YNOT – While micro-blogging service Twitter has become a near-necessity for most businesses and individuals seeking publicity, the adult industry has been a bit slow to embrace the social-networking phenomenon.

That is until recently, or so claims a Daily Beast item by Richard Abowitz.

“It is only in the past six months producers have begun to follow us on Twitter and to understand they can see how popular we are by our Twitter following,” porn performer Courtney Cummz told Abowitz. “A lot of owners and bookers for feature dancers are old school. But I have about 50,000 followers, who I call my babies, and the industry is just now learning how supportive my babies are when I go somewhere, do a web show or make a film.”

Beyond the publicity, some adult entertainers say Twitter has provided material rewards for those perspicacious enough to link their Twitter profiles to outside services like Amazon.com’s wish lists.

“I got an iPad yesterday,” Kristina Rose told Abowitz. “The fan had it engraved on the back to say ‘Slutwoman A.K.A. Kristina Rose.’ I love Twitter.”

According to Dana DeArmond, some “Twitter gifts” may represent attempts by fans to assuage the guilt they experienced after sharing pirated content.

“On the place on Twitter where you can put your website, I put my Amazon wish list,” she told Abowitz. “There are so many people who enjoy porn and are not paying for it that this is maybe a way they can give back personally.”

One of Twitter’s greatest strengths is that tweeting allows celebrities to appear to be more “real,” according to some devotees.

“When I started to use Twitter I wanted people to see I am real person and not just a male fantasy, and that I do struggle with relationship issues or general stress or my eating disorder difficulties that at times are a little more worrisome than others,” DeArmond told Abowitz.

Others are less convinced Twitter is anything more than a creative waste of time.

“I have not found Twitter to make a difference,” performer and photographer Bobbi Starr told Abowitz, adding that although she has accumulated 30,000 followers, she has never found work because of a Twitter communication. “It has never come up.”