There are a lot of people using Twitter, there's no doubt, with over 30 million users today, and the service is beginning to be used by many companies for different purposes. But what are the most popular ones, since it's a very new environment so many are experimenting and finding out what works and what doesn't. The people over at smartblogs have set out to find out, in their weekly poll, what businesses are using Twitter for.

So here is what they responded to the question 'What is the primary way you use Twitter?'. Most of them, 42 percent to be more precise, said they were using it to keep up with the latest news and trends, which isn't that surprising, because Twitter is a great place for real-time information and news and the speed at which they spread easily outpaces more traditional news outlets, even online ones. 23 percent used Twitter as a way to broadcast messages and announcements about their company. Staying in touch with friends and families was the reason for 13 percent of the users questioned. Prospecting and lead generation was the answer for 9 percent and 8 percent used Twitter to keep up with what's being said about their company. 5 percent resorted to it for customer service purposes, showing the way businesses can use the website as a new tool.

Paul Chaney, Internet marketing director for Bizzuka, a website design and content management system firm, commented on the results. “There are many more reasons to use Twitter than what we listed in the poll. Still, these represent a broad range. Two things stand out: The extremely low percentage of people/companies using it for customer service. I would have expected that to be higher. As companies grasp the benefit that Twitter can provide in that respect, give it a few months and, doubtless, it will be. I know a number of companies who would testify to the value Twitter provides.” he said.

“The other is the markedly high percentage of those that use it for staying on top of news and trends. Does that indicate Twitter tends to appeal to news junkies? For me, it has literally replaced news gathering that used to be done via RSS feed consumption. I sense that it serves the same purpose for others as well,” he added.