The Tao of Twitter, Revised and Expanded New Edition: Changing Your Life and Business 140 Characters at a Time Paperback – July 24, 2014

The Mark of a TeacherI finally read The Tao of Twitter by Mark Schaefer. It has been on my reading list for several months. I started following {grow}, Mark’s blog about six months ago when I saw several interesting tweets mentioned by some people I follow on Twitter. This is an example of how the Tao works.Mark and I share several things in common. Like most good people, he has a strong connection to New Jersey as he teaches at Rutgers although I'm not sure if he lives in the Garden State. He also has an authentic passion for marketing that comes across in his writing and online activity. Although I don't share any interest in football, I do know many die-hard Steelers fans who seems to love the team with great passion and verve. Most of my college friends all came from Pittsburgh as noted in my post Iron and Steelers about life at U of Penn in 1972. The other thing we share in common is a desire to teach, to mentor and to provide advice based on our global marketing expertise acquired over many years.I don’t claim to be an expert in Twitter and am still earning my wings. Mark's book is for those who don’t get Twitter at all and see it as a huge time suck. He offers several useful metaphors to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of the value. One idea he offers is that when you tweet, think of how you would behave at a dinner party. You wouldn't go around bragging about your business or trying to sell everyone at the table. You’d engage in conversation, share interesting pieces of information that might intrigue them and you’d offer to help them. Twitter is like a virtual dinner party. You want to find people with shared interest who you can build a relationship with over time.Mark also explained how lists work in Twitter which was something I didn’t fully understand. He talked about sites like Twellow and Listorious (now Muckrack). These are both very useful sites with a range of searchable databases that can help you build a community or tribe with shared interests. I need to spend some time exploring this in more detail but a hat tip to Mark for pointing me in the right direction.The book offers a laundry list of wonderful ideas on how to activate some of the best of Twitter’s Tao, which he artfully explains through first-hand experiences. He illustrates how a small tweet about his beloved Steelers led to a connection, that led to engagement and a valuable connection. He and several others all benefited on this new point of intersection and everyone got something useful from the exchange.Mark’s writing style is easy to digest and without much of the ego often found in these types of books. I hope to connect with Mark in person sometime in the near future to thank him for the insights I have gained from his blog and now from this book. I'm also interested in learning more about his global marketing experience as that is what occupies much of my marketing effort today at Nomacorc.I consider The Tao de Ching my favorite book on life. See my blog post on that topic called The Tao of Marketing. Mark’s play on that theme truly struck a chord with me and I am grateful for the lessons learned. I urge you to read it if you are trying to get your wings around Twitter. And, don’t miss the clever yin/yang using the little twitter bird logo. Tweet.This book is a feather in Mark's cap.PS. I tried to write this post in 140 characters. #Fail Whale.

Twitter is a "non-intuitive communication platform" but Mark Schaefer has figured it out and experienced tangible results. "My four largest customers, five most important collaborators, and my teaching position at Rutgers University all came to me via Twitter connections."The mantra of this book is "targeted connections, meaningful content, and authentic helpfulness... At its heart, Twitter is a business networking tool... Think of yourself in a networking situation... Would you stand there and read press releases? No... You would seek out great people to connect with, discuss subjects that are interesting to you and them, and look for ways to work together. Twitter can work exactly the same way... It's all about P2P--person to person connections."The first step in building a network on Twitter is to start following people. "You need both quality engagement and quantity of followers to ultimately be successful." The author recommends following back everyone who follows you, except for obvious robots and spammers. He sends a mixed message by writing, "Remember that you are trying to build a relevant and targeted community. The more people who follow you, the less real interaction you will have with them, so choose your `tweeps' carefully." Hmm. On a side note, Schaefer currently has over 60,000 followers and he follows more than 26,000, presumably chosen carefully.A related topic is "social-influence-scoring models, such as Klout." He gives two examples. A person with 250 followers sends out a tweet that is retweeted or commented on by 15 people, yielding a 6% engagement ratio. A second person with 10,000 followers sends out a tweet that is retweeted or commented on by 50 people, an engagement ratio of 0.5%. I understand that the first person probably has a more targeted network, but I'm not sure I would agree that someone who engages with 15 people is more influential than someone who engages with 50 people. Maybe this confusion is cleared up in the author's other book,  Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring, and Influence Marketing Chapter Ten suggests numerous ways to use Twitter for business. One example is customer service. "What's the world's favorite Twitter activity? Complaining! ... Most businesses MUST be listening on Twitter!" He adds, "One of the biggest opportunities of social media is `humanizing' the brand... Businesses should aim at involving their own employees to be `brand beacons' on Twitter instead of relying on an outside agency."A variety of applications and websites are available to help manage Twitter activity. Quite a few are mentioned in the book (e.g. Seesmic, TweetDeck, HootSuite, Twubs, Listorious, wefollow, TweetChat, Twitterfall).Engaging on Twitter does require a time commitment. If management is reluctant, a "useful tactic is the pilot program... Ask your boss if you can test it for six months." The author recommends that every organization have a social media policy and he provides a link with hundreds of examples.

