First Chapter Review: The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein

This First Chapter Review might not be for everyone. I bought this book based upon a recommendation from Ellen over at Confessions of an Overworked Mom. I've watched her blog grow from a few hundred followers to over 4,100, and who knows how many subscribers. She has made a name for herself as a Mommy Blogger and Social Media Expert. Like Ellen, I've met with moments of frustration in growing my blogs.

In following agent blogs and being a user of Twitter, I've come to learn how powerful it is for networking. Many of my online friends prefer the more personal feeling of Facebook, but for branding and reaching consumers directly, many feel Twitter is the way to go. I like Twitter much more than I did in the beginning, and I find I'm spending more time there than Facebook lately.

TITLE: The Twitter Book

AUTHORS:  Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein

BLURB: "Media organizations should take note of Twitter's power to quickly reach their target consumers." —Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly), in a Los Angeles Times interview, March 2009

This practical guide will teach you everything you need to know to quickly become a Twitter power user. It includes information on the latest third party applications, strategies and tactics for using Twitter's 140-character messages as a serious—and effective—way to boost your business, as well as how to turn Twitter into your personal newspaper, tracking breaking news and learning what matters to you and your friends.

Co-written by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein, widely followed and highly respected twitterers, the practical information in The Twitter Book is presented in an innovative, visually rich format that's packed with clear explanations and examples of best practices that show Twitter in action, as demonstrated by the work of over 60 twitterers.

This book will help you:

•Use Twitter to connect with colleagues, customers, family, and friends
•Stand out on Twitter
•Avoid common Twitter gaffes and pitfalls
•Build a critical professional communications channel with Twitter—and use the best third-party tools that help you manage it.

If you want to know how to use Twitter like a pro, The Twitter Book will quickly get you up to speed.

COVER:  Cute. It's simple. It has a Twitter-like color scheme and there's birds. What else could you ask for in a book about Twitter?

FIRST CHAPTER:  As is expected, Chapter 1 gets you started. It talks about why Twitter is simple, yet useful and fun. It brings you through how to set up your Twitter account, create a profile, explains following, finding people and figuring out who to follow. The first chapter also briefly mentions updating Twitter from your mobile device.

It moves on to talk about the 140 character limit and ways to shorten your messages. Then comes the fun stuff--Twitter jargon. From tweets to @messages, from hashtags to reweets, from DMs to tweetups, and beyond, they briefly explain what they are and how they are useful to those of us navigating Twitter. Did you know the big white whale that appears when Twitter is over capacity has a name? Me neither. The authors will more deeply discuss some of these topics in subsequent chapters, but the opening of this book is a nice overview and gets you comfortable with things.

KEEP READING:  I sure will. Since Twitter is just one way I promote my blogs, I want to understand it better. O'Reilly and Milstein have a conversational style that engages readers and makes for an interesting read. I started with the Introduction and then worked my way through the first chapter. Much of this stuff I knew, other things I didn't. You mean you're not supposed to start off a Twitter message with the @message? Whoops!

I'm certain reading The Twitter Book is going to make me a more informed, more efficient Twitter user.

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2 edition (November 30, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1449314201
ISBN-13: 978-1449314200

I purchased a Kindle version of this book recently. I received no monetary compensation for my review.