Get Rich with Twitter

It all began with the simple question – What are you doing?” evolving to, “What’s happening?”
Twitter, Dennis Prince explains, was created by American Jack Dorsey “in response to a pressing business need for fast and frequent interaction, shared by taxicab companies around the globe”. Launched publicly in July 2006, it became a full-fledged company by May 2007, with a user base growing from 1.2 million unique visitors in May 2008 to 18.2 million in May 2009. 
Presuming you are a bona fide newcomer, Prince outlines how Twitter works as a social networking platform, allowing users to construct and transmit short, informative bursts, or “tweets”, of 140 or less typewritten characters from a central hub, www.twitter.com, to a group of followers.
The author of several publications about Internet commerce says this guide has what you need to start tweeting, for fun and for profit.  Describing this as “a business and communication-themed book, so don’t expect to find high-tech details”, Prince suggests one of the most compelling reasons to use Twitter is to improve brand awareness, exposure and management.
It’s value to your business is looked at in four parts: Understanding Twitter; Establishing and Tweaking Your Twitter Presence; Advancing the Twitter Touch and Look, Listen, Learn:Twitter Success stories.  
While screen images are used frequently to illustrate a point, repetition is used to get the message across. 
Why use Twitter?  Well, in the US alone, figures show social media engages 110 million users daily – an estimated 36 percent of the total population. With 78 percent of consumers trusting peer recommendations (sourced from Nielsen), Prince explains how “businesses have adapted and honed the functionality as a new way to deliver their products to consumers in a focused manner”. News agencies CNN, BBC and Fox News belong to this group. 
Twitter is also compared to the sort of chitchat that happens over a cup of coffee.  For example, Starbucks used it to promote ‘free pastry day’ on the one hand and receive immediate information about a poor customer service situation that could be corrected immediately, on the other. 
Prince offers advice at every stage, from establishing and tweaking your Twitter presence and how to choose your Twitter name, to guidelines on message writing (make your statements in concise sentences, using proper grammar and short words to ease readers’ understanding) to the finer points of networking within Twitter. 
Hints on how to develop a viral friendly message and ten micro-blogging mistakes to avoid are in there too.  
You will learn the different methods to send your messages using the web, a mobile device or a third-party tool (Twhirl, TwInBox,) and how to keep tabs on the Twitterverse by monitoring with TweetBeep, Tweet Scan or Exec Tweets (big-business executive tweeters). 
If you are not convinced, there are write-ups on eight American Twitter success stories.  
Is Twitter just another social fad or just for those tech geeks? This is one of the common arguments against using Twitter in business, writes Prince.
Time will tell. In the meantime there’s all the information here you could wish for to decide whether to adopt ‘Twittering’ in your business or not.
ISBN: 978 00716 38449
Usefulness 8/10
Linda Donald is an Auckland-based freelance writer and book reviewer. Email [email protected]