Tweets

American Express cardholders who use Twitter can now tweet their way to discounts. The company said that U.S. cardholders can sync up their AmEx cards to Twitter to receive paperless, exclusive coupons to participating retailers such as Best Buy and Zappos by tweeting "special offer" hashtags. When the Twittering cardholder goes shopping at that merchant, the discount is credited to the linked-up account in a few days. "American Express is turning Twitter content into commerce by connecting cardmembers to merchants and delivering real world value to both," Ed Gilligan, American Express' vice chairman, said in a statement.  At launch, participating merchants include 1-800-Flowers.com, Best Buy, the Cheesecake Factory, Dell, H&M, McDonald's, TicketMaster and Virgin America.

Thanks to Bitly, the popular link-shortening service, we can add another tool to our arsenal of tricks to get noticed on social media. Timing our tweets, and Facebook and Tumblr posts right. Researchers at Bitly have put together data that show that for each of the top three social media networks -- Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr -- there are optimal times for posting links to maximize click-through, and times when you might as well be posting into a vacuum. They also found that the optimal time differs, depending on the social media site.

Praise God for a successful surgery...road to recovery! Lets goo. Much love to the fans for your support and kind words twitter.com/JLin7/status/1? - Jeremy Lin (@JLin7) April 2, 2012 Jeremy Lin has been in seemingly constant contact with his fans since undergoing knee surgery Monday, sending out a photo of himself recovering in his hospital bed (above) on Twitter and participating in a lengthy Q&A session on his Facebook page after he returned home that night.

Researchers at Harvard University have gotten to the bottom of why so many people are compelled to share our every thought, movement, like and want through social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram and Pinterest. In a series of experiments, the researchers found that the act of disclosing information about oneself activates the same sensation of pleasure in the brain that we get from eating, getting money or having sex. This may help explain recent surveys of Internet use that show that roughly 80% of posts to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook consist simply of announcements about one's own immediate experience.

Tweet from atop Mt. Everest? Yes, you can. Kenton Cool , 37, British mountaineer, alpinist and guide, sent this tweet on Thursday: "@KentonCool: Everest summit no 9! 1st tweet from the top of the world thanks to a weak 3G signal & the awesome Samsung Galaxy S2 handset!” I couldn't confirm this was the first use of Twitter from the summit of the world's highest mountain, but like Kenton's last name, the hook-up was definitely ... cool. And you guessed it: Samsung funded his expedition to the world's highest peak.

Next time you log into Twitter, whether on a Web browser or smartphone and tablet app, you may see an advertisement from a company you don't follow on the popular social networking site. On Tuesday, the San Francisco company announced that it had made changes that will allow it to publish "promoted tweets" from advertising companies across its apps and website. Twitter also said, in a blog post , that it will offer advertisers the option of targeting promoted tweets by filtering them to show up only on the iPhone and iPad, on Android devices or on other mobile gadgets.

President Obama today advised men everywhere to "go big" when it comes to Valentine's Day plans for their loved ones. Apparently for him, that includes a love tweet directed at the first lady. The president's campaign Twitter feed included this message this afternoon: "Hey, @MichelleObama: Happy Valentine's Day. " It was signed "-bo," which is meant to signify that the message was, indeed, from the commander in chief himself. Mrs. Obama hasn't responded yet. But she did post yesterday on her own account about the fact that Al Green's hit "Let's Stay Together" was on his campaign playlist this year.

Newt Gingrich's win in South Carolina has fueled a sixfold increase in tweets about the remaining four GOP president hopefuls, according to an analysis by San Francisco-based Kanjoya. Kanjoya, which uses a computer algorithm to assess emotion on Twitter about the candidates, said the sharp uptick in volume began when the polls closed at 4 p.m. Pacific time. From the 30 tweets per minute the company was analyzing for each candidate earlier in the day, the number rose to 180 per minute.

Baby, your first-class days are over on Malaysia Airlines. Now that might be something to cry about. Earlier this month, Chief Executive Tengku Azmil confirmed on Twitter that babies have gotten the boot from first class. Check out the tweets on this topic from Azmil, @tengkuazmil (whose full name is Tengku Dato' Sri Azmil Zahruddin). When asked by Twitter users to confirm his airline's first-class ban on infants, Azmil responded June 19 in separate tweets: "That's true.

