To access the follow / unfollow settings for any of your authorized Twitter accounts, simply navigate to the options under the "Follows" heading in the navigation bar.
4.1) Auto Follow Settings
- Auto Follow Back
Depending on the option selected, Twando will automatically follow back your followers for this account when the follow cron job is run. Selecting "all followers" from the drop down means that all followers of this account will be followed back. Selecting "new followers only" means that only new followers will be followed back. This can be very useful if you have a positive difference between your followers and who you are following and want to maintain this by only following back new followers.
- Auto Unfollow
If selected, Twando will check who you are following against who is following you and automatically unfollow anyone who's not following you when the follow cron job is run.
- Send Auto DM
If you want to send an Auto DM to your followers (when you automatically follow them back), you can select that here and fill in your message in the "Auto DM" text box. This message supports all Twando custom tweet expressions (see the Tweet Custom Expressions section for more information).
4.2) Follow Exclusions
- Twando allows you to specify unfollow exclusions; these come into play if you are using the "Auto unfollow users who are not following you" option detailed above. Any Twitter accounts you specify here will not be unfollowed automatically; this is really useful for example if you run Twando on your main personal Twitter account, but there are certain people you follow that you don't want to automatically unfollow. You can add as many exclusions as you require and then delete them later if you wish. When adding an exclusion, there is a checkbox titled "Follow these users on Twitter now?" which as the name suggests will
follow the users you submit on Twitter. You can therefore use this screen to mass follow a list of Twitter users; there is even an additional checkbox which appears so you can mass follow on Twitter without needing to add the users to your exclusion list. You can also select to add the users to the slow follow/unfollow cron list (see below) rather than follow/unfollow instantly (following new users too quickly is an easy way to get your account banned).
- You can also add follow exclusions based on the List action drop down which work in exactly the same way, except that the users listed will never be followed back, even if they follow your account and you are set to auto follow back based on the settings above.
-
Finally, the Delete from list drop down allows you to specify a time when the exclusion is automatically removed. This can be incredibly useful when following new users on Twitter. For example you could follow 100 accounts and add them all as unfollow exclusions for any period of time (say 7 days). After 7 days, anyone who's not followed you back can then be automatically unfollowed by Twando when the exclusion is removed.
4.3) Search to Follow
Twando allows you to search for new users to follow and mass follow these users with two clicks. Top tip: Mass following too quickly is a very easy way to get your Twitter account banned.
- Tweet Based Search
This method searches for users who have tweeted about a particular topic; for example searching for "Sergio Aguero" would display users who posted about this. The Twitter API supports several different options for tweet based searches such as the language of the tweet and the time period to search for tweets from; these options are available in Twando on this page.
- User Based Search
This method is slightly different in that it searches user data (screen name, full name, description etc); searching here for "Sergio Aguero" would bring up his official account as well as the various parody accounts using his name and so on.
- User Lookup Search
This method allows you to lookup any user by screen name. You'll then be able to follow any followers of that user, anyone that user is following or members of any list belonging to that user.
Once the search is complete, tick the checkbox underneath the users you want to follow (there is a "Select all users" link to select them all) and click the "Follow Users" button to follow the selected users. You can also select to add the users to the slow follow cron list (see below) rather than follow instantly (following new users too quickly is an easy way to get your account banned). Top tip: You can combine mass following with adding accounts to the always follow list for a set period of time as detailed above, all from the "Search to Follow" screen.
To access the tweet settings for an authorized Twitter account, simply use the "Tweets" navigation heading. There are then several options available which are detailed below.
6.1) Post Quick Tweet
- Although Twando is certainly not intended as a replacement for your Twitter client of choice, or even the Twitter web interface, the ability to simply post a quick tweet from your account is included. This is also useful for checking your account is working as expected. This message box supports all Twando custom tweet expressions (see the Tweet Custom Expressions section for more information) as well as media uploaded to your media library (see the Media Library section for more information).
6.2) Scheduled Tweets
- This section shows all currently scheduled tweets and allows more tweets to be scheduled for a particular time. The scheduled tweet cron posts scheduled tweets from before or exactly the time the cron is run, so the post time may not be exactly the same as the time you specify depending on how often you run the tweet cron job. Tweet custom expressions and media uploads are fully supported both via the web form and CSV uploads.
- Scheduled tweet CSV uploads must contain exactly 3 columns; column 1 should contain the tweet time in MySQL format (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM), column 2 the tweet text and column 3 any media ID's (specify 0 for the media ID if not posting any images/videos). Top tip: Spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel will sometimes convert the date into an incorrect format; it's therefore recommended to create your csv in a text editor such as Notepad if you are doing this manually.
6.3) Recurring Tweets
- This section is very similar to scheduled tweets above, except that tweets here will repeat based on a period of days, hours and minutes specified. By combing recurring tweets with tweet custom expressions, it's possible to create a large variety of automated content.
