There are tons of sites out there for Twitter users to harness in order to have a better experience. Some may be getting more followers, some may be unfollowing, some may be simply using to Tweet. Some of these services participated in tweet pirating – a method of where you joined the service and they felt it their right to tweet their service on your behalf. Often this required you giving them authorization to your account.
It is important to make sure that what you join in order to enhance your Twitter experience that you have the option to avoid having the service tweet out a message. In the past, the Twitter streams were riddled with tweets asking people to join different services and it became so bad that it was literally a sea of spam. It also led to a lot of hacked accounts on some of the dubious services that had popped up.
Do not become a victim of tweet pirating. Make sure that the service provider has the option to turn off the option to tweet on your behalf. In the spirit of being able to use something for free, which is usually the case mentioned by these Twitter opportunities, you should not be expected to do anything in return unless you feel like it.
A lot of companies forget that when they use “free” with any type of service, they are false advertising. You never know if they might be hacked and your account is hijacked. Or they decide to change up rules later and publish different tweets to promote other money making ventures.
If you are a part of any service that does not allow you to shut off their tweeting – unsubscribe or if it is not possible, change your password. These days a lot of services really need to be taking part in the Twitter oAuth system anyway so the only place you are sharing your password is Twitter.
What are your thoughts on tweet pirating? Have you used services in the past or currently use any that require this?
I am glad to say that I have not been a victim of this, Nile. Aside from using Ping, I personally see to the tweeting in my Twitter account. I always believe in placing a personal touch to everything you do, even tweeting, and I hope to gain something for this in the long run.
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I have a bad experience on this.. I tried some service and somehow they tuned out to tweet various spammy tweets from my accounts!
Excellent Twitter tips as always Nile, thank you. Happy New Year if I don't talk with you before it kicks off.
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Tweet pirating is a big problem especially when sending tweets mostly from automated tweet providers and only checking into your tweet account periodically.
Nile – Luckily for me I haven't become a victim of tweet pirating, nor do I know anybody that's a victim of this. I have never used services that participated in tweet pirating.
However, if I do know anybody that joins one of these services to enhance their Twitter experience I will give them your advice on making sure the service provider has the option to turn off the option to tweet on your behalf. Thanks for your tips and advice on this matter and I wish you and your family a happy new year.
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I think the best option for Twitter is to do it yourself. Allotting even a half an hour a day will make the difference than hiring a company. Not to mention it helps to avoid these attacks.
Still i am far from this problem but thanks for tips. Happy New Year
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I agree with Shannon, better to do it yourself rather than using company – thanks for the post (av just come across it :))
I’ve tried tweeter, and many different programs they have to make it easy on me. My experience, as mark said, better to do it yourself. So far all the programs I’ve used have been waste of time and money.
You know it happens a lot when I first started with Twitter. Not that I am affected a lot about it though I decided I needed to shut it down for good.