Twitter has it all. Official apps on the major mobile platforms, an ad network, a URL shortener and analytics tracking for its advertisers. That should just about do it for Twitter, as it moves forward with its lengthy monetization process. What more could the social microblog need?

Oh, that’s right. A functioning site.

The World Cup, which Twitter was so excited about, has brought back the fail whale more than a few times in the past couple of days. And it doesn’t look like things are going to get any better. Twitter has acknowledged its technical difficulties, and has gone on to warn that more downtime is likely to happen over the course of the month.

Matters have only gotten worse with Twitter engineers trying to fix the problem. While Twitter anticipated heavy traffic during the World Cup, the team ran into some unforeseen issues. Sean Garrett writes on the Twitter blog,

“Record traffic and unprecedented spikes in activity are never simple to manage,” he said. “However, we were well aware of the likely impact of the World Cup. What we didn’t anticipate was some of the complexities that have been inherent in fixing and optimizing our systems before and during the event.”

Gee, Twitter. Fine time to launch more new features, like Twitter Places. Between optimizing the site for monetization purposes and maintaining the site for fluxes in traffic, Twitter’s got a heck of a lot on its plate right now. Oh, the great problems we have.

No worries for Twitter. The site will work when it works, and we’ll all still be there, tweets in hand. The World Cup will go on, regardless of what’s happening over at the Twitter offices. The World Cup has had a record year in 2010, and social media continues to add fuel to that fire. The World Cup has completely infiltrated the social media world, with debates and discussions popping up on Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare and beyond.

What’s interesting about this social media activity is that it’s gaining momentum on mainstream media. This marks a major turning point for live sports events, traditional television distribution and social media outlets. While social media has become an accepted aspect of media distribution (mainstream or otherwise), it’s still an important trend to watch as Google, Apple and others look to revolutionize the way in which we consume television content in a more social matter. Consider the World Cup games as mere practice for what’s to come.