Followers

Shamara, the midday DJ at WUSL-FM (98.9), Power 99, is on a roll. It's 11 a.m., and she's playing "Unthinkable" by Alicia Keys and Drake. As she plays hits for her listeners, she's also tweeting - sending Twitter messages to fans and friends on her BlackBerry. "On air @Power99Philly come get a musical orgasm," she writes, with a link to a website where her show can be heard. "hope u gotta :) on ur face," she tweets. "Hold up I believe my friends on facebook gonna start cussing me out - ain't been there in a minute . . . brb yo. " Music, tweet music.

JACKSON, N.J. - A wayward baboon remained on the loose Friday night in South Jersey, causing some concern among local residents but creating a buzz among numerous online followers who were closely following the animal's travels. Three new sightings were reported Friday in residential areas, one day after the baboon was first sighted near a major highway and later in the backyard of a local home. The animal was then spotted on a local golf course late Friday afternoon, but it ran off into woods before it could be tranquilized.

The Fuzz is back on the beat, patrolling the streets and blasting out tweets to his devoted fans with an official seal of approval from the Philadelphia Police Department. Detective Joseph Murray, of Southwest Detectives, had more than 600 followers on his @TheFuzz9143 Twitter handle, but had been silent for nearly three months while police administration configured its social media policy. Just around 4 p.m. Wednesday, Murray was back on Twitter with a new, official handle, @ppdjoemurray, and his followers rejoiced.

Can Twitter matter? The Republican and Democratic Parties think so. In this tight presidential race, a national battle is on. And the ammo includes thousands of tweets, 140-character messages shot off to hundreds of thousands of followers, a blizzard of news, talking points, zingers, datelines, and instructions to the faithful. Nowhere is it fiercer than in Pennsylvania. The commonwealth has lost 45 percent of its electoral clout since 1932, and it hasn't backed a GOP presidential candidate since 1988.

This story has been modified.   When it began, Facebook was the world's greatest free high school yearbook. Now, for some, it's gone pay-to-play. A Facebook policy announced in late April called Promoted Posts invites owners of some Facebook pages (those with more than 400 "likes," expressions of interest from other users) to pay for expanded "reach" to their audience. Hobbyists, enthusiasts, musicians, and other individuals run these pages, as do sports teams, political campaigns, nonprofits, and businesses (including The Inquirer)

Brittany Cozzens grew tired of the Pinterest e-mails notifying her of new followers, about 10 a day, so she turned them off. A year later, a marketing company let her know: she had more than three million followers, putting her among the most followed people on the site. "I was like, 'That's not right.' Then I went to look and was like, 'Oh . . ..' " Cozzens' self-described "procrastination" on the popular photo-organizing website landed the rising Temple University sophomore a paying job as one of more than 250 influencers for Pinterest marketing company HelloSociety.

By Joshua E. Keating The Vatican announced this week that Pope Benedict XVI will begin tweeting under the handle @Pontifex. Though his first Tweet is not expected until Dec. 12, the English-language papal account already has more than 112,000 followers. "We are going to get a spiritual message," said Greg Burke, senior media adviser to the Vatican. "The pope is not going to be walking around with a BlackBerry or an iPad, and no one is going to be putting words into the pope's mouth.

DENVER - Baylor coach Kim Mulkey says she's disgusted by taunting and insults directed at star player Brittney Griner on social media. The 6-8 Associated Press player of the year is the subject of constant criticism on Twitter and other sites, and Mulkey said during her news conference Monday that she's had enough of it. "I made a commitment my fourth year at Baylor that I'll never read a message board, I don't want to see...

Four Chinese citizens showed little remorse Sunday as a Beijing court gave them prison sentences of up to 18 years. Why should they? All they did "wrong" was to promote a spiritual movement that links meditative exercise with Buddhist and Taoist philosophy. It's not their fault that this movement, called Falun Gong, so terrifies the communist clique that runs China. President Jiang Zemin and his associates have overestimated Falun Gong's potential threat to one-party rule. So Chinese leaders have been trying to crush the movement, instead of permitting it and other fresh outlets for free expression.

I just want to say that if I'm elected mayor I will be only too happy to live in the proposed mayor's mansion and in fact I could go so far as to say that my willingness to do so might be viewed as the principal plank in my platform. Not that I am not committed to other things. For example, I promise never to carry my own raincoat or valet bag, or, if I ever do, I promise that it will not be done as part of a strategy of self-preservation. People who criticize this platform as trivial are blind to its inner boldness.