Backup Anytime

Twitter backup. How to backup twitter.

Twitter is huge and unlike many things in the world today, it is on the up. If you don’t know what it is you shouldn’t be reading a post on how to backup twitter. So, now that you are still here, lets assume you not alone know what twitter is but you arrived here because you were looking for information on how to backup twitter.

Why would you do this?
The obvious answer is to protect your list of twitter followers and the list of people you are following. Not specifically to protect them personally but to protect the database of contacts you have built up over a prolonged period.

A much less considered but arguably more important reason is the real need to keep an accurate record of what you and those representing your organisation say and what is said to and about them. Why? Your own attitude to free speech and the balance between positive banter and a professional company profile are important. The attitudes of others and the legal interpretation are issues you have no control over and therefore, to protect yourself you need not only to agree on comment type but to retain a record of you tweets.
This may smack of censorship and overbearing monitoring but regardless of your attitude and the level of freedom you attribute to your own tweets, it is hardly a negative approach if you are simply retaining a record of your own communications.

Is this really necessary?
It may not be. Your own attitude however has no bearing on those in your twitter communities. A large twitter community of any type is likely to include litigious individuals who have rights which must be upheld. You are better armed to protect your name and business if you can review and if necessary reproduce content applicable to you  twitter account.

Ideally however you should avoid “bitter tweets”. Many real conversations however both on and offline are bound to contain an element of “tweet and sour” and it is for this reason primarily that you need to protect yourself. Keep in mind that the legal framework is complicated as you followers and those you follow could be from any worldwide jurisdiction. In our case, our leaning towards the legal and ethical behavior guidelines which are commonplace on Irish blogs may offer little relevance to twitter community members from other Countries.

How do you do this?
Thankfully there are a number of applications and services which can assist you. You may depending on personal preference and infrastructure to run with twitter online backup or twitter off line backup
I like twittersafe which is in Beta release at present but does what it sais on the tin and promises more on the twitter safe beta release page.
Another solution is to do it your self as advised on tweetcrunch.

Given the popularity of twitter and it’s increased uptake and heavy per user usage you will see more and more such solutions being released. If you know of one please comment so the information can be shared.