How much can you earn? The site that I’m gonna share with you will pay you $0.5 per unique visitors. You can imagine how easy to reach $30 in one day. The minimum Payout is $30. They pay through Paypal, Liberty Reserve, Payza, Cheque, Western Union, Money Gram, bank transfer at end of every month.

So, how to start? Just follow the instruction below. Please follow the steps below or you will not get accepted.

1. Click this link to register: REGISTER

2. After you register and get accepted, Log in to your account and find your promote link.

3. Copy that link and share it to your friends. Best places to start are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube, forums, chat rooms, blogs, etc.

Ok, I think that’s all for this time. I hope you earn a lot of good money from this way. Come to my profile to find another nice article. Thank you 

Executive Summary

Enchantment, defined by Guy Kawasaki is, “the process of delighting people with a product, service, organization, or idea.”  When enchantment happens, it is voluntary, long-lasted, and beneficial to the enchantee and the enchanter.  Kawasaki was introduced to the Macintosh computer in 1983 and was enchanted instantly.  He became one of Apple’s evangelists, and one of the reasons Apple is such an enchanting company.  In his novel, Enchantment, Kawasaki not only teaches us how to create an enchanting company like Apple, but how to be likable, trustworthy, and how to enchant your boss.

To be able to enchant someone, you first off have to be a likable and trustworthy person, because as Kawasaki says, jerks seldom enchant anyone.  Kawasaki provides us with some ways of becoming likable including making a good first impression with a Duchenne smile, a firm handshake, dressed appropriate, and good vocabulary.  Since people can like you without trusting you, achieving trustworthiness is needed for enchantment also.  Some ways to get people to trust you and that the author goes over include: trusting others, becoming a mensch, giving for intrinsic reasons, and gaining knowledge and competence.  Having a great product is critical for enchanting.  Some qualities of a great product include: deep, intelligent, complete, empowering, and elegant.

Resistance can occur for numerous reasons including: inertia, hesitation to reduce options, fear of making a mistake, lack of role models, or just because your cause sucks.  Kawasaki provides some ways to overcome resistance from others.

The goal of enchantment is to delight people in a long-lasting change.  Kawasaki explains how striving for internalization, separating the believers, pushing implementation down, and invoking reciprocity can help your enchantment endure.

Technology is a huge part of today’s society, and it can be a great tool in enchantment.  Using push and pull technology.  Push technologies like presentations, email, and twitter can be used to bring your story to the people you want to enchant.  Pull technologies that can be used to enchant are websites, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.  These are used to bring people to your stories.

You can also enchant your employees by providing them with a mastery level job, the autonomy to work independently, and to have a greater purpose in their job.  The benefits to enchanting your boss include freedom, flexibility, money, and mentoring.  It’s definitely a win-win situation.

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from Enchantment

1. Enchantment can happen anywhere; villages, stores, dealerships, offices, boardrooms, and even on the internet.  Kawasaki (2011) defines enchantment as, “the process of delighting people with a product, service, organization, or idea.  The outcome of enchantment is voluntary and long-lasting support that is mutually beneficial” (p. xix).  It’s not about getting what you want, making money, and it’s not a transaction.

2. Before being able to enchant, you first have to achieve likability.  Your first impression plays a big role in becoming likable.  Four factors make a good first impression: your smile, your dress, your handshake, and your vocabulary.

3. The next step in being able to enchant others, is being able to achieve trustworthiness from others.  First of all, you need to trust others to be able to be trusted.  You also should be a mensch.  Mensch is the German word for human being, but also means to be honest, fair, and transparent no matter whom you are dealing with.  People will always wonder what your motivation may be with them, so you should get that out of the way, and disclose your interests to achieve trustworthiness.  Give for intrinsic reasons.  Becoming trustworthy also includes gaining knowledge and competence. More ways to achieving trustworthiness include: showing up, enchanting people on their own terms, and positioning yourself.

