15 Powerful Twitter Promotion Ideas

Twitter can be a powerful marketing platform when you apply the right Twitter promotion ideas and apply them properly.

The secret is not to always be pitching and selling, but instead to communicate and deliver value.

The most powerful marketing does not feel like marketing.

Check out the article below and discover 15 powerful Twitter promotion tactics to help you build your brand and execute effective micro-blogging marketing campaigns.

1. Use Twitter’s New Header Feature

Twitter now enables you to add a header image to your Twitter profile.

Adding this is easier than you might think.  Simply go to “Settings” and then “Design” and upload your image.

The recommended dimensions are 1200×600 and the maximum file size is 5MB.

Here’s what my header image looks like:

This image will also display on most Twitter mobile applications.

2. Choose Your Twitter ID Carefully

Your Twitter handle can either help or hurt you build your Twitter brand, so choose wisely.

Shorter is better because of RTs, but catchy is better than short due to memorability.

Get a catchy, short, username and you’re golden.

3. Promote With Your Profile

Your Twitter profile is highly visible so if you include a link

Ask yourself: where do I want to send traffic the most? The answer to this question is the link you should use in your bio.

In addition to the main URL spot Twitter provides if you mention other Twitter usernames, or include other URLs beginning with http:// in your bio, these will become click able links as well.

4. Link it Up

Promote your twitter presence by adding links to your Twitter profile on your website, your other social media profiles, in your email signature, and everywhere else it is relevant to do so.

5. Use Your Real Name

People connect with people better than they do with brands.

Present yourself as a person rather than a brand and this will make your promotion efforts much easier.

6. Promote with #Hashtags

Use the # symbol in front of a keyword to add your tweet to a stream of tweets all using the same #hashtag.

If you have a small audience this can be a powerful way to attract new people to your content.

Be wary of going overboard with hashtags. #When #you #use #alot #of #hashtags #it #looks #ugly.

7. Connect With People Who Have Shared Interests

When you connect with people who have shared interests

I use Twitter marketing software to connect with people who have keywords in their bio that are related to topics I tweet about (Twitter, Social Media, Marketing, Facebook, etc.)

8. Use Twitter Directories to Promote Your Twitter Profile

Here is a list of some of the best Twitter directories for expanding your network.

9. Cross Promote with Influencers

Follow the influencers related to your business or industry and retweet them to get on their radar.

After a few retweets reach out to them with a mention and some will feel compelled to connect with you since you have shown that you are willing to help them.

If you connect with and help influencers there is a good chance they will return the favor and help you with your promotion.

10. Space Out Your Promotional Tweets

Use a Twitter profile management tool like Hootsuite or Buffer to manage multiple twitter accounts & schedule your updates.

Check out this post about timing your tweets for more tips on this topic.

11. Offer Special “Follower Only” Promotions & Coupons

Increase sales using twitter by giving special offers and coupons to your followers.

One way to do this is to give a special offer to anyone who retweets one of your tweets.

12. Run a Twitter Traffic Contest

Create a viral contest by offering a prize to whoever sends the most traffic to your contest page.

Make entrants use a contest hashtag and a bit.ly link so you can track who sends the most traffic.

You can track bit.ly link clicks by adding a + to the end of any bit.ly link.

13. Use Offline Marketing to Drive Your Twitter Promotion

Just because a promotion is happening on Twitter does not mean you can;t promote it with offline marketing materials.

A traditional ad, a billboard, or twitter business cards will get you real results online.

14. Tweet Promotional Pictures

Post pictures of your products, business cards, and other items related to your business.

If you are on Instagram send your pictures to Twitter whenever it is relevant to do so.

A picture says a thousand words and can be a great way to get your audience engaging with you.

Make sure to respond as often as possible to the people who mention you, since ignoring your followers can cause your followers to feel alienated.  Engaging with everyone gets harder to do the bigger your following grows but do your best and you’ll get great results.

15. Get More Twitter Followers

The more followers you have the easier your Twitter promotional efforts will be.

Check out this article I wrote with 75 tips for getting more followers and learn more about organic online and offline methods for building a following.

If you want to turbo-boost your social proof and Twitter following  check out the services offered by Grow my Twitter Network.

