I twitter, therefore, I twitter.  

You can now follow me on twitter:  http://twitter.com/CEOCoachBates 

It was simply impossible not to.  Why?

It’s not because I’m a techy.  It’s not because I aspire to have 1,009,023 followers (yet).   It’s not even because I’ve been hounded at several conferences lately (PRSA, NSA) where people are atwitter about twitter.  “You’re kidding; you don’t have a twitter account yet?” “We have GOT to get you TWEETING!”

No it’s for none of the reasons above.  It’s very simple.  Twitter is cool.  Really.  In fact so cool that right now I’m in danger of getting sucked into a twitter vortex.  It’s so immediate.  It’s right now.  And not everybody is talking about what they’re having for lunch.  There are some interesting conversations going on out there.  

Now, should you Twitter?

If you’re an entrepreneur, author, business owner, expert or consultant it’s an absolute no-brainer.  Not just because you can promote your own stuff… but because you will get into the flow of the conversation in your topic area.  You get insights about the people you follow that you simply can’t glean even from their blogs. 

What about business?  Does twitter have a legitimate use in the corporate world?  Well, we can see that more and more people are plugged in - and in today’s social marketing world - you want to plug in where the people are.  Similar to blogging, it’s a way to get your views out there and also manage the conversation (and reputation) of your company.  

There’s no question that people are jumping on board.

According to Sysomos Inc, over the past few months, Twitter has experienced explosive growth, attracting celebrity users and a growing mountain of media and blog coverage. 

Social media analytics company Sysomos Inc. conducted an extensive study to document Twitter’s growth and how people are using it. After analyzing information disclosed on 11.5 million Twitters accounts, they say they discovered that:

• 72.5% of all users joining during the first five months of 2009.
• 85.3% of all Twitter users post less than one update/day
• 21% of users have never posted a Tweet
• 93.6% of users have less than 100 followers, while 92.4% follow less than 100 people.
• 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity
• New York has the most Twitters users, followed by Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco and Boston; while Detroit was the fast-growing city over the first five months of 2009
• More than 50% of all updates are published using tools, mobile and Web-based, other than Twitter.com. TweetDeck is the most popular non-Twitter.com tool with 19.7% market share.
• There are more women on Twitter (53%) than men (47%)
• Of the people who identify themselves as marketers, 15% follow more than 2,000 people. This compares with 0.29% of overall Twitter users who follow more than 2,000 people.

“We wanted to take an extensive snapshot of Twitter that goes far beyond anything done to document Twitter’s use, growth and demographics,” said Nick Koudas, Sysomos’ co-founder and chief executive. “While Twitter’s growth has been well documented, we wanted to put the spotlight on how people use Twitter, as well as identify many of the key trends in their backgrounds, demographics and activity. Our study, based on the most comprehensive dataset of Twitter users, provides a wealth of information for anyone interested in getting in-depth details about Twitter.”

What impact will Twitter have on advertising and marketing?  In a July Harris poll, 45 percent of advertisers believe Twitter is still in its infancy and will grow exponentially in the next few years.  It isn’t there yet; only 12% of consumers agree.  69% don’t know enough about it yet.

Look, I don’t really know what’s happening either.  But I’m going to find out.  I’m going to get into the groove.  All I can tell you is that…it’s pretty darn fun.

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