- Recurring tweet CSV uploads must contain exactly 6 columns; column 1 should contain the first post tweet time in MySQL format (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM), column 2 the tweet text, column 3 any media ID's (specify 0 for the media ID if not posting any images/videos) and columns 4,5 and 6 the days, hours and minutes between each tweet respectively.
- Top tip: To pause a recurring tweet without deleting it, simply edit and set the time to first post for some distant time in the future.
Twando now supports powerful custom expressions for tweet content as detailed below. Custom expressions can be applied to all tweet related content, including quick tweets, auto dm messages, scheduled tweets and recurring tweets (including all CSV uploads).
7.1) Core Expression Format
- In summary, the basic format for random word placement is [%word1|word2|word3%]. The opening and closing square brackets with percentage signs [%%] indicate the start and end of the expression. The pipe character | separates the different variations possible.
- There's no limit to the number of variations per expression or the number of expressions per block of tweet content which means you can create some quite powerful random content.
- For example, you could have content along the lines of [%Good Morning|G'day|Top of the morning to ya%], it's a [%rainy|sunny|snowy|hurricane like|very stormy%] day today, isn't it?. Remember, you can use custom expressions anywhere within Twando where tweet content is stored.
- For advanced users, Twando even supports nesting of expressions, for example [%outer 1|outer 2|outer 3|[%inner 1|inner 2| inner3%]%] will work just fine. You can nest multiple levels; Twando will evaluate the expressions from the inner most outwards.
7.2) Special Variables
- Twando also supports a number of special variables you can include in tweets; note these are enclosed with a square bracket and double percentage (rather than single percentage as above), e.g. [%%VARIABLE_NAME_HERE%%]
- The full list is as follows:
[%%DATE_DAY%%] - current day (e.g. Thursday)
[%%DATE_DAY_NUM%%] - current numeric day of month (e.g. 25)
[%%DATE_MONTH%%] - current month (e.g. February)
[%%DATE_YEAR%%] - current year (e.g. 2021)
[%%DATE_TIME%%] - current time (e.g. 5:11pm)
[%%RAND_100%%] - random number between 0 and 100 (e.g. 72)
- There are also several variables available for Auto DM messages (based on the data available for the user who is receiving the DM):
[%%USER_SCREEN_NAME%%] - users screen name (e.g. jonhudghton)
[%%USER_ACTUAL_NAME%%] - users actual name (e.g. Jon Hudghton)
[%%USER_ACTUAL_NAME_FIRST%%] - first part of users actual name, split based on space character (e.g. Jon)
[%%USER_ACTUAL_NAME_LAST%%] - last part of users actual name, split based on space character (e.g. Hudghton)
[%%USER_LOCATION%] - displayed location for the user (e.g. Manchester). NB, not all accounts have a value set for this
- Is Twando missing a special variable you would find useful? Feel free to get in touch and it may be possible to add it to the next release.
All images and videos for Twando are managed via the media library. Here you can upload files which will then be assigned an internal ID. This ID can the be used alongside any tweet content (including CSV uploads) to post media with your tweets.
8.1) Uploading Files
- Uploading media files is quick and easy; simply use the upload box on the Media Library page to select the files you wish to upload.
- For speed, you can select multiple files at one time and upload them all simultaneously.
- Twando does a number of validation checks against file types and sizes, but this isn't a guarantee your file will post successfully when sent to the Twitter API. In particular, video files have a number of constraints which Twando doesn't attempt to check against. More information is available in the Twitter API Documentation.
8.2) Using Media ID's
- Once uploaded, the associated media ID's for files can be used anywhere you're posting tweets (including CSV uploads).
- Twitter supports up to 4 images per tweet; to add multiple images simply separate ID's with a dash - e.g. 23-12-34-1
- Much like custom expressions (detailed above), Twando also supports random image selection based on the pipe symbol | e.g. 23|12|34 will randomly select one of the 3 specified media ID's when the tweet is sent to the API.
- It's absolutely possible to combine multiple images with randomisation; for example 23-11-12|12|34-3-4|3-5|7 will be evaluated as expected based on the random selection first, followed by the posting of multiple images (if required).
- Any media ID's Twando can't locate when a tweet is posted (for example if the media has since be deleted from the library) are simply ignored.
As well as the media library, cron job instructions and cache explorer pages already detailed above, there are a number of other pieces of functionality contained within this section.
11.1) Multi Account Functions
- If you have authorized more than one Twitter account with Twando, you'll then have access to some multi account functions.
- The first is the ability to post a tweet from all your accounts simultaneously. Like all tweet posting on Twando, this fully supports custom expressions and media uploads (all detailed above).
- In addition, you can also bulk follow and unfollow Twitter accounts from all your authorized accounts simultaneously via this screen.
11.2) View Rate Limits
- This page simply shows the currently available rate limits for the currently selected Twitter account. This is intended for advanced users who wish to monitor remaining API requests.