Bonus Tip: Keep Your Account Secure

If your Twitter account is compromised this can seriously damage your brand, cause your to lose followers, and ruin your Twitter promotional campaigns.

Use a strong password to protect your twitter account from hackers, and make sure to always log out of your Twitter account if you are using a shared computer.

If you find any security issues, change your password immediately without fail.

Be wary of suspicious direct messages from your followers since there are several malicious applications send direct message without consent.

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7 Powerful Twitter Account Management Tools

Twitter Account Management Tools are essential for anyone who wants to manage their micro-blogging without wasting time.


For business owners time is money, and most busy people don’t have all day to dedicate to social media.


Luckily the Twitter management tools in this post are here to save the day!


If you want to manage multiple Twitter accounts with ease the following twitter management tools will make your Twitter management efforts much easier.
1. Hootsuite


Hootsuite is the ultimate Twitter account management tool, and my personal favorite.


There are so many characteristics and features to commend in Hootsuite.





The ability to schedule tweets is an essential if you tweet often and do not want to spam your network with tons of posts at once. With Hootsuite you can control when your tweets go out, or use the auto-schedule feature to automatically space them out.


It scores high on the organization department. Posts, mentions, wall feed and so forth are organized in columns.


Hootsuite enablers you to post to Twitter accounts, Facebook Profile, Pages & Groups, LinkedIn and LinkedIn Groups.


Hootsuite offers up to five connected accounts for free, and unlimited accounts for PRO members.


At the top is a tab bar. Here you will see tabs for all your registered accounts in various social media sites. When you click on a tab, you will be presented with columns of posts, feeds, etc.
2. Bottlenose


The main advantage that Bottlenose has lies in their powerful social search engine which reveals real-time news and social trends.


It is very similar to Hootsuite in structure and navigation.





Users can customize what feeds (called “streams” in Bottlenose) will be shown in the columns of each Twitter account.





If you want to get the inside scoop about what stories are trending in your network bottlenose is a great way to go!
3. TweetDeck by Twitter


TweetDeck is very similar to Hootsuite, and comes with a desktop version in addition to the web based version.


The distinctive feature of the TweetDeck desktop app is the desktop notifications. These can be customized and will pop up in the corner of your screen to inform you of fresh Twitter activity.



4. Tweepi


Tweepi is a network management tool that helps you make sense of your Twitter network.



Flush the unfollowers – Unfollow people who do not follow you with just a few clicks. Tweepi’s Geeky Flush is a simple utility for quickly spotting tweeps that you follow but do not follow you back.
Reciprocate – It takes a really long time to find all the users you’re not following on Twitter and then following each one back individually! This tool helps you find all the users that follow you, but you do not follow back, so that you can follow them back with a click of a button.
Cleanup inactive accounts – Many users do not engage in conversations, never retweet anybody, or simply just ramble about nonsense stuff all day long. You can use the cleanup tool to filter these people out and unfollow them.
Clean-up – Filter out those inactive and unwanted tweeps by checking out their details and deciding for yourself!
Force people to unfollow you – Undesirable people are following you? You can use Tweepi’s Force Unfollow tool to block these people and force them to unfollow you.


Unfortunately, once you have more than 60k followers you cannot use Tweepi unless you buy a premium account.
5 Commun.it


This new discovery is a fascinating tool that analyzes your Twitter following to help you find the people you influence most and the most influential people that you follow.


It’s a great way to get the biggest bang for the time investment you put into Twitter.



6. ManageTwitter


ManageTwitter enables you to rapidly unfollow people you do not follow you back.


With ManageTwitter you can easily unfollow people after sorting them by several different criteria, such as inactivity, followers, etc.





The nice thing about ManageTwitter is no matter how large your Twitter network grows you can still use them for free.


ManageTwitter is free, but offers as premium version with a few more features.
Twitter Management Tools Save You Time


Managing social media accounts is important, but surely that’s not the only aspect of your business.


You’ll have other important matters to attend to, not to mention your own personal affairs.
Maximize your Social Media Efficiency


If you use even just one of the tools above it becomes much easier to manage even up to five different accounts.
Quickly Monitor Your Network Activity


Using a social media management tool is very useful for checking for spam and rants from your organization’s harshest critics.


These tools should help you make multiple account management on Twitter a breeze. Good Luck!
7. TweetAdder


TweetAdder is an awesome network building tool that I use daily to grow my Twitter network.


