Frugal and focused Tweeting for Retailers: Tweaking Your Tweets and Other Tips for Integrating Your Social Media Reviewed By Dr. Wesley Britton
- By Dr. Wesley Britton
- Published June 1, 2010
- Business
Dr. Wesley Britton
Reviewer Dr. Wesley Britton: Dr. Britton is the author of four non-fiction books on espionage in literature and the media. Starting in fall 2015, his new six-book science fiction series, The Beta-Earth Chronicles, debuted via BearManor Media.
In 2018, Britton self-published the seventh book in the Chronicles, Alpha Tales 2044, a collection of short stories, many of which first appeared at a number of online venues.
For seven years, he was co-host of online radio’s Dave White Presents where he contributed interviews with a host of entertainment insiders. Before his retirement in 2016, Dr. Britton taught English at Harrisburg Area Community College. Learn more about Dr. Britton at his WEBSITE
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Author: Carolyn Howard-Johnson
ISBN: 9781451546149
Perhaps you’re like me. For the past few years, you’ve seen the rising tide of social networking and wondered if it has a useful role in your life. I don’t mean using My Space, Facebook, or Twitter to connect with friends and family, but rather whether or not all this could enhance your business or professional profile. Seems most everyone has an opinion on the subject, and it’s often difficult to be certain just how Twitter, in particular, can help market products and services.
So Carolyn Howard-Johnson has provided a valuable service with her new “how to” book focused to the business community. While one might think short messages limited to 140 characters might be equally limited in attracting and keeping “followers” for companies large and small, Howard-Johnson lays out very detailed plans for establishing goals, measuring results, and using the right tone and interaction to make Twitter a viable, fast, and inexpensive business tool. I say inexpensive rather than free as, while the actual creation of an account and maintaining it cost nothing, Howard-Johnson makes it clear that active accounts involve considerable time and creativity.
Just how one should spend their time wisely is the strength of the book as the author provides step-by-step instructions on how to build traffic, connect with “followers,” and how to keep them engaged with you. She provides links to a number of online resources for readers wanting to know more about specific aspects of internet marketing. She points out that businesses might find Twitter a media more useful than other social networking as it allows users to get statistics of who’s looking at your Tweets—or even “re-Tweets.” She suggests using contests to pull followers in, using “Greeting Card” aphorisms as content to interest readers, and how to create free features to pull potential customers to your other online venues. On top of all this, Howard-Johnson adds some useful appendices including a glossary of the Twitter-world lingo (Hashtags, RSS Feeds?), sample Tweets and media releases, as well as advice on blogging. Judging from the sample press releases, institutions other than businesses could find this information useful, notably churches and schools.
As with other books from HowToDoItFrugally Publishing, Focused and Frugal Tweeting is concise and very much a quick read. What it lacks are any case studies, testimonials from businesses who’ve used these techniques, or examples of how companies other than those Howard-Johnson owns have fared following these guidelines. So the credibility of the book rests with the author’s own personal credentials which are admittedly considerable in publishing and marketing.
True enough, the concepts are so fresh that it would be difficult to document track records of success or failure for companies investing the time in using Twitter. But I would have liked to see options for those who might be interested in applying some but not all of these concepts in order to choose what might be feasible without posting 10 times a day. Can a business prioritize these suggestions and work into the Twitter world more slowly? How much time per day or per week should be invested after the initial start up? It’s abundantly clear going the route described in this book would involve major commitment from anyone hoping for serious benefits from this program. As a result, this is a book to keep on hand for reference so readers can consider and perhaps re-think these concise ideas that demand complex operations.
Perhaps you’re like me. For the past few years, you’ve seen the rising tide of social networking and wondered if it has a useful role in your life. I don’t mean using My Space, Facebook, or Twitter to connect with friends and family, but rather whether or not all this could enhance your business or professional profile. Seems most everyone has an opinion on the subject, and it’s often difficult to be certain just how Twitter, in particular, can help market products and services.
So Carolyn Howard-Johnson has provided a valuable service with her new “how to” book focused to the business community. While one might think short messages limited to 140 characters might be equally limited in attracting and keeping “followers” for companies large and small, Howard-Johnson lays out very detailed plans for establishing goals, measuring results, and using the right tone and interaction to make Twitter a viable, fast, and inexpensive business tool. I say inexpensive rather than free as, while the actual creation of an account and maintaining it cost nothing, Howard-Johnson makes it clear that active accounts involve considerable time and creativity.
Just how one should spend their time wisely is the strength of the book as the author provides step-by-step instructions on how to build traffic, connect with “followers,” and how to keep them engaged with you. She provides links to a number of online resources for readers wanting to know more about specific aspects of internet marketing. She points out that businesses might find Twitter a media more useful than other social networking as it allows users to get statistics of who’s looking at your Tweets—or even “re-Tweets.” She suggests using contests to pull followers in, using “Greeting Card” aphorisms as content to interest readers, and how to create free features to pull potential customers to your other online venues. On top of all this, Howard-Johnson adds some useful appendices including a glossary of the Twitter-world lingo (Hashtags, RSS Feeds?), sample Tweets and media releases, as well as advice on blogging. Judging from the sample press releases, institutions other than businesses could find this information useful, notably churches and schools.
As with other books from HowToDoItFrugally Publishing, Focused and Frugal Tweeting is concise and very much a quick read. What it lacks are any case studies, testimonials from businesses who’ve used these techniques, or examples of how companies other than those Howard-Johnson owns have fared following these guidelines. So the credibility of the book rests with the author’s own personal credentials which are admittedly considerable in publishing and marketing.
True enough, the concepts are so fresh that it would be difficult to document track records of success or failure for companies investing the time in using Twitter. But I would have liked to see options for those who might be interested in applying some but not all of these concepts in order to choose what might be feasible without posting 10 times a day. Can a business prioritize these suggestions and work into the Twitter world more slowly? How much time per day or per week should be invested after the initial start up? It’s abundantly clear going the route described in this book would involve major commitment from anyone hoping for serious benefits from this program. As a result, this is a book to keep on hand for reference so readers can consider and perhaps re-think these concise ideas that demand complex operations.