I just finished reading The simple twitter book by Brent Ozar (available free online).

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW... told to you in a funny, friendly voice.

I thought it really accomplished its goal: being a simple and concise twitter beginner's guide. It’s very to-the-point, some of the tips are obvious but you didn’t really think about them until you read them, and it’s really funny.

It starts off with what everyone (familiar with the platform or not) would like to know: What is twitter for? Just seeing that was enough to get me hooked, and furthermore, seeing the first reason there was no turning back: Get better at what you love to do.

I bet right now there’s something you love doing - running, writing, building, whatever - and you wish you could do it better. Cyclists get motivated by seeing what’s going on in Lance Armstrong’s head. Writers would love to hear what Stephen King’s day is like. Programmers want to know about the latest techniques. Twitter helps us share this information easier and faster.

It then goes on explaining the basics: choosing a name, how to create a good profile page, how to get followers, who to follow, what to share, etc, all the way to more advanced stuff, like how to promote your business (successfully and without sucking) using twitter, passing through general tips and recommendations.

It was a a little satisfying to find that the top 10 reasons the author follows people (and the top 10 reasons he doesn’t) are pretty much the same ones I have; I unconsciously checked most of those things when evaluating a new account to follow.

These reasons are (for more detail, download and read the book!):

10. Your tweets show a sense of humor.
9. You have an awesome profile photo or name.
8. I know you in real life.
7. I’m friends with your spouse.
6. You tweet often and show pictures now and then.
5. You have a lot more followers than friends.
4. You’re interacting with other people I know.
3. You suddenly follow me on other social networking sites.
2. You’re using Twitter to announce your blog posts.
Reason #1: You’re doing cool stuff.

Among his recommendations, he says you should always try to reply at people that talk to you, it’s nice to see he follows his own advice (and fast too, look at the times!):

After finding the book I started following the author, at first I found he tweeted a bit too much, but I think he was just excited with a SQL Server release, we’ll see what the future holds for this unilateral relationship!

I strongly recommend you read this book, it’s very easy to read, clear, and with a lot of helper pictures to illustrate points, which makes it funny and relaxed.

Head over to Brent’s site and get it now! Limited offer!

http://www.brentozar.com/twitter/