Check out this phenomenal Twitter growth!!!

[Dana_W]

"According to comScore, Twitter had 20.1 million unique visitors in the United States in June, some 34 times the 593,000 a year earlier. This compares with Facebook's 77 million this June, more than double the 37.4 million in the prior year."

Wow, is all I can say.

Twitter and Facebook are not going anywhere any time soon. And look at how Twitter is catching up to Facebook! I actually think they may overtake Facebook. I personally prefer Twitter because I find Facebook hard to navigate. I can't find my fan page right now, for instance.

[VegasGreg]

Even though those sites are way bigger than the sites most of us Warriors own and operate, I think that is still very motivational.

It just goes to show you the difference a year can make with a site. Keep plugging away and promoting until you hit the curve.

Even if we only have 593 visitors in June if we can bump that to 20,100 next June, that is still a success in my book. A few zeros short of Twitter traffic, but I will take 20K visitors to my sites in a month.

[Dana_W]

Very true! After all - someone had to be the first person to use Twitter. I wonder who that was. They were the scrappy little startup and now they're HUGE.

People - you can not afford to ignore the potential of social media marketing!

[trishworks4u]

I love Twitter stats (Thanks Dana)... and I've been spending a lot more time on Twitter lately.

I also find Facebook to be very confusing but have committed to spend a few minutes each day on there and even add a few new friends each day. I don't find it to be very user-friendly at all but I know that millions of people swear by it. I also have a Fan Page - with 1 fan. She must be lonely.

[Mark Riddle]

Twitter is amazing, I decided to test to see if people were really following what is said, so I created a page that had ZERO Traffic. Excluded it from the menu on the site and tweeted the link.

Tweeted it 6 times over 3 days it received 275 + views with average time on page of 2 minutes.

Twitter is great

Mark Riddle

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by trishworks4u

I love Twitter stats (Thanks Dana)... and I've been spending a lot more time on Twitter lately.

I also find Facebook to be very confusing but have committed to spend a few minutes each day on there and even add a few new friends each day. I don't find it to be very user-friendly at all but I know that millions of people swear by it. I also have a Fan Page - with 1 fan. She must be lonely.

Ha! If I could find my freaking fan page I'd know if I had any fans.

As far as useful social networking sites - I find Linkedin more useful then Facebook.

By the way, Trish, your marketing blog looks fantastic!

[ltdraper]

There's another way to look at this: Twitter's costs are rising by multiples each month yet their revenue remains flat -- zero. $40M in venture capital may seem like a lot of money, but in reality it's not much. Google spends more than that on lunch.

They are depending upon hockey stick like growth in order to have their revenue cover their costs during the worst recession since the Great Depression. The idea that they can always raise another round of venture capital will eventually come crashing down around them. The real question is whether whenever they come out with a revenue model is can it grow fast enough to cover their costs before their burn rate overwhelms them. The internal documents released last month showed some numbers that were incredibly optimistic. Hopefully those rates of growth aren't necessary for their survival.

While Twitter has shown the ability to grow in users and traffic, their management team has never actually created a company with real revenue. It's not as easy as it seems, especially when you think you're doing missionary work.

Make money on this while you can, because whatever happens with Twitter it won't be what it is now in 3 years.

[o_brient]

Twitter is shaping up for some legal woes too with a patent infringement battle likely:
Patent Battle

I'm sure there will be a Twitter in months/years to come - who may be the owners though could be a different story...

Cheers,
Tom

[lilhay]

Everone is twittering! Bottom line.

[Hackbridge]

Originally Posted by ltdraper

There's another way to look at this: Twitter's costs are rising by multiples each month yet their revenue remains flat -- zero. $40M in venture capital may seem like a lot of money, but in reality it's not much. Google spends more than that on lunch.

They are depending upon hockey stick like growth in order to have their revenue cover their costs during the worst recession since the Great Depression. The idea that they can always raise another round of venture capital will eventually come crashing down around them. The real question is whether whenever they come out with a revenue model is can it grow fast enough to cover their costs before their burn rate overwhelms them. The internal documents released last month showed some numbers that were incredibly optimistic. Hopefully those rates of growth aren't necessary for their survival.

While Twitter has shown the ability to grow in users and traffic, their management team has never actually created a company with real revenue. It's not as easy as it seems, especially when you think you're doing missionary work.

Make money on this while you can, because whatever happens with Twitter it won't be what it is now in 3 years.

So the question is would you spend money to use Twitter? I prefer it to Facebook, but unless I could make money from it I couldn't justify it right now, or any time.

Brian

[ltdraper]

Originally Posted by Hackbridge

So the question is would you spend money to use Twitter? I prefer it to Facebook, but unless I could make money from it I couldn't justify it right now, or any time.

Brian

The problem with the paid model is that the people you want to reach probably wouldn't spend money to be on there, so the reason you'd be there would go away. Paid subscriptions only make sense for the extreme power users.

[trishworks4u]

Wow - thanks so much Dana! Appreciate you kicking aside the tumbleweeds in my blog with the visit. I may get around to promoting it at some point soon.

Twitter is undoubtbly going to have to take a lesson from what Facebook so far has been successful at and what YouTube has embarked on as of late and that's generating mass amounts of ad revenue while not driving away loyal users.

Facebook has THE most laser-targeted PPC platform in existence due to the sheer volume of personal data that it holds on it's members. YouTube - has irritated many w/ it's bottom of the screen ads but there are far more intrusive alternatives imo.

