5 Tips To Avoid Being Filtered From Twitter Search

Oct 28 2009 View Comments

3

Did you know that Twitter is beginning to filter out tweets from Twitter Search? Did you know that you can’t twitter the same tweet twice? Neither did I until read  “Recurring Tweets On Twitter Accounts Have Been Discontinued”. Joel Postman, author of Social Corp, performed a quick test that successfully verified that Twitter is filtering out recurring tweets. However, those aren’t the only type of tweets being filtered.

Tweet sent from accounts marked as spam and people who are blocked by others too often will have their tweets filtered out of Twitter Search too. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, having your tweets filtered from Twitter Search is not a good look for your social presence and people will have a hard time hearing you on the very channel they wish to connect. It’s like being on a call and you can barely hear the person on the other line. You get all this other feedback, but you never actually hear the person you want to talk to. Here are 5 ways to avoid that on Twitter:

5 Ways To Avoid Being Filtered From Twitter Search

1. Don’t broadcast your content every 10 seconds. They saw your first tweet, ok? Instead, try spacing tweets for your content over a few hours (2-3). Focus on catching a different group in a different time zone instead of attempting to brainwash people with mass tweeting. It’s a sure way to get you marked as spam.

2. Don’t get marked as spam. Self explanatory (see suggestion 1 if lost).

3. Mix up your headlines. You can’t tweet the same tweet, but you can mix up your headlines when you’ve updated a post. Use these opportunities as a way to do a little SEO target practice . You could also crowdsource your community for the good headlines.

4. Monitor your tweets via Twitter Search. It’s up to you to make sure things are running smoothly on the front-end. Twitter’s development team can address problems more quickly, when they actually know what’s you’re getting on your end of the computer. They’re not psychics and they can’t do everything. Check your username on Twitter Search at least once a week to see if your tweets are showing up properly. Keep reading to find out how to do this.

5. Check Your Followings. They say “one bad apple, spoils the bunch”. Well, the same applies on Twitter. That’s right, you can be guilty through association. Retweeting others that are marked as spam or spam-like content are sure ways to get your account flagged. You might want to start looking at the little box in the top right corner of every Twitter profile. Yes, it’s called a Bio. Read it! Click through to websites listed in profiles with suspicious content. You might be surprised by what comes up.

Find Out If Your Profile Is Showing Up In Twitter Search

Head to Twitter search. Enter the following in the search box:  from:username, without the @ symbol. For example:

from:corvida

When you hit search, make sure that the last tweets you sent out are showing up in Twitter Search. I’d suggest opening a separate tab in your browser to compare and contrast your profile with Twitter Search results.

Recommended Twitter Reads:


LOVED IT? SHARE IT!:

Twitter Digg Delicious Stumbleupon Technorati Facebook
Twitter
, ,

View Comments to “5 Tips To Avoid Being Filtered From Twitter Search”

  1. jeff pabian Oct 28 2009 at 1:46 pm

    How interesting. My search results don't match at all my tweets! I can't even determine a pattern. Ay dos mio!

  2. jeff pabian Oct 28 2009 at 1:56 pm

    Ah, make sure you don't have a space between from:username. Weird how that would affect the search results. I started to worry! Thanks for the tips!

  3. Mapper99 Oct 28 2009 at 3:20 pm

    Hmmm…my tweets don't show up in search! Now what do I do?

  4. Corvida Raven Oct 28 2009 at 4:48 pm

    Contact Twitter.

  5. Corvida Raven Oct 28 2009 at 4:48 pm

    No problem Jeff. Thanks for the update on that spacing twist.

  6. Vanessa Oct 28 2009 at 5:50 pm

    http://help.twitter.com/forums/10713/entries/42646

    Contacting Twitter won't do a thing. It's up to them and in their discretion to filter you out in search. My main account (@goldcoastgirl) is not showing up in search yet all my other smaller niche accounts … are… and here I was thinking I was abiding by the rules. Yes, I'm confused.

  7. work at home Oct 29 2009 at 8:28 am

    I am new on twitter and I am just gaining knowledge by reading article on twitter. Thank you.

  8. FunDave Oct 29 2009 at 3:40 pm

    Great Tips: Thanks

  9. DLWilsonsWorld Oct 30 2009 at 1:49 am

    Thanks for the great advice!

  10. Chad Horenfeldt Nov 01 2009 at 10:12 am

    I had this happen to me. I believe that the issue I had was that I had too many tweets with links and not enough status updates. To get out of Twitter search purgatory, I submitted a Support ticket as well as searched over the internet to look for solutions. I participated in forums, solicited help and eventually I'm back in Twitter Search. Not sure exactly what did it but I was persistent

    @chadhorenfeldt

  11. Corvida Raven Nov 05 2009 at 3:48 pm

    Persistence seemed to pay off very nicely for you Chad. Thanks for sharing some of the steps you took for those who have had questions on how to get back in once you're out.

  12. Corvida Raven Nov 05 2009 at 3:49 pm

    Mapper,

    You might want to check out Chad's comment above or reach out to Chad for more specific details.

  13. dossy Nov 09 2009 at 6:57 am

    Hi, Corvida,

    If you'd like to automate the checking of whether your tweets are being indexed, I just launched a new service called @SearchCheck (http://twitter.com/SearchCheck). Perhaps you could share your thoughts on it?

  14. Immunize CO Kids Nov 10 2009 at 6:34 pm

    ugggh, I've been frustrated with this for months. I've been filtered out of searches since the summer time because I'm from a controversial nonprofit (childhood immunizations) and lots of people block me just to try to get me kicked off of Twitter. Do you know how I can open a service request and see if I can get this changed?

  15. Corvida Raven Nov 12 2009 at 3:12 pm

    Unfortunately, the controversy surrounding the nonprofit you work for will continue to impact your Twitter experience negatively. Your best bet would be to reach out to Twitter directly for help.

  16. Corvida Raven Nov 12 2009 at 3:25 pm

    Dossy, I just added SearchCheck to EverythingTwitter.com: http://bit.ly/3xUpgF. I'll be sure to update this post with SearchCheck also. Thanks for the tip Dossy and for creating SearchCheck.

    I

  17. Corvida Raven Nov 12 2009 at 3:38 pm

    Glad I could help.

  18. embee Nov 19 2009 at 1:06 am

    I've been out of Twitter Search since last April :( :( No support ticket did the trick so far. I'm not aware if that is because something I did, or random glitch – I wish I'd gone through that list earlier..

  19. dragonblogger Nov 19 2009 at 5:26 pm

    Very good information.

  20. jazzmann91 Feb 19 2010 at 6:35 am

    Is it important to actively block spammers who follow me or can I just ignore them, I never auto follow?

  21. Corvida Raven Feb 20 2010 at 2:21 pm

    If you don’t auto follow then you could take either a proactive or passive approach to spammers. The community could catch a lot more spammers if you’re taking an active approach though and it’s pretty much a 2 click process. I usually take a mix approach and actively block them when I’m spending time on Twitter. I disregard them for the time being when I’m only doing a quick check-in or search.

  22. hard disk recovery Jun 02 2010 at 4:24 pm

    I dont know why twitter blocks accounts, is there any specific term to use?

blog comments powered by Disqus