Twitter changes

Twitter is growing rapidly and I mean rapidly. In June we started a new book, Quick Win Digital Marketing (available October) and at the time we found statistics for Twitter that claimed 6 million Users. Going through the book edits two weeks’ ago, it was 25 million and Techcrunch reported this week “Twitter Flew Above The 50 Million Uniques Mark For the First Time in July.” If I was Twitter I would:

Work to remove spam
Stabilise the platform
Build in more security
Develop business accounts

WORK TO REMOVE SPAM We all get spam followers. I’d rather have meaningful followers instead of going on safari and hunting for the maximum number, using auto follow devices. Equally, how can you follow so many people? Does the Twitter account become just about you, rather than who you’re following and who’s following you? I read the tweets of those that I’m following, I don’t just tweet :) Some years ago you looked at someone’s website, their LinkedIn profile and now I look for them on Twitter too. I checked out someone I know, but the message I received was:

This was the information provided: Contesting account suspension Submitted Dec 05, 2008 by crystal

Why are accounts suspended? Account suspension occurs when an account is flagged for suspicious activity. One or more of these things may cause an account to be suspended: Terms of Service Violations Technical Abuse Spam Investigation Please read the Twitter Rules to find out more about violations. How do I find out why my account was suspended, or get account suspension lifted? Our Spam/Abuse or Support team researches suspended accounts. If you feel your account has been wrongly suspended, please visit Twitter Support and file a request. If you're logged into Twitter, you can visit Twitter Support by clicking the help link directly from your Twitter account. Submit a request: your ticket will be submitted to Twitter Support and we'll email you a ticket confirmation. Accounts may be suspended for a minimum of 30 days for research. Check on your ticket status anytime by visiting your Twitter Support home page and clicking Check on your existing requests. If you're unable to submit a request through our help form, please send an email to suspended@twitter.com.

STABILISE TWITTER

Sometime twitter falls over. It just doesn’t work and Tweets fail. If I was at Twitter I’d be working to build in belt and braces to keep the service running.

BUILD IN MORE SECURITY

Several people’s accounts have been hacked into. New websites are new toys for the hacking community – a talented group of people who really should be working in the security services or looking at ways to crack the world’s larger issues. Twitter needs to add greater security – hey why not engage the successful hackers to ensure it’s safe? Being hacked into when you’re just a person (not an IBM type behemoth) is no fun :( DEVELOP BUSINESS ACCOUNTS

This is where the money is. Business accounts that offer

Links from the twitter web home page
Personalised home pages
Ways to sort followers in alphabetical order from the website
Ad free forever (it may come to ordinary accounts)
Verified business accounts that are spam free – people could be encouraged to only follow verified accounts
Multiple logins from different staff members to the one account

What changes have you seen in Twitter? What else should we add? Do follow me http://twitter.com/annmariehanlon :)

Labels: measuring twitter numbers and followers, spam, twitter