4. Prepare for enchantment.  Do/create something great.  Some qualities of a great product include: deep, intelligent, complete, empowering, and elegant. When preparing for enchantment, Kawasaki recommends conducting a “premortem.” The next way to prepare is to make it short, simple, and swallowable.  Kawasaki says,” easy to follow, easy to swallow.”  When something is easy to understand and communicate, it enchants people.

5. Launch your cause with enchantment.  To launch your company in a completely enchanting way, you need to tell a story.  You also need to immerse people.  Enable vicarious experiences, and let them get as close to the real situation as possible.  The key to this is attention to detail.  You can make a great demonstration by showing how the product works and how it enables people to do cool things.  Offer hands on trials, “prime the pump,” and plant many seeds.

6. Know how to overcome resistance from enchantment.  People are resistant for the following reasons: inertia (”Guy’s Law of Enchantment: People at rest will remain at rest, and people in motion will remain moving in the same direction unless an outside enchanter acts upon them”), hesitation to reduce options, fear of making a mistake, lack of role models, or just because your cause sucks (Kawasaki, 2011, p. 71).  You need to provide social proof that your product is great, create the perception of ubiquity or the perception of scarcity, show people your magic, and find way to agree with people to overcome resistance.

7. Make enchantment endure.  Internalize your values by conformity, identification, and then internalization.  Separate the believers and push implementation down.  Use intrinsic methods instead of money.  You want to invoke reciprocity.   Give with joy, give early (before you need favors), give often and generously, give unexpectedly, and ask for reciprocation (never hesitate to ask for a question!).   Build an ecosystem and diversify your team with different points of views.

8. Use push and pull technology to enchant.  Some general rules for using push technology are: engage fast, engage many, engage often, use multiple media, provide value, give credit, give people the benefit of the doubt, accept diversity, don’t take any crap, limit promotion to 5%, and disclose your conflicts.  For presentations, customize your introduction to your audience, us evocative pictures, powerful videos, and sizzling product demonstration, and sell your dream to your audience.  For email, keep it to six sentences, use your organizations domain, and minimize attachments.  To improve your twitter skills for enchanting you need to spruce up your photo and provide a descriptive profile that throws your business card, resume, positioning statement, and pitch all into one.  Use your twitter to promote your cause, and post informative links.  Pull technology is the opposite of push technology; it brings people to your story.  The advantage of it is that you can provide large quantities of information with it.

9. Enchant your employees.  Provide a MAP (a job that is mastery, autonomous, and has a purpose) for employees.  Empower them to do the right thing.  Judge your results and others intentions by being harsher on yourself rather than others.  Celebrate success and team wins to get positive effects.

10. Enchant your boss.  To enchant your boss, make him/her look good.  Drop everything and do what your boss asks, if he/she asks you to do a task.  You want to under-promise and over-deliver.  Also when doing a task for your boss, prototype your work.  Complete part of your task, and then ask for feedback from him/her.  Show and broadcast your progress.  Kawasaki says, “If you don’t toot your own horn, don’t complain that there’s no music.”  Forming a friendship with your boss makes you more efficient and effective.  Asking for mentoring from your boss is a good way to enchant them because it benefits you by getting their help, but also it’s flattering to them for you to ask.

Full Summary of Enchantment

Chapter 1: Why Enchantment?

Guy Kawasaki begins his book, Enchantment, with a story of a woman who enchanted the New People’s Army (NPA).  Karin Muller was a member of the Peace Corps, living in the Philippines digging wells and building schools for small villages.  The New People’s Army came to interrogate her, but she was warned of this by villagers earlier that day.  When the NPA came, she invited then in for coffee.  Kawasaki says that this is exactly what enchantment it.   Enchantment can happen anywhere, villages, stores, dealerships, offices, boardrooms, and even on the internet.  Kawasaki (2011) defines enchantment as, “the process of delighting people with a product, service, organization, or idea.  The outcome of enchantment is voluntary and long-lasting support that is mutually beneficial” (p. xix).  It’s not about getting what you want, making money, and it’s not a transaction.  Situations when enchantment is needed include: aspiring to lofty, idealistic results, making difficult, infrequent decisions, overcoming entrenched habits, defying a crowd, proceeding despite delayed or nonexistent feedback.  Sometimes enchantment is not the right thing to do; you should draw the line when: you are dealing with gullible people, telling noble lies, or asking people to do something you wouldn’t do.

