Go ahead, click the image above and search your company's name. Bet people are talking about you right now.

New users continue to flock to Twitter every day, including a number of major brands, but many businesses still seem to be avoiding the popular social media service. Based on a new report published in the Journal of the American Society for Information Sciences and Technology, they are doing so at their own peril.

The study, which was conducted by a group at Penn State University along with Twitter chief scientist Abdur Chowdhury, examined half a million tweets and discovered that approximately 20% of the tweets were related to a particular brand.

Jim Jansen, an associate professor at Penn State, points out: “People are using tweets to express their reaction, both positive and negative, as they engage with these products and services. Tweets are about as close as one can get to the customer point of purchase for products and services.”

Indeed, Twitter allows companies a simple and direct way to listen to and engage with customers, and with this type of sharing of information now at their fingertips, companies have every reason to take advantage of it and integrate Twitter into their marketing efforts.

And while Twitter is still relatively new to the social media market, it looks to be around for quite some time. The Penn State study reports that Twitter will secure 20 million more users by the end of the year, adding on to the already 6 million current users. Experts even predict tweeting will soon have the same communication impact as email.

Next in the research world: How companies manage and use their Twitter accounts to attain further information on their target market and products. Is Twitter the new link to building brand awareness? Tell us what you think.

Wallace is an intern at Wicked PR in Atlanta, GA. She is a recent graduate from The University of Alabama and holds a major in Advertising and Graphic Design. Follow her on Twitter @WickedJWY.