There are finally some concrete numbers from both Hitwise, Compete, and comScore about microblogging site Twitter’s rise in popularity.

According to Hitwise, Twitter.com is recording eight times as many hits now as it was a year ago. However, very few of the hardcore Twitter users ever visit Twitter.com–most of the traffic comes from smartphones or Twitter apps.

Hitwise report lists Twitter as having 1 million users, 200,000 “active” users, and about 3 million tweets being sent per month.

A lot of people are getting tired of hearing about Twitter and wonder what all the fuss is about. Can Twitter break through out of geek circles and into the mainstream? And if so, is there any way to monetize it?

It’s easier to think of ways for Internet marketers to use Twitter to help market their sites or products than it is to think of a way for Twitter to actually effectively monetize. Since much of the time spent using Twitter is through third party apps, Twitter will need to find a way to get a piece of the action if they choose to advertise. The site itself an be plastered with ads, but the site is not the point of Twitter like it is in Facebook. Apps can be added to Facebook or Wordpress that allow users to tweet without going onto Twitter.com, in addition to all the other third party Twitter apps.

It’s actually not hard to see Twitter gaining popularity amongst the text-message crazed masses out there. Perhaps Mindy wants all of her girlfriends to know about the new Prada bag she just stole. Instead of texting all of them, all she has to do is Twitter it and they can all find out.

Okay, I’m not going to write about Twitter for at least another two weeks. The coverage out there is a little overboard, and it still remains to be seen if the geek obsession will translate out of the likes of Silicon Valley.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 1:30 pmand is filed under Search Engine Marketing, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.