Twitter seems to be everywhere these days. It is infiltrating pop culture and challenging traditional communication channels as people answer the simple Twitter question, “What are you doing?” Many people have hopped on the Twitter bandwagon.  Besides being used by many “regular” patrons, it is used by businesses, celebrities, professional sports players and it is even rumored that President Obama has  “tweets.”

Twitter is a free social networking service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates.  The messages are known as “tweets.” The text-based posts are short and can only use up to 140 characters.  Twitter is easy to use and a quick way to get a message or idea out to many people.

Over the past several months, traffic to Twitter has exploded. Worldwide visitors to Twitter approached 10 million in February, up an impressive 700+% vs. year ago. The past two months alone have seen worldwide visitors climb by more than 5 million visitors. U.S. traffic growth has been just as dramatic, with Twitter reaching 4 million visitors in February, up more than 1,000% from a year ago.

Who is largely behind the huge increase?  Research has found that people aged between 45 and 54 are 36% more likely than other age groups to use Twitter, making them the highest rated age group.

“The skew towards older visitors, although perhaps initially surprising for a social media site, actually makes more sense than you might think at first”, said Sarah Radwanick, a blogger for the research firm, comScore. “With so many businesses using Twitter, along with the first generations of Internet users “growing up” and comfortable with technology, this is a sign that the traditional early adopter model might need to be revisited. Not only teenagers and college students can be counted among the “technologically inclined,” which means that trends are much more prone to take off in older age segments than they used to. And with those age 25 and older representing a much bigger segment of the population than the under 25 crowd, it might help explain why Twitter has expanded its reach so broadly so quickly over the past few months.”

On April 10, 2009, it was reported by many sources that both Google and Microsoft are courting Twitter.  The talks seem to be centered on a deal to exclusively deliver search or other similar services to Twitter.  Earlier this month, media reports said the Google was in talks to buy Twitter.  The figures of $250 million to $1 billion have been rumored.

Why should we be discussing Twitter on a Clay Aiken Board? Well, Twitter is another great place to promote Clay and share his music.  It lets you interact with the public while introducing Clay and his music in a subtle and quick way.

But, just like in any social situation, a participant needs to be careful.  There is a young man on Twitter who goes by the name of ……well, he uses the name of a tall, talented singer and actor  from North Carolina. This young man has been trying to get attention on the web for a long time.  He started a blog a few months ago and copied each blog from this site and many other sites.  He never gave credit and tried to make the reader believe the articles were his.  Now, he is on Twitter, responding as if he is Clay.  There is no law or rule to keep him from doing this.  However, I think most people realize that Clay will not be answering our posts personally unless he announces it on his fan club board.

Do you Twitter?  I haven’t started yet, but I think its time to check it out.