Zynga's Twitter becomes useful, gives away free in-game items

Perhaps it's just me, but I've never thought of Twitter as the best place for Zynga to communicate with its fans. After all, every game has its own Fan Page on Facebook just for that purpose - communication, and if we're spending time on Twitter, we're not actively playing Facebook games, right? Either way, Zynga has decided to capitalize on the massive social network, 140 characters at a time.

If you've never thought about following Zynga on Twitter before, you now finally have some real incentive to do so, as the company has started giving away in-game items back on Facebook via links on its Twitter feed. So far, these bonuses seem to be focused pretty centrally on CityVille, as we've received free bundles of XP, Bonus Crew and Zoning Permits, just to name a few.

It's possible that if more players start to follow the stream, or even request items, that more games could start to receive bonuses, so it's worth keeping track of what's going on. Either way, these prize links are only active for a limited amount of time, so you really will need to stay on top of things to make sure you can claim every item available to you. If you're a big fan of Twitter anyway, that probably won't seem like a big deal, but for everyone else, I suppose you can always bookmark the page and check it once per day to see if there's anything to grab. Good luck claiming these items!

Will you follow Zynga on Twitter to receive free items in CityVille and elsewhere? Sound off in the comments.