Can’t remember what your first tweet was? It was probably “Hello world!” or “Is this thing on?” or “I finally joined Twitter, am I doing it right” or “Twitter sucks,” but if you want to know for sure, you’ll need to dig back into your archives.

Unfortunately, Twitter only displays your last 3200 tweets in your timeline, so if you’re anything like me (I’ve been on Twitter since May 2009 and have well over 40,000 tweets), that won’t cut it.

Old tweets are sometimes a true gold mine for marketers (and stalkers), to learn how to find old tweets is an obligated task nowadays. Years ago Twitter let everyone to search its old tweets archive, so you can access those old tweets easily and free. You can use Tweet Binder or Twitter itself. To find old Tweets by date, just type in the name of the account where it says 'from these accounts' and then a date range the Tweet is from. Hit enter and proceed looking from there. If you would like to search by keyword instead, forgo the date range (unless you know it, which then you should use it to narrow down the results even more).

Here are the two easiest ways to find your oldest tweets, including your first tweet. (I promise these work – a lot of the methods and tools you’ll find in the Google results don’t.)

How to Find Your Old Tweets Using Twitter Search

Open up Twitter.com and go to the search bar:

Type in the following string but with your username and the date range you want to look at:

from:username since:yyyy-mm-dd until:yyyy-mm-dd

My Old Tweets

So, for example, if I want to see all my tweets from my first month on Twitter, I’d insert:

from:egabbert since:2009-05-12 until:2009-06-12

This will show you your earliest tweets – but note that the default view is of your “Top” tweets; click “All” to see every tweet from this time period.

Scroll to the bottom and ta-da: There’s my first tweet!

Losing my Twitter virginity

— Elisa Gabbert (@egabbert) May 12, 2009

Not my “best work,” I admit.

Finding Your Old Tweets with Twitter's Advanced Search Function

You can also use Twitter's own Advanced Search feature to search your old tweets. Go to https://twitter.com/search-advanced and enter your username into the 'From these accounts' field under 'People.' Then use the pop-up calendar tool to section a start date and an end date, like so:

Then click the 'Latest' tab to see all your tweets from this data range. Ta-da!

Note that there used to be a few other third-party tools that helped you search your old tweets but most of them have been shut down. The two above methods still work!

Now for a little palate cleanser ... some famous first tweets.

Best and Worst First Tweets: Celebrity Edition

I looked at the first tweets from everyone on the Top 100 most followed list, and let me tell you, the rich and famous can be pretty boring. Here are the first tweets that made me smile/laugh/cry:

First up, Lady Gaga – she starts off great, but …

Hello my filthy , fabulous, dirty rich, fame lovers. I'm in Miami right now, just had a crazy week/ day preparing for winter music confe ...

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) March 27, 2008

She didn’t quite grasp the 140-character limit yet, bless her heart. But at least Gaga typed that tweet in herself. Britney’s team didn’t get the memo that celebrity tweets are supposed to be in the first person:

Welcome to Britney Spears' Twitter! Follow the latest in Britney news and get updates straight from Britney and her entourage.

— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) October 10, 2008

I expected better from Ellen DeGeneres, but at least she didn’t say “Is this thing on”:

Tis my first twitt-er. Or tweet? Twit? Or tweet? 'Twit or tweet everybody.' Is this anything?

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 10, 2009

Pink’s first tweet was actually funny! And only got 42 favorites, for shame.

i have officially entered the 20th century. i mean the 21st.

— P!nk (@Pink) April 4, 2009

Nicki Minaj’s first tweet was pretty generic …

I was FINALLY convinced to get on Twitter! Follow me guys!

— IG: @NickiMinaj (@NICKIMINAJ) April 27, 2009

But the second one was good:

A picture icon will come when I get to a computer!

— IG: @NickiMinaj (@NICKIMINAJ) April 27, 2009

Eminem’s first tweets are creeping me out:

We Made You

— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) March 21, 2009

Old Tweets Finder

We're the ones that made you... Tuesday.

— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) April 2, 2009

Lil Wayne’s first tweet was a little bit NSFW:

im super new to this twitter shit but wudup tho !..........follow me biot¢h..........wudup mak......happy bday LO......8 days of freedom..ym

— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) February 22, 2010

Paris Hilton’s first tweet was definitely “on brand” … but only got 2 favorites and 4 retweets?! Where were the fans?

in Vegas at the Hard Rock with my Prince...

