New Twitter Rules on Automation and the Use of Multiple Accounts
TL;DR:
- In February 2018, Twitter announced some rule changes which affect all social media posting tools in order to keep users safe from spam and bot accounts.
To meet their standards, here are the changes we have implemented to SocialBee:
- Only one Twitter Profile can be selected per post.
- For re-queue content, after the initial publishing of the post, it will be retweeted instead of republished.
Multiple Twitter Profiles can still be managed from one SocialBee account, but you will have to create the content for one profile at a time. Similar changes have been made to all other social media tools which want to stay compliant with Twitter's Terms of Service.
What Has Actually Changed?
Twitter's rule changes (described in their "Automation and the use of multiple accounts" post) might have surprised many of you. The effect of these changes had an impact on all of us, whether we liked it or not. However, it's important to take a step back and look at what Twitter wanted to prevent with these rule changes.
The main intent of this was to discourage the malicious or spammy behaviors often seen on Twitter that can influence trends and the spread of fake news, none of which is tolerated by this platform.
For SocialBee, you are the most important. We strive to make it easy for you to understand and comply with the changes social media platforms make. That's why we are always working on making SocialBee the best, easy-to-use app for you while incorporating these changes.
Who Is Affected by These Changes?
Primarily, these changes target two types of content:
- The one that is identical or substantially similar content for multiple accounts;
- Duplicated content multiple times on the same or multiple accounts.
Creating Identical or Substantially Similar Content for Multiple Accounts
Here is what Twitter said, in their announcement:
🐝 Do not (and do not allow your users to) simultaneously post identical or substantially similar content to multiple accounts. For example, your service should not permit a user to select several accounts they control from which to publish a given Tweet.
This applies regardless of whether the Tweets are published to Twitter at the same time, or are scheduled/queued for future publication. As an alternative to posting identical content, retweet content from one account from the other accounts you wish to share that post from. This should only be done from a small number of distinct accounts that you directly control.
Within SocialBee, this only affected users who have multiple Twitter accounts within the same SocialBee account.
What Changed in SocialBee?
Ever since this has been implemented, you can only select one Twitter Profile when you create a new post, edit an existing one, or add RSS Feeds, Pockets, or import any content to your categories.
You will still be able to select multiple Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Google My Business Location Profiles.
Posting Duplicative Content Multiple Times on the Same or Multiple Accounts
Even though this is not stated explicitly in the new Twitter post, they are set under determining what conduct is considered to be spamming in the Twitter Rules:
🐝 If you post duplicative or substantially similar content, replies, or mentions over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account, or create duplicate or substantially similar accounts;
Creating content that will re-queue every now and then will not get your Twitter Profile in trouble, however, be mindful of this when creating such posts in your categories.
Within SocialBee, this affects users who are using our re-queue posting features.
What Changed in SocialBee?
Before we post any re-queued post, we will check to see if a post was already posted through SocialBee to your selected Twitter Profile, in which case we will retweet the original post.
You will still be able to publish the same post multiple times to Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Google My Business Location Profiles.