Is Joel Comm's "Twitter Power" Just For The Birds?

My operating assumption is when the broadcast news media pikes anything as “the next big thing” then likely the ship has already sailed. And seeing tragically unhip senators like @clairecmc madly exercising their thumbs during the Presidential Address to the Joint Session didn’t do anything to dispel that notion with regards to Twitter.

So when my copy of @JoelComm’s Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time arrived in the mail, I figured here was another case of early adopter Joel waving from the deck to hapless gangplank standers by.

What could Joel have to say that I hadn’t already heard since actively joining Twitter late last year? And what can he say to anyone who hasn’t been tweeting at least that long to help them “dominate their market”?

Quite a bit, it turns out.

Ever since Comm’s The Adsense Code came out, he’s demonstrated a nerdish knack for understanding how the tools of the marketing trade work, and how to tweak them for better profitability.

He’s also got a gift for explaining those things to folks who are running businesses and just want the results, please.

That’s not to say Twitter Power is page upon page of marketing power secrets. The first two chapters are fairly pedestrian. A nice overview of Social Media — the kind of stuff you might hear on a Katie Couric puff-​​piece.

But once I got into the meat of the book, I remembered why Adsense Code sold so many copies.

Really, if you’re just starting on Twitter, or even a few weeks in, Chapter Three provides a serviceable checklist for registering, what to put into you bio, and some basics about choosing your Twitter name that you want to pay attention to.

Take Joel’s suggestions and avoid having to start over because “@tweetinfool1” wasn’t the best choice for credibility and brand management.

Some of the soundest advice comes when he compares Twitter to Adsense. And this isn’t a case of “if you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”

Twitter isn’t Adsense of course. But knowing how to make the most out of a few pixels of computer screen and how to get the biggest bang for your 140 characters isn’t that different.

Joel also provides useful tips on “The Art of the Tweet” and interesting insights into the difference between Twitter’s unique strengths and how they compare to other Social Media sites like FaceBook and MySpace.

The real payoff comes in the last five chapters — especially the sections on Brand Building, Driving Behavior, and Building Solutions on the Twitter Platform (written by @kenburge Joel’s business partner and president of Infomedia).

I’m sure right now there are dozens, if not hundreds of smart marketers who are figuring out ways to use and extend Ken’s and Joel’s suggestions. No doubt they’ll exploit the hell out of whatever strategies they come up with, then sell them in an e-​​book in a couple of years.

If you don’t want to wait that long, it may be a good idea to get Joel’s book — especially if you’ve only been on Twitter for a few weeks or months. It’s a quick read and Joel provides a nicely thought out 30-​​day plan to get up, get running and get results sooner rather than later.

Of course, with a technology as new as Twitter, any book is likely to have old information as soon as it hits the shelves. For instance, Joel speaks admiringly of users who have over 1,000 followers. By today’s standards, that’s pretty unremarkable, but his strategies are sound.

And more savvy Twitter users can still benefit from Twitter Power as well. Joel’s put much of the same care into testing and refining his Twitter presence and usage as he did with Adsense. That kind of attention to results is well worth the price of the book.

(By the way, you can follow me at @andycatsimanes and Michel at @michelfortin.)