Today, Twitter reported that it is managing 50 million tweets a day (600 tweets per second). In 2007, the average (?) was 5,000 times a day and by 2009 hit 35 million a day.

Today, in a 24-hour period, the rapper Lil’ Wayne (@LilTuneChi) garnered 112,466 followers (TwitterCounter). For context, I think Oprah gathered 215,961 followers in her first 24-hour period (but my interpretation of the blog post could be in error). She had 56,000 followers before she had posted her first tweet.

Today, in the 21-hour period after posting his first tweet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama had attracted about 40,000 followers. (I’ll update Tuesday with data from TwitterCounter.) Is there another religious figure that compares? (The Pope endorsed digital outreach in January, but I have not heard of anyone from the church setting up Twitter.)

Pretty amazing untapped desire; more fodder for the hype cycle. Screenshots below the fold.

Twitter Reports 50 million Tweets Per Day

Twitter Counter Data For Lil Tunechi: 112,466 Followers In First 24 Hours

Twitter Counter For The Dalai Lama