The Day Twitter Died

Have you ever thought about how important Twitter was in your life?

I had a chance to ponder that question when I found out my Twitter account had been suspended last Sunday, “for suspicious activities.”

A river of emotions ran through me:

1. Indignation: “What suspicious activities? I’m hardly ever on Twitter!”

It’s true, I haven’t been on Twitter as much as I used to . And I hadn’t even participated in Follow Friday for several weeks already. So I was upset that Twitter accused me of doing something “suspicious.” I read the Terms of Use (ok, I admit it, I never read it before) and then felt…

2. Guilt: “Well, I did promote my product pretty aggressively last week…”

Just last week, I used Tweetlater to schedule Tweets to go out to my followers, offering a 50% Twitter-only discount on my special report. I scheduled the same Tweet to be posted about 3-4 times a day, from June 29 to July 4. I guess some people would consider that spamming.

I see tons of people doing the same thing on Twitter – including people who sell infoproducts about how to make money on Twitter – and wondered why their accounts were still active.

3. Sadness: “I really wish I could Tweet about something. Wonder what I’m missing on Twitter right now.”

I missed the interaction on Twitter. A couple of times that night, I would have wanted to put out a couple of Tweets but then realized I couldn’t. Or I’d feel the compulsion to look at my Twitter stream and see what people were up to – but then it would dawn on me that I couldn’t. I had been cut off from my online community. I couldn’t communicate with them, and they couldn’t reach me, either.

4. Relief. “There’s always Facebook.”

I was aching to connect with my Twitter friends and let them know my predicament. Then I remembered that a lot of them were also my friends on Facebook. So I logged in and posted an update about my Twitter account being suspended.

That’s when I discovered that the social media maven @MariSmith’s Twitter account had been suspended as well. I was part of a mass suspension of Twitter accounts. Ah, at least I could go to bed knowing that it wasn’t personal. It was probably not something I had done but rather some bug or error that the Twitter technies had done.

I read about people panicking because a significant percentage of their profits were coming from Twitter. Poor unfortunate souls! Glad I wasn’t relying on Twitter to find clients, sell stuff or get people to read my blog. I just wanted my Tweeps back.

I went to bed that night knowing that everything would be all right. If necessary, I would create a new Twitter account, follow the people whose Twitter names I could remember, and let them know what had happened to me. I would Email @MariaAndros because her Twitter account was suspended a few months ago and she got it reactivated. This time, I would have a clearer Twitter strategy and maybe even have separate accounts for my different online interests. You know, actually use Twitter as a marketing tool.

But as it turned out, I didn’t have to do any of those things. When I woke up Monday morning, I was back on Twitter.

I still have only one account, with followers and followees being a mish-mash of all my passions, interests, business goals and everything else that’s important in my life. No, I won’t be creating a Twitter course any time soon.

How about you? How important is Twitter to you? Is it a significant source of traffic, leads and profits for you?

What would you do if Twitter suddenly died?

photo credit: helloyiying

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