Recently, Experian Simmons DataStream^SM reported that Twitter’s website users in the U.S. are visiting the social microblogging site more frequently in short bursts when comparing 2009 data to 2010. However, the data also showed that overall visits to Twitter are down among American users.

According to the report, visits to Twitter reached an average of 10 visits per month in late November 2010, up from 7.3 visits per month in 2009. This means the average number of visits per month among U.S. Twitter users increased 37% in the last year.

Since Experian Simmons only looked at visits to Twitter’s website this drop suggests that more U.S. users are using Twitter, clients, 3^rd party tools, and applications. Popular tools include Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, and apps such as Flipboard. The absence of data from these Twitter related tool is puzzling, if more people are using them, we need to be measuring the activity. In addition, there is no mention of SMS posts being counted as visits to the site.

This data has led me to conclude that Twitter is becoming more in line with other social networking sites, like Facebook, where users just check in for a few minutes to get the latest news and leave. The report certainly has some holes in it that need to be explored in order to get a better picture of Twitter’s actual activity levels. Personally, I use Twitter to get news on the SEO industry and to check in with local businesses for the latest news and deals.

Despite the drop in overall visits, the fact that U.S. Twitter users are visiting the site more often is a huge leap forward. The data suggests users are more apt to make shorter, more frequent visits to Twitter instead of spending long periods of time on a visit. The increase in visit frequency, accompanied by a drop in session duration, encourages businesses that utilize Twitter to make each Tweet more meaningful rather than just a stream of babble.