More bad news for Twitter: Most users never tweet or follow anyone

Is Twitter's crazy growth spike for real if most of its new members aren't bothering to use it? That's the question posed by the authors of a new study that found that more than half of those in the "Twittersphere" aren't tweeting, aren't following anyone, and aren't being followed by anyone.

HubSpot's new "State of the Twittersphere Report" for June 2009 looked a data from more than 4.5 million Twitter users, with a particular focus on "activity levels" to see how often new and existing Twitterers are actually using Twitter.

The results? Turns out that nearly 80 percent of users haven't added a homepage URL to their profile, while more than 75 percent never entered a bio. Even worse, 55 percent of Twitter users aren't following anyone, 52 percent don't have any followers of their own, and 54 percent haven't tweeted—which, after all, is the main thing you're supposed to do on Twitter.

The report comes on the heels of a recent Harvard Business survey that found that 90 percent of the tweeting on Twitter comes from just 10 percent of its most active users, and that the median number of "lifetime tweets" for a given Twitterer is only one.

Meanwhile, a post on Mashable notes that Twitter's phenomenal growth in recent months has abruptly stalled, with a mere 1.47 increase in user between April and May, after blistering triple-digit spurts earlier in the year.

In the notes for the most recent Twitter survey, HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan comments on the "buzz from mainstream media about the growth of Twitter" and wonders: "If new users aren't really engaged, should it really be considered growth?"

Good question—and indeed, might Twitter end up becoming the Second Life of the late '00s? Or can it continue to flourish even if most of its users are just lurking?

So, do you consider yourself an active Twitterer? Or are you one of those who has an active Twitter account but has never tweeted?

Click here to follow my (sporadic) tweets on Twitter!

Related:
HubSpot Releases June 2009 State of the Twittersphere Report [HubSpot]