Twitterville: A Desktop Reference for the Social Strategist

Shel, a contemporary, a friend, a mentor,  knocks it out of the park yet again with this follow-up book on the next set of smaller faster tools: microblogs.  Twitterville is a collection of stories that tell how the protagonist overcomes challenges from organizations, cultures, or crises.

One of the challenges of writing a technology book is that  the tools and technologies change faster than the ink can dry.  Shel Israel’s Twitterville overcame this challenge with ease, as he focused not on just the tools, but instead the stories about how people were connecting to each other not just a focus on the technologies.  I noticed the same crafted stories in his first book Naked Conversations, which focused on the impacts of blogs to business.

If you’re a social strategist at a corporation or agency and are trying to develop plans, efforts, or programs to connect with customers that are on these microblogging tools you should have this book.

Why?  You should keep abreast of all the different tools, tactics, and deployments in your toolchest  –this book has 15 major sections, each with multiple case studies.  Such as Rubbermaid’s lethal generosity, IBM’s thousand twittering experts, and the growth of personal brands (page 170 has a case study outlining how I use Twitter).   In the end, you’ll find practical steps to getting started, best practices, and the nuances of online twitter etiquette.

I still talk to the press about the emerging technologies and their impact to business, and will keep Twitterville at arms length, it’s a desktop reference to quickly find case studies of how people have used simple technologies to connect to each other.  And thanks to @shelsisrael who gave me the first signed copy.