I love Twitter and firmly believe it has is a big role to play in your marketing mix.

But all’s not well.

A few days ago, Reuters reported that about 60 percent of people on Twitter end up abandoning the service after a month.

Aggressively challenged by Twitter–aficionados, Reuters updated the study a few days later and went beyond just Twitter.com, adding in more than 30 websites and applications that feed into the Twitter community including: TweetDeck, TwitPic, Twitstat, Hootsuite, EasyTweets, Tumblr, and many others.

The results? The year-long retention curve looks very much the same as the one for just Twitter.com: more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month.

In other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent (and, No, Oprah hasn’t helped much).

But, seriously, is this really bad news? The blogosphere seems to think so but I don’t.

The low retention rates aren’t even surprising, really. Essentially, if you follow more than a few people, the overall experience can be very dissatisfying – especially as compared to the similar relationships on Facebook or even LinkedIn.

(Disclaimer: I am not writing here about people interested in simply Tweeting about what they had for lunch. Frankly, I don’t care – not should you care about what I had for lunch –carrots sticks at my desk; how fun is that! I am writing about Twitter as a business tool)

From a business perspective, it’s possible that Twitter has been over-hyped and that the metrics are all wrong. It’s not about how large your Follower list is but about how homogeneous it is.

Cases in point:

• I know a marketer who has highly focused but relatively short list of Followers who was turned down by an advertiser who was looking for large numbers of Followers. In the end, the advertiser went for a large list of unqualified Followers. This isn’t progress, folks. This takes us back right to the broadcasting model which has been declared no longer valid.

• I follow Starbucks, just because I am curious to see how they use the tool. So far, not a single Tweet has been of any interest to me whatsoever. I am still waiting to get a coupon for a free latte. (And please don’t tell me they have done that and I missed it – that would only confirm that following more than a few people can be very dissatisfying experience)

• Here is a website that reports on Top CMOs on Twitter. I challenge you to find one really important reason to follow any of them (other than waiting to get a coupon for something).

But, still, I love Twitter.

As a marketer concerned with effective, measurable tactics that are action-oriented, my primary concern with regards to Twitter is to secure Followers who belong to our target market and have a potential interest in our company’s offering.

And as a marketer, I know that the only way to achieve a homogeneous Follower list is to stay very focused on the content I provide on Twitter.

If you do that, you will achieve a Follower list that actually cares about what you have to say.

At WiderFunnel we know this for a fact: in the last few weeks we have secured new clients who have found us on Twitter. These individuals are interested in Conversion Optimization so they searched for the topic; found either one of Chris Goward’s Tweets or one of mine; clicked on to our website and the rest, like they say in Hollywood, is history.

So, yes, Twitter has is a big role to play in a marketers’ mix. The news of a low retention rate will ensure that the quality of the content improves so that they continue to attract Followers who are like-minded and therefore more likely to become clients.

What do you think? What examples of business success have you had with Twitter? What are your challenges?