Twitter search now reaches back to 2006. Download your account's archive, read old offers and replies to customers, delete what is rude, private or still claimable, add corrections where needed, and leave ordinary history alone.

Tweets from years ago, back in the results

On Tuesday, Twitter announced that its search now covers every public tweet, back to the first ones in 2006. The change is reaching its website and apps over the coming days.

Until now, search mostly surfaced recent tweets. Older ones turned up only for someone patient enough to scroll back through an account.

Now a customer searching for your business name may see a 2010 offer, a reply from someone who left years ago, or an argument with a customer that went badly.

Customers' own tweets about the business are just as easy to find, but those are theirs. This review is about what the business itself said.

What an account may hold

A business account a few years old usually holds some of these:

Most of it is harmless. A review is about finding the few tweets that would mislead or embarrass the business if a customer read them today.

Searching your own history

For a quick check, search Twitter for from: and the account's username, with no space, followed by a word. That shows only the account's own tweets containing it.

For a full review, request the account's archive in its settings. Twitter emails a link to a download holding every tweet the account has sent, with a spreadsheet file you can sort.

The spreadsheet shows each tweet's date and text, and whether it was a reply. Filtering for replies finds every public conversation the account has had with customers.

Words worth searching for

Offers hide behind words such as free, off, code, deal and contest. Complaints sit under sorry, refund, wrong, manager and call us.

Search too for the first names staff signed their replies with, and for products or services you no longer offer. Each search narrows thousands of tweets to a few dozen.

Run the same words through the spreadsheet as well. It holds every tweet, while search results can skip some.

What to delete

Delete offers that gave no end date, because someone may still try to claim them. A dated weekend sale from 2011 is history; a code with no expiry reads as a promise.

Delete replies that are rude, sarcastic or personal, any tweet showing a customer's details, and links that now lead somewhere you would not send a customer.

Deleting removes a tweet from the account and from search, but not copies: screenshots, old-style retweets that copied the text, or pages that quoted it.

Save the archive file before deleting anything. It is the one full record of everything the account said.

What to correct rather than delete

Tweets cannot be edited. When an old tweet states something people still repeat, such as a price match you no longer offer, a reply beneath it can set the record straight.

Anyone who opens the old tweet sees the reply under it: the offer ended in 2012, and here is what applies now. That serves readers better than a tweet that vanishes.

What to leave alone

Ordinary history can stay: photos of finished work, event announcements, dated offers that clearly ended, and polite answers to complaints, even ones that did not satisfy the customer.

Deleting a reasonable reply leaves the complaint standing with no answer, which looks worse. Deleting hundreds of tweets makes an account look new, or as if it is hiding something.

Old tweets also show customers how long the business has been around, which is worth something on its own.

A worked example

A paintless dent repair business with two technicians works from a small shop in an industrial park, pushing out door dings and creases without repainting.

Its Twitter account was started in 2009 by an employee who has since left. It posted before-and-after photos, specials and replies to customers, often several a day.

The owner requested the archive and filtered it for replies and for the words free, price and sorry. Three problems stood out.

A 2010 tweet offered dents removed at a set price each, with no end date. Several photos showed customers' licence plates. And one reply argued with a customer about whether a dent had come back.

The price tweet and the photos with plates were deleted. The argument stayed, with a new reply beneath it giving the shop's current policy on returning dents and an invitation to get in touch.

Anyone searching the shop's name now finds current terms, no customers' plates, and a complaint with an answer under it.

Who looks after the account now

Accounts outlive the people who ran them. Check which email address the account uses and who knows the password, and move both to the business if they belong to someone who left.

Then name one person to read replies and mentions each week. The archive deals with the past; a weekly look keeps the next five years tidier.

The counter-case

A small account with a few hundred tweets, run by the owner all along and used mostly for photos, has little to review. A search for sorry and free may be enough.

And a tweet that drew attention at the time, quoted in a news story or shared widely, may be better corrected than deleted, since copies remain and a deletion can look evasive.

Neither is a reason to skip the check. An hour with the archive costs little next to a customer finding the worst tweet first.

An hour with the archive

  1. Request the archive from the account's settings.
  2. Filter for replies and read every one.
  3. Search for offers, prices, codes and apologies.
  4. Delete what is rude, private or still claimable.
  5. Reply beneath old tweets that need a correction.
  6. Leave ordinary history where it is.
  7. Move the login and email to the business.

Step two finds most of the problems. Announcements were written with care; replies were written fast, by whoever was on shift, and that is where the tweets worth deleting usually sit.

What a visitor should find first when an old tweet brings them to the profile, from the header image to the pinned tweet, is covered in Twitter's new profile layout.

Frequently asked questions

How far back does Twitter search go now?

To the first public tweets in 2006. Twitter announced the change on November 18, and it is reaching the website and the apps over the following days.

How do I find my business's old tweets?

Search for from: and your username followed by a word, or request the account's archive from its settings and sort the spreadsheet of every tweet it has sent.

Which old tweets should a business delete?

Offers with no end date, replies that are rude or personal, tweets showing customers' details, and links that now lead somewhere you would not send a customer.

Does deleting a tweet remove it everywhere?

No. It leaves Twitter and its search, but screenshots, old-style retweets that copied the text, and pages that quoted it all keep their copies.

Can I edit an old tweet instead?

Tweets cannot be edited. A reply beneath the old tweet, saying the offer ended and what applies now, shows to anyone who opens it.

Should I delete complaints we answered?

Usually not. A polite answer, even one that did not satisfy the customer, is better left in place than removed, which leaves the complaint standing alone.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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