’t following suit. Also: Dive into the new season with these spring cleaning tips for nonprofits.

In an attempt to crack down on spammers, Twitter recently implemented a new rule that may wind up hurting some people who automate non-spammy tweets.

As part of Twitter’s terms of service, users are no longer allowed to post duplicative tweets across different accounts. This makes sense as an anti-spamming effort. But the interpretation of the rules found on Twitter’s automation policies site is causing some confusion. The rule states: “You may not post duplicative or substantially similar Tweets on one account or over multiple accounts you operate.”

(A tweet on Twitter’s developer account adds that “posting identical Tweets over multiple hours or days, or scheduling duplicate content for future publication, is still a violation of our rules.”)

Popular social media automation tool Meet Edgar is implementing this rule in strictest terms. Meaning that it is no longer allowing users to recycle identical tweets on the same account, a common practice among many social media users who often reuse top-performing tweets.

“Whether you recycle your Tweets across multiple Twitter accounts or on just one, it’s officially against the rules—and Twitter is now enforcing those rules more strictly than ever,” the company writes in a blog post. “Moving forward, it means you should expect scheduling tools that have allowed for automated content recycling to no longer offer that service for Twitter accounts.”

But this isn’t actually the case for all social automation tools—at least not yet. Associations Now‘s Ernie Smith reached out to Buffer, which says it plans to still allow users to recycle tweets on the same account. Buffer is preventing users from selecting multiple accounts for the same tweet, however.

Time for Spring Cleaning

Ready for Spring? The folks over at MemberClicks are, and they’re sharing some awesome nonprofit spring cleaning hacks to help you feel revitalized.

Start with deep cleaning your inbox. “When emails go unread and begin to pile up, it can become a legitimate nuisance that hurts your ability to be productive,” writes Krissy Conant. “You can’t know what projects you need to do if you haven’t read all of your correspondences!”

Conant recommends blocking out 15-20 minutes per day to chip away at your backlog.

Other Links of Note

Are you keeping up with the right Facebook metrics? The M+R blog shares the measurements you should pay attention to.

General operating funds for nonprofits are often misunderstood. Nonprofit AF comes to the defense of the funding bucket.

The day back after PTO often involves a lot of catching up. The Matrix Group blog reveals how to make your first day back more productive.

(dem10/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

Got an article tip for us? Contact us and let us know!


Comments