About the Book
'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. Why is Twitter so popular? How can you get involved? And, most importantly, how can it benefit you or your business? "The Twitter Book" answers those questions and more, in a fun, full-color format that's packed with helpful examples and clear explanations that won't tangle you up in technical jargon. Twitter represents an evolution in Internet participation. With a maximum of 140 characters per message, it's easy to stay connected to friends and family, meet new people, track news, and market your company. However, despite its flexibility, Twitter can be somewhat difficult to figure out - "The Twitter Book" provides a clear, user-friendly introduction.
Co-written by Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media, and one of Twitter's most-followed mindcasters, with more than 100,000 subscribers, this practical guide will help you: get comfortable using Twitter, whether you're a new user or already have some experience with it; learn all aspects of this service quickly, with full-color illustrations on every spread; make the most of Twitter, with advice and ideas for using the best third-party tools; and determine how Twitter can help your business, with a special chapter on viral marketing. If you're new to the Web 2.0 phenomenon, and want to know exactly what Twitter is and what micro-blogging can do for you, this is the authoritative guide you're looking for.
About the Author :
Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world, and an activist for open standards. O'Reilly Media also publishes online through the O'Reilly Network and hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, and the Web 2.0 Conference. Tim's blog, the O'Reilly Radar "watches the alpha geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. For everything Tim, see tim.oreilly.com. Sarah Milstein is a Web 2.0 strategist and co-founder of 20slides.com, a site for lively, work-related workshops. She is the author of "Twitter and the Micromessaging Revolution," an O'Reilly Media research report. Previously, she was on the senior editorial staff at O'Reilly, where she founded the Tools of Change for Publishing conference (TOC) and led the development of the Missing Manuals, a best-selling series of computer books for non-geeks. She's also written for the series, co-authoring Google: The Missing Manual.A" Before joining O'Reilly in 2003, Sarah was a freelance writer and editor, and a regular contributor to The New York Times. She was also a program founder for Just Food, a local-food-and-farms non-profit, and co-founder of Two Tomatoes Records, a label that distributes and promotes the work of children's musician Laurie Berkner.
Review :
...appropriate for those you're trying to convince that Twitter is all the rage. The book reads like a beginner's how-to guide, which means you could even use it as a subtle way to encourage less than stellar Twitter users to improve their Twittering ways.
-- Jennifer Van Grove, --Jennifer Van Grove
As easy to grasp as a tweet, this book cuts through the tiresome twitterhype and delivers a bunch of sensible, down-to-earth material on using and enjoying Twitter.
-- Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing and author of Little Brother--Cory Doctorow
As with anything that gains high profile popularity there are plenty of Twitter haters out there, though the role that Twitter has played in the recent Iranian elections seems to have brought more legitimacy to Twitter in the eyes of many. With popularity come books and quite a few are already out there about and for twitter, but my favorite so far is The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein.
-- JR Peck, --JR Peck
Ever been to Nepal? Me neither. However if I ever do go, even though the aborigines who live there are just like us, I will enlist a Sherpa to guide me through the landscape and the nuances of the culture. That's what The Twitter Book is to Twitter. The Twitter community is, at its heart, filled with passionate people engaged in conversations. It's just like Main Street USA. However, culturally, Twitter is its own country with its own language. Its various conventions like DMs and hashtags sound more like retro phrases from the 1960s than the underpinnings of one of the largest social networks on the web today. However, with a quick study, anyone can jump in, engage and accomplish their goals. With The Twitter Book, Sarah Milstein and Tim O'Reilly give you everything you need to get started while leaving just enough for readers to explore on their own. It's an terrific resource I am recommending to all of our clients and anyone else who is curious about Twitter.
-- Steve Rubel, SVP/Director of Insights, Edelman Digital--Steve Rubel
Movie stars, media figures, captains of industry and book reviewers are doing it, but how can businesses discern the twits from the tweets? O'Reilly and Milstein present as lucid and intelligent an overview as you'd want or need. The format is concise but quite rich, and there's plenty here to convince skeptics that employing Twitter as a marketing tool is a very good way to engage customers.
-- Richard Pachter, --Richard Pachter
Once again, O'Reilly has put together a great, comprehensive primer. If you're ready to dive into the world of Twitter, I highly recommend this book!
-- Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos--Tony Hsieh
The 234-page guide is so helpful that many readers no doubt will tweet its praises and thank "(at)timoreilly" and "(at)sarahm" -- the authors' Twitter handles -- for helping people understand why Twitter is emerging as the Internet's most powerful communications vehicle since e-mail.
-- Michael Liedtkeap, --Michael Liedtkeap
Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein are two of my favorite tweeters, and they've just written The Twitter Book, a pleasingly-designed 240-page guide to making the most out of Twitter.
-- Mark Frauenfelder, --Mark Frauenfelder
