The Tao of Twitter by Mark Schaefer is a short 200 page guide to the vast world of Twitter. Schaefer rightly puts it in the beginning of the book “Studies show that about 60 percent of people who try Twitter quit after the first week, and I’m convinced it’s because they never get past the first set of simple instructions: set up profile, follow a few celebrities, tweet about ‘what you’re doing now,’ and see what happens”. And all marketers know how important it is to understand how this social media channel works effectively. By reading this book, in two hours one can understand the basics of Twitter like- how to connect with useful and targeted connections, engagement through meaningful content, using search to your benefit and others. It also explains tools that a marketer can use to their benefit like Hashtags, Twitter Lists, using Twitter search effectively etc.

Mark defines 3 elements (which he believes lead to business and personal benefits) as follows:

Tao 1: Finding your Tribe

Tao 2: Providing Meaningful Content

Tao 3: Authentic Helpfulness

He pays special emphasis on the above mentioned elements and explains them at length as to how one can multiply their Twitter benefits, if these Taos are put to good use. The author has also put a lot of attention in describing how one tweet has led to several benefits (7-8 in some cases). He has listed down these benefits in several points to make his argument very clear to his audience.

Mark has made an effort to write most of the book in bullet points to be clear and concise. I ended up taking a lot of pictures to have ready notes on my phone on topics, like Ideas to master Twitter Lists, creating a Twitter chat & post promotions and my favourite- guide to effective research.

I would recommend the book to everyone who wants to experiment Twitter but is stuck after the first step of setting up a profile. It is also a good read for marketing and communications professionals who are decently active on the platform but want to become a pro.

– Radhika Nandwani

Radhika is the Corporate Communications Advisor at Dell’s Performance Analytics Group. She started her career in 2011, with one of the leading public relations firms of India – MSLGROUP, specialising in technology brands. The campaigns executed by her while at MSL, have won several public relations industry awards including SABRE and PR Week Asia. In her last role, she was the founding team member and the marketing communications manager at SCoRe. Radhika is an English graduate and holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication. She loves reading and is passionate about gender equality, food and Bollywood. She can be reached at @RadhikaNandwani on Twitter and here on LinkedIn.