US election candidates target Twitter users The Twitter boss has revealed that the majority if the Republican candidates are buying adverts, otherwise known as promoted tweets, trends or accounts, in the lead up to the election.Speaking at an "All Things D" (the digital division of The Wall Street Journal) technology conference in California last night, Costolo said that most of the candidates were buying adverts and would continue doing so. "Candidates that don't participate on Twitter while the conversation is happening will be left behind," he explained. Costolo, who has run the company as chief executive for the last 15 months, predicted that political adverts would make up a significant part of the company's advertising business in 2012. He cited the example of high Twitter activity during President Obama's "State of the Union" speech last week - during which 766,681 tweets (more than 14,000 a minute) were posted throughout the 95-minute event.