The Populous Virtual World

Sunday September 2, 2012 - Twitter announced on Friday that it has enhanced its add-targeting capabilities and can now target users based on their interests - something that will allow advertisers and companies to specifically target users and customers based on their interests.

This niche penetration into users is done through allowing advertisers locate user tweets and interests as well as products, music or any other interests they follow. This way companies can select these options and knock on people's virtual doorsteps with what they have to offer.

With social media advertising on the rise, social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook are increasingly enhancing their capabilities for such specific set skills that meet the ever growing demand of advertisers in this ever growing social media savvy world. This is because more and more people across the globe are embracing social media either as a matter of the practicality of the sites or as a social trend specially in developing world. According to Twitter’s website, it’s monthly active user list has grown to 140 million – a 40% increase compared to September last year (mashable.com/2012/03/21/twitter-has-140-million-users/) . Facebook still remains way further in the social media user share battle and dominates the market with 800 million users (http://newsroom.fb.com/) 

While both these social media giants are boasting their massive and speedy growth, questions remain about the gullible users of these websites. While users enjoy sharing photos and status updates as well as finding out the likes of their nears and dears, they are not fully aware of how and for what their “privacies” are used. One obvious use is for giant consumer or other companies that are seeking to find customer interests. Other uses are apparently for finding location and other uses that remain undisclosed as of yet. Users should have the right and authority to control their private information and should know for what and how their information is used. One wouldn’t want these giants to prey on people and use their private information without their knowledge for private pocket sustainability.