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Guest post by: Jessica Swanson Become an Author

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A few years back, I was one of the very first people to begin using Twitter as a marketing tool.

I was generating dozens upon dozens of quality leads every day, so you can imagine how thrilled I was with this brand new marketing platform.

Against by better judgment, I l spent hours a day on Twitter; I was busy as a bee connecting, following, unfollowing and Tweeting. I was addicted to this newfangled little marketing platform. (OK, it’s probably safe to say that I was a bonafide Twitteraholic.)

As the months flew by, I had gathered a significant following of over 36,000 small business owners.

Ah, life was good!

But, in an instant, disaster struck.

In the middle of the night, my account was hacked and the hacker sent out hundreds of spammy and inappropriate Tweets to my followers. Of course, they complained.

The next morning, I logged in to get my daily “Twitter fix” and my account was gone.

Twitter had shut me down.

As you can imagine, I pleaded and begged with Twitter customer service to re-establish my account.

But, to no avail. (You can still see the remnants of my suspended account @shoestringing )

I was back at square one.

At the time, this was a huge marketing disaster for me. I had spent thousands of hours creating a strong following, sending out inspirational marketing Tweets and making powerful connections.

So, what did I do? I got into bed, pulled up the covers and cried as I watched SUV reruns all day.

But, in marketing (as in life), my motto is that you get one day to feel sorry for yourself and then it’s time to move on.

So, after my leisurely day of SUV reruns, it was time for me to put together a new Twitter plan of action.

Here’s what I learned from my Twitter marketing disaster:

1. Don’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket.

This is a huge. Even though I knew smart marketing consists of an array of different marketing strategies, I didn’t follow my own advice.

I spent MOST of my time on Twitter. Therefore, once Twitter shut me down, I was in a very bad spot.

2. Learn from the experience.

I had a lot to learn from my Twitter disaster. First and foremost, it was painfully obvious that I had been spending way too much time on ONE marketing platform. No matter how great the platform, things can change in an instant.

I still use Twitter, but I now balance my efforts between blog posts, articles, press releases, speaking, joint ventures, social media marketing, etc.

If one platform ceases to work for me, I still have the others to rely on.

3. Get better.

Marketing disasters aren’t any different than any other disaster. You can either get bitter or get better.

I decided to get better. I opened up a new Twitter account and decided that I would drastically change the way I was marketing on Twitter.

I scaled back my time and employed automated Twitter tools that ended up saving me both time and energy.

The crazy part is that I still bring in dozens of leads from Twitter – I just work smarter.

And, by the way, you don’t need to feel sorry for me. My story has a happy ending.

As of today, my new account at Twitter @shoestringgal has over 50,000 followers.

Forbes.com named me as one of 30 Women to follow on Twitter.

And, I am on Hubspot's list as one of the most 100 powerful women on Twitter.

I guess that I’m living proof that you can recover from a marketing disaster.

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