Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genius in 140 Characters or Less, November 17, 2008
Can Twitter really help make you a better marketer? Maybe even a better person?
Seriously, how much is there really to say about a goofy web tool that only lets you send messages up to 140 characters at a time?
After reading Twitter Revolution, I realize a LOT!
While I had messed around with Twitter for about a year, I really didn't get much out of reading what a bunch of strangers ate for breakfast. I felt even less motivated to post responses to "What are you doing?" If I didn't really care what I was doing half the time, why should anyone else?
Then I realized, what I WAS doing was reading books about social media. The silly book on even sillier Twitter seemed to be one of the only ones left. My guess is that if I could sit still long enough to read Gravity's Rainbow or the Glass Bead Game, I never would have ordered the Twitter Revolution. Now, I'm so glad that I did.
Warren Whitlock and Deborah Micek opened my eyes to a world that I am now arguably obsessed with; one where ease of access to seemingly superficial engagement with others is a bridge to deeper connections.
From a business perspective, using Twitter the way Warren and Coach Deb describe makes "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers" a reachable reality by beginning with simple ways to earn trust, learn more about each other and provide potential solutions to problems. Bringing a real voice [one that doesn't try to divide "professional" from "personal"] to ongoing conversations is refreshing and exciting.
I now better recognize Twitter as an amazing tool for doing just that and much more.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
twitter Revolution : The earthquake that starts a twitter Tsunami, October 18, 2008
Deb and Warren write that twitter is the ripple that has become a Tsunami. They are right. But this book is truly the earthquake which can start the momentum getting the Tsunami started.
The Twitter Revolution gives the reader the knowledge and ability to participate in the "new media" known as twitter. Twitter is a fast paced method of communicating and interacting with those you follow and who follow you. It shows you how you can step right into the twitter world and interact and learn from those you are following and who follow you.
Early in the book we learn why we should even give a darn about twitter. And than we get a clear and concise explanation of what twitter is. And that is not an easy task. Best of all, the Twitter Revolution is true to form and says exactly what twitter is, "it turned into SO much more than that." What is really cool about this chapter as with a lot of the book, Deb and Warren take advantage of their own followers to aid in defining what twitter is. So instead of just getting a book full of the ideas and thinking of the writers alone, we get the input of some of the thought leaders who are actually using what the book is talking about. Hat tip to Deb and Warren for getting twitter itself involved in the process.
The Twitter Revolution is a complete start to finish on what it is and how to use it. And, it gives you the tools both in the book and in what applications it mentions to truly take advantage of what twitter is and what it can do for you.
If there is one chapter that makes this book worth whatever it cost, it would be "ten steps to attract a flood of followers." If you don't have followers, your conversations are going to be real lonely.
Get the book and get a jump start on how to use twitter and use it right.
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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unbelievable!, March 11, 2009
Micek and Warren show you that illiteracy is no reason not to self publish. The power of their book lies is the profound points that it makes over and over again. This book has two earthshaking things to say. 1) People using Twitter knew minutes before the rest of the world that there had been a major earthquate in China. 2) You can outmaneuver the corporate world by starting conversations on Twitter and finishing them on the telephone (or some other medium).
These authors are well equipped to see both sides of a contradiction. For example, talk radio was an early tremor of the New Media Revolution, because it was "participatory." On the other hand, radio is a controlled medium that silences the people. (p. 13) But Twitter takes us beyond both.
The authors bring the prosaic within reach. They tell us that Twitter is, "an unprecedented growth opportunity like never before in history." Their insights have eluded many intelligent people. For example, corporations, including even "Internet industries" are fighting against the New Media Revolution, and "didn't think about people participating." And there's proof. Upload speeds are not as fast as download speeds. (p. 15)
The authors unleash the power of unbounded creativity. Warren advertizes that he is a best-selling author, while Micek tells us she has run and sold several multi-million dollar companies. She understands that the new media are all about participation, because she has created a system that puts it on "auto pilot." (p. 255)
Be prepared for the revolution. The authors make the hard-to-believe claim that they used Twitter to write the book. Once this book is resting on your bookshelf, you will believe. They say, "This book is as revolutionary as the social media revolution," because it is full of Twitter posts that use "creative spelling," like "e.e. cummings, the poet who rebelled against the rules." They even provide a special interview with a man who single-handedly created a Twitter app that is, "definitely lacking a definitive usefulness." (p. 110)
I don't want to give too much away. That would be far too easy. But here are the top three resons (p. 100) for using Twitter: 1) To combat loneliness, 2) To kill boredom when you stand in lines, 3) To connect with people by mobile phone, without calling them. This same chapter serves to "demonstrate the power of Twitter" by calling itself 101 Reasons to Use Twitter, and offering fifteen reasons. This liberates Twitterers to provide the remaining 86. Revolutionary? Yes! They tell us that this, "is a new way of writing a chapter," and tout the green benefit of saving paper. (p. 100) I'm looking forward to seeing how much paper they can save next time. This is one of the most eye-openingly obvious and painstakingly redundant books of our time. I believed that hype was, by definition, beyond the bounds of credibility. This book has proven my wrong, by stretching the bounds even farther.
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