Twitter has long been known as a niche for advertisers and marketers. What has been originally meant for connecting people through its 140 character is now optimized for more than conversation.

There are a lot of corporate accounts on Twitter that are utilizing the microblogging platform with different advertising strategies. Some are even hauling their customer service on the site, because it encourages more direct interaction compared to other social networks. With the dominance of social media on the internet due to its popularity to users, a lot of marketers are viewing an open door of endless opportunities. As I have said time and time again, business goes where the pool of people are. However, when it comes to Twitter, it has moreover, maximized the potential of businesses to bring their product to a wider audience.

-         It is easier to drive traffic to websites through the 140 character limit which most advertisers are using for links.

-         The target market is easily lured by advertising prompts disguises like compelling tag lines.

-         With the new image gallery, advertisers can incite their targeted consumers by showcasing creative marketing ads, which can range from plain funny to satirical.

-         Promoting an advertising campaign is often people’s resort to answer their question of “how can I get more twitter followers?”

Now Twitter is opening a whole new perspective on advertising. And that is to high-ride on the influence Twitter power users or capitalizing on their popularity towards millions of their fans. In an NYMag interview with Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo reveals this vital information on how plans of a new advertising strategy will be born to further monetize Twitter service.

“A new kind of advertising that can go everywhere, frictionlessly, immediately. It’s not just a browser ad, it’s not just a desktop ad, it goes to smart phones, it goes to feature phones, it can go to SMS [text messages], it can go to TV.” – Dick Costolo

Twitter is the social network and microblogging site which is catering to celebrities and icons in different fields such as sports, politics, news and music. This is pretty much acknowledged by a lot of people as majority of Twitter users are on the platform, specifically to keep track of their favorite artists which mean majority of them are either fans or bashers.

Therefore, Twitter perceived that these power users can be a strong influencer in inciting people to patronize a certain product. This can be treated like a product endorsement by certain celebrities, like for example, Kim Kardashian broadcasting on Twitter that she is using a certain product. This is informal advertising, which may or may not be known to the product company but is still effective in getting a lot of consumers. The power resides in the thought that I as a fan is using a product that Kim is also using, thus makes me feel connected to her in a way.

That is basically, the main concept of this new twitter advertising – inserting organic promotions on power users’ tweets, having the potential to convert followers into buying products from advertisers.

Twitter is pretty popular and we know why. It is the niche of hollywood celebrities, sports and fashion icons, news organization, politicians, and other famous people and groups in this world. Obviously, it also becomes the place for fans and non-fans or to put it simply – the haters and bashers. Which becomes the marketing niche for business corporations and small enterprises.

Before you ask yourself ‘how can I get more twitter followers?’, you need to figure out first what you are continually doing wrong or what you need to avoid doing that would render you unsuitable to be followed.

1. Never show pictures of yourself in any way nude or worse show your ‘bulging underpants’ in front of the twitter world. Learn this lesson from ex-congressman Anthony Weiner. That’s the worst thing you can do to yourself and your reputation – embarrass yourself. Especially, when you are a high profile personality, you must never risk that.

2. Don’t be hasty on posting tweets, there are a lot of spell checkers and grammar police out there. You better be careful. If you are concerned about getting it wrong, try to be creative in your words and use short cuts. Or much better is to look it up on a dictionary, if you are not sure. If you want to be viewed as someone who has credibility then make sure you watch out for your words.

3. Don’t feed your followers successive links and never only links. It would appear like you are spamming and that would cause you to lose followers. Besides, you need to appear as if you care about your followers and not appear like you are using them just to drive traffic to your website or blog.

4. Don’t follow a lot of people or don’t make it seem like you are following more than you are followed. If you do, people on Twitter would think you are desperate for followers and would just follow anyone you see – even when you are, don’t ever show it. If you follow random people, make sure that you unfollow those who did not follow you back. What’s the point? Why follow them when they can’t even return the favor. Unless of course you are following relevant twitter accounts.

5. Never engage in a name-calling arguments or worse resort to threats on twitter. You never know who are following you or who they are connected to, you might be legally sued for throwing grave threats.

6. Never ignore your followers. Followers remain loyal and stays your follower when they know they are appreciated and is given a little time of day. You don’t have an excuse to answer in a few words unless you are a celebrity with millions of followers. That would be too tasking and it may take you years answering each of them.

These are twitter blunders I keep seeing everyday on my Twitter feeds. Personally, it is distasteful and I wouldn’t follow anyone who has the propensity to do the lists above. I am on Twitter for significanc, relevance and value, whether in your daily activities or information.

