OK, I’ll admit it:  It’s a little late to be writing about Twitter’s growth, but the site’s incredibly fast evolution still has me intrigued.  Twitter’s explosive user growth took place way back in early 2009, but Twitter activity didn’t boom until mid-2009 and well into 2010 when the number of tweets per day skyrocketed from around 2 million to 50 million.  Since tweets, which are small text-based posts, are the biggest indicator of the site’s activity, this showed that Twitter is still growing extremely rapidly.

So what makes this relatively simple social networking and microblogging website so popular?  And just how has the site progressed from reaching a somewhat niche, obsessive audience to a more mainstream pop-culture savvy population? I mean, I’ve met a lot of people – frequent social media users and technophobes alike – whose first response to my explanation of the Twitterverse results in a dumbfounded look and a subsequent puzzled, “Huh? I don’t get it.”

But really, why the Twitter craze?  Here are a few reasons that might help clarify:

1)    Twitter allows you to get in the heads of friends, family, customers, and your favorite celebrities. Users tweet about what they’re doing, what’s bugging them, and what’s on their mind at any point in the day.  By choosing who you want to “follow,” you get to select who and what you want to hear about on a continuous basis.

2)    Twitter has become a major source of news, updates, and information. It’s the perfect way to get alerts and breaking news on the topics that specifically interest you.  Additionally, many companies have begun to adopt Twitter for promoting their products and services.  Businesses now consider Twitter a legitimate marketing tool within the social media realm, along with Facebook and MySpace.  In fact, a social media marketing strategy, which practically always includes Twitter as a medium, is one of the keys to an effective Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign.  One of its best attributes is that it allows small businesses to compete with large companies by evening out the marketing playing field.

3)    Twitter gives you a medium to share with others. Users can share links, articles, videos, photos, and above all, some of their most personal thoughts and emotions. In one sense, the site acts as a fascinating psychological experiment exposing the human story and experience.  Ultimately though, Twitter is about interaction and connectivity, just like any other social media tool.  Twitter differentiates itself by being simpler and more straightforward than its competitors, such as Facebook.  Yeah, I admit the 140 character-limit for tweets can be annoying and a bit restraining at times.  But then again, that’s the whole appeal: short and sweet.

So if you haven’t bought into the whole Twitter trend yet, it’s about time you jumped on the bandwagon.  Twitter isn’t just a craze.  It’s growing fast, and it’s here to stay.