Twitter Archive Eraser has been used by about 1 million users to delete over 3.5 billion tweets!These numbers are a testament to a robust of software that keeps improving constantly with the numerous Twitter API and archive format changes. The Twitter Archiver lets you easily save tweets for any search keyword or hashtag in a Google Spreadsheet. Enter a search query, or an hashtag, and all matching tweets are automatically saved in.
Since a while there are some misleading information on-line (by Washington Post among others) about Twitter archive vs. Twitter data. Next to other information the following is written there:
2. Download your archive
Before erasing your tweets, you can save a copy of everything you’ve ever tweeted — should you want a record before it’s all gone. I’ve never looked at mine, but it makes me feel better knowing it’s there. Here’s how to do it:
Go into your account settings.
Click the “Your Twitter data” tab.
Scroll to the bottom and press the “Request data” button next to your Twitter and/or Periscope archives.
Twitter will, eventually, email you a big zip file containing your entire archive of tweets to the email address it has on file for you.
The misleading point here is the head line, because what you are requesting here is your Twitter data file but NOT your Twitter archive file. Why TweetEraser is pointing this out?
Simply because if you want to delete even old tweets – let’s say from 4 years ago – you need to import your Twitter archive file first. The reason for this is, that Twitter unfortunately only allows to download your most recent max. 3200 tweets via their API, but only if they are not older than about 12 months.
How to identify difference between archive and data file?
Data file
The basic difference are the file name and the file size. Once you request your data file from Twitter the file name looks similar to this example:
It starts with “twitter”, followed by the date of request “2018-08-22”, separated by hyphen “-” and closed by a long hash containing random numbers and letters. Likewise the archive file, this one is a ZIP compressed file. Usually this file has a bigger size (could have around 1GB or more) than your archive file, because it contains all your media data you ever sent within a tweet.
Archive file
Twitter Archive Download
For requesting your Twitter archive file please follow the instruction of how to request your Twitter archive ZIP here. The information there are similar to this:
Sign into your Twitter account and go to https://twitter.com/settings/account, scroll down to the end. There should be a button for requesting your archive. Click that button. You’ll get an email from Twitter containing the download link to your archive. Digital systems design using verilog solution pdf. Your Twitter archive file name looks similar to this example:
It starts with your Twitter account ID, followed by an under score and closed by a long hash containing random numbers and letters. Likewise the data file, this one is a ZIP compressed file, but usually way smaller. It depends on the amount of your tweets, but is shouldn’t be much bigger than let’s say 60 MB. The average size is somewhere between 10 to 20 MB.
What to import at TweetEraser?
Definitely and only your Twitter archive file, the original one you got downloaded from Twitter. Please do not open or rename the file. I just mentioned in the previous paragraph how to request/download your Twitter archive and you can recognize if you have the right file.
But please keep in mind, that for MacOS user there is probably an additional step to take care about:
If you are using e.g. Safari browser on MacOS, please make sure to disable within Safari preferences the option which says “automatically extract zip files on download” – or similar. Other browser on MacOS may have some similar setting options.
The archive file you’ll get from Twitter is a zipped one. It contains several files and folders with your tweets. After downloading this archive please do not touch/open it. Just save it on your local system and select this original file after you clicked “Upload Archive” at TweetEraser.
Twitter Archives Search
TweetEraser expects as upload file the original archive file you got from Twitter.
If you are still not sure how to get your archive – Twitter as well has it’s own documentation about that.
If you are running a social campaign, you have to be analyzing your account's data. To do that, you have to do some data mining. Unfortunately, it is a time consuming process that brands often hire whole teams to manage, rather than entrusting it to a single person.
The good news is that there are tools that make it infinitely easier, and that you can take advantage of to archive your own Twitter data.
1. Twitter's official archive download
The easiest route to go is always going to be Twitter itself. They allow you to access your own archive of posts, and save them in an easily exported format. This option has been available since 2012, and it is a consistent way to build up a good archive of your tweets in a CSV file that includes all information.
Of course, there are a couple of downsides. There is no way to set what dates you want, and so it will go back as far as it can to create your file. Any time you re-download a new version, you will be overwriting the old one, or else saving it as a separate file with the same old info.
While this is annoying, it is preferable to how it was, when you could only get a short period of tweets before they were lost forever. Progress!
Related: What You Need to Know About Using Hashtags on Twitter
2. BirdSong Analytics
BirdSong Analytics is an absolutely unique tool that lets you download all the followers of any Twitter accounts. It's a paid tool but I don't think such feature has any alternatives.
The export comes in an Excel format and contains each username, number of followers/following, real name, Twitter URL, bio, number of tweets, date when the account was created, location, Verified status and how many lists the account is included into.
Now, think about all Excel sorting, filtering, searching options: You can now find most followed accounts, search bios by a keyword, sort accounts by location, etc. For example, you can download all people your competitor follows and investigate their habits, sites, etc. Or you can download all accounts that @nytimes is following and get the list of high-profile journalists, their personal sites, their hobbies, etc This is a great database to plan your outreach campaign out.
3. Cyfe
For a more customizable option, it has to be Cyfe. This is an all-in-one business management tool that allows you to create custom made widgets that work with any number of services, including most social networks. There are pre-made widgets already available for Twitter (among dozens of others), but you can craft your own to catch the data that you need. Getting started is free, but you will want to use their premium service for real analytics gathering.
Related: As Social Media Becomes More Visual, a Tool for Analyzing Image Engagement
4. NodeXL
To go more simple, but very thorough, you could try NodeXL. It is an open source template for Microsoft Excel that works by integrating data pulled from a CSV file into a ridiculously informative network graph. So you could get your archived data from Twitter, input it into NodeXL, and create a breathtaking visual representation of your tweets from any period you like. For a graph junkie like me, this is a very exciting tool.
5. TWChat
Better known as a Twitter chat room for tweet chats, TWChat also provides you with the option of creating a permanent archive for various hashtags of your choice. Every day, a new archive will be created that shows you how that tag is being used. This is an amazing tool if you are looking to monitor your reputation, or even a specific social campaign.
Using Twitter archives
Now, there may be numerous ways to use the data; here are just a few ideas:
- Gary Dek of StartABlog123.com uses Twitter for content inspiration.
- Anna Fox of HireBloggers uses Twitter favorites as a bookmarking tool, so her archive is her ultimate reading list (she can also share)
- You can use BirdSong exports to identify niche influencers for outreach campaign or customer research.
- You can also use hashtag archives for keyword research to investigate which words tend to go in close proximity with the chosen hashtag.
Related: Facebook, Twitter or Instagram: Determining the Best Platform for Mobile Marketing