I loved this book from the moment I picked it up. It's written to be helpful and explain at the same time. If you nor the author appear to understand the subject then there is little help. A few years ago I wasn't convinced by all this twitter stuff. I had used various IM tools and long ago, CB radio. So I started out with the notion that you log on and have a chat. Within minutes, or so it seemed, I was getting bombarded with advice over buying followers, SEO tactics and other scarey schemes. Despite all this great advice I plodded on and chatted some more. Sometimes threw a useful link to someone in reply to a question, sometimes a thank you. Slowly the followers increased.When I picked up Mark's book, the message gelled. The basis is about understanding three basic elements: Targeted Connections Meaningful Content Authentic HelpfulnessIt all makes very good sense. No mumbo jumbo and plenty of explanation on how relationships and influence spreads. There are a couple of chapters which certainly added extra value for me. One covered 20 tips which included a final tip on removing twitter feeds from your site. The other was on twitter chats.If you have used twitter for a while or not, I would advise you to read from cover to cover. Maybe even go back and do the same until it's instinct. Twitter is one of those channels that shows up how authentic people are. If you can understand that you are connecting to people rather than broadcasting, you will see real benefits. As will your connections.I could not recommend this book highly enough. It has made a real impact on how I use Twitter and there is certainly plenty to keep referring back to.

Full of practical advice and tips about making Twitter work for you, ‘The Tao of Twitter’ is a great resource, whether you use Twitter for business or personal reasons.At the heart of Twitter are the person to person exchanges it espouses. ‘You are connecting to real people, not avatars,’ he writes, which is something you should never forget. It is the more human, personal stuff that allows others to relate to you and potentially make a connection, which is so important in the business world.As someone who tweets for pleasure, the most useful advice I took from ‘The Tao of Twitter’ was about creating lists in which to group together people and organisations I follow that reflect my interests. This has allowed me to scan tweets in each group much more easily using Tweetdeck and share those I find interesting to my followers.For business users of Twitter, the author provides a wealth of information and advice, with anecdotal supporting evidence, about how Twitter can enhance your business. There’s nothing more convincing than personal experience and the author draws heavily on his own business success using Twitter to make this an insightful and interesting read.

A practical guide to using Twitter. There's not too much of an introduction, the book gets straight down to business of growing followers (several tips) and creating compelling content (tweets).If you can handle the over-the-top Americanisms bordering on Twitter-made-me-rich-and-famous, etc. (which to be fair, it has done so for the author!), you'll like the book.It took just over a day to read the book, and then I went back through it with a highlighter. It dawned on me how much of the book was simple tips and common sense. Hence the 5 star review.Perhaps I'll return to this review when I've reached 1,000 followers (currently just over 400!)

I recently started a social media marketing internship and i decided that i needed to read up on the subject as my previous knowledge was merely knowing that twitter, linked in, google + and the like existed.I started with Social Media Explained by Mark W Schaefer and enjoyed it so much that i then moved onto Born to Blog and now here i am with The Tao of Twitter.This book is a must for anyone who is interested in, works with or merely wants to know what social media is.Since reading his books i have:Set up Google+ and Linked InGained 250 new followers on twitter in the space of two weeksWritten pieces in group discussionsBeen accepted to be a guest bloggerMade valuable and insightful connectionsand finally gotten a better idea of how i can succeed in my job.The Tao of Twitter is an easy to read but informative book. It will inspire you with the stories of how one tweet can lead to business and networking opportunities.Twitter has replaced the old sit down networking events where all anyone cares about is giving you their card. Twitter is a global networking opportunity that you can't afford to miss out on.My advice for anyone is to buy social media explained, then move onto this. Finally if you want to get serious about social media buy Born to Blog and Return on Influence. You won't regret any of those purchases.

If you think you already know everything about Twitter, read this and realise you were wrong. Heck, if you invented Twitter, read this and learn something.If you know you have a lot to learn, this is probably the only book you'll ever need.