In Twitterville (the place) the perfect review of Twitterville (the book) would be no longer than 140 characters.
Twitterville, by Shel Israel
Of course, we aren’t in Twitterville, this isn’t the perfect review, and it’s already in excess of 140 characters, the limit for micro-blogging posts via what is widely regarded to be the hottest property in the social networking neighborhood these days.
Twitterville, How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods is author Shel Israel’s newest and highly anticipated book, and will be released Sept. 3, 2009. It is available to pre-order now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and most online booksellers.
“Twitter is a pretty simple tool …” Israel writes, yet is “… the most efficient and effective way to (communicate) this side of face-to-face.”
At the same time, and in some ways even more so than other social media standards such as Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs, Twitter represents a radical and significant shift away from more traditional mass media and the old broadcast era.
Twitter, Israel believes, ushers in the new conversational era he first identified in Naked Conversations (co-authored with Robert Scoble, Wiley, 2006) , where social media creates global neighborhoods and makes geography much less relevant.
“We live in an era when what used to be considered best practices are not so good as they used to be,” writes Israel.
To tell the Twitterville story in Twitterville, Israel interviewed more than 100 residents, representing huge multi-national corporations such as Dell and IBM, online retailers, small coffee shops and charities, the famous and the not-so-famous. Using a technique known as “crowd-sourcing,” Israel communicated via Twitter to request stories and examples that make up most of the book.
These stories and examples provide an inside view into the living rooms and side streets of Twitterville – and in a compelling manner – revealing the complex mosaic that makes it such a special place and at the same time, helps explain why it is so difficult to describe to someone from out of town.
Israel opens by providing a brief history of Twitter’s accidental birth on March 16, 2006, its coming-out party at the South by Southwest Conference in 2007 and its recent growth spurt.
As Israel admits, the viral popularity of Twitter is even more surprising given the close to unanimous first impression reported by new users: “Huh?” As in, “This is it? What’s the big deal?”
Israel responds to the challenge chapter by chapter, providing clear examples and analysis of the business value to global corporations, B2B, small business, personal branding, journalism, politics and charities, among others.
Twitter is a great tool for business, providing key insights into the minds of your customers and potential customers. A way to hear in their own words what they are saying, not to you, but to each other. And knowing exactly what they are saying allows you as a business to become involved in – and benefit from – the conversation.
While most of the early business adapters saw and continue to see Twitter primarily as a tool to connect with consumers, Israel and others (including myself) see more potential in the area of B2B and customer engagement, especially for small and start-up companies.
After all, Twitter evens the playing field and lowers the cost of building a brand and a global community to nearly zero.
Whether you are a long-time user of Twitter, a newbie, or just someone wondering what it’s all about, Twitterville has something valuable and important to offer.
Buy it, read it, enjoy it. Sooner or later, you’ll be saying “I get it,” too.
Filed under: Social Media, Twitter, Twitterville
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