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By Douglas MacMillan and Rebecca Reisner

Tweets from the Chiefs

In August 2008 we reported on 18 chief executives who use the microblogging application Twitter to clue customers in on new services, help them with questions about their products, and generally get a little bit personal with customers, business associates, and the public.

Not even a year later, we bring you nearly 50 CEOs who find tweeting a personal and professional delight. Twitter's growth has been astounding. As of August, for example, Digg founder Kevin Rose had only 61,000 "followers"— people who sign up to view a certain Twitter user's tweets—but now he has more than 600,000.

So read on to learn how Virgin Group's Richard Branson, Zappos.com's Tony Hsieh, and dozens more CEOs harness the simple powers of Twitter.

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