Everyone knows what twitter is for without the rose-colored  descriptions of it being a way to create a virtual world of social relations. That might have been the exact description of Twitter way back on its start-up period, but people can be creative. They devised means to answer your queries on how do you get more followers on twitter, thus are riding on whatever is the fad just to become someone most followed or something of that kind.

People are finding new ways to make full use of any social platforms, making it all the more interesting to the users. In fact, twitter has in more ways claimed that unlike Facebook, which is person-centered, they are more on an information-based network – connecting people through information of any kind, from tips to news and the most popular of all the celebrity wars!

It seems like it has become the trend on twitter to air arguments and wash dirty linens for the whole public to see. And obviously, this is what fans and paprazzis are always on the lookout for. Fans are fine, they can’t be stopped once they started giving unsolicited advises and point of views on matters that are none of their business. However, paparazis and media people from news organizations are a different matter altogether, since they have the means and the power to spread what has begun only as a simple misunderstanding between celebrities.

Wait the juicy bit is to come! The tables have turned and now two of the gossip-news hungry vultures are on the twitter limelight. Celebrities are not the only ones sparring nonsense words on useless things, in fact, these two writers are worse. We are talking about male sports writers here with large egos to spare. The two are none other than Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News and Jeff McLane of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

What started the spat that turned into a fistfight? Here it goes guys, reportedly on Tuesday after McLane posted a tweet concerning the Eagles quarterback Michael Vick in which he tweeted,

@Jeff_McLane: A deep bone bruise is much more significant than just a tissue bruise. Vick a long shot for Sunday. Vick would likely start Sunday despite a bone bruise in his non-throwing hand.

This tweet was followed by a reply by @LesBowen: Oh, and [by the way], nobody has any idea on Tuesday whether Michael Vick is starting this week.
Apparently Bowen’s tweet was not taken lightly by McLane prompting the young reporter to spat unnecessary and offensive words,

@Jeff_McLane: How about if Vick starts Sunday, you have to say on [cable show] Daily News Live, ‘I’m an old hack who hasn’t broken a story in years, needs my editor to keep my blog fresh, and missed Vick on Monday because I was cluelessly tapping away on my computer and had to steal quotes from hard-working reporters who have a clue.

It is good to know that the ‘old hack’ Bowen has more sense than to be prodded into a further argument on Twitter. Bowen’s reply? None to McLane. However, he said to one of his followers that he is not one to have tantrums on twitter, and if he has something to say to someone, it will be face to face.

Let us concentrate on more relevant information than our usual personal inquiry of how do I get more Twitter followers. There are more noteworthy information that has been circulating on the Twitter world. This might even benefit you in your stay on Twitter.

As we all know, Twitter has become the biggest source of information online. It is where news websites flock to put up headlines, updates and ground breaking news for all the world to see, even to those without twitter accounts. As what Twitter CEO Dick Costolo constantly claimed, the 140 character limit social networking platform is information-centered and not person-centered like Facebook and Google plus.

Yet another ocurrence of hacking on a big time twitter account has shaken the walls of news-centered twitter. This time around, USA Today’s Twitter account was hacked by a group called “The Script Kiddies” late Sunday (September 26, 2011). Although no fake news posts were tweeted, this anonymous group utilized USA Today’s twitter account to brag about their hacking accomplishments and promoted their recently created Facebook fan page. Thus, apparently this was the same group that also hacked the Twitter accounts of two other big news company, that of NBC and Fox News.

It wasn’t clear how USA Today was hacked but there is a possibility that the attempt was assisted by a spyware Trojan horse.

July 4, 2011- on Independence Day, malicious reports coming from Fox News Twitter Account revealed a fatal shooting of President Obama in a restaurant in Iowa while on a campaign, that resulted in his ‘supposed’ death. One of false Fox News tweets said: “@BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Obama is dead”.

September 9, 2011- the Twitter news feed of NBC news was hacked, with fake posts claiming a plan had crashed on Ground Zero, New York. One of its fake tweet said: “Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking. More as the story develops.”

And now USA Today has fallen victim to the stupendous and equally dangerous attempt at sabotaging news organizations. For sure this would cause people to question not only USA Today nor Fox and NBC’s credibility in providing accurate news as well as other news organizations. Even when claims of hacking were confirmed, people will start doubting information tweeted and will have to check out the sites themselves to ensure that grave or breaking news are not false.

In speculation, this anonymous group “The Script Kiddies” primary goal is to make a fool of news organizations. Despite that, USA Today with the help of twitter was able to take control of the account before the malicious group can even think of causing more damage.

Whoever is at fault, whether the hacker, the carelessness of news organization or the glitch on twitter security. One thing remains to be seen if this continues, will you trust 100% tweets from these news organization? What is your opinion?

