Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve likely been hearing more and more about Twitter lately.

Janis Krums became the world’s most famous Twitter user a few weeks back by “tweeting” the first photos of the US Air Flight 1549 resting in the Hudson from his iPhone.

Lance Armstrong made headlines by posting his tweet on Twitter when his bike was stolen a couple of weeks ago. His tweet asked for help from the Twittersphere in locating the champ’s one-of-a-kind bicycle.

And CNN was quoting from the tweets of the US congressmen a couple nights ago during President Obama’s address to the nation.

Twitter Growth Stats as of Q4 2008

According to a recent study by Hubspot, Twitter is growing like wildfire.

• 600% growth rate in 2008
• 4M-5M users
• 70% of Twitter users joined in 2008
• An estimated 5-10 thousand new Twitter accounts are opened per day

Who will you find on Twitter?

Celebrities: Lance Armstrong, Natalie Grant, oh and President Borack Obama

Tech geeks: Including a teenage tech blogger with over 10,000 followers

Entrepreneurs: Founders of major dot coms (including Twitter’s founder)

Plus: Housewives, college students, MD’s, professors, musicians, real estate investors, pilots, nurses, high school coaches, ministers, plus much more.

What do people talk about on Twitter?

The simple answer: Everything. That’s the overall thing that Twitter has going for it.

From sports and politics to technology and personal finance everything is up for discussion on Twitter. No topic is off-topic because Twitter users can search each other by topic. It’s almost like Twitter is its own world wide web.

Why Is Twitter So Popular?

Beyond the wide open topic possibilities, I think Twitter is popular because of its multi-functional capabilities all at a great price – FREE.

It can be used for searching topics, social networking, photo-sharing, rss reading, direct messaging, link sharing, and social bookmarking. The fact that Twitter is accessible via mobile phones, is also helping it grow in popularity.

And since Twitter is all about community and relationships, its becoming one of the most important marketing tools on the Internet.

Why Do I Think Twitter Could Become One Of The Most Important Internet Marketing Tools Ever?

Well, obviously the growth rate is the main indicator. But also it’s who is on Twitter. This isn’t just a bunch of college students. The majority of Twitter users I’m seeing and as noted above are early adapters. That means professionals. High achievers. Entrepreneurs.

Also, every week, perhaps every day even, new apps are being developed specifically for Twitter. These apps include tools that add to Twitter’s functionality or simplify it.

Plus, Twitter has recently received another $30 million in venture capital. That’s a lot of money to throw at something without a lot of potential.

So What Will Twitter Mean For Your Brand?

Twitter is a way for your brand to connect with the people in your audience who fall into the early adapters crowd. And as it continues to grow, it may become as common for people to use Twitter as it is for them to use Google.

By monitoring Twitter, you can be alerted to certain conversations that are taking place that would be of interest to your brand. You can know when someone is talking about your brand. If a customer is complaining about your brand, you can immediately be alerted and respond back asking, “How can I help?”

And Twitter users love to re-tweet. That means if you post a message to Twitter that people like, they’ll re-post it so their friends can see it. A great tweet can get passed around over and over.

The key to marketing success on Twitter is understanding that marketing on Twitter is not the same as traditional online marketing. Twitter has a netiquette all its own. But if you learn the rules, implementing Twitter into your brand’s marketing strategy could put you far ahead of your competition in terms of online relationship building.

Oh, and if you haven’t found a reason to get on Twitter yet, the fact that someone can hijack your brand and misrepresent your brand is one reason to check out Twitter today. You can alert Twitter to the problem, but unless you do, they are not actively policing for the problem. And if someone just happens to have the same name as your brand, guess what, they’ll get to keep your Twitter name.

Twitter is changing the way people communicate online. And it’s changing the way brands like yours can communicate with them as well.

Well, since I live in the Nashville area and I work with social media marketing, I thought it would be interesting to see how many brands that are based in Nashville are represented on Twitter.

So here are the Nashville-based brands that I’ve found that appear to have an official Twitter account, (it can be hard to tell sometimes as brands can be hijacked on Twitter) and the ones that don’t. My methodology for tracking down the brands on Twitter was to run a Twitter search looking for the brand name mentions. And then to look for a “branded” account. So this is all unscientific, you might say. If I’ve missed your brand, let me know.

So here’s the rundown of

NASHVILLE BRANDS AND OFFICIAL TWITTER PRESENCE

Gibson Guitars – Yes @gibsonlifestyle
Farm and Tractor Supply -Can’t find
Great American Country – Can’t find
Country Music Television (CMT) – Can’t find
Captain D’s – Yes, @captainds
Logan’s Roadhouse – Can’t find
Cracker Barrel Restaurants – Yes, @crackerbarrel
O’Charleys Restaurants – Can’t find
Griffin Technology – Yes, @griffintech
Nissan USA – Can’t find (there is are individual Nissan dealers and foreign Nissan groups represented)
Old Time Pottery – Can’t find
Gabriel Shocks – Can’t find
Budget Brakes – Can’t find
Bridgestone-Firestone – Can’t find
Dollar General – Yes @dollargeneral (but appears to be a squatter account)
Barrett Firearms – Can’t find
Sony Records – Can’t find
Warner Records – Can’t find but their site suggests there is
Nashville Predators – Yes @Predators (see reader comment below)
Tennessee Titans – Can’t find anything “offficial” but several fan/blogger accounts
Gaylord – Yes, @GaylordHotels
Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau – Yes @visitmusiccity

Obviously not a lot of Nashville based brands on Twitter yet. Though I am seeing a fair amount of people talking about many of these brands.

Have I left out a brand? Or did I miss your brand’s Twitter account somehow? Please let me know and let me know the Twitter account, only if it’s an official brand account.

Thanks.