During it's first-ever Chirp conference for developers, Twitter revealed some eye-opening statistics this week about the previously secret user base.

To put this in perspective, Twitter is second in search to Google and ahead of Yahoo! and Bing as a search engine. It has roughly the same "population" as Mexico and is adding more users every month than there are people living in New York City.

Fifty Studio was recently invited to write a column for Utah Business Magazine titled "Hitting the Target: Successful Companies Must Develop an Online Marketing Plan." Here's an excerpt.

The Search Marketing Opportunity

In December of 2009, people from around the world told search engines what they were looking for more than 130 billion times, and search engines showed them correlating advertisements on every search. That was a 46 percent increase over 2008.

Fifteen years ago, advertising consisted of billboards, direct mail, TV, radio and a handful of other things that sought to target individuals in a crowd, and for direct mail purposes, a hefty postal bill came attached to it. Google and other tools made it possible to reach crowds of targeted individuals who showed interest in a specific product. One of those tools is called pay-per-click marketing (PPC). Google’s version of PPC is called AdWords.

PPC is a form of context-based advertising that allows companies to select and bid on specific terms that searchers type like “Utah family dentist” or “attorneys in Salt Lake.” Instead of companies hoping they’ll find a qualified buyer via traditional advertising, Google and other paid search platforms prescreen the buyers for companies, and companies don’t pay for the ad unless users click on it, hence the name “pay-per-click.”

(Read the Full Article: Hitting the Target)

Utah-based Web design firm, Fifty Studio, takes home three 2009 Silver W³ Awards in the categories of Computer Software, Consumer Goods, and Family/Parenting. This marks the second consecutive year that Fifty Studio has been honored with a W³ Award.

“We’ve always believed that not all Web sites are created equal and that the best sites are handcrafted,” said Chris Bender, Fifty Studio’s Creative Director. “Being recognized by an organization like W³ validates that claim. We will continue to build the best Web sites for our clients that meet their goals both aesthetically and from a business standpoint.”

The W³ Awards honor creative excellence on the Web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning Websites, Web Video and Online Marketing programs. Simply put, the W³ is the first major Web competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. Small firms are as likely to win as Fortune 500 companies and international agencies.

"Fifty Studio gets it! Through recent work on our social initiative, ParentsEmpowered.org, they helped improve the online presence by creatively shifting the Web site focus from a simple information platform to a fully interactive online experience,” said Steven Wright, ParentsEmpowered Committee Member. “As a result of this innovative work, Fifty Studio helps us provide a prevention tool that increases parental involvement and enhances the Web site's usability."

For more information about Fifty Studio, visit www.fiftystudio.com.

About Fifty Studio Fifty Studio is a fantastically effective Web development agency in Salt Lake City, Utah that builds hand-crafted Web sites and Internet marketing solutions, including SEO and PPC. ###