Some members of Congress are urging the popular website Twitter to stop hosting pro-Taliban tweets that celebrate attacks against American and allied forces in Afghanistan. Twitter executives have told lawmakers that the micro-posts do not violate the website's terms of service because the Taliban is not listed by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization. That designation would make it illegal to provide "material support or resources" to the militant group. Twitter feeds, apparently from the Taliban, first appeared last year in Arabic and Pashto, one of the official languages of Afghanistan.

Mike Bresnahan covers the Lakers for The Times and ties up loose ends before all their playoff games. The Lakers use Twitter for different reasons. Metta World Peace invites people to midnight movie screenings. Pau Gasol transmits his thoughts on "Game of Thrones" episodes. Kobe Bryant avoids it completely. Then there's Devin Ebanks. He recently switched his Twitter handle from his name to A$AP Ebank$. It coincided with his rise in responsibilities while Bryant was sidelined by a sore shin.

Lakers forward Metta World Peace hasn't exactly sat around and stewed while serving a seven-game suspension for elbowing Oklahoma City guard James Harden . He hosted what he called a "pre-playoff party" late Saturday, offering 100 free movie tickets to fans who contacted him via his Twitter account. It was a midnight showing of "Think Like a Man" at an undisclosed location, though World Peace made sure to set ground rules. "I'm not signing autographs tonight," he wrote on Twitter.

Deion Sanders has been cited for misdemeanor assault in connection with an altercation with his estranged wife, Pilar Sanders, who spent Monday night in jail and also was charged with misdemeanor assault as a result of the same incident. Pilar Sanders was arrested Monday, with her husband tweeting that she and a friend had attacked him in front of their children at their home in the Dallas suburb of Prosper. He also posted a photo of the boys filling out a police report against their mother, which was later removed from his Twitter feed.

Deion Sanders' estranged wife was arrested Monday on suspicion of assault while the former NFL star claimed via Twitter that she had broken into his room and attacked him as their children watched. "Pray for me and my kids now! They just witnessed their mother and a friend jump me in my room. She's going to jail n I'm pressing charges!" Sanders tweeted Monday afternoon. Pilar Sanders was booked into the Collin County (Texas) Jail on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.

A Marine at Twentynine Palms is facing punishment after making an "inappropriate" reference to the Trayvon Martin case in a Twitter message, the Marine Corps said Saturday. The Marine, a staff sergeant with 10 years in the corps, put a message on Twitter: "Rifle range all day today. Shooting black all day like George Zimmerman. " Silhouettes on rifle range targets are painted black. Once his command found out about the post, he deleted the post, erased his Twitter account and took down his MySpace account.

Praise God for a successful surgery...road to recovery! Lets goo. Much love to the fans for your support and kind words twitter.com/JLin7/status/1? - Jeremy Lin (@JLin7) April 2, 2012 Jeremy Lin has been in seemingly constant contact with his fans since undergoing knee surgery Monday, sending out a photo of himself recovering in his hospital bed (above) on Twitter and participating in a lengthy Q&A session on his Facebook page after he returned home that night.

Barack Obama generated a flurry of activity on Twitter Friday when he urged his more than 9 million followers to tweet at their congressional representatives to push for a compromise on the debt ceiling battle. While some responded to the call, many others celebrated "Unfollow Friday. " Throughout the day, the @BarackObama account tweeted the account names of Republican Congress members at a rapid pace. In about six hours, the account sent more than 100 tweets. Several Twitter users expressed their annoyance and unfollowed the president's account.

Deion Sanders' estranged wife was arrested Monday on suspicion of assault while the former NFL star claimed via Twitter that she had broken into his room and attacked him as their children watched. "Pray for me and my kids now! They just witnessed their mother and a friend jump me in my room. She's going to jail n I'm pressing charges!" Sanders tweeted Monday afternoon. Pilar Sanders was booked into the Collin County (Texas) Jail on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge.