Rules and best practices

Below, we’ve outlined a basic introduction to Twitter's rules and best practices related to some of the most common questions we come across. For a comprehensive list of account behaviors that could lead to potential account violations, please see the Twitter Rules.

Following

Automated proactive following and automated un-following are not allowed. For example, aggressively or indiscriminately following hundreds of accounts to get attention can create a frustrating experience for people. Read our Following rules and best practices article for more information.

Replies

You can direct a Tweet to a specific person using replies and mentions. The reply feature is intended to make communication between people easier, but repeatedly posting duplicated and unsolicited replies to many accounts is considered spam behavior.

Trending topics

Participating in Twitter trends is a great way to join a worldwide public conversation. Our FAQs about trends on Twitter article has information on how to join in. However, posting unrelated Tweets to trends in order to get attention could result in your account being suspended. 

Search (and contests)

Twitter search is a powerful way to find out what people are talking about, right now. We may filter accounts from search if they're degrading the search experience for other people (by posting lots of duplicate links, for example). Read our Twitter search rules and restrictions article for more information. To learn how to run a contest, read our Guidelines for Promotions on Twitter article.

Automation

If you’d like to add account automation, read our Automation rules and best practices article.

Having Trouble?

Check out our complete list of articles outlining our policies, guidelines and best practices.