— Paris Hilton (@ParisHilton) March 17, 2009

Oh Tyra! Tellin’ it like it is, just like on ANTM (y'all KNOW I watch that show):

been sitting here for 30 minutes trying to figure out a clever first tweet. still thinking...

— Tyra Banks (@tyrabanks) July 17, 2009

Love ya Kanye but that’s not how you spell Silicon Valley (unless he’s making a witty pun about somebody’s cleavage?):

He appears to have seen the error of his ways and deleted this tweet.

Best and Worst First Tweets: Search Marketing Edition

Just for fun, I checked out first tweets from a few of the most followed accounts in search marketing.

Here’s Matt Cutts’ first tweet:

fed the cats. they were hungry!

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) April 1, 2007

Here’s a man who knows that all the Internet really cares about is cats. UPDATE: Matt Cutts informs me that his first few tweets were part of an April Fools joke; Danny Sullivan set up a fake Twitter account for him. His real first tweet was:

I'm not sure I believe in twitter.

— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) April 5, 2007

Rand Fishkin’s first tweet was about writing a presentation for SMX (snooze), but props for working a Goonies reference into the second:

Geraldine & I are in Astoria - following the Goonies trail & skipping Gnomedex. I wish I could say I felt guilty about it...

— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) August 11, 2007

Danny Sullivan was very busy his first week on Twitter – or just sleeping a lot, it’s unclear:

Seth Godin has only ever used his Twitter account to tweet links to his blog, so this should come as no surprise:

Seth's Blog: How to answer the phone http://tinyurl.com/6pamxs

— Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) December 3, 2008

Todd Malicoat pretty much nails it, huh?

Just what we need - something to waste MORE time online. Yippee.

— Todd Malicoat (@stuntdubl) March 17, 2007

Meanwhile all Aaron Wall could think about was rankings!

yippy. we got our twitter username seobook. I wonder if this will rank as well for seo book as our other one ranks for aaron wall

— SEO Book (@seobook) June 23, 2009

That’s so SEO.

And finally, the first tweets from our own Larry Kim! CLASSIC:

i am trying to figure out how to use twitter

— Larry Kim (@larrykim) December 3, 2008

i am amazed by the awesome power of twitter

— Larry Kim (@larrykim) December 4, 2008

Ha! And Larry taught me how to use Twitter!

The first tweet ever, by the way, was this one from Twitter founder Evan Williams:

just setting up my twttr

— Evan Williams (@ev) March 21, 2006

Did you search for your first tweet? What did you post?

Twitter just made its search tool more powerful than ever. The social network has now made it easy to search any of the 500 billion public tweets that have been sent in Twitter’s eight-year history. Yes, that includes your tweets—even the drunk ones.

If you’re nervous about what an Internet sleuth might uncover if they searched for all your references to “weed” or a comprehensive listing of your embarrassing unanswered pleas directly to a celebrity, you might want to review your old tweets and delete the bad apples. And remember, if you ever become famous, someone will inevitably dig up all those racist tweets you sent in 2010.

Here’s how to head off your future PR nightmare at the pass:

Option 1: Request Your Twitter Archive

Before today, the best way to take stock of your Twitter past was to request your personal archive from the social network. Twitter will email you a zip file that includes all your tweets in an easily searchable database that mimics the Twitter.com interface. Just type in any questionable words you might have used in your younger days (“drunk,” “high,” “hella” ) and delete anything you wouldn’t want your Mom to read or embed on a public web page for the whole Internet to see.

To get the archive, go to your Settings and click “Request your archive.”

Option 2: Use Advanced Search

If you don’t want to wait around for Twitter to send you your archive, you can use the Advanced Search option (here) to quickly parse through your tweets. In the “From These Accounts” field, enter your username, and in the “Words” fields, enter whatever terms you’re trying to find that you previously tweeted.

Retweet the ones where you accurately predicted the future. Delete the incriminating ones.

Option 3: Scorch the Earth

You were a different person when you joined Twitter. If you were below the age of 20, it’s possible that you said so many cruel, vapid and ignorant things that there is simply no salvaging your younger digital self. You can wipe this person from Twitter’s record with a few clicks. Tweet Delete lets you automatically delete tweets more than a year old on an ongoing basis. Tweet Eraser allows you to delete everything you wrote before any given date. For more dire situations, you can download Tweeticide and erase your entire Twitter history.

Not sure whether you should delete or tweet? Consider this: Every public tweet is being archived for future generations to make judgments about our culture in the Library of Congress. Don’t make us look bad.

Thank you!

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Old Tweets Delete

Old Tweets

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