It’s well documented that Twitter is growing in popularity. Data from Comscore shows that over 58 million people are now using the micro-blogging website – that’s an increase of 949% in just twelve months.

Twitter is perfect for dealing with breaking news, with the most tweeted subjects quickly becoming trending topics. Just try and avoid finding out who’s become the latest X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing casualty on a Saturday night – it’s impossible if you’re on Twitter!

But Twitter has another side too. It’s great for creating a sense of community and with that community comes ease of sharing information. When readers were understandably outraged after reading Jan Moir’s article about the death of Stephen Gately in the Mail, people quickly tweeted about their anger, making the journalist and the newspaper trending topics in their own right. As a result, people who’d never normally have read the article were logging on, to find that they were also upset and angered by what they read and going on to write about the piece on Twitter. Moir claimed she was the victim of an ‘orchestrated campaign’ and while this wasn’t ‘organised’ as such, Twitter quickly became a place for the lynch mob to vent their anger and drum up support. It didn’t take long before tweeters were calling for her resignation and the Press Complaints Commission received a record number of complaints.

Earlier this week AA Gill became the latest Twitter villain after he wrote in an article for the Times that he had shot a baboon, because he “wanted to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone”. The columnist quickly became a Twitter trending topic as people voiced their shock – invariably leading to comparisons with Moir and pledges from tweeters to boycott Gills column in future and calling for his column to be dropped.

There’s no doubt that these articles contained comments which were offensive and upsetting to many. Whether Twitter-notoriety is something that the writers were consciously aiming for remains to be seen, but the lynch mob mentality can leave a bitter taste in the mouths of users. While it is clear to see why these articles are seen as outrageous and may have deserved complaints, surely Twitter is better used for drumming up positive support - as seen in the ‘We love the NHS campaign’ – rather than jumping on the lynch-mob bandwagon....

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager

My top ten tips for businesses using Twitter;

1. You only have 140 characters (including spaces) so keep your message tight.
2. Provide helpful information others can use.
3. Monitor what people are saying about you.
4. Use outbound links as much as possible.
5. Put your website address on everything.
6. Survey your competitors’ messages.
7. Update your account regularly.
8. Keep your message simple.
9. Be human.
10. Don’t just transmit, take part.

- Katie Chappelle, digital media manager

1- You now think in sentences of 140 characters or less.

2- Whenever a big news item breaks, you can’t wait to log on and see what others are saying about it on Twitter.

3- You log into your Twitter account before checking your emails, or Facebook.

4- If something funny/annoying/ unusual happens to you, your first thought is how you’re going to tweet it.

5- You scorn any friends/colleagues who aren’t on Twitter….if they’re not on Facebook either, then they’re not worth talking to.

6- You break into a sweat when going on a plane/watching a film at the cinema/climbing a mountain with no signal – as you won’t be able to monitor your incoming tweets.

7- You’re considering getting an iphone - purely “because it’s so much easier to tweet on the move.”

8- You rely on Twitter’s trending topics to tell you what people are talking about, above BBC News’ ‘most read’ news items.

9- You discover a new comedian/singer /product and immediately log on to see if they have a Twitter page.

10- You tell your Mum to join Twitter, so that you don’t have to keep phoning her to chat.

Oh dear, I’m already displaying signs 1-9….. Mum, I’ll call you later, I promise (!)

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

On the night of Sunday 21st June, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton was at the Much Music awards in Toronto, where he was presenting an award. Perez, who’s an avid user of Twitter, was posting messages throughout the night, commenting on the performances - until the early hours of the morning when he simply posted;

I'm in shock. I need the police ASAP. Please come to the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel now. Please.

Whether Perez had called the police himself or was just relying on his twitter followers to do that for him is unclear. His next post read;

I was assaulted by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and his security guards. I am bleeding. Please, I need to file a police report. No joke.

He kept tweeting similar messages until the police turned up. Within an hour Will.i.am had opened his own Twitter account in retaliation and posted;

i just made a twitter account because it isnt cool for someone to blame you and blast you with lies...

He went on to link to his video statements on dipdive, to which Perez responded on Twitter;

@iamtherealwill There are multiple witnesses. You can deny all you want. The truth is the truth and I am telling the truth.

Perez then went on to record his own video statements on his blog.

The incident is now said to be in the hands of the authories…..but this just shows how powerful social media is for getting your message out there, and how quickly you need to respond if you find yourself in a crisis situation.

What happens next in the Perez/Will.i.am drama remains to be seen, but it’s likely to be played out very much in public - and you can bet Twitter will be the first place to see the latest developments.

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

Expect a bit of a scrabble if you’re trying to log on to Facebook tomorrow (13th June 2009) at 05.01am GMT. The social network is launching its custom usernames service, which means you can now register www.facebook.com/yourname as your own, rather than being given a random jumble of numbers, which is what happens now.

This will of course, increase your profile’s shareability - much like Twitter and MySpace - and could increase your branding strategy. But some users are concerned about cyber-squatting. This is seen regularly on Twitter where people set up fake accounts pretending to be celebrities or companies and then post tweets supposedly to be from them. But these are often obvious and soon get found out. It is not easy to pull the wool over people’s eyes in the world of social media, and I expect the same thing will happen with Facebook usernames!

But it could be a worry for brands and trademarks – someone squatting on your company name could reduce your searchability and compromise your message. Our advice; if you really want to make sure no-one can compromise your brand, get on there at 5.01am. If you already have all the Facebook friends you need, stay in bed…….

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR

‘just had my tea now its a game of dominos with my friends’ and ‘had a very nice lunch going to watch a film this afternoon i think we are watching the sound of music’ – just some of the tweets recently posted by 104-year old Ivy Bean, also known as ‘the oldest person on Twitter’.

The story of ‘IvyBean104’ micro-blogging about life in a care home was featured in The Telegraph and The Sun, amongst others, and at the time of writing this, Ivy had 13,122 followers on the social networking website.

But there was outrage from some media outlets, when it was found that the whole thing was part of a publicity stunt – set up by technology support company Geek Squad. Social media is often seen as an outlet for citizen journalists, ordinary people giving their opinion about events, who don’t seem to like it when companies hijack the conversation in disguise. And normally this is right – pretending to be someone you’re not in social media is just misleading and leads to a lack of trust. But the Geek Squad made it obvious that the press release had come from them, and it generated mentions in the daily press – as well as countless online magazines and blogs.

It’s been called a ‘self-serving, cynical PR stunt’ but Ivy Bean – who claims she is using Twitter because she is bored of Facebook – now has a worldwide reputation for being the Grooviest Granny in town.

- Katie Chappelle, Digital Media Manager, Warwick Emanuel PR