With TweetAdder you can create a list of people to follow automatically based on many different criteria, such as:
Location
Keywords in Bio
Keywords Tweeted Recently
Location
Followers of a User
Followed by a User
Twitter Lists
and more!

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Best Twitter Tools to Get More Twitter Followers [Tweet Adder Alternatives]

website traffic is a dream of every marketer.


The only trouble with that dream is the fact that it doesn’t always play nicely with reality.

Especially when it comes down to social media traffic.

And even more specifically, Twitter traffic.

Twitter has recently restricted use of its API significantly, causing several Twitter tools to follow/unfollow users to shut down.

My favorite Twitter tool, Tweet Adder, which I’ve been using and recommending for the past two years, had also gone through a major overhaul, removing most automation features that made it a social media traffic generation dream come true.

Which Twitter tools are still worth their salt?

Which ones provide the most time-efficient way to get more Twitter followers?

Which Twitter tools allow you to get more Twitter followers at the best price – the best being free or as close to it as possible?

Yes, we are on a quest to find the best Twitter tools to get more Twitter followers.
Best Twitter Tools Criteria

To generate traffic from Twitter, we need more responsive followers who are interested in what we have to say.

How do we get such Twitter followers as efficiently as possible?

The criteria I’ll be looking at when exploring the tools to get more Twitter followers are as follows:
1. How well can I target new followers?

This is not a numbers game.

Ten targeted and engaged Twitter followers might help you to carry your business message a lot farther than 100 or even 1,000 Twitter followers who could care less about what you have to say.
2. How quickly can I follow them with each tool?

Here’s Twitter’s official policy on Automated Following and Un-Following:


The only auto-following behavior Twitter allows is automated or bulk follow-back. This refers to following a user after they have followed you. Please review our Follow Rules and Best Practices for a detailed discussion of following recommendations.

Also note that per the Twitter Rules, “get followers fast” applications and services are not allowed. Do not surrender your username and password to them, or otherwise grant access to or control of your account to any third party apps that claim to provide such services.

And just in case you missed this very important point:


Also note that per the Twitter Rules, “get followers fast” applications and services are not allowed.

I used to love using Tweet Adder to automate some of the tedious tasks of getting more Twitter followers: following and unfollowing, to be more precise.

To be clear, I was never a fan of fully automating the process. I still fired up my Tweet Adder on a daily basis manually setting it to follow/unfollow a certain number of people. I called it “manual automation”.

However, with new Twitter API rules, automatically getting more Twitter followers is just not possible any longer.

So now I am on the quest to get the best tool to make the task of following/unfollowing people as quick as possible – without full automation.
3. How easily can I unfollow people?

Why do you need to unfollow anyone?

Simply put, sooner or later you’ll have to unfollow those who don’t follow you to be able to follow more people.

Twitter daily following limit is 1,000 per day.

Please note that this is a technical account limit only, and there are additional rules prohibiting aggressive following behavior. Details about following limits and prohibited behavior are on the Follow Limits and Best Practices page.

Up to a limit of 2,000 followers that is.

Once an account is following 2,000 other users, additional follow attempts are limited by account-specific ratios, i.e. you can follow 10% more than the number of your followers.

In other words, if 2,000 people are following you, you can follow 2,200, after which you have to wait till more people follow you (10% more).

However, you can be waiting forever till your follower ratio catches up with the number of people you are following.

My rule of thumb: if someone doesn’t follow me back after 5 days that usually means they are not interested in what you have to say. In this case, you need to unfollow them so that you can follow more people who are more interested in your tweets.

Here’s how it works:



I’ll be looking for a tool that allows me to unfollow with ease.
Twitter Tools to Get More Twitter Followers

After looking into several Twitter tools that offer follow/unfollow features, my final contenders for the best Twitter tools are:
Tweet Adder
Brand Chirp
Tweepi

Let’s take a look at what each tool has to offer, how they stack up against each other, as well as my final recommendations.
Tweet Adder (Paid)



Let’s start with my old favorite: Tweet Adder.

Those of you who’ve been around Traffic Generation Café for a while or are getting my free Bite-Size Traffic Hacks email series know that Tweet Adder used to be my to-go tool for Twitter traffic generation.

