I reviewed "Twitter Power, 2.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time" by Joel Comm.Since I never looked at Twitter and certainly don't understand the craze behind it, I thought this would be a great book to read. Surprisingly, I learned alot and had fun setting up my Twitter account following Mr. Comm's step by step guide. You should follow me on twitter @ryan_twilliams. (I don't have many Tweets and not sure how long I'll keep it up-I can barely keep up on my Facebook account).
The book is great for anyone starting out. It probably would be too basic for someone who has spent more than a few hours playing with Twitter. But for newbies like me, I would highly recommend the book.
Mr. Comm is a master of explaining everything there is to know about Twitter. After explaining social media in general, he briefly discuses why Twitter is so powerful. He then walks the reader through setting up an account and getting started the right way. Mr. Comm even gives you secrets how to liven up your profile page and gives you a 10% discount code for a company who custom makes backgrounds. Once you are up and running on Twitter Mr. Comm walks you through how to build a following and whether more is better. His advice on building a following is very important for companies so they do not come off as creepy or unwelcome.
What is most useful about his book is his advice about how to connect with customers and how to leverage Twitter to build your brand and to drive followers to your site to a) buy stuff or b) read your blog and click on advertisers.
Rounding out his book is a 30 day action plan for dominating Twitter. If I was getting started and wanted to build my brand or build a loyal group of followers his plan would easily get me there.
I now understand why successful companies are using Twitter to their advantage. I played around quite a bit looking at different companies and how they used Twitter. Some were all advertisements (go to our site and buy X, Y, and Z), and some were pure customer service driven. However, Gatorade (@Gatorade) and Toyota (@Toyota) do a great job of mixing the types of Tweets, using Keyword Search to find what people are saying about their brand/products, and addressing their customers needs.
I still don't understand how Ashton Kutcher has nearly 6 million followers.
Great video on Twitter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHAZt-Exuaw
I'm with you; I've never understood the benefit of Twitter when it seems like it's just a fraction of what you can already do with Facebook. As a matter of fact Ryan, you can connect your Twitter acct with your Facebook acct so everything you post to Facebook goes to Twitter as well. It's a simple way to expand your followers without much effort.
ReplyDeleteEric, you can also link your blog over to twitter. Either titles or quotes as a link so people can directly link to your blog. If all these mediums are tied together, you can get into a big social media web.
ReplyDeleteAschton at 6 million? Does he interact with any of those followers himself? It seems like when twitter is used by celebs, they aren't really pushing a product or anything directly. Do you think that one could align a celeb with its twitter site directly and get some good use out of the celebrity support factor? Not talking about adding a tweet promoting a product. Something bigger, such as a Shaun White Twitter page sponsored by Burton?
Nice presentation last Thursday. I couldn't agree with you more. Interesting to note is the 30 day action plan you mention. My book is also about Twitter and the authors recommend a 3 week trail period where you really commit to Twitter, i.e. learning about it, following and studying, and immersing yourself in the culture.
ReplyDeleteDo these plans really show you the benefits of Twitter or do they know that most people get addicted or brainwashed in that amount of time. And by then it's too late to get out!
Hey, I appreciated your concise approach to explaining Twitter using this book. I actually think I get it now, even though I'm not motivated to use it. I signed up for an account at the beginning of this semester. It's just sitting there. Personally, I don't think Twitter offers enough bells and whistles, but then again, it's not trying to be facebook.
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