The more I use Twitter, the more I realize that mainstream consumers are not there.

They’re on Facebook.

But they’re not on Twitter.

So if you’re a consumer company using Twitter to reach the mainstream — moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas; people with jobs, responsibilities and mortgages — Twitter won’t get you there.

It WILL get you to early adopters. It WILL get you to Internet brands who are also consumers. It WILL get you to media, analysts and industry types. But Twitter WILL NOT get you people who we define as mainstream consumers today.

I can already hear you saying: What about the Comcast / Dell / Zappos customer service Twitterati who are so successful helping consumers on Twitter?

They’re not helping the mainstream. They’re helping consumers who Tweet. And today, those two parties are mutually exclusive. Years from now, they may not be. But today,  consumers who Tweet are by definition not mainstream consumers.

Twitter isn’t mainstream. And you won’t reach the mainstream on Twitter.