140 Characters, a lesson in the way of the Twitter Samurai

Posted on December 23, 2009 by John Watson, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.

I’m talking about the new book 140 Characters: A Style Guide For The Short Form by Dom Sagolla and Wiley Publishing.

A lot of people say to me that they do not get Twitter. I hear questions and comments like:

Why would anyone care what I am doing on a moment by moment basis?
I don’t know what to write.
How can I write anything meaningful in 140 characters?
Dom Sagolla offers answers to these questions and more in the Twitter Equivalent of The Associated Press Style Guide crossed with a book on poetry and English literature.

I have to admit, it took me a while to get my head around this book as I started out in a pragmatic small business and internet marketing headspace. When I finally slowed down and opened up to the message, what I got was an introduction into a new literary venue, complete with its own style guide. I got a glimpse into an expanding Twitterverse by one of its key influencers. It’s kind of like reading the Lonely Planet guide for Nairobi.

Approach your 140 characters as you would a Haiku poem, a memorable one-liner or a powerful truth and you are getting close to the message of this book. Twitter can be more than a micro broadcasting venue. It can be a real-time conversation and a publishing medium at the same time and what matters is who you are on Twitter.

In reading this book I found myself looking into the world of a dedicated and artful Author and wondering if I was willing to take on that role and learn to be good at it. I think ultimately that was the indelible question for me in this book. It showed me what I was up against in Twitter and what it is going to take to be a leader in this space. I was left in a quandary about who I want to be with respect to Twitter? The funny thing is this question is what inspired me to read this book in the first place. The difference now is I think I have a better understanding of how to make my decision.
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