The numbers in this Mashable post suggest that perhaps it has. Maybe because people just don’t have time to tweet, since “U.S. Internet users viewed 16.8 billion online videos during April.”

Takeaway for marketers: Get offa YouTube and get back to work!

All Things Digital reports that online advertising revenues for the first quarter of 2009 are down by five percent.

(And in case you didn’t know, that headline up there is a reference to this.)

Takeaway for marketers: Keep an eye on the big picture. From 2001 to 2002, revenues declined by about 20 percent. From 2002 to 2007, they nearly quadrupled. Ask yourself: Where will they be five years from now, in 2014?

Nearly a month ago, I blogged about the evident lack of customer service over at Twitter. I concluded by saying, “Looks like a week of kvetching has had some effect. I hope the effect holds.”

It hasn’t.

In the weeks since that original post, the Twitter account in question has been hacked several more times. Since April 28 I’ve sent more than 50 emails about the issue to Twitter “support.”

The account is fine for a few days, then it reverts to the type of page you see in the screen shot above. The latest compromise to the account occurred yesterday, evidently sometime late in the morning or early in the afternoon.

(As of about 9:00 this morning, following a dozen emails yesterday to Twitter support as well as their PR, law enforcement, and partnership email addresses, the account remained compromised. By 10:00, though, it appears to have been fixed. But I can’t help wondering how long it will be before the next hack kicks in.)

I commented about the issue over on iMediaConnection, in response to an article about Twitter marketing experiments. I contacted the folks at an A-list social media site about this and received a response noting that “we have the same obstacles when reaching Twitter support.  It’s disappointing to say the least.” Out of respect to their direct request, I’m not mentioning the site’s name, but they are one of the 800-pound gorillas of social media. They have Twitter followers in the (very) high six figures  — and Twitter evidently ignores them, too.

So here’s the issue, and I think it’s a huge one:

As a marketer, you want to engage your customers and potential customers in social media. Twitter is at the eye of the social media hurricane, so you set up a Twitter account. You note your Twitter address on all communications, from emails to press releases to media alerts to blog postings to Facebook and Flickr and more.

But when your audience comes to your Twitter page, do they see the tweets you sent out yesterday? Do they see the branding you created for the Twitter page? Do they see the news and information you want to disseminate?

No. They see a page that looks like the screenshot accompanying this blog post.

Meanwhile, what about those people inside the brand’s organization who, after much cajoling and convincing, are taking that first tentative step into social media the way it ought to be done? Well, they’re asking legitimate questions:

“What the hell is going on? Is THIS what social media is all about? Seriously? Is THIS what you’re trying to sell as a cutting-edge marketing tactic?”

And they’re coming to conclusions:

“Social media sucks. My brand is being undermined. I shouldn’t be wasting time or money on this crap. This is a ridiculous mess.”

The articles being written daily about Twitter are over the top, and have been for some time. The tubes of the Interwebs are clogged with advice on how to use Twitter to make money, build your brand, connect with customers, be genuine, share information, advertise deals, identify influencers, open new marketing channels, transform media, and so on, and so on, and so on …

It’s time for marketers to sober up where Twitter is concerned.

Can it be a powerful tool? Yes. But: Twitter needs to improve system security and they need to start thinking about customer service for people like me, for the giant A-listers, and for everyone in between.

Because one smartass hacker plus one non-responsive support department can turn a social media strategy into a social media migrane in no time.

Takeaway for marketers: Thinking about using Twitter as a main tactic in your social media strategy? Proceed with extreme caution.

MAY 31 UPDATE: The answer to the question in the fifth paragraph above? About a half hour. It’s hacked again as I type this.

Huffington Post reports on an Army Of Paid Bloggers Suddenly Promoting Online Payday Loans.

That bloggers are being paid to pimp a particular point of view should surprise no one, and it’s exactly why bloggers ought to be transparent about whether they’re blogging their opinion or blogging for pay or swag.

Marketers are increasing their spend significantly in social media this year and many of them don’t like proposed rules requiring blogger disclosure.

Maybe those marketers fighting disclosure are simply selling crappy products and services.

Takeaway for marketers: If you’re engaging in social media for your product, be prepared to hear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

The longer I live, the more I see the truth in Sturgeon’s Law. It most recently manifested itself when I sent out about a half-dozen requests to various service providers.

I had some budget to spend on some geo-focused online marketing tactics, but it appears that most people don’t want to take my money. Days later, I’m still waiting for responses to my requests for information ASAP.

The good news, though, is that two providers responded within about an hour — I salute them. They are clearly not among the 90 percent of whom Sturgeon speaks.

So here’s a radical strategy for surviving in a down economy: When someone wants to give you money to do what it is you do professionally, don’t ignore them.

Takeaway for marketers: Be part of the 10 percent exception to Sturgeon’s Law.