twitter

twitter means business: how microblogging can help or hurt your company
$19.95
If you have little experience with Twitter, then this book will help you understand the impact that social media is having on business. having real-world examples of businesses using Twitter is an excellent method for teaching the reader about Twitter. The book is conversational (a quick read) and not written like a novel. I was going to lend this book to a friend, but I decided to keep it as a reference tool next to my computer. Well done!

Twitter Revolution: How Social Media and Mobile Marketing is Changing the Way We Do Business & Market Online
$18.97
Social Media Marketing Expert, of over 20 years, Warren Whitlock and his co-author, Deborah Micek, give an a thorough insight into what Twitter is about, how to use it well to communicate with fellow Twitters and how essential a tool it is in helping you network with professionals as well as with friends.

An invaluable handbook to use when logging into your Twitter account and finding, DMs (direct messages), @____ messages and comments by those who you follow on Twitter.

The book is divided into 4 parts starting with a really good introduction on what Twitter is about, how you can use Twitter as an individual or a Company and the way Twitter can provide you with an essential tool in promoting yourself or your business.

`The New Media tsunami' is thundering. (p.13)

This statement made me perk up and read the next chapter eagerly, wondering how Twitter can really work for me.
I'd seen Warren Whitlock use Twitter to a large extent a long while back and decided to join Twitter as I thought it must be a good way to tweet about your works, if Warren used it regularly.

Then the following chapters explain how you can have a `real time' conversation with other professionals, friends, followers, the advantages of such networking, Twitter as an effective `micro-blogging' tool and how to really understand Twitter through giving advice and tips on keeping track of those you want to `talk @' to and the Twitter stream.

The book goes on to show the difference between marketing a brand as opposed to marketing your own name and how you can find which works best for you through ways of gaining followers and how you can become `follow worthy'. (Ch.5)
This Twitter handbook is an extremely useful tool in how to Tweet effectively and why you need to Tweet as well as ways of marketing yourself and be seen as a person, not a logo but someone real who others can communicate with on a business and personal level.

Warren Whitlock is an expert in his field of social media; After reading the book he co-writes, you'll see how Twitter is not just for saying 'hello....' but for connecting with the media and others who have a lot to 'twit' about. Knowing how to 'twitter' is the key to making Twitter work really well for you. Warren Whitlock and his co-author do just that.

The Twitter Book
$19.99
I am a person who is new to Twitter and still a Twitter skeptic. While this book didn't convert me (that wasn't the book's intention) it did a wonderful job of demystifying this new world.

Pros
1. The Twitter Book's strengths are in its brevity and structure. Most topics are covered in one page and it is just enough info to give you a good primer on each topic. From there you can take the tools & links it provides and dig deeper.

2. Clearly explained the lingo and jargon which was extremely help to a casual user like myself.

3. Very timely, all the examples and references are still fresh.

Cons
1. Unfortunately, this book won't age well. Things are changing so fast in the social media world that in another 6-12 months many of the examples and references may seem stale. Let's hope the sales of this version are enough to justify frequent revisions.

In conclusion, give the book a shot, you'll get enough tips and pointers from it to make it worth your while.

Twitter For Dummies
$21.99
Twitter For Dummies should be called Twitter for Everyone. I may be considered a pretty heavy Twitter user and was #herebeforeoprah but even I really enjoyed getting into the heads of Laura @pistachio Fitton, Michael @gruen Gruen, and Leslie @geechee_girl Poston.

If I were to boil Twitter for Dummies down, I would say that you can't dumb down Laura, Michael, or Leslie -- they're leaders in Twitterville and you really cannot be disappointed if you grab the book.

For me, the entire book only took me the length of a Hollywood movie to read because I am pretty advanced; however, I must say that I they threw in kitchen sink in this book, extending into lesser-used features such as the Public Timeline and really geeky command-line access to Twitter such as "d chrisabraham" or "follow chrisabraham," etc.

In fact, there's a whole chapter on rocking Twitter via SMS text-messaging, something that may be less relevant to the Twitterati but is very important to 75% of all cell phone users (and yes, I did make up that nuber, I think it is closer to 90%) who don't rock smartphones -- just be sure to make sure you get the unlimited texts plan if you plan to go with SMS or you'll be screwed.

Of course, everything is covered and covered again and you really need to be a moron if you can't sort yourself out with Twitter by the end of Part III -- but this is Twitter for Dummies and not Twitter for Morons (and, publishers, I am super interested in writing that book -- also, Twitter for Effen Morons) so there you go -- it is what it is. (Strangely enough, however, is that there isn't one mention of my beloved Android G1 phone! There's mentions of the iPhone, the Blackberry, and even Javascript phones but where the hell's my G1! OK, I am done.)

Well, at the start of this review, I said this was all about Laura Fitton, Michael Gruen, and Leslie Poston, and it is, but there's not a whole lot of them in I-III chapters. Part IV is when all the good stuff comes a-pouring through. Who else but the best of the best would engage issues like "Finding Your Tweet Voice," "Twitter for Business," "The Social Side of Twitter," and "Changing the World, One Tweet at a Time."

This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to rename this book from "Twitter for Dummies" to "Twitter for Everyone: From Total Newbie to Total Rockstar."