Review: The Twitter Book Reviewed by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson - Web Marketing Today - Twitter: ralphwilson - May 19, 2009

The Twitter Book
by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein
O'Reilly, 2009
Paperback, 234 pages
ISBN 0596802811

If you're like me, you're still trying to figure out Twitter -- and answer the big question: Will spending time on Twitter help my business?

Enter The Twitter Book, by two accomplished Twitterers. The format is short, wide, and colorful -- like one of those little books designed to picked up and read at random. Each page spread of left and right pages is designed to be seen together. On the right page you find discussion of a single, narrow topic. On the left, several examples, usually screen-shots of tweets. I really like the simple, graphic-rich format. The authors' presentation of one main thought per page spread makes you feel: "I can understand this easily," and encourages you to dip in.

But don't be put off by the simple format. The book is carefully designed to be easy-to-read and make information extremely accessible. The book has six sections, each with color-coded pages:

1. Get Started. Provides the basic concepts and Twitter jargon needed to understand the application.
2. Listen In. Suggests various third party tools and search techniques that can make Twitter a useful and flexible with which to gather information.
3. Hold Great Conversations. Explains conversations, replies, hashtags, and direct messages -- when and how to employ them in order to participate in a dialog.
4. Share Information and Ideas. Gives various uses of Twitter (such as, linking, live-twittering an even, publishing, and fundraising) and tips on how to provide interesting and useful information for your followers.
5. Reveal Yourself. Explains that both business and personal friends like little glimpses into your life. Also describes how to spiff up your profile and Twitter account page.
6. Twitter for Business: Special Considerations and Ideas. For business use, here's the meat.

Recommendations for business use include these topics, which are spelled out in detail on successive page spreads: (1) Listen first, (2) have clear goals, (3) integrate with your other channels, (4) start slow, then build, (5) figure out who does the twittering, (6) reveal the person behind the curtain, (7) manage multiple staff Twitterers, (8) coordinate multiple accounts, (9) make sure you're findable, (10) be conversational, (11) retweet your customers, (12) offer solid customer support, (13) post mostly not about your company, (14) link creatively to your own sites, (15) make money with Twitter, (16) report problems ... and resolutions, (17) post personal updates, (18) use URL shorteners to track click-throughs, (19) engage journalists and PR people, (20) integrate Twitter with your products, (21) follow everyone who follows you (almost), and (22) be aware of three key tools for business accounts: Twist, TweepDiff, and CoTweet.

Frankly, at first glance the book seems a bit pricey given its format, simplicity, and generous use of white space. On the other hand, the book's value is demonstrated in that it accomplishes what it sets out to do: To provide a clear introduction to both a powerful tool and the culture that has grown up around it. If you're interested in using Twitter for your business, this book is excellent. Strongly recommended.

At this writing the book was available through Amazon for US $13.59, Canada CDN$15.74, UK £10.08, Germany €14,99, France €16,76, and Japan ¥2,436.