Since Twitter API restrictions though, Tweet Adder had to make some significant changes to comply with Twitter rules, which basically turned it from a leader in Twitter automation to just another tool to do the same basic tasks every other tool does as well.

Take a look:

Tweet Adder Version 3 – retired as of May 24, 2013



The orange arrows are pointing to the Tweet Adder features that allowed you to follow/unfollow Twitter followers automatically.

Take a look at the new Tweet Adder version 4:



Let’s take a look at how the new Tweet Adder measures up against the three best Twitter tool criteria set above.





Tweet Adder Pros and Cons
Pros

More of an “all-in-one” Twitter tool.

Offers follow/unfollow (albeit the recent removal of most automated functions).

Can add RSS feeds, send DMs (under “thank you messages”), schedule tweets/retweets, etc.

Great follower targeting.

Can research Twitter trends.

Allows to follow/unfollow now or save unlimited number of names for later follow/unfollow.

More economical Twitter tool: one-time price vs monthly subscription.

BIG ONE: So far Tweet Adder seems to be the only Twitter tool to offer running multiple Twitter accounts through proxies.

Why use proxies with Tweet Adder?

You and I know that we are using Tweet Adder to ultimate add value to our new Twitter followers, not to spam them.

Twitter doesn’t know it.

So if they catch too many following/unfollowing requests from the same IP address (yours), they might ban you first and ask questions later.

How many is too many?

Anyone’s guess.

I’ve been able to follow thousands of folks per day without getting into trouble, and then some of my readers got banned after following 50 people by hand.

So now I use proxies just to be on the safe side.
Cons

Most follow/unfollow tasks are manual (although it’s hard to count it as a con since all Twitter tools have to comply with Twitter term of service and not allow any automation).

Price: used to be a bargain because of its automation features, but now Tweet Adder is a bit pricey for what it has to offer.
Is Tweet Adder My Recommendation for the Best Twitter Tool?

Allow me to say first that I am still pretty bitter that Tweet Adder had to turn off most of its automation features.

For those of us who were using the automation features to leverage our time and not to spam anyone on Twitter, this was a major blow.

That said, it’s not Tweet Adder’s fault.

They chose to do the right thing (i.e. comply with Twitter new terms of service) and good for them.

How does it position them among other Twitter tools?

After taking a deep breath and comparing it to other tools to get more Twitter followers, I was relieved to see that in many ways Tweet Adder is still ahead of its competition.

Here are the features that make is stand out in my eyes:
Running multiple Twitter accounts by proxy – this is huge. As far as I see, Tweet Adder is still the only tool to offer this feature.
Combining follow/unfollow features with Twitter management elements, like adding RSS feeds, scheduling tweets, automated welcome messages, automated retweets, etc.
Even though the number of features went down and the price remained the same, compared to the other Twitter tools I analyzed, Tweet Adder is still ahead: one-time fee always beats a monthly subscription as far as I am concerned.

So overall, yes – I still recommend and use Tweet Adder as my best Twitter tool of choice.

==> Download Your Copy of Tweet Adder Here
Use discount code AH20 at checkout

But don’t take my word for it; let’s take a look at other candidates for the best Twitter tool.
BrandChirp.com (Paid)



Brand Chirp is very similar to Tweet Adder – not only it allows you to follow/unfollow Twitter users, but also do certain tweet management tasks.

Does it do it as well as Tweet Adder?

Let’s take a look:





Brand Chirp Pros and Cons
Pros

Shows how active prospective friends are (the last time they tweeted). There’s no reason to follow people who haven’t tweeted in a while.

More of an “all-in-one” Twitter tool.

Offers follow/unfollow, as well as adding RSS feeds, brand monitoring, and scheduled tweets.

Great follower targeting.

Does have a one-time payment option vs a monthly subscription; a plus in my eyes.

Multiple accounts (could be unlimited; I am not entirely sure).
Cons

Search by keywords is extremely slow.

Overall, fewer features than Tweet Adder at a steeper price.

Monthly subscription – adds up pretty quickly (unless you want to spend $200 up front).
Is Brand Chirp My Recommendation for the Best Twitter Tool?