Chapter 2: How to Achieve Likability

Before being able to enchant, you first have to achieve likability.  Your first impression plays a big role in becoming likable.  Four factors make a good first impression: your smile, your dress, your handshake, and your vocabulary.  Kawasaki says that a good smile is one where you smile with your eyes and make “crow’s feet.”  Crow’s feet are the lines that you get on the side of your eyes when you make a real smile.  The way you dress should not say to the person that you are superior to them.  You should dress for a tie, not a victory. When you dress equally to others, it says to them “we’re peers.”  Perfecting your handshake is also essential to a first impression.  You should make sure that you make eye contact with the person, have a real smile (with crow’s feet), grip their hand with a firm squeeze, and you should hold the handshake for no longer than 2 to 3 seconds.  When it comes to your vocabulary, you need to use simple words, an active voice, use common, unambiguous analogies, and keep it short because if someone is interested in what you have to say, they’ll ask for more information.

To achieve likability, you also need to learn to accept others.  Everyone is better than you at something, and people are more alike than they are different.  And Kawasaki says that people deserve a break!  You also need to get close.  Frequently interacting and contacting someone can develop into a friendship.  Kawasaki also says that you should not impose your values, to pursue and project your passions, and to find shared passions with others. You need to always assume that everyone has passions and that you have something in common.  It’s a good idea to do your homework about a person before meeting them.  Lastly, when trying to become likable, you should default to saying yes to people.  This includes assuming that most people are honest and grateful.

Chapter 3: How to Achieve Trustworthiness

The next step in being able to enchant others, is being able to achieve trustworthiness from others.  First of all, you need to trust others to be able to be trusted.  You also should be a mensch.  Mensch is the German word for human being, but also means to be honest, fair, and transparent no matter whom you are dealing with.  People will always wonder what your motivation may be with them, so you should get that out of the way, and disclose your interests to achieve trustworthiness.

Give for intrinsic reasons.  Kawasaki explains that there are three forms of reciprocity (the act of returning a favor, gift, or assistance).  The first form occurs when you give, but you are ultimately expecting something in return, which is not enchantment.  The next is when you give and there is a possibility of reciprocation, which can lead to enchantment eventually.  The third form is enchantment; when you give to help others and expect nothing in return.

Becoming trustworthy also includes gaining knowledge and competence.  ”Competence means you have progressed beyond knowing what to do, to doing what you know” (Kawasaki, 2011, p. 32).  The author gives us a story of Tony Hayward who ran BP in 2007.  Hayward’s first priority was to reduce coffee burns in the workplace, so he placed signs in the hallway that says not to walk with coffee in your hand.  Coffee burns reduced dramatically. Since that was successful, after the oil spill, crews placed signs on their deepwater wells saying, “Please do not spill all of the oil into the ocean.”

More ways to achieving trustworthiness include: showing up, enchanting people on their own terms, and positioning yourself.  Showing up means interacting with people.  Showing up digitally means to answer your emails, tweets, voice-mails, and video chats.  An example of enchanting people on their own terms is the Susan G. Komen Race for the cure.  They allow people the option of “Sleeping in for the Cure.”  The last step of becoming likable and trustworthy is to position yourself by creating a description of you or your organization explaining what you do and why you exist.  A good positioning statement is short (about 10 words), clear, different, and humble.

Chapter 4: How to Prepare

First off, you need to do something great.   Some qualities of a great product include: deep, intelligent, complete, empowering, and elegant.  ”A complete cause provides a great experience that includes service, support, and a string of enchantments” (Kawasaki, 2011, p. 40).  When preparing for enchantment, Kawasaki recommends conducting a “premortem.” In medicine, postmortems are conducted to determine the death of someone.  With a premortem, you can prevent death rather than explaining it.  How it works, is the team assumes their project failed, and they have to figure out the reasons it failed.  This can benefit the organization because you can prevent problems from occurring.

