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By Tim Ferguson, 26 May 2009 13:23

NEWS

It appears silicon.com readers don't have a lot of time for microblogging at the moment.

In the latest silicon.com poll, readers were asked how they use Twitter: over 75 per cent of those who responded said "not at all".

For those who do use Twitter, however, the motivations are mostly social: nine per cent of respondents said they use the service to keep up with friends.

Nevertheless, a smaller number of respondents said they use the service for work-related purposes, with six per cent saying they use it to keep up with work colleagues and the same percentage saying they use it to find industry news.

The remaining respondents said they use Twitter to communicate with customers (two per cent), to keep up with business contacts (one per cent) or as a search engine (one per cent).

This suggests the general silicon.com readership is less interested in the microblogging sensation than silicon.com's own CIO Jury. The recent CIO Jury on the subject of the business benefits of Twitter was a close run thing, but seven out of the 12 members said they're using the service for business-related purposes. These range from "messing about" to promoting companies or sharing information.

Twitter the company that lets people send 140-character messages, or tweets, has enjoyed explosive growth in recent months. Last month, visitors to Twitter jumped 83 per cent month-on-month to reach 17 million, according to data from market researcher comScore.

At the same time as the surge in usage, the government has appointed a Twitter Tsar. Deputy government CIO Andrew Stott has become director of digital engagement, promoting web 2.0 technologies across government including the creation of a Twitter account, @DirDigEng.

But despite its success, Twitter execs are still trying to work out how to monetise the service with co-founder Biz Stone recently saying the company plans to introduce paid-for tools and services by the end of the year.