Twitter Account Reinstated

I'm happy to say that my Twitter account was reinstated yesterday after being "Suspended for suspicious activity," for about six hours. The reinstatement was as mysterious as the suspension.

I have yet to receive a response from Twitter for any of the three service requests I submitted, so I am still in the dark about why this happened or what (if anything) I did to trigger this event.

One thing that I've learned as a result is to pay careful attention to "Terms of Service" (TOS) agreements. Twitter recently revised their TOS and I confess that I had not read them carefully before. But yesterday, I read it with a fine-toothed comb, looking for anything I may have inadvertently violated.

For those of us who have built our businesses upon social media tools and platforms, these kinds of events can be devastating. My hat is off to Twitter for their prompt action, but I have heard other social media sites are much less responsive.

The lesson here is to be careful. Stay as far from any grey areas as you can, know TOS agreements and conduct your business as ethically as you can. And finally, obey not just the letter of the rules, but the spirit as well.

This all comes back to having the right philosophy toward social networking. Be generous, be helpful, look for ways to add value and contribute to the community.

I would like to think that the Twitter folks took a look at my activities and decided that is what I strive to do. But it is still a mystery, so for all I know I am being unnecesarily philosophical.

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