Tao of Twitter by Mark Schaefer (@markwschaefer)
Relates to course concepts:
- person to person interaction
- being authentic on social media
- gaining social capital
- identity online
- twitter usage
- “social shaping” – Baym’s social discourse
Other readings:
- week 3 – tweet, tweet, retweet
- week 6 – I tweet honestly
- week 15 – If you don’t like it, don’t use it
- (to be continued)
Audience: older generations just starting out on twitter, those who are nonbelievers, small business owners, professional trying to network, entrepreneurs
- he starts the book trying to convince readers with an anecdote of how twitter helped him and two other people be successful in their careers
- defines the basic functions, concepts and terms of how to use twitter
- not a lot of statistics and number for a simpler read
- his language is very conversational so it isn’t overwhelming for a new user who might find technology “scary”
Ethical implication of social media and marketing:
- stealing followers from competition’s twitter lists – “twitter makes the best online customers” so this is stealing a company’s potential customer. Is that right?
- encouraged the report of spamming
- be authentic and genuine, don’t buy followers to help grow clout of your business because it will make people see that you are not authentic and unfollow you.
Personal Opinions:
- Speaks very conversational, like he’s talking to you
- Bold statement on p.19 about anyone from small business to fortune500 being able to benefit from his book/guidelines
- Claims twitter is a brain storming tool (I like that) p.22
- BEING GENUINE IS THE CONCEPT THAT IS THE MOST OVERLOOKED ON TWITTER BY COMPANIES
- P2P – Person to person connections
- Not a lot of statistics; uses more anecdotes
- He loves quality and quantity, not one or the other
Other notes:
Business Benefits created through 3 elements: (can’t succeed without the other)
- Targeted connections
- Meaningful content
- Authentic Helpfulness