Troy Davis, if you must know is an African-American convicted of the murder of an off-duty police officer officer Mark MacOhail in 1991. Davis, 42, was executed by lethal injection last Wednesday evening, September 21, 2011 after  four-hour  delay to review his case. There has always been widespread public doubts about his guilt and seven witnesses recanting their testimonies, which has convinced his defense team that the case shouldn’t have followed through with an execution.

David has spent 22 years of his life on death row but despite multiple appeals over these years. The court still wasn’t convinced of his innocence.

A public outrage had hit social media, particularly Twitter as different factions of people aired their opinions on the execution of Troy Davis.

Religious Leaders who advocate against the death penalty aired their sentiments about Troy Davis and have spoken strongly about his case, especially on Twitter.

Frank Reid III, senior pastor of Bethel A.M. E Church in Baltimore, tweeted:

“The pending execution of Troy Davis is ungodly. What can we do to stop it?”

Rev. Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant, senior pastor of Baltimore’s Empowerment Temple A.M.E. Church, tweeted:

“This generation has been rebellious without a cause. Well, Troy Davis is now our cause, let’s rebel!”

Among the celebrities who supported Troy Davis and believed he was innocent are Alec Baldwin, Kim Kardashian, P.Diddy, Big Boi and John Legend.

Alec Baldwin, the 53-year-old  actor went into a twitter rampage as he let out a stream of politically charged comments and exchange harsh words with Michelle Malkin, an American conservative blogger who supported Davis’s execution.

@AlecBaldwin: “Every sensible American is appalled when police officer is killed. But the attendant charges are grave. U don’t want 2 kill an innocent man, I wonder if @michellemalkin will push the needle in herself on a man the former FBI director said might have reasonable doubt on his side,”

Kim Kardashian, the socialite and television personality shows her upset when she woke up Thursday morning and discover the execution of Davis was carried out.

@KimKardashian: “Such an injustice!!!! Troy Davis was executed! My prayers are with the Davis Family! #RIPTroyDavis,”

 @iamdiddy: Call! Attorney General Eric Holder at # urge him to intercede on Troy Davis rt to the world and Call rt now! There is #TooMuchDoubt to kill Troy Davis tomorrow. Here’s the 411 >> http://bit.ly/pPNjim.

Outkast’s Big Boi tweeted,

“BreakingNews!!! We’re not waiting until 4:00pm we leaving Atlanta RIGHT NOW#Troydavis meet me in Jackson GA!!! 40 miles away.”

Singer John Legend retweeted an Amnesty International message,

“RT @amnesty: Juror: “If I knew then, what I know now, Troy Davis would not be on death row.” http://bit.ly/troyaction #TooMuchDoubt.”

Because of much controversy over the case Twitter was said to have blocked Davis’ execution as a trending topic as supporters couldn’t get through a #Troy Davis despite the flooding related tweets following the rejection of Davis’ clemency. What is your opinion? Do you think it was right to execute Davis? And what do you think of Twitter blocking Davis as trending topic?

1. Twitter is among the top ten websites on the internet recognized worldwide based on Alexa rankings. That means a lot of people are on Twitter engaged in different twitter activities that the platform allows. A perfect opportunity to advertise and market products, wouldn’t you say? If I have my own business, I won’t think twice of putting it up online, specifically on Twitter.

However, the way I see it, advertising in Twitter is a bit tough since people often get annoyed at seeing advertisements getting in the way of their fun. Don’t be discouraged. I’m sure there are a lot of ways on putting up a strong market advertising without annoying Twitter users.

2. You can use whatever methods on how to get twitter followers to help your advertising. There are a lot of twitter tips to get followers and you can choose what suits your style best. Are you into straightforward advertising? But with all the ruckus on how advertising ruins the momentum of fun on Twitter, you might try being a little bit creative in your content so you can gather enough followers to back you up.

Getting Twitter followers who are interested in buying your products is hard, since people are primarily on Twitter to establish social connections or get vital information.

3. Twitter’s 140 character limit is such a big advantage to advertisers. I’m sure you can figure out brief advertising tag lines that can effectively grab people’s attention. It’s where business always starts to get sales through tag lines, slogans and brief marketing pitches. You no longer have to worry that you will bore potential clients with long ads.

How hard can it be to post a brief marketing slogan? Actually, it is pretty hard since you have to think of something that is unique and is a surefire way to get attention. It means that you have to be concise and at the same time catchy.

4. Twitter has new image gallery that corporate accounts can utilize on creative advertising. Clients no longer need to be redirected to twitpic nor to Yfrogs to see your mini billboards on Twitter highway. It makes it much easier and simpler to catch the attention of users who might be potential clients.

