Several months ago, people were asking if Twitter’s growth had stalled thanks to several months of flat traffic.  But it appears those reports of Twitters “demise” were premature.  According to a recently released report from Pingdom, Twitter passed the one billion tweet mark in December.  The growth continued in January, with 1.2 billion tweets sent.  That averages out to over 40 million tweets per day.  Looks like Twitter continues to be the little engine that could.

Lots happening in the world of digital and I have been negligent in sharing the news / posts that really caught my eye lately.  So with that, here’s my latest weekly (better called monthly) update:

Breathing New Life Into Virtual Worlds – PR 2.0:  Virtual World membership grew by 39% in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million with Youth driving most of that growth.

Four Questions for Successful CPG Social Media Marketing:  Great post from the Google CPG Blog, which is a must read if you don’t subscribe to it.

Why Teens Don’t Tweet:  Only 16 percent of Twitter users are under 25.  More specifically, 45-54 year olds are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter, making them the highest indexing age group, followed by 25-34 year olds, who are 30 percent more likely.

Why We Need Marketing General Contractors – The Toad Stool:  Another great post by Alan Wolk.  I frequently use his term “NASCAR Blindness” and now I think I might be using “Marketing General Contractors” as well.

Best Buy’s CrowdSourced Job Posting is Live:  I’ve said it before, but this is one reason Barry Judge is a CMO that just plain gets where marketing is headed.

6 Lessons from the Best Marketing Campaign Ever – Rohit Bhargava:  At the Cannes Ad Festival this year, a single marketing campaign took home a Grand Prix award in three categories simultaneously–direct, cyber and PR– something that had never happened before in the 50+ year history of the show.  And the campaign was from a Tourism Board…not a Fortune 100 company or brand.

If Twitter had 100 People…:  5% of the people create 75% of the Tweets

Talk about a simple but powerful story in the below video.  A person walks into PF Changs and tweets how much she loves the lettuce wraps.  Since PF Chang’s is active on Twitter, they see the message and decide to “be awesome” and send the girl on Twitter a free dessert and appetizer.

Now think about that for a second.  From across the country, PF Chang’s reached out and delighted a customer in a way she wasn’t expecting.  And this person wasn’t a celebrity.  They weren’t an influencer in the sense of being a food magazine editor or a restaurant reviewer.  They were just a fan of the place that was sharing how much they love lettuce wraps.

And PF Chang’s had NO expectation of getting anything more out of it.

For me, that is what sums up the benefits of Social Media.  It gives you a chance to put a human face on your company and your brand.  Hell, it gives you a chance to actually act like a human instead of just a marketer or business person.

In it’s simplest form, Social Media gives Brand Managers a chance to thank the people [ie consumers] who make their job even possible [by buying the products].

So if you are in marketing, when is the last time you actually thanked a customer?  When is the last time you tried to “Be Awesome”?  Does your company even have the systems in place to let you do so?  If not, it is time to start making a change.

Thanks to Karl Long for pointing me to this video and Andy Sernovitz for the original version of it.

On Friday I had quite the shock when my email inbox was suddenly filled with notifications of new followers on Twitter.  A quick check of Tweetdeck gave me the answer when I was humbled to learn that Ad Age had named me one of “25 Media People to Follow on Twitter.”  I have a tough time believing I should be on the same list as business luminaries like John Battelle, Mark Cuban, and Chris Anderson but I am honored all the same.

Here are a few of the other very deserving folks that made the list:

Mark Cuban (@mcuban) – Owner of HDNet (and the Dallas Mavericks)

John Battelle (@johnbattelle) – Founder and Chairman of Federated Media

Chris Anderson (@chr1sa)- Wired Magazine editor

Jeff Lanctot (@lanctot) – Chief Strategy Officer at Razorfish

David Carr (@carr2n) – New York Times media columnist

David Berkowitz (@dberkowitz) – Emerging Media Director at 360i

Brian Lam (@blam) – Editorial Director at Gizmodo

Pete Cashmore (@mashable) – Founder/CEO of Mashable, the social-media blog

Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) – Managing Partner of Union Square Ventures

Thanks to Nat Ives (@natives), Abbey Klaassen (@amklaassen), and Michael Learmonth (@learmonth) for the honor of making the list.  And a special thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this blog and follow my ramblings on Twitter.  I really, really appreciate it.

Related Links:

• Advertising Age – “25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter”
• Silicon Alley Inside – “25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter”

There is no denying the impact of Twitter these days.  But what if we talked in “real life” like we do on Twitter?  That is the very question that Dan Gurewitch at CollegeHumor answers in this funny video.

(RSS Readers: click through for video).