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"Vadim Lavrusik is a new media student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is @lavrusik on Twitter and blogs at Lavrusik.com.\nWith all the skepticism of whether it's just a social media fad and questions about how the company expects to generate revenue, Twitter has left many critics silent by continuing to grow. Though the company has made some improvements, including its recent redesigned homepage, many wouldn't credit these changes with the successful growth of Twitter.\nIt's all about the people and how the service has been put to use by the millions. Whether using it during their everyday lives, marketing a business or reporting on tragic events, users have shown the value of Twitter and will continue to contribute to its growth. Below are just five reasons why Twitter will continue to grow. Please add your thoughts below in the comments, as well as other reasons you believe Twitter will continue to grow.\n1. Consistent growth\nThe microblogging site reached 23 million unique users in June, according to Compete, which was a 16 percent growth compared to May. This doesn't even include the millions that do not visit Twitter.com and instead use third-party services to update. The site has had a consistent growth, and we expect it will continue to do so for July numbers.\n\n\n\n\n2. Gaining approval from big companies\nAccording to PR firm Burson-Marsteller, as reported by Mashable's own Adam Ostrow, Twitter is the social media platform of choice at Fortune 100 companies. The firm reported that 54 percent of the companies have a Twitter presence and for the companies that use only one social media platform, 76 percent of them use Twitter as their preferred choice. And if the big guys are using it, well, the smaller companies will do so as well. Oh wait, small businesses are already using Twitter. So basically they have the ground covered big and small. Either way, the complete results of the study are below:\n\n\n\nB M Social Media Fortune 100\n\n\nView more documents from guest338fbe.\n\n\n\n3. Twitter is the number one most social brand\nTwitter is the most active Web presence and generates most conversational volume on the Web, making it the number one social brand for July 2009, according to Social Radar. It was at number one in June too. Social Radar analyzes the Web to see what brands are mentioned most by unique sources. This includes blogs, other social networks, forums, etc. The analysis includes brands, not just social networks. Facebook is at number 4, with the iPhone and Google at number 3 and 4, respectively. Check out the full list for July here. The point is there is a lot of buzz out there about Twitter and people are continuing to talk about it, and it's even becoming part of everyday language.\n\n\n\n\n4. Twitter receives millions in free media coverage\nThe media loves to cover Twitter and anything that relates to using the service. In fact, Twitter received $48 million worth in media coverage in 30 days, according to Ad Age, which also notes that the figure is about half of what Microsoft plans to spend on marketing Bing. So what amounts to $48 million worth in advertising? How about 3 billion impressions and 57 percent of that is from TV. These figures don't even include the smaller newspapers that likely mentioned Twitter. The irony is that this very post is contributing.\n5. Continued growth internationally\nAs news breaks, more users internationally are learning the value of using Twitter. Whether it is the protests following the Iran Election or the Jakarta bombings or the fact that the Chinese government felt they had to block Twitter during the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the site gets more users in those countries as the value of the service unravels during a time of need. Right now, about 55 percent of the audience is international, according to comScore. This number too will continue to grow.\n\n\n\n\nMore Twitter resources from Mashable:\n- 5 More Twitter Related Trends to Watch Right Now- Twitter Better: 20 Ways to Filter Your Tweets- Twitter for Beginners: 5 Steps for Better Tweeting- 5 Habits of Successful Executives on Twitter- 5 Ways Twitter Can Save You Money\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, Dalaj"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/08/04/twitter-continued-growth/>