These are very obvious reasons advertisers won’t and shouldn’t leave Twitter as their advertising niche. On twitter is where they can get rapid returns on investment as well as get web traffic for more online visibility. Besides number one is reason enough by itself to stay on Twitter. Imagine the possibility of being visible to more than a million populace.

A cyber identity is better than real identity, if you want to steer clear of thievery.

Before we dwell on that why Twitter don’t really care about real names, let us take a peek on how cyber-identity is much better than using real names. Facebook is one of the most controversial social network when it comes to user information including names and user preferences. Thieving identities aren’t new when it comes to the internet but Facebook and other social media asking for the real identities of their users are raising the stakes as more personal information are shared. It can even be accessed by other people whether well-meaning or wit ill intentions of users are not careful in securing their privacy settings. One thing is for sure and should make users secure is that: faking your name on social networking sites isn’t a criminal act, so you need not worry of felony charges.

Twitter not having a care whether it’s the real you or an automatic system that communicates with other people on the site, is pretty obvious especially accounts that has an autofollow or accounts that hide behind business names. If you ask ‘How do I get followers on Twitter?” and tips actually give you answers like make an attention-grabber username. FYI it’s not only your username you can play around with, your name is another one.

Now let’s hear why Twitter real names aren’t a requirement as stated by Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo in a recent open house. He talked about how Twitter’s aim is not to connect people but connect people to the information. It doesn’t really matter if the information is coming from a real person or a pseudonym. What matters for him is that (Costolo) Twitter is “wedded to people being able to use the service as they fit”.

A really good identity that speaks ‘reputation’ is better than real identity that has nothing.

No matter how nice your real name is but if it doesn’t pull other users to listen to what you have to say, then it would render your name worthless.What you need is a good name to back up what you are serving your followers. If your intent on Twitter is to communicate marketing in the hopes of selling links that directs to several of your websites, then it is best if your name sound reputable for you to appear a credible source of information.

In addition, people need to know who they are communicating to, but it doesn’t mean that you have to reveal your real identity. In fact, it’s not only twitter who doesn’t care who you are, other people too. As long as people are able to glean valuable information from you, they don’t really care if you are an expert or a novice. You just need to sound convincing.

In the long run, whatever the name you assume, the only thing that would matter is your online activity and whether it pleases or displeases other people on social sites.

This is about my observation. It seems like people are always anticipating things that had been hitting the twitter feeds, making other non-twitter curious on what’s been going on online. Some are even hitting the news telecast every now and then.

Long introduction short, I am talking about personalities like hollywood celebrities, politicians, sports icons and other popular idols all around the world. What’s up with them? Ah nothing much other than their handful twitter blunders that shows us they are mere humans after all, just like us. In this post, I will be showing you how a slight mishap can turn things around for anyone who is publicly known.

If you’re  trailing twitter news, I bet you have heard about the latest news on how these people are showing their true colors behind television screens and press conferences. To help you understand better, here are sample twitter fails that seems to happen year after year.

Back in 2009, popular NBA player Ray Allen’s followers on Twitter were shocked when they saw his tweet:

@sugarray20:“I’m getting there. When you mas—bate think about my tongue or your c—t and switching back and forth from my d—k to my tongue”

Do you think the excuse lame? I think so too. Obviously, he’d mistaken a tweet that is broadcasted to followers and the entire world for a direct message. Claiming that he has been hacked rather than he’s uhhm yeah to another woman other than his wife, is such a petty excuse. By the way, Ray Allen has changed his twitter name from @sugarray20 to @greenrayn20 after the supposed hacking. Maybe this time he’ll know the difference.

Here’s another one,

@yelyahwilliams:“Well… my night just changed drastically. got hacked.”
This was last year (2010) when Paramore lead singer, Hayley Williams, claim that she was hacked. A topless picture of her was shown on her twitter account, which she claimed is a work of hacker. She claimed further that the picture isn’t her after the picture was deleted. Well, it’s up to the public what to believe, but mistakes do happen. Why not admit it? Or maybe it was another publicity stunt since her twitpic reportedly received 5,000 views.

And this year nothing can beat US Congressman Anthony Weiner, who posted an up-close shot of his bulging boxer briefs and claimed that his twitter account has been hacked.

Who would buy that? No one. It’s very obvious that the six –term congressman from Brooklyn has lied. Why on earth would anyone hack someone’s twitter account just so they could show Weiner’s bulging underpants?

Besides, after a series of lies, Anthony Weiner, finally admitted at a press conference that he had sent a photo of himself in his underwear to a college student and said that he was apologetic for doing it. In the end, there is no other option for him but to resign.