After closely examining all the features, I think Tweet Adder still takes the lead over Brand Chirp: more features, less expensive, and more stable.
Tweepi.com (Free/Paid)



Tweepi allows you to discover and follow new users, unfollow users, find and unfollow inactive users and block followers who send spam.

Please keep in mind that at the moment, Tweepi Premium accounts are linked on per Twitter account basis. If you wish to upgrade more than one account, you’ll need to do so for each one.

Here’s the rundown on the features you can expect to get with Tweepi.com.





Tweepi Pros and Cons
Pros

You can follow other users’ followers or friends.

You can follow semi-automatically (from 20 to 200 people at a time depending on your account).

You can “flush” the unfollows.

You can cleanup inactives.

Can run several Twitter accounts for free.
Cons

Better follower targeting is only available with premium accounts.

Premium accounts get expensive: $7.49 – $14.99 per month per account.

Can’t do any kind of tweeting (like adding RSS feeds, retweeting, DMs, etc)
Is Tweepi My Recommendation for the Best Twitter Tool?

I think Tweepi is pretty mighty for a free Twitter tool.

For those of you who are new to Twitter or still learning the ropes on how to put it to good use in your business, I think free Tweepi is a great choice.

It allows you to test the Twitter waters without any financial commitment.

However, if you are serious about Twitter traffic generation, I wouldn’t pay for their monthly subscription plan. I think it’s just too much to pay for multiple accounts and the fact that it doesn’t do much of anything else (any kind of Twitter management) makes it even more expensive.

Choose Tweet Adder in that case.
More Twitter Tools

The Twitter Tools listed above are the ones I’d strongly consider for getting more Twitter followers.

Of course, there are many more.

After a while, they all start looking the same.

Most of them offer a minimal free service and charge a monthly fee for more – and you always need more since you can’t really do much with their free options.

Here are just some of the Twitter tools I ran into:
Manageflitter.com

Manageflitter.com offers to unfollow 100 people per day for free – anything beyond that, including any following features will cost you $12 per month and up.

Granted, you can increase the unfollow limit to up to 2,000, but without being able to follow users, it doesn’t do you any good.
Justunfollow.com

Justunfollow.com is yet another unfollow tool that will let you to unfollow people and follow back those who followed you, but not follow new users.
Friendorfollow.com

Friendorfollow.com offers limited free features and the ability to unfollow/follow back, but not search/follower new users.
Best Twitter Tool Marketing Takeaway

Whether we like it or not, we have to adapt to changes.

Recent Twitter API limitations were just one such change.

Getting Twitter followers will never be as easy as it used to be; true.

But getting more Facebook fans was never that easy to begin with, yet we managed just fine, right?

I’ve given you four pretty darn good choices to do well with getting more Twitter followers, establishing your brand, and getting more Twitter traffic back to your site.

Twitter can be an incredible traffic generator (it always has been for Traffic Generation Café); it’s time to figure out how to make it work for YOU.

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Top 5 Most Indispensable Twitter Tools for Marketers

What’s more important? The quantity of your Twitter following or the depth of your relationships with your followers?

The answer is BOTH! Having hundreds of thousands of followers must be nice. But we all know that the depth of the relationships you maintain with your tweeple is paramount.

This article will reveal five great Twitter tools that will help you find and engage with quality Twitter followers.



Notice I mentioned “depth.” However, there must be another side to this coin. The reach. And if you want to have “reach” on Twitter (getting 10+ retweets, for example) on regular basis, chances are you will need a large number of followers.

This article will focus on getting you those numbers.

Specifically, I want to explore how to generate new followers, how to manage your newly found follower surplus and how to turn those shallow relationships into deeper ones using the top 5 most indispensable Twitter tools.
#1: Blast Follow

Editors note: BlastFollow is no longer operational due to changes in Twitter authentication requirements. To make up the difference, we suggest you see a post about another magnificent Twitter tool.

Editors note: This tool, if abused, will get you temporarily banned from Twitter. Do not follow large groups (1000 or more) or multiple hash tags at once. We have received reports from readers that they were banned because they “over did” this tool.

Blast Follow is indispensable for finding people in your niche (and beyond) and auto-following them with a single click.

How does this help YOU gain more followers? Because of the Law of Reciprocity.


Take advantage of Twitter's "Law of Reciprocity" nature and blast follow hundreds of tweeple with a single click and get followed in kind.

