OK, Twitter For Dummies should be called Twitter for Everyone. I may be considered a pretty heavy Twitter user and was #herebeforeoprah but even I really enjoyed getting into the heads of Laura @pistachio Fitton, Michael @gruen Gruen, and Leslie @geechee_girl Poston.
If I were to boil Twitter for Dummies down, I would say that you can’t dumb down Laura, Michael or Leslie — they’re leaders in Twitterville and you really cannot be disappointed if you grab the book.
For me, the entire book only took me the length of a Hollywood movie to read; however, they threw in kitchen sink in this book, extending into rarely used features such as the Public Timeline and really geeky command-line access to Twitter such as “d chrisabraham” or “follow chrisabraham,” etc.
In fact, there’s a whole chapter on rocking Twitter via SMS text-messaging, something that may be less relevant to the Twitterati but is very important to 75% of all cell phone users who don’t rock smart phones — just be sure to make sure you get the unlimited texts plan if you plan to go with SMS or you’ll be screwed.
Of course, everything is covered and covered again and you really need to be a moron if you can’t sort yourself out with Twitter by the end of Part III — but this is Twitter for Dummies.
Well, at the start of this review, I said this was all about Laura Fitton, Michael Gruen, and Leslie Poston, and it is, but there’s not a whole lot of them in chapters I-III. Part IV is when all the good stuff comes a-pouring through. Who else but the best of the best would engage issues like “Finding Your Tweet Voice,” “Twitter for Business,” “The Social Side of Twitter,” and “Changing the World, One Tweet at a Time.”
This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to rename this book from “Twitter for Dummies” to “Twitter for Everyone: From Total Newbie to Total Rockstar.”Chris Abraham is a partner in Socialmedia.biz. Contact Chris via email, follow him on Twitter and Google Plus or leave a comment below.
We tried to change the title, but the dummies people wouldn’t have it. Ultimately, probably wouldn’t have been a good branding decision. ;)
Glad you enjoyed the book!
mg
@gruen
Gosh Chris, it's called spell check mate. As a matter of principle, principal you might want to use it? Your call.
Gr8 article, write more.
Thanks so much for the review. I am so glad as many of Twitter's power users as Twitter newbies are finding this book helpful. That was the intent when we wrote it. Sorry I missed seeing you at TechAdventure DC this weekend.
Saw this book at Barnes the other day – and almost picked it up. Too bad I have a terrible disease of always buying too many books – and I already had quite a stack. :) Next time though – you've convinced me to purchase it.
Nice to hear you say you wouldn't be disappointed even though you have quite a bit of experience under your belt with twittering. Have to admit though I find the information online better than in a book as it tends to be more up-to-date.
“I may be considered a pretty heavy Twitter user and was #herebeforeoprah but even I really enjoyed getting into the heads of…”
I'm going to have to check this out. Torrent anyone? j/k i'll pick up a copy (but seriously…)