If these are not stupid and embarrassing mistakes  blamed on twitter hacking, I don’t know what you name it then. It sure looks like one of those ‘faulty human judgment” days.

Twitter is everything you can imagine it to be. It can be a place where you can connect with friends and family, exclusively. It could also be a marketing platform for business-minded  people. It is also where celebrities get closer to their fans and return all the blessings they have because of them. These are all the rosy and sweet existence people have on Twitter. However, let’s wake up to the reality that behind a rose-colored spectacles are murky waters of rages, rants and other unpleasant things human nature is capable of.

Recently, an incident occurred between an old Englishman and the ‘milkshake’ singer Kelis Rogers. The said incident happened at Heathrow airport while travelling from the Bestival festival. And guess what the ruckus was about? Racial issues in UK. In fact, Kelis exact tweet says the same,

“The racial issues in the UK are disgusting.”

Kelis have posted a series of tweets regarding this including how the Englishman called her both a ‘slave’ and ‘a disgusting Nigerian’. She further revealed in her tweets,

“Over 50 people said nothing. I mean literally nothing. Didn’t flinch. We all no I’m no saint, so I retaliated. Not the way I wanted to, or how that pig deserved.

But #1 my gorgeous baby boy was literally sitting on my hip and #2 I’m a believer. And we are better. Suposed to be anyway. It made me think. This person was aprox a 50 year old English man.”

These strong words announced to all her twitter followers have roused differing reactions. Everybody knows about the still existing racism in different parts of this world. Thus, this touches a highly sensitive issue. Some followers were disgusted the treatment and the reactions or the no-reaction of people who were witnesses of the said abuse. While others were in defense of England, that she shouldn’t base her judgment about Londoners based on one person and one incident alone.

Moreover, a spokesman for the Runnymede Trust, UK’s leading independent race equality group told WENN,

“It’s worth noting that we’re not a multi-racial paradise in the U.K. but there is a fight back here, and there are lots of ways in which musicians like Kelis can contribute to that. Things like the UpRise music festival in London – 10,000 people making it clear they are against racism.”

“But I don’t think we have got a huge amount to learn from America in terms of the racism that operates over there. We are struggling against racism in the same way as people are in the States. What’s interesting about it is you can be a star and be really famous and still not escape some of the racism that exists in both the U.K. and the States.”

This emphatically supports the fact that Kelis shouldn’t have singled out United Kingdom as a racist country by her tone, because there exist the same in some parts of many countries.

The good thing about this controversy is that it has, moreover, raised the issue on racism. Although perhaps this may be another celebrity twitter stunt to get a lot of followers on twitter to put her back into her fading limelight. No pun intended.

It’s the new image galleries of Twitter that allows users to view their photos on their twitter page itself. Before, twitter users have to upload pics either on Yfrogs or Twitpic and can view it through a tweeted link. Now, users can easily access and view their following and followers’ photos when you click on it. This saves the hassle of being led from the twitter page to another photo sharing web page.

However, do you know who else benefits the most of this Twitter change? It’s the group of marketers that has taken their business on twitter. It provides corporate accounts the opportunity to make the most out of this photo sharing feature for brand awareness.

In addition, problems on how to get a lot of twitter followers and get potential consumers, will become less of a problem. You know how it is, when a company is merely feeding their followers links that oftentimes appears annoying and unpleasant. Although these links are accompanied by link bait texts, sometimes you can’t help but think, “here it is again, another useless ad pitch.” Whereas when tweets are posted with a photo, it looks more compelling and attractive.

Brand awareness is the initial goal of these twitter corporate accounts and their access to people’s pockets (figuratively speaking). It gives them room for creative branding that increases their power of persuasion. Besides, it is a fact that an image sticks through people’s minds more than texts do.

What other activities can these marketers build around this photo sharing?

Advertising – this is the best form of showcasing promos, discounts and freebies to followers. With the word “free” on a poster, it would automatically catch your followers’ attention.

Customer Engagement – this steps up a company’s consumer engagement activity. You can utilize photos in contests by showing images of ultimate twitter accounts competing for the prize. It is the best way to feature winners. In addition, your company can come up with photos to share that appears to be relevant to your followers and customers.

Company details (past, present and future) – you can easily share to your costumers the real depth of your business and the whole company. It is easy to share significant events through pictures from when it was still new up to the present, most especially the future of the company. This is the perfect way to gain credibility and trust, sharing a part of the company to consumers.

Twitter has really done these marketers a favor by this new move, even if some say it has rough-shodded some third party applications. It doesn’t only improve user experience but increase the possibility for creative marketing and increased sales.