Now I know I didn’t do anything wrong, so clicked on the Suspended Accounts link. Here’s what it says:

Suspended Accounts

A Twitter account may be suspended for a variety of reasons. The most common of which is automated mass following or other types of spammy behavior.

What is Spam on Twitter?
Commercial or promotional use of Twitter is allowed. There are many companies who create valuable, opt-in relationships with users on Twitter who want to keep up to date with them. However, if you are following other accounts in order to gain attention to your account or links therein, you may be considered spam. If you are creating a series of accounts in order to promote the same thing, you may be considered spam. If you are sending large numbers of @reply messages that are not genuine replies, you may be considered spam. If you are creating updates in order to show up in search results, you may be considered spam. If you are disguising links (i.e., writing about one thing but linking to another), you may be considered spam. If a large number of users have blocked you (relative to those following you), you may be considered spam.

Other Reasons Your Account May Be Suspended
It’s possible your account may be suspended for breaking other Twitter rules. Impersonation, illegal content, or any violation of the Twitter Terms of Service may result in the suspension of your account.

If You’ve Been Suspended Unjustly
Please let us know if you feel your account was suspended and you believe it should not be. We will review your request as soon as possible.”

Well, all of that is as clear as mud, so I clicked on the “let us know” link and got a response that said they’ll look into it.

I’m not happy about this lack of customer service. I’ve read a boatload of complaints about suspensions, and I’m wondering what’s going on.

I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Has anyone else had this problem?

I follow them too, and I have been learning a lot…about them, and about Twitter. It’s still unclear to me how I can engage in a real conversation with that many people, but I’m willing to try to find out.

My theory is that Twitter is like a virtual office watercooler for people who work at home. At least it is for me.

While I was getting Twitter set up, I found a really helpful post, How To Become A Twitter Rockstar – Sort Of, that offers great common-sense advice about the best ways to use Twitter, along with links to pretty nifty free Twitter tools.

The only advice I’m not sure about in the post is to put a link in your direct response to people when they follow you. I think it might be taken as self-serving. But, I don’t know.

What do you think? And what do you think about Twitter in general?

HubSpot.com ran a terrific free webinar the other day showing how to use Twitter for marketing and pr.  I’ve summarized the main points below.

Build Your Network

• Decide whether you want to market yourself or your company.
• Personalize your account by setting up your profile
• Find friends to follow through your email contacts
• Use Twitter Grader to find top Twitter users to follow
• Follow thought-leaders and the people thought-leaders follow (you can always un-follow them)
• Get involved in networks where very thoughtful conversations are happening
• Type in your business keywords in Twitter Search and get involved in conversations already happening

Engage With Your Community

• Jump into the conversation – remember that it’s a discussion, not a broadcast tool
• Follow people who follow you
• Publish helpful content – give people a reason to follow you
• Use Twitter for events
• Take online relationships to an offline “Tweetup”
• Don’t “tweet” your intimate personal information. Be discreet 

Track and Analyze

• Use  Twitter Grader to measure your Twitter account’s influence
• Measure your ongoing sales activity

Use Tools

• Set up your blog feed to automatically send posts to Twitter

And that’s just a summary. There’s a lot more. You can watch the entire webinar at HubSpot.com.  I learned a lot from the webinar. Don’t miss it! Get started with Twitter today!

P.S. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jbshort

Happy tweeting!