Other reasons had a connection to saving money. Many people admitted to following companies to receive news on discounts, promotions, upcoming sales and free samples.

26% of followers use Twitter simply “for fun or entertainment” and others to interact by sharing their own ideas and opinions and give feedback on others’. Lastly, 23% of Twitter users say they follow a company to show their support.

Why do you use Twitter?

Levy and Coughlin will be in charge of working on Promoted Suite, a system of Twitter advertising which consists of promoted tweets and trends. They plan on increasing revenue in fourth quarter by experimenting with various types of ad units.

Traditional advertising is seen as one of Twitter’s four main revenue intakes. The other three are commerce, commercial accounts and the data feed. Commerce includes promotions through Twitter’s Earlybird Offers service and commercial accounts include data and analytics access. Twitter profits from the data feed by charging usage fees to search engines such as Google and Bing.

Twitter is currently developing a “promoted user” unit, which would allow users to pay for more followers. They are also hoping to add features to their EarlyBird service, and incorporate target segmentation, user interest and location into their new advertising initiatives.

Twitter’s new advertising platform is something to look forward to for users and advertisers. Companies should take this as an opportunity to expand their social media strategy and improve their presence on one of the largest social networks. For example, Promoted Tweets allow a marketer to present a user with brand information that is particularly relevant. The reason for this is that if users do not interact with a Promoted Tweet to indicate interest, the tweet will disappear. Although this provides greater pressure on tweet presentation, it could also be very beneficial.

What about Twitter’s new ad features interests you the most?

Mashable reports that “according to ClickZ, ads appear in a box with the Twitter bird icon in the upper left-hand corner and the advertisers’ latest tweet in the center. To the right is a button prompting viewers to follow the advertiser on Twitter, which they can do without having to leave Google. Clicking on any other part of the ad directs the user to the advertiser’s Twitter page”.

Google has used Norway-based firm Qualite Search Marketing for testing. Mashable says that the firm reports only “a modest boost” to its follower count since testing on the platform began in May.

One question to ask is, will an increase in followers automatically mean an increase in engagement? That will be the true test of success.

The downside to using a URL shortening service is that users cannot tell where the link is taking them to, and users can send their followers to spammy sites. One of the leaders in URL shortening services, Bit.ly, is taking a stand against spam in attempts to make the user experience safer. Bit.ly announced that it will be working with VeriSign, Websense and Sophos to help detect and defeat malware, analyze web content behind shortened URLs and use behavioral analysis to detect spam and malware, respectively. As microblogging evolves, so will the tools that help manage and enhance the services.

One way Twitter is aiming to clean up its clutter is through making trending topics more relevant. Venture Beat cites spokesperson Jenna Sampson saying “we’re working to show higher quality results for trend queries by returning tweets that are more useful. The improvement won’t be very noticeable at first, but this is a small step toward unearthing more value in search and getting you more relevant results.” Twitter is also planning more features like an official retweet function. “Twitter’s testing a new official retweet feature after announcing they were going to incorporate the informal practice earlier this year,” writes VentureBeat.

What features would you like to see come to Twitter?

Nevertheless, because the deals would be non-exclusive, neither Twitter nor Facebook would be tied to just one search engine. Google can just as quickly come in and make its own deals. There are still many questions to ask concerning this news. Who will benefit the most from this deal? Although Twitter is based solely on updates, Facebook isn’t limited to 140 character updates. Facebook also has more users. Most importantly, how will this affect the choices users make on which search engines to use?

Last week, Twitter introduced a new reporting feature that allows users to report suspicious accounts as spam. You can mark certain accounts as spam and their usernames will be forwarded to a “Trust and Safety” team to check it out. Once a user marks an account as spam, the account will automatically be blocked from following or replying to him/her. Additionally, Twitter is now blocking duplicate Tweets. As TechCrunch reports, “If you try to enter text for a tweet that is exactly the same as a tweet you’ve recently sent, it will block it, saying ‘duplicate text’ in a white drop down overlay … It would appear that there is a time window for this, and it may be 24-hours”. With Twitter taking steps to clean up the noise that spam accounts create, it will be interesting to see what kind of traffic changes occur.

Twitter’s labs area (similar to Google Labs) will be a place where engineers can create add-ons and other experimental functions. According to Venture Beat, “Britt Selvitelle, a Twitter engineer, made the announcement earlier … but didn’t release further details. The move comes the same month that Facebook unveiled its own testing area called ‘Prototypes’”. In crowdsourcing Twitter development, users will be able to make the most out of their Twitter experiences.

Recent reports also show that Twitter seems to have turned on part of its new Geolocation API. TechCrunch writes, ” Basically, it looks like it turned on geolocation coordinates for all tweets, even if they weren’t meant to be enabled”. A geolocation function for Twitter can mean many opportunities for reaching target audiences, and on the user’s end, finding the most useful resources in the closest proximity.

How will you take advantage of Twitter’s new features?

According to VentureBeat, “The company has already moved in this direction by releasing a guide for professional users, detailing how companies can use it to find customers, pass on deals and perform market research. It is also going to offer ‘certified accounts,’ for businesses”. Certified accounts will ensure users that they are following actual companies or company representatives rather than people pretending to be them. Will the emphasis on analytics and statistics be worth the price (which is to be determined) for a commercial accounts? What other benefits could Twitter incorporate into commercial accounts?

According to Mashable, “[o]f the many things FriendFeed has done well, search is at the forefront. Their real-time search engine is much stronger than Twitter’s in terms of interface and usability: it simply doesn’t have nearly the volume of content to be as valuable as Twitter search. However, that problem is immediately solved if you plug content from Facebook’s 250+ million members into it”. The acquisition then begins to make more and more sense with the combination of Facebook’s mass audience and FriendFeed’s superior search. While this might not deter current Twitter users from using the site, it might be harder to gain new users who might opt for Facebook on that they will eventually serve the same purpose.

How will the FriendFeed acquisition affect Twitter?