As America faces two consecutive devastating hurricanes, Harvey and Irma, social media is full of posts. The same is true for terrorist incidents such as the recent attacks in Manchester, England. Social media can provide valuable information and help to raise awareness of victims’ needs. Twitter, in particular, is helpful for providing real time information.

Yet there’s a dark side to the roles played by Twitter and other social media sites during such events. In some cases, the hyper focusing on traumatic events makes it even harder for victims. Misinformation can put people in more danger. Finally, trolls and dishonest people can exploit victims. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of social media during disasters.
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If you’ve been online for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with the problem of trolls. On Twitter, trolls can operate in a number of ways. One of the most annoying is when you get notifications from people you don’t know. In some cases, these may be spammers.

There’s also the growing problem of cyberbullying. Twitter has recently updated its settings, making it easier to avoid notifications from people who don’t follow you.
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Twitter has made some interesting changes and innovations over the years, including video apps, an advertising platform and more advanced customer service options. Over the last few years, Twitter has also gone to great lengths to make their service more accessible to mobile users. Of course, more and more internet users now access the web via mobile, so it makes sense that social media companies would create mobile-friendly apps and features.
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Twitter has struggled with growth over the last few years. Although it’s remained one of the most influential social media companies, it was widely reported new members weren’t signing up and that usage was declining. The latest numbers, however, reveal that Twitter has turned a corner and is once again on the upswing. Currently, the site boasts 328 million active monthly users, which is the strongest performance in two years. Twitter has been historically vague about disclosing its numbers. For example, it doesn’t like to release information about daily active users. However, the overall trend seems to be positive, most likely in response to certain key changes the social media network recently implemented.
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Twitter has had its ups and downs over the last few years. Its growth has leveled off (but they still maintain over 300 million active users). Lots of celebrities and even the current U.S. president have achieved notoriety with their tweets. Throughout its history, however, Twitter has been considered one of the most open and transparent social media sites. This may be changing as the social media site is now implementing policies that restrict certain words, topics and accounts.
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When it comes to social media platforms, where there’s change, there’s outrage. A look at Twitter’s trending topics in early February 2017 reveal #RIPTwitter with thousands of 140 character grievances. Why? Despite the platform’s overall turbulent past, the seemingly massive protest was in reference to a single change. Twitter switched its timeline to an algorithm-based format.

While one could argue it was only a matter of time before Twitter simply adopted the same format as Facebook and Instagram, critics argued the implications were more far reaching than a non-chronological annoyance.
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Twitter has been in the news quite a bit lately. It seems that everyone from President Trump to famous athletes make notable and controversial tweets every day. People’s very careers are sometimes derailed after making ill-conceived comments on Twitter and other social media sites. Because social media has taken on such importance in our society, keeping accounts secure is a major concern. Everyone who uses social media is potentially at risk for security breaches. Let’s look at why this is such an important matter and how you can make yourself more secure on Twitter.
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We often get asked how to customize Click To Tweet links that appear in blog posts (using our WordPress plugin) so what is displayed is different than what gets tweeted. There is a simple way to accomplish this and you can use this technique on any current or new links you’ve created.

First, simply create your CTT link how you normally would. Make sure to include whatever text and links you want to ultimately be tweeted. Once you create and insert this link into your blog post, it will look something like this:

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Social media has become one of the most effective ways to reach your audience, which includes both existing and potential customers. As more and more people spend time on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and others, it becomes ever more crucial to establish a strong presence on these sites.

What really counts with your social media strategy is engagement. This refers, not to the number of followers you have, but the number of people who actually engage with your posts. When people share your content, they are working on your behalf to reach a wider audience. Let’s look at seven of the best ways to encourage more social media shares.
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Twitter is one of the leading platforms for discussing the latest news and events. The tweets of politicians, celebrities and influencers from every realm of society are often more widely quoted than their interviews on TV stations or newspapers.

Of course, Twitter is also a very democratic platform, so millions of ordinary people are also free to express their views. Twitter has put together a video compilation called #ThisHappened, a composite of some of 2016’s most memorable events as noted on Twitter.
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