Social Media 101: Banned on Twitter – Help!

Published on Jun 18, 2009   //  Social Media
3

socialmedia1011This morning I woke up to find my twitter account had been suspended. A bit confused I immediately tried to submitted a ticket to support but I could not find it on the twitter help page. I googled and found it of course and submitted a ticket. As my account was suspended I started searching for others who had been suspended to see how long it could take. One post suggested it could take up too 30 days. As I continued to search I found there was very little help for when you need it at twitter.

While I was suspended I learned a great deal about twitter though. For example did you know that twitter is owned by obvious.com. Also I found a phone number where you can call twitter and leave a message. This is the info on their whois…

415-896-2008

Another interesting fact that I learned was that the twitter.com domain was previously owned by someone in South Korea. I wonder how much they sold it for? Bet  they are kicking themselves now for selling so low.

I also found that they list the twitter employees on their site. Here is a list of those employees that I can find…

Images_mini Sonic2_mini Alex_mini Al3x_feb_2009_mini Shady_me_mini Me_mini Kitty_mini Mrtall_bigger_mini Biz_stone_mini Dsc_2750-2_mini Little Y2hhcmxlcw_mini At_work-2_mini Meandfu_mini N30408690_33614537_9476_square_mini Photo_8_mini Doug-profile_mini Avatar_mini Dustin-was-here_mini Em_mini 724px-tigerente_mini Eric_mini Ev-sky_bigger_mini Pic2_mini Eye-in-hand-square_mini Picture_2_mini Me_joi_mini N37523038_9416_mini Unknown_mini _-seal_mini Jessica_mini 100_0565smaller_mini Me-new_mini John48x48_mini Photo_2_mini Keerthi_2_2__mini 3529733373_b03473c2d3_b_mini N206489_34325699_8572_mini Photo_272_mini Q90406211_4464_mini Photo_3_mini Maggie_mini Marcel-euro-rails-conf_mini L-icon_mini N14602342_30779909_9881_mini Diaz-avatar_mini Reeses_mini Mike_mini Img_0401_mini Small_me_death_valley_mini Rael_goggled_mini Photo_8_mini Perhapsfuture_mini Trs_80_color_computer_2_mini Me-square_mini 2448434960_65aba38823_t_mini Dawntmars_mini Me_mini Jr_ranger_steve_mini Default_profile_mini Vitor_mini Bysem_mini Me2_mini

I do not suggest you harass these people as it may get you permanently banned.

At this point I tried calling the obvious.com phone number which is a different number on that whois. That number was disconnected so I do suggest that they update it.

Around this time I noticed that my ticket had been updated that delbius was the person reviewing my ticket. I fired him a quick @ with my ticket number letting him know if he had any questions to let me know.

Less then a hour later delbius had resolved the issue and my account was  back online.

The problem with my account was there was a spammer sending out RT’s using my username in them and someone at twitter inadvertently suspended me too.

So what should I have done? What would you have done in this situation?

3 Comments to “Social Media 101: Banned on Twitter – Help!”

  • raincoasterr
    June 18, 2009 11:28 pm

    It happened to several of my high-profile friends today. You handled it very efficiently. My response would have been a bit more dramatic. I would have pulled every string I had, and I have a few. Together, those strings would have sounded like an Yngwie Malmsteen concert.

  • Thebluestbutterfly
    June 19, 2009 3:21 am

    I would have tried contacting as many Twitter people as I could find to solve the issue. I have been known to do this with other issues…and Twitter is an excellent way to do it. I am impressed with most companies (including Twitter) who recognize that you really must value a service (and are likely to give it good PR once the prob is fixed)…..and fix the issue quickly.

  • Sean R Nicholson
    July 2, 2009 10:34 pm

    I ran into an ordeal where my Twitter account was suspended as well. I documented some of the steps I took to get unblocked in my blog post here:

    http://www.intranetexperience.com/ourblog/?p=360

    Hopefully it will help others!

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