Twitterville

 

"In order to learn more about a particular subject, one
must step inside the mind of another enthusiast!"

While I completely made up the above statement, I believe it is in fact true in many cases. Someone may be an expert in their field of study/interest but would learn even more if they talked to someone else who shared the same interest as them.

Here are the two ways one can apply the above statement.

1. Have a sit-down meeting with the other individual and the two of you pick each others' brain.
2. Read another enthusiast or expert's writings.

If you know someone on a personal level who shares the same interests as you, then by all means option 1 is the best for you. If not, you are stuck with option 2.

Now let me explain my reasoning before I continue to ramble. I had the opportunity to read the book Twitterville by Shel Israel. I do not know Israel. I have never talked to him. I do not even know where he lives. Yet, he and I share a common interest. . .Twitter!!

By reading Twitterville, I became a better Twitter user and more knowledgeable about the social networking site even when I thought I was at least the most knowledgeable of my peers. As I read the book, I was able to pick Israel's mind without having to meet him in person. It was a win anyway one can look at it.

After I read Twitterville, I composed a book review that I will share on this blog. I hope it can inspire others to read Israel's book and to learn more about Twitter. I am not a great writer, nor anywhere close to being an author, but I hope you can take a lot from it and share with others.

Below is the content of my recent book review on Twitterville. If you would like a .pdf version, please e-mail me at jmwillis@rocketmail.com with the subject heading "TWITTERVILLE". Enjoy!!

-JMICHAELWILLIS

Twitterville

Shel Israel

Book Review by:

Michael Willis

Marketing Management Major, Southeast Missouri State University

October 2010

Introduction

The new dawn of marketing is rooted within social networking. The whole basis of how we used to market a company, an idea, or even ourselves is strongly being redone with the dawn of such social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Social networking provides many things that the “old school” methods of marketing cannot provide. A social networking site allows us to reach thousands of people with a single click. It allows us to network with a complete stranger that would not be possible in a face-to-face setting. And most of all, social networking sites allow us to reach mass volumes of people for no price whatsoever. These are just few things that social networking sites allow for business to revamp their market strategies.

One of the most successful social networking sites for business and marketing is Twitter. Twitter is a social networking site which offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read other users' messages, referred to as Tweets. When a user posts a Tweet, it must be done in 140 characters or less. This is the most unique feature of Twitter and is part of the success it has in marketing for businesses and companies.

The rise of Twitter, along with many success stories of Twitter’s use in major companies and businesses is featured in the book, Twitterville. This book is authored by Shel Israel. According to Israel’s Twitter page, he is a social media consultant, writer, and speaker. His wonderful writings and collections in Twitterville back up his Twitter description to great heights. The following book review will take you through some of my favorite chapters, touching up on the main ideas that a typical reader would pick up on, and the hope behind the review is to both inspire a reader to read Twitterville and to motivate him or her to seek their ultimate passion or dream within social networking or marketing, and go for it. The businesspeople in Twitterville went for it and came out ahead in the long run.

Chapter 1 – A Pinot Kills Odeo & Chapter 2 - Showtime

I decided to combine my review for chapters 1 and 2 for several reasons. The main reason is both chapters talk about how Twitter was started and how it rose to fame. My other reason is I feel like there is only little room to review these two chapters because like I said, it mainly touches up on the history of Twitter. I strongly encourage everyone to not only read this book but to spend time reading these first two chapters and learn about how a small idea can grow into something else, and then result into something even better.

I’ll now take this opportunity to share my own personal definition of success and the secret formula that I believe produces successful people and successful ideas. The secret to success, in my opinion, is to constantly strive for something better and when you reach it, look for the next peak in the mountain and strive to obtain it. This is what the starters and founders of Twitter did, and I feel like the constant hunger for more was a contributing force that took the team to great heights.

Chapter 4 – Why Comcast Cares

Chapter 4 deals with the poor customer service that customers were facing with Comcast. Many Comcast customers were quite fed up with the poor customer service, especially whenever it would cost them extra money. Many websites were created to express such anger and frustration with the cable company. One lady even took a video of a Comcast worker who fell asleep on her leather couch and posting it on YouTube, which lead to many hits that only hurt Comcast even worse.

Comcast was appalled by all of the negativity and wanted to change their customer service to be appealing to their customers. The cable company sought many ways to reach out to their customers, but all of their methods were either ineffective or just too expensive. This would soon lead to an even more costly downfall for Comcast.

Luckily for the sake of Comcast’s reputation, they began reaching out to customers via Twitter. The company didn’t just create an account and follow their customers, but they searched for trends involving their customer satisfaction – or in their case, lack thereof. Using Twitter not only allowed them to read many customers’s rating and reviews, but allowed the company to do it in a timely manner and an effective manner. The feedback was collected by Comcast and they proceeded to correct their errors.

Following Comcast searching for trends about the company’s reputation, they began spreading the word via Twitter about the corrections that they have made in hopes to restore the customer satisfaction. This turned out to be effective, as Comcast rose from having one of the lowest customer satisfactions to being one of the top cable companies. The story about Comcast is a great example of how Twitter is effective in seeking customer ratings and reviews in a timely manner. Twitter also helped Comcast correct their errors and then reach out to their customers once again to restore the desired satisfaction.

Chapter 8 – Seeing the Wizard

Chapter 8 is definitely one of my favorite chapters in this book. It covers a simple message, yet it really made me look at Twitter in a different way.

Israel explains the whole story behind the wizard from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” From an outsider he seems like a powerful man who can grant anyone any wish that they desire. He is viewed as almost a deity – higher than the average person and someone with the power to do pretty much anything. Yet once Dorothy and the gang find out who the “man behind the curtain” is, they realize that he is nothing more than an average person. He really did not have this great luster that people discussed. Yet, in the end the pitiful, power-less “wizard” gives everyone what they were wanting, including a way for Dorothy to get home (that is if Toto had not jumped out right as it was leaving, thank God for those slippers).

