diff --git a/zulip/integrations/twitter/twitter-bot b/zulip/integrations/twitter/twitter-bot
index 15823f488..02c838969 100755
--- a/zulip/integrations/twitter/twitter-bot
+++ b/zulip/integrations/twitter/twitter-bot
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import zulip
 
 VERSION = "0.9"
 CONFIGFILE = os.path.expanduser("~/.zulip_twitterrc")
+CONFIGFILE_INTERNAL = os.path.expanduser("~/.zulip_twitterrc_data")
 INSTRUCTIONS = r"""
 twitter-bot --config-file=~/.zuliprc --search="@nprnews,quantum physics"
 
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ that will process tweets every 5 minutes is:
 
 == Setting up Twitter authentications ==
 
-Run this on a personal or trusted machine, because your API key is
+Run this on a personal or trusted machine, because your APIx key is
 visible to local users through the command line or config file.
 
 This bot uses OAuth to authenticate with Twitter. Please create a
@@ -106,10 +107,10 @@ if all([opts.search_terms, opts.twitter_name]):
     parser.error("You must only specify either a search term or a username.")
 if opts.search_terms:
     client_type = "ZulipTwitterSearch/"
-    CONFIGFILE_INTERNAL = os.path.expanduser("~/.zulip_twitterrc_fetchsearch")
+    SINCE_ID_NAME = "since_id_search_" + opts.search_terms
 elif opts.twitter_name:
     client_type = "ZulipTwitter/"
-    CONFIGFILE_INTERNAL = os.path.expanduser("~/.zulip_twitteruserrc_fetchuser")
+    SINCE_ID_NAME = "since_id_name_" + opts.twitter_name
 else:
     parser.error("You must either specify a search term or a username.")
 
@@ -130,17 +131,9 @@ if not all([consumer_key, consumer_secret, access_token_key, access_token_secret
     parser.error("Please provide a ~/.zulip_twitterrc")
 
 try:
-    since_id = config_internal.getint("twitter", "since_id")
+    since_id = config_internal.getint("twitter", SINCE_ID_NAME)
 except (NoOptionError, NoSectionError):
     since_id = 0
-try:
-    previous_twitter_name = config_internal.get("twitter", "twitter_name")
-except (NoOptionError, NoSectionError):
-    previous_twitter_name = ""
-try:
-    previous_search_terms = config_internal.get("twitter", "search_terms")
-except (NoOptionError, NoSectionError):
-    previous_search_terms = ""
 
 try:
     import twitter
@@ -166,16 +159,15 @@ client = zulip.init_from_options(opts, client=client_type + VERSION)
 
 if opts.search_terms:
     search_query = " OR ".join(opts.search_terms.split(","))
-    if since_id == 0 or opts.search_terms != previous_search_terms:
-        # No since id yet, fetch the latest and then start monitoring from next time
-        # Or, a different user id is being asked for, so start from scratch
-        # Either way, fetch last 5 tweets to start off
+    if since_id == 0:
+        # No since id yet, fetch the latest and then start monitoring from next time.
+        # Fetch last 5 tweets to start off
         statuses = api.GetSearch(search_query, count=5)
     else:
         # We have a saved last id, so insert all newer tweets into the zulip stream
         statuses = api.GetSearch(search_query, since_id=since_id)
 elif opts.twitter_name:
-    if since_id == 0 or opts.twitter_name != previous_twitter_name:
+    if since_id == 0:
         # Same strategy as for search_terms
         statuses = api.GetUserTimeline(screen_name=opts.twitter_name, count=5)
     else:
@@ -251,8 +243,6 @@ for status in statuses[::-1][: opts.limit_tweets]:
 
 if "twitter" not in config_internal.sections():
     config_internal.add_section("twitter")
-config_internal.set("twitter", "since_id", str(since_id))
-config_internal.set("twitter", "search_terms", str(opts.search_terms))
-config_internal.set("twitter", "twitter_name", str(opts.twitter_name))
+config_internal.set("twitter", SINCE_ID_NAME, str(since_id))
 
 write_config(config_internal, CONFIGFILE_INTERNAL)