In terms of mass communication, social media is a force to be reckoned with. The growing population of social networks like Facebook’s over 800 million active members and dynamic involvement as seen in more than 200 million tweets every single day—these are just a few significant figures that represent the influence and scope of social media. Take in Twitter trending topics for example. It’s like a mania that when someone or something appears to be a well-talked about item, it gets an instant celebrity status or even more attention, oftentimes reaching the mainstream and traditional broadcast communication. Its unprecedented worldwide popularity has triggered the management to go commercial and introduce advertising campaigns. But perhaps the gold mine has just come from Twitter as they poached in a top Google executive to bolster their marketing campaigns in the 2012 US Presidential campaigns. Yes, Twitter is going to make money out of political advertisements.

President of Global Revenue at Twitter, Adam Bain expressed his excitement over this development in an interview with Politico: “We’ve had five years to watch and observe how people are using the platform organically and we know politicians are active on the platform, and we know that consumers enjoy the messages from those politicians. We’re excited about the election cycle, and we think that ads both in the timeline and in search are a huge opportunity.”

Perhaps realizing that politics could really be a big hit on Twitter surfaced when no less than President Obama took a shot on this social networking platform to conduct a townhall—a sudden phenomenon that attracted countless respondents and citizens wanting to be heard by the most powerful man in the United States of America.

For those who are worrying, it will not insert in user’s timeline. Twitter is looking to support and promote these political ads via a new interface that they have been experimenting on for months now. They would want to segregate the standard advertising from political ones. Also, these authenticated advertisements will keep bogus political Twitter accounts away.

Social media has already been a powerful mass communication tool and an avenue for political speeches. It has changed the landscape of information dissemination and has sent traditional platforms of advertising packing. But, when you try to inject political deals in something as spontaneous as Twitter, will the art of fun be ruined with US regulations coming in? Or will it be a more exciting venue to talk straight or curse your most hated senator? The first ultimate impact will be realized with the 2012 elections nearing. This alone, I can say, is quite titillating.