The law of reciprocity is a basic mammalian urge. When apes groom each other, they are engaging in the Law of Reciprocity. In fact, if you take a trip to your local zoo, you will notice that the most social apes are the best-groomed as well.

I will go as far as to say that the reason Twitter is so popular is because the human urge to reciprocate is such a strong driving force behind our actions.

Twitter is a Law of Reciprocity platform. You follow me; it’s only fair that I follow you back.

Most social media experts (Chris Brogan , Guy Kawasaki) recommend a mutual-follow policy.

Note: Chris has changed his own policy due to spam, but the basic idea for the rest of us still stands.

Here is a nifty list of Twitter superstars who WILL follow you back.
#2: Tweepi

Tweepi allows you to unfollow those who do not reciprocate.


Easily shake off the deadbeats. Tweepi enables you to unfollow those who do not follow you back, 40 deadbeats at a time.

The only thing I would add is to be careful not to unfollow someone you would prefer to continue to follow.

Why would you want to follow someone who doesn’t follow you back? One reason could be that their tweets are super-interesting.

The overall strategy for using Blast Follow and Tweepi is to blast follow 100-200 people today and give them a week or so to follow back. If they don’t reciprocate, clean them out with Tweepi. Then repeat.

OK. What’s next?
#3: twAitter

I hope that I don’t have to sell you on the notion of maintaining a presence on Twitter. One tool that is indispensable in maintaining a presence is twAitter, which allows you toschedule your tweets in advance.

Now, that’s not all that amazing on its own. Many tools allow you to schedule your tweets. Social Oomph comes to mind.


twAitter will soon be renamed to Gremln; the ability to schedule, rotate and repeat your tweets will remain unchanged.

twAitter is unique in that it allows us to rotate and repeat our tweets. Social Oomph allows for a similar functionality (and a lot more), but it’s a premium service for which you’d have to pay. twAitter, on the other hand, is free.

Why would you want to repeat your tweets?

Twitter is a drive-by platform. Most people login for 10-20 minutes at a time and unless they see your tweet in that time, chances are they will never see it. Unless you repeat yourself.


Don’t abuse this awesome power.

Guy Kawasaki repeats his tweets four times with at least several hours in between. I repeat my tweets every few days but do not limit myself to four.
#4: TweetDeck

Now that you have thousands of followers, you will need to organize them and keep an eye on the really interesting ones. In comes TweetDeck.


TweetDeck gives you the ability to create panels based on your lists, retweet now or later, keep an eye on your fav tweeps and much more.

TweetDeck allows you to create “panels” based on your Twitter lists or others. I have lists/panels for my dog people, social media people, friends, interesting and RT-worthytweeps, etc. They all get their own list/panel, which makes it really easy to follow their timeline.

Without TweetDeck, this would be an overwhelming and time-consuming prospect.
#5: TweetChat

TweetChat allows you to isolate the conversation based on the hashtag.

This is a two-in-one kind of tool.


In the sea of tweets, it's easy to lose track of your favorite hashtag. TweetChat to the rescue.




It not only helps you generate followers, but it does this by first creating a familiarity and depth before the follow itself occurs. How?

Hashtags (#) and the way they can be used on Twitter are a great big untapped resource for many Twitter residents.

Here’s an example:

If you tune into Twitter every Monday night around 9 pm EST, you might see an excessive appearance of the #dogtalk hashtag.

The #dogtalk crew brings in interesting dog people every week and interviews them about their goings-on. Many folks tune in using TweetChat to follow and participate in the conversation.

If you’ve participated in the conversation and actually contributed in some small way, a funny thing happens.

Other participants see you as interesting and decide to follow you. The right thing to do now is to reciprocate, of course.
Bonus #6: Super-Secret Bonus Twitter Tool

This tool is the best, most important tool of them all. It works in an entirely different way than any other tools we’ve mentioned.

Here’s the big secret. It’s you.

Be useful. Be interesting. Be compelling.



Take this post as an example. Do you think that this post will generate followers for me? Of course it will. A bonus here is that the relationship has started “on the right foot.” I’m a real person (a somewhat rare commodity on Twitter), I have something useful to share (at least I hope it will be useful to you) and hopefully it will compel you to check me out and be my friend on Twitter.

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