Book Review: The Tao of Twitter: Changing Your Life and Business 140 Characters at a Time by Mark Schaefer

Twitter, at first, seems to some like a simple social network site, with a lot of chatter and not a lot of substance. But there’s a lot more to Twitter than that, for individuals and for businesses.

As Mark Schaeffer points out in The Tao of Twitter: Changing Your Life and Business 140 Characters at a Time, the network provides the opportunity to make real connections and establish true friendships, which can lead to great benefits both personally and for businesses.

This book is especially useful for Twitter beginners, as it provides a blueprint for how to begin to gather the best followers and to communicate in a way that is helpful, friendly, and will not turn people off by constantly attempting to sell them something.

In clear, concise, easy prose, Schaefer explains how to build influence, make others want to connect with you, and create real value for your business and yourself on Twitter.

He also points out other values of Twitter for business owners, such as the ability to interact with others to solve problems quickly, stay on top of the latest news in your business field, and be aware of the latest research, opinions, and collective intelligence that affects your enterprise, as well as the means to be aware of what your competition is doing, right or wrong.

There is useful information for more advanced Twitter users here, including tips, resources and time-savers.

But for novices, Schaefer really provides a step-by-step guide to the most basic elements of Twitter, including Twitter language, what and when to tweet, the importance of re-tweeting, and how and what to tweet about. In less than two hours, the reader will be ready to take on Twitter without having to go through a lot of trial and error to find out what works and what does not.

Get The Tao of Twitter, especially if you are a business owner or entrepreneur who is new to the social network. It will save you lots of time and make sure you get started on the true path to success on Twitter.