This is not a book about how to use Twitter or how to create a social media strategy which is exactly what sets it apart.There are already books like that you can read and they say many of the same things.
By taking the approach of telling the story of Twitterville through the eyes of those that have used it successfully gave me a lot of ideas and ways to apply it myself. That to me is the sign of a good marketing book. I want to be inspired and challenged when I read and that happened here.
Shel looked at the early days of Twitter both from how the tool got started to how companies started to use it. This is an interesting background especially when you see how certain companies thought they would use it one way only to evolve their usage and then see the benefits the organization received.
He then looks at a lot of different case studies from many different vertical markets including small business, B2B, healthcare, non-profits and even newspapers which many have given up for dead. Shel gives them some suggestions for becoming more relevant in the social media age.
Throughout these case studies you would be surprised at how much you can learn from industries that appear to be very removed from your own. For example, if a hospital allows tweeting during a surgery is there really any reason your company should be concerned about joining Twitterville? I think we can all use that example if there is any question about whether it makes sense for your organization.
I did disagree with Shel in one area and I'm not the only one as he points out in the book. Shel doesn't think that companies should tweet as brands but should tweet as a person from that company. While I agree that you need to be transparent about who is tweeting, there are many reasons that it makes sense to use the brand or company name as the Twitter handle including continuity, consistency and the need to separate personal from business in some cases.
Regardless of whether you agree with Shel's position or mine on company Twitter accounts, there are lots of lessons for you to learn from companies and people who have used Twitter successfully to reach their goals. Kudos go to Shel for putting these together in a book that should be part of any social media library.
I encourage you to read this book and let me know what you think. You won't be disappointed.
[Image courtesy of Shel Israel's Twitterville website]
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