Twitter’s secret to (growth) success

Twitter’s first users may have been the sites early employees and their friends, but today the micro-blogging site is global, and coincidently has more users outside of its home country.

Over 60% of Twitter users are outside the US. The “geographically diverse” social network boasts users in the large countries you’d expect, some smaller countries you might not expect (like the Vatican City) and even one in outer space.

And while media and marketing commentators continue to try and put a value on Twitter and see an enduring future, the sites growth continues.

The site is now available in six languages and when it launched in Spanish in November 2009, users increased by 50%.

Twitter has become famous for breaking some of the world’s biggest news stories immediately after they happen. In the days following the tragic Chilean earthquake people turned to Twitter to establish much-needed lines of communication.

In Colombia, signups are up 300% after politicians like Piedad Córdoba Ruíz began using Twitter as a platform to speak to constituents. Signups in India have increased nearly 100% since the beginning of 2010 due in part to politicians like Shashi Tharoor and Bollywood mega-stars Sharukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Abhishek Bachchan.

Matt Sanford, lead engineer for Twitter’s International team, says that such developments are just the tip of the iceberg.

“Twitter’s realtime information network gets more useful as our users grow more diverse and we’re continually impressed with the results,” he said. “We look forward to seeing what happens as we make it easier for the whole world to communicate over Twitter.

And here’s a reminder of what Twitter can do for users of search from Pulse2.

1. Areaface
Areaface allows you to search for tweets based on keywords and phrases. The tweets are mapped out on a Google Map.

2. BackTweets
Backtweets is a Twitter search application where you can search for specific URL and it will be able to find the results even if the URL has been shortened. This is something the original Twitter search engine cannot do.

3. Local Follow
Local Follow is a Twitter search engine that allows you to search within 4 main fields. The 4 main fields include Bio, Location, Name, and Tweets.

4. Monitter
Monitter is a Twitter search engine with multiple columns. You can do multiple searches at once. It displays keyword and phrase searches in real-time.

5. Schmap Picks
Schmap Picks can be used for searching for reviews about restaurants and other establishments. Currently very few cities are being supported.

6. Searchtastic
Searchtastic is a Twitter search tool that lets you search for keyword specific tweets that are older than what is shown by Twitter’s own search engine.

7. TweepSearch
TweepSearch is a tool that can be used for searching people on Twitter. If you enter a keyword, it scans the profile of Twitter users that have that keyword in their bio.

8. Tweetmeme
Tweetmeme is a way to track who is retreating blog posts and news articles. Tweetmeme has a search engine that allows you to search for the most popular tweets across the web.

9. Twellow
Twellow is a Twitter search engine that organizes information in a Yellow Pages style. You can search for keywords and it will find the results in people’s biographies. You can also filter by industries.

10. TwitJobSearch
TwitJobSearch is a Twitter search engine that allows you to filter tweets by a profession that you are looking for. For example, if you search for “software engineer” on TwitJobSearch, you can find a job related to that profession right away.