The Twitter Book,   ISBN:9780596802813

Customer Rating: 

If you're a student of tried and true old school networking and marketing, you're probably not using Twitter correctly, if at all. Perhaps you just don't get it. "How is this supposed to help me?"
Twitter is different from any other social networking site. When I first heard about it, like so many others, I had a one-word description for it: Stupid.
But millions of people can't be wrong. This book explains the philosophy behind Twitter. It offers real life examples and links to many other sites you can use in conjunction with Twitter, making it more effective.
Remember when the fax machine first came along? No way did it replace the mail service; but it proved priceless in certain situations where regular mail fell short.
Twitter is kind of like that, and this book really helps to explain it. While I'm still learning to use Twitter effectively, this book has already saved me so much wasted time of using it incorrectly.

Customer Rating: 

The Twitter Book is a fun read, with a simple and easy-to-follow (no pun intended) layout. You really don't know what you're missing until you check out this book. The book layout is a small size that's easy to handle, and every other page gives clear screenshots and callouts with examples of what they're describing in the text. On my blog (click my name above and search for the entry "Tweet! Tweet!"), I give a breakdown of each chapter with a few highlights of things that helped me, along with a few recommendations I have for the next edition.

Overall, I learned a lot of cool tips from this book, as well as interesting and knowledgeable people to follow. The Twitter Book is a great primer for anyone who wants to expand their network, supplement their job search or customer base, or make new friends and contacts.

Customer Rating: 

I use the Internet and I have a Twitter account. I didn't open an account until June 2009 and even then I was a bit skeptical about Twitter. I really don't need to know what Larry Smith ate for breakfast or that my neighbor down the street just went to the bathroom. However, I eventually realized and understood how valuable a tool Twitter could be and no longer view the medium in disdain. Much of this understanding came after I read THE TWITTER BOOK by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein.

THE TWITTER BOOK is written not only for people who have never heard of Twitter, but for those, like I used to be, who are interested in using the social networking tool but are a bit wary of it. I used the book for a several months after reading it; I kept it by my computer and used it as a reference tool.

The book is quite easy to read. It contains six chapters, each of which are filled with colorful illustrations, vivid screenshots, and helpful tips. The first chapter in the book describes how to open a Twitter account, what you can type, basic Twitter jargon, and where to go if you need help. The second, third, fourth, and fifth chapters all have to deal with how to accumulate followers, what trends are, programs to help you become a more prominent person in the Twitterverse, how to reply back to messages, the best things to retweet (RT), what you should share about yourself, and much more. The sixth and final chapter of the book is oriented towards those who want to use Twitter for business purposes and how to incorporate the tips, lessons, and strategies you've learned into improving your business presence in the on-line world.

THE TWITTER BOOK is easy to read and understand. It gives a solid foundation of the basics for new Twitter users, but if you've already been using Twitter for awhile, you probably won't find much use in THE TWITTER BOOK. If you're interested in Twitter or have just starting writing tweets and want to know more, I highly recommend THE TWITTER BOOK.

Customer Rating: 

It probably comes as no surprise that Twitter usage grew 1,382 percent in just three years. It is a service that, once you understand it and its power, can become a part of your daily life. In more ways than just telling the world what you had for lunch. To help people understand that growth and to assist them with the use of Twitter, Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein have authored The Twitter Book. This little book, all of 234 pages, can be read in one sitting. Or, more likely, kept at arms reach, as it contains a wealth of information that one will refer to many times. It has the added bonus of explaining, using easy to understand terms, why you and your organization should be on Twitter, how to monitor the conversations, and the various tools at your disposal to leverage the service.

Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Get Started
Chapter 2: Listen In
Chapter 3: Hold Great Conversations
Chapter 4: Share Information and Ideas
Chapter 5: Reveal Yourself
Chapter 6: Twitter for Business: Special Considerations and Ideas
Index

Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein waste no time jumping into the Twitter universe. Within a few pages, you understand the appeal of the service, something called "ambient intimacy" which is a "lightweight but meaningful connection." While the conversations seem, to those not familiar with Twitter, as being banal, they actually bring people together. Once O'Reilly and Milstein explain the value of the service using several scenarios, they help you get started, from signing up to explaining Twitter terms, from finding people to follow to how to test drive the service. Once the basics have been covered, they cover a wide range of topics, providing tips and tricks, URL shorteners, customization of your Twitter page, and more. The final chapter is very helpful for organizations that want to leverage Twitter. Many of the items that O'Reilly and Milstein present in that chapter would be applicable to those may use the service to look for a job, too. It is the highlight of the book, as it presents solid guidelines for corporate tweeting and monitoring of the conversations taking place through Twitter.

The Twitter Book is an excellent resource for those new to the service or old hands. Written in a casual, conversational style, with plenty of graphics and examples, this book will connect with a wide range of Twitter users. Even the early chapters are beneficial to those that live on Twitter, especially when the authors explain @messages, the power of Twitter Search, and how to retweet. While retweeting may seem simple to veteran Twitter users, there are some excellent tips presented in this book on how to effectively retweet. O'Reilly and Milstein also provide the reader with solid 3rd party applications and web sites where the user can take advantage of the conversations on Twitter. Many of them may be familiar, like Twitterific and TweetDeck, for mobile and desktop tweeting, and sites like What the Trend and Who Should I Follow, for determining Twitter trends and finding interesting people to follow. While you may worry that the information will become dated quickly, O'Reilly and Milstein minimize that fear by writing an excellent resource and promising that they will continue to update it. Whether you are thinking about experimenting with Twitter or a seasoned user, The Twitter Book is an excellent resource. While I borrowed this book from the library, I will be purchasing it in the near future; there is just too much good information contained in this book

Disclosure:
Obtained from: Library
Payment: Borrowed

Customer Rating: 

I think that Twitter is a terrific resource for job seekers, entrepreneurs and all professionals for connecting and network expanding. As a power user, it is easy to think of using Twitter as second nature. It's not rocket science, but there are many "ins and outs," and it really is not all that obvious to everyone. So, I was excited to receive The Twitter Book, by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein. As the authors note in Chapter 1, "Twitter lives a dual life. On one hand, it's a simple service. Besides letting you share and read very short messages, it has few bells and whistles. On the other hand, it can be surprisingly hard to figure out. The screens aren't particularly intuitive and the jargon and symbols are obscure."

So, I read the book both as an expert user and as a coach looking for resources to help my clients become more frequent and successful Tweeps. I was not disappointed on either count!

For new users, the book offers a tutorial on how to get signed up and started and how to create a profile. The book covers all of the terminology that Twitter users need to know and provides pictures and examples throughout. Need to know how to find people? Done. How to tweeet from the road? Done. What's a RT (retweet) and can you edit it if it is too long to send? (Yes, but consider using "via" if you change it substantially," p. 115).

Power users - did YOU know that there is an opp called 140it that "uses common cutting conventions to whittle down" your posts if they are too long? (It doesn't work for every post, but I had never heard about it, and I've been tweeting up a storm for a while now.)

Suffice to say that any detail you need to know is available in this handy, easy to use reference.

But, using Twitter successfully requires more than just a list of "how to," practical concerns. There are many nuanced aspects, and Sarah and Tim don't forget about them in this book. Included in the book: discussions about how many people to follow, how to have great conversations, how to @ reply so the user will know what you mean, how often to tweet and how to go beyond "what are you doing?" to be a contributing member of your Twitter community and more.

I'd recommend this book to anyone hesitant to try Twitter because it seems overwhelming and current "tweeps" who would like to pick up some tips from the pros. You can follow the authors at @timoreilly and @SarahM and you can follow the book's hashtag ("demystified" on page 41) - #twitterbook.