Regaining Twitter
-
Our Twitter account had been hijacked by an ex-employee who refused to give it back. However we filed for copyright infringement and got access of our Twitter account back. The sad part is that Twitter could not leep our followers intact and we lost our fan base of over 30k followers. Now that we have control of the account, how should we go about regaining our followers? Just to give the community a better idea i'd like to point out that we are a leading news organization (dawn.com) of Pakistan. (Yes, we have internet and no we don't ride on camels!).
We posted a message on our FB account that has an even greater following but didn't get a good response as most followers on FB are local whereas 70% of our readership comes from the US alone! So how would you suggest regaining followers and also, is it better to operate an RSS feed or manually select the links to share on Twitter.
Thanks!
-
this is a good idea
-
Rishad, what did you end up doing in this case? I'm interested in hearing the answer, and if it makes for a good case study, you might think about submitting a YOUmoz post about it.
-
Ouch! My suggetion like others here on the forums: create a press release saying how you were ruined by an evil employee and throw your twitter name all over, make it almost viral to help you?
-
Once the article is up and running we can republish it to maybe even get you more followers - and then you can write another article about THAT!!
Win+win+win I think!
-
I'm not sure if the follower list is still available anywhere or not. But honestly there isn't much in the way of a operational way to approach this that I know of. I think Thomas and Dejan have said it best. The one thing I might add though - is if the follower list is still intact somewhere, perhaps tied to a different account (doesn't sound like it so this is a long shot) you can use export.ly to get a .csv of all of the followers the account had. You may be able to write a script but I'd suggest doing it manually - to contact them letting them know they need to re-follow and help spread the word.
Sorry about that Going forward a tool like Cotweet is really nice b/c you can give people access without giving them control. I think HootSuite may offer similar functionality.
-
It seems there are a lot of sections of your site this could be apropriate for...perhaps a blog entry even rather than a full blown press statement? Might sit easier with the editorial board perhaps...
-
easy, show them how many links came to the site via twitter over a month/year period. That should get a bosses attention.
-
hmmm...if only I am able to convince the editorial!
-
This looks like a perfect news story for Dawn. If you do not have a list of the Twitter followers, release a press statement or article stating what happened and ask people to re-join.
-
Man, the list was lost courtesy of Twitter. They said, they could only transfer the username and not the followers. Although the hijacker was operating an RSS, we wanted more control and wanted to integrate it with FB and do other things. Mailing list, yea we have one for online subscribtions and not for the Twitter followers we had previously!
-
How was the list lost. Was the account terminated and re-created or did the hijacker affect the user base? Do you have a mailing list? That would seem the easiest way to regain the lost user base and give you a chance to wash the list as well and retain relevant followers only.
-
Hi Rishad,
To answer your second question first: I definitely prefer a manually curated list on twitter. Alternatively you can have one main twitter account with a currated list + a number of automated twitter accounts that send feeds from your vertical news segments.
I would simply start using your Twitter account the way it is supposed to be, and I am sure your followers will get back eventually. To speed things up, you could consider press releases, news stories and/or sponsored tweet that mentions your Twitter account was hijacked but is back - stronger than ever.
Good luck!
Thomas
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Can you redirect old abandoned Twitter/Facebook accounts?
My client has a Facebook profile and a Twitter account that they have abandoned. These pages also have old branding and we would like to redirect these pages in some way to the current Facebook and Twitter accounts. I did find this article but it's 3 years old and not sure this is works: http://www.thesearchagents.com/2011/12/how-to-do-a-301-redirect-on-twitter-even-though-twitter-doesnt-allow-it/ What's the best way to do this?
Social Media | | RosemaryB0 -
Hi! The same function you have on twitter ( how you can see their flooewrs) do you have it for blogs?
Hi! The same function you have on twitter ( how you can see their flooewrs) do you have it for blogs?Describe your question in detail. The more information you give, the better! It helps give context for a great answer.
Social Media | | JohannaPihl0 -
Twitter T&Cs
We're considering running a promotion to donate some cash to a charity for every new follower we gain during our user conference. Could this be considered buying followers, which could put our account at risk for closure?
Social Media | | jcommerce0 -
How to customise twitter feed
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/twitter-feed-exclusion-2_zps1f3c01bb.jpg Hi... the above link explains what I'm trying to do but basically i want to add a twitter feed to a website but be able to exclude certain sites. For example you add a feed to a client and they then ask for you to remove competitor messages. Is this possible? Thanks,
Social Media | | Nightwing
David0 -
Twitter lists - Transferring from 1 account to another
Hi Does anybody know how to transfer Twitter lists from 1 account to another ? Twitter says this isnt possible but is anyone aware of any software that can do this (or technique) ? Both accounts have the same owner Many Thanks Dan
Social Media | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Google+ & Twitter, what do I post?
Hello, My site is bobweikel.com What do I post on Google+ and Twitter? How often? Can my posts be the same for all 3: facebook, google+, and Twitter
Social Media | | BobGW0 -
Can Twitter really help your Google Rankings??
Hi Guys, Can anyone tell me if Twitter really does help with your Goolge rankings? If I go to the trouble of setting up a Twitter account for my business will it really help with me getting higher rankings? If so is it a case of me just posting tweets all the time and links to my website? Any help or guidance be grateful guys Thanks Gareth
Social Media | | GAZ090 -
Twitter, Please direct me to background image guide
Hi guys, I'm having trouble coming up with a proper twitter background. I'm just going to start with a simple solid green with branding info in the top left. Do you guys know of an article that gives me the exact dimensions and placement to put things as far as where to put my logo and name in the background image and how wide and tall to make my logo and name. Or you can just tell me, but an article would be fine. The articles I've read are not consistent. Thank you!
Social Media | | BobGW0