I don't think that Twitter will ever "charge" for use of it's services but something's gotta give soon... Pulled this out of my notebook (such a dork): Twitter is anticpating have 50 MILLION users by 2010 and appears to be DOUBLING in size every 90 days. dang.

[ralphalt]

Great insights about twitter!

[Dana_W]

I do worry about Twitter going under some day because of lack of funding, or because they may try to monetize in a way that drives people away. That's why I continue to concentrate on making money from a variety of income streams - adsense, info-products, etc. - and never depend on just one income stream.

But I hope that all the doom and gloom predictions are wrong and Twitter is around forever!

[Paulie Ciara]

I always thought it was interesting the way they didn't necessarily invent or innovate on anything. They just capitalized on facebook's "status" concept.

[Victor.L]

Twitter is a great website but it has gone downhill with all the spammer invasion which is pretty annoying if you ask me.

I also hope it's around for quite a while because I had the chance of networking with interesting people and would like to do more of that in the future.

[SageSound]

While these growth figures are interesting, I find it annoying that so many posts are just people sending out useless drivel (the dog just at a bug! EEEEYOUUUUU!); famous quotes; retweets; and, oh yeah, promotions. Over and over and over. In clumps of 10 just in case you miss one.

I have to wonder what people did before they started spending 10 hrs a day tweeting constantly.

[jonoman1]

Pretty soon Facebook and Twitter will be so integrated into each other that you will only have to update one of them. I agree that Facebook can be a huge pain though.

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by SageSound

While these growth figures are interesting, I find it annoying that so many posts are just people sending out useless drivel (the dog just at a bug! EEEEYOUUUUU!); famous quotes; retweets; and, oh yeah, promotions. Over and over and over. In clumps of 10 just in case you miss one.

I have to wonder what people did before they started spending 10 hrs a day tweeting constantly.

I unfollow people if they do nothing but send out promotional tweets. I figure they will never buy from me.

And I spend about five to ten minutes at a time on Twitter, three times a day. I don't think most people spend ten hours a day on Twitter.

[DavidO]

The faster they climb... the harder they fall. I don't have any ax to grind because I don't use Twitter, never have. But the reality is that next year there will be a new "phenomenon" and Twitter will be yesterday's news.

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by DavidO

The faster they climb... the harder they fall. I don't have any ax to grind because I don't use Twitter, never have. But the reality is that next year there will be a new "phenomenon" and Twitter will be yesterday's news.

Well, in theory that could be true...but Facebook is still here. Google is still here. Youtube is still here. Linkedin is still here. Myspace is still here. Yahoo is still here. Flickr is still here.

The fact that a site or service is hugely popular right now doesn't mean that it's going to disappear next year.

[Kenneth Fox]

I don't think twitter is going anywhere for a long time. Last year at this time,
there wasn't much hype about it on the media. If you watch almost any news
or entertainment show, they all hype up their Twitter address.

Between the media and celebs, Twitter has really taken off and I can't see
it dieing down anytime soon. It's also so much like texting and people love
to text these days.

As far as spam. Where there's an audience, the spammers will show up.

[DavidO]

Of course it's not likely to disappear. But there's always something new to come along and steal the limelight. There's no way Twitter can maintain it's current growth and popularity.

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by DavidO

Of course it's not likely to disappear. But there's always something new to come along and steal the limelight. There's no way Twitter can maintain it's current growth and popularity.

True. If it kept growing at that level, soon everyone on Earth would be a member. Even unborn children and their children's children. Then space aliens from other planets would need to join Twitter to maintain its current growth rate.

[Carrie12]

I am a great fan of twitter and this is good to see how it is growing and so fast. It will leave behind all other networks in coming days I think.

[garyv]

It's much easier for facebook to turn a profit, because people put much more information on there. That results in advertising that can be very narrowly targeted. Advertisers that are catching on to facebook ppc, are just throwing money at it. Facebook is expected to overtake google in advertising revenue very soon.

However Twitterers put out very little info. You can target your advertising somewhat, but not nearly as well as you can on facebook.

If twitter is going to make revenue, they need to expand the profiles a bit more so that PPC advertising can be better targeted.

[sbucciarel]

Ok ... time to see all the phenomenal screenshots of Cash due to Twitter's phenomenal growth. Millions of little spammy bleeps scrolling down a screen rapidly does not a marketing campaign make and that's apparently how most Twitter spammers are using it.

[dblgdee]

Very few have yet realized how to market in the new media. Twitter included
No doubt there are some corporations with million a followers, but the contribution to bottom line is still questionable.
It is an evolving process

[3Darmory]

I actually used http://www.iwantfollowers.com and it worked pretty well. And no I dont own the website or anything. Wish I did, then I would have more followers. I just got the little package they offer to try it out but I will be doing another one since it worked. That is the only way I know how to get more twitter followers. Everything else I have tried was just kinda shady or crap. Hope it help.

Can see my twitter page at Twitter / Suspended
and follow me if you want :P "

[acedalright]

It's phenomenal!

I have a love hate relationship with twitter in that I love the traffic it has rendered unto me, yet I hate the wasted hours of pointless tweeting I have succumbed too.

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by 3Darmory

I actually used http://www.iwantfollowers.com and it worked pretty well. And no I dont own the website or anything. Wish I did, then I would have more followers. I just got the little package they offer to try it out but I will be doing another one since it worked. That is the only way I know how to get more twitter followers. Everything else I have tried was just kinda shady or crap. Hope it help.

Can see my twitter page at Twitter / Suspended
and follow me if you want :P "

lol ... so how's Twitter working for you with a suspended account? I guess I wouldn't be recommending http://www.iwantfollowers.com