If you've been ignoring Twitter as a social phenomenon or business tool, you better rethink your tactics. The 140 character tweets are now logging 35 million per day, a growth of 1,400 percent in 2009. It's no longer a place to telegraph that you are having a tuna sandwich. It's become a place for businesses to advertise their sales, offer their services and grab a new market.

A tally by web-traffic monitoring firm Pingdom reports that Twitter passed its 1.2 billion tweet in January and would pass the 1.4 billion tweet mark in February.

Another report from Nielsen Online finds some problems for Twitter. It released data showing the social networking site is dealing with low retention rates. More than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month.

Nevertheless, Twitter is the place to be for any business trying to get out the word about products. Why buy a radio announcement when tweeting is cheaper? A blast email may never be read and telemarketing calls are blocked.

For more on the Twitter advance:
- see this eWeek.com article

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