Twitter followers 'can be bought' (BBC news)

Quiz

Twitter users who lack an audience for their messages can now buy_____
1. followers
2. folowers
3. follovers
Australian social media marketing company uSocial is______ a paid service that finds followers for users of the micro-blogging service.
1. been offering
2. offered
3. offering
Followers are available in blocks starting _____ (£53) for 1,000. The biggest block uSocial is selling is 100,000 people.
1. in
2. at
3. on
USocial said businesses and individuals__________ queuing up to use its follower finding service.
1. are
2. were
3. was
Leon Hill, chief executive of uSocial, said the company finds potential followers by searching Twitter and working______ what individual users are interested in.
1. out
2. off
3. on
It also profiles where people are so it can more closely match users with ____they might want to follow.
1. these
2. those
3. that
USocial then sends messages to potential followers_____them about the new Twitter user they might want to follow.
1. tell
2. told
3. telling
"It's up to the user to follow them or not," said Mr Hill. He added that uSocial continues to look for followers until the specified number had signed____.
1. up
2. in
3. on
USocial has about 150 customers that had bought followers and had another 80-90 campaigns about to roll _____.
1. out
2. up
3. in
A broad _______ of clients had signed up to buy followers, said Mr Hill including educational organisations, companies and marketing firms.
1. variety
2. ranges
3. range
"A woman who ______ yoga classes is one of our clients," he said. "So are some religious organisations including one man that just wants to get the word out about God."
1. keeps
2. sets
3. runs
"Twitter started as a way for just friends to keep in touch," said Mr Hill. "As with any social media____ once they get big, every business or marketer jumps on the bandwagon.
1. site
2. sight
3. sait
"It's an excellent marketing ______," he said.
1. medium
2. way
3. media
USocial estimated that each follower on Twitter was worth about 10 cents a month to a company that ____ them to sign up. The money would be made from adverts and sales on websites that followers click through to.
1. got
2. caught
3. found
Robin Goad, a research director at Hitwise who has analysed Twitter____, said businesses were definitely starting to sign up to the micro-blogging service
1. grow
2. growing
3. growth
"Companies are building _______ as many followers as they can and trying to monetise them in the future," he added.
1. on
2. up
3. of
The growing commercial use of Twitter was presenting the network with a few problems, said Mr Goad.

In particular, he said, Hitwise was starting to see the hijacking of hashtags - labels that ____ all the messages about a subject together.
1. build
2. make
3. bring
Some Twitter users were also starting to send______ messages that are only about a product or service - effectively spam, said Mr Goad.

"Twitter is becoming one of the key viral channels," he said.
1. out
2. away
3. in
Twitter might cope better with the creeping____ than other social media sites, he said.
1. commercialisation
2. comerrcialisation
3. comerccialisation
"One advantage it has _____ other services is that it can change quickly if hashtags become a polluted medium and it might keep one step ahead of the spammers," he said.

"We've yet to see people defecting to the next big thing."
1. in
2. over
3. on