From a business standpoint, businesses and companies that uses Twitter appear to be something large, yet in reality they are no higher on the Twitter food chain than we are. Successful marketing campaigns using Twitter involve interaction more than broadcast. No one wants to log on to Twitter and be bombarded with advertisements and sales pitches. Many can identify that as a problem Facebook is currently struggling with, which gives Twitter the competitive advantage. If an average Twitter user is able to converse with a big-name company and not be bombarded with too many sales pitches, it creates brand awareness and can lead to brand loyalty.

To put this into an example, let’s imagine that you are a new Twitter user and decide to follow the clothing store, GAP (that is assuming they have a Twitter account). You begin to have little conversations with GAP and GAP returns the favor by responding with little sales talk involved. This will last for quite some time. The winter months roll in and you realize you need new winter clothing. A combination of your prior knowledge of GAP, plus everything else you got from being a follower on Twitter, will result in you being more likely to purchase your new clothing at GAP. You may even come across a promotional Tweet that gets you a discount. When it is all said and done, this kind of Twitter marketing has been shown to work in more ways than one. Reaching out to potential clients from a mutual friendship and not with constant sales pitches will result in more customers and even more customer satisfaction.

Chapter 9 – B2Bs Are People Too

Chapter 9 is a very useful chapter because it touches up on a common myth about Twitter. When people think of using Twitter in the professional world, they often assume that customers follow businesses and vice-versa. I can guarantee that this is a very common belief and it would take a lot of effort and knowledge to change people’s minds. I believe this is true because that was my strong belief before I read Twitterville.

In actuality, Twitter can be used for B2B. B2B (which stands for Business to Business) describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer. B2B is an important element in business because the communication flow between people making a product is key to not just the product being made in a successful manner, but that everything done in the production process is completed in a timely and effective manner. Twitter makes it easy for B2B.

Chapter 10 – Small Business, Big Footprint

Chapter 10 was a very interesting chapter. This chapter talked about Twitter use among small businesses. The main reason behind a small business using Twitter is similar to the reason why big businesses use Twitter which is to reach a large sum of potential customers without spending a lot of money on marketing and promotion. However small businesses have a better advantage with Twitter marketing because they have the ability to pinpoint their services to selected targets by using the Twitter trends and hash tags (#). And of courses it is all done completely free of charge which is beneficial to a small business who would not have nearly as much money for marketing compared to a bigger company.

My favorite story in this chapter involved the plumber, Scott Becker, who used Twitter to reach out to potential customers who needed a plumber. As silly as it sounds, Becker was a genius with marketing because he did a simple task that most small businesses overlook, which is marketing in the most effective way without breaking the budget. Becker’s Twitter marketing worked and he continues to attract new customers via Twitter.

Chapter 11 – Personal Branding

This chapter, which deals with taking a personal brand approach with Twitter, really made me think about why I even have a Twitter account in the first place. Did I get it to be social with friends or did I get it to beef up my credential and make myself look good to potential employers. Wait, I can actually look good to an employer by my Twitter account? Why have I been focused on creating paper resumes all of these years?

But back to all seriousness, this chapter talks about using Twitter as a way to create your own brand image. A great example in the chapter talks about a man who does camera work for NBC. He is one of the best camera techs at NBC; he’s so good at his trade that he often gets assigned to cover White House news and other big events across the country. Yet with the declining economy and the rise in job layoffs, he often wonders how much longer he will have with NBC until they let him go and hire a cheaper camera man.

He settles his nerves with Twitter. He created a Twitter account for the sole purpose of branding himself to people across Twitterville. The really neat thing about it is that he hasn’t done anything too dramatic with his Twitter account. He reaches out to his fans by tweeting where and who he will be covering. Over time his Twitter buzz created a virtual fan club to where people would follow his Tweets for the sole purpose of seeing where he would be next. The ratings for NBC newscasts probably went up because people would choose NBC for their news if they knew their favorite camera man was behind the camera. His story inspired me to be more personal with my Twitter and potentially make it a branding tool to make myself look presentable to the workforce.

Chapter 12 – Braided Journalism

This chapter talks about something that I, myself, am passionate about which is the fight to keep print media in business and making strides to innovate ways to incorporate print media into social networking.

The chapter opens up with Israel talking about a newspaper that he grew up with closing its doors due to a combination of poor economic times and the rise in online news mediums. He then debates about how talented journalists are losing their jobs to bloggers partly due to the difference in salary. He feels as if the news is no longer full of that newsworthy material he grew up with because of the way it is covered and broadcasted.

Israel then gives his solution to the new age of mass communications. The summarized version of it says to have newspaper companies adapt to the new age of journalism without letting go of talented journalists. He believes that the news quality lies in the hands of the journalist more than anyone else or any other thing. He suggests newspaper companies slowly create websites and social media pages to where news stories can be read either on paper or the web. In the end, he hopes that both styles of journalism can intertwine and make it into something better and more effective.

Conclusion

Twitterville opened my eyes in a way that I never thought the book could. The book showed me so many new great things about Twitter by taking me into the lives of other professionals in corporate America. By using real life scenarios and situations, I felt like I fully grasped the concepts and ideas that normally would not be grasped in a traditional “how to” book. I hope to follow up with these professionals on Twitter in hopes to learn more about them and their Twitter successes.

If you are an avid Twitter user like me, I strongly suggest that you read this book. The only way to better oneself with Twitter is to learn more about the website via books, reviews, and case studies. Twitterville allows you to learn about Twitter using these three mediums. So go out, read the book, and tweet yourself to a whole new world of knowledge and success.