followers

How Does Twitter Verify Celebrity Accounts?

Alexandra Cheney, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on March 7, 2011 at 4:20 pm PT

While Twitter continues to give celebrities, athletes, musicians, actors and others a platform to directly connect with their fans, the social networking site remains tight-lipped about how it determines if those stars are really who they say they are.

Hate Ads? You'll Love This Site. Love Ads? You Too.

Peter Kafka in Media on January 14, 2011 at 8:30 am PT

A site for people who love to complain about ads. That’s most of you, right? It’s created by an ad guy, of course.

Indian Start-Up Turns Texts Into Dollars

Ina Fried in Mobile on December 14, 2010 at 7:00 am PT

Indian start-up SMS GupShup is trying to turn text messages into some serious ka-ching by creating a host of SMS-based services that, all told, account for more than 1.5 billion text messages a month.

Exclusive: Want More Followers? Twitter May Help You Buy Some.

Peter Kafka in Media on July 9, 2010 at 11:25 am PT

Want more people reading your tweets? Twitter may offer you a hand–for a price. People familiar with the company’s plans say it has been discussing yet another revenue generator: Think of it as a “Promoted Tweeter” product, which highlights specific user accounts, designed to bump up follower counts.

LeBron James and the Giant Twitter Link

Peter Kafka in Media on July 8, 2010 at 2:37 pm PT

What does really, really intense Twitter and Web interest look like in graph form? Glad you asked!

Twitter’s Wallflowers Get a Little Less Timid. But It’s Still a Service for Watchers, Not Talkers.

Peter Kafka in Media on March 10, 2010 at 7:12 am PT

Twitter gets described as a conversation or a cocktail party, but it’s really more like a stage play. A few people do all the talking, and everyone else watches and listens. That’s changing, a bit, as the service grows. But it may always be a service dominated by a few loud voices.

Twitter Tweaks Its Suggested User List

Jennifer Valentino, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on January 22, 2010 at 2:11 pm PT

Twitter is changing the way it recommends accounts for users to follow on the microblogging service–doing away with a contentious feature that drove thousands of users to a select list of Twitterers. Instead of having a single list of suggested users, Twitter is now dividing suggestions into categories such as music, politics and “editors’ picks.”

S—mydadsays Lands a TV Deal

Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on November 11, 2009 at 12:30 am PT

How many tweets does it take to create a sit-com? CBS is about to find out. The network has picked up a comedy developed by Justin Halpern, the creator of the breakout Twitter account S—mydadsays, and his writing partner Patrick Schumacker.

Meghan McCain Twitter Photo Sparks Controversy

Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on October 15, 2009 at 2:36 pm PT

Meghan McCain, a Daily Beast columnist and daughter of Sen. John McCain, apologized late Wednesday after posting a photo of herself on Twitter that stirred up some criticism and plenty of retweets. The photo shows Ms. McCain in a tanktop, holding a copy of Andy Warhol’s biography, and her accompanying tweet referred to her “’spontaneous’ night in.”

Dad's Rants Become a Twitter Hit

Dana Mattioli, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on September 3, 2009 at 2:14 pm PT

Until last week, Justin Halpern’s 73-year-old father didn’t know that he was a Twitter sensation. His dad’s quips have resulted in more than 231,000 followers under the account name @s–mydadsays. But after it attracted wide attention in recent weeks as followers retweeted postings, and blogs and mainstream media covered it, Mr. Halpern finally broke the news.