The next way to prepare is to make it short, simple, and swallowable.  Kawasaki (2011) says,” easy to follow, easy to swallow” (p. 45).  When something is easy to understand and communicate, it enchants people.  Using ticolons (a sentence containing three equal parts in length is one way to make your cause easy to follow.  An example is Chevy’s slogan in the 1940’s, “eye it, try it, buy it.”  You could also use metaphors.  Band-Aid used “say hello to your child’s new body guard.”  Similes can provide a similar starting point to help people understand what you’re getting at.  Milk’s short “Got Milk?”  slogan worked a while for them.  You should also stay positive, show respect, and remember that less is more when crafting your message.

What I think is one of the best ways in preparing to enchant people is to remove the fences. Get rid of the speed bumps to take people straight to adopting your product or service.  Make sure your organization’s name is easy to pronounce and your font is legible. You also should provide a default option, for example, enrolling your employees in 401k.  Make sure to establish goals for your organization and communicate them.  ”People who know what they want and can clearly explain their wishes are more enchanting” (Kawasaki, 2011, p. 51).

Guy Kawasaki, American venture capitalist and one of the original Apple Computer employees responsible for marketing of the Macintosh in 1984. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Chapter 5: How to Launch

To launch your company in a completely enchanting way, you need to tell a story.  You also need to immerse people.  Enable vicarious experiences, and let them get as close to the real situation as possible.  The key to this is attention to detail.  You can make a great demonstration by showing how the product works and how it enables people to do cool things.  The author suggests not using power point.  Anchoring and twisting, a concept of Chip Heath, a Stanford professor, is when you explain your cause in terms of something familiar (anchoring), and then giving it a different meaning (twisting).  Kawasaki (2011) gives the example, “It’s like Dirty Harry but set in the year 2100″ (p. 59).

The next step in launching your product or service is to offer hands on trials.  You should make sure your trial is easy, immediate (no long forms to fill out or passwords and approvals and confirmation), inexpensive, concrete (they see results then and there and become believers, and reversible.  Amazon’s “look inside” feature is a good example of a way to promote trials.

You can enchant people by “priming the pump,” which means playing into environmental factors.  I’ve experienced this first hand in Walt Disney World.  Every ride and every park all play up to a certain theme, and Disney enchants you by including all attention to details to portray their theme.  Kawasaki also says to plant many seeds meaning that when marketing your product you no longer just focus on “top-down.”  You market your product to many people, not just high up influentials.  People get their advice from their friends and families now too, so you need to embrace the nobodies, give up the illusion of control, and “planting fields of flowers, not flowerboxes” (which is a strategy of big numbers).  You also need to know people’s intentions.  It’ll help you know where you stand with them, and the act of asking can make people reach the tipping point and commit to you.  Then if they do commit to you, they’ll want to live up to their word.

Kawasaki makes an argument for reducing and increasing the amount of choices that you give.  The more choices you give someone can lead to dissatisfaction if they choose the wrong one, but also, increasing their choices can lead to enchantment.  For example, Menchie’s gives customers many options when creating their own fro-yo creation and it enchants people.  Lastly, you want to illustrate the salient point, which communicates the impact of the decision they made to choose your product or service.

Chapter 6: How to Overcome Resistance

People’s reluctance can cause them to resist your enchantment.  People are resistant for the following reasons: inertia (”Guy’s Law of Enchantment: People at rest will remain at rest, and people in motion will remain moving in the same direction unless an outside enchanter acts upon them”), hesitation to reduce options, fear of making a mistake, lack of role models, or just because your cause sucks (Kawasaki, 2011, p. 71).  You need to provide social proof that your product is great.  If people see that other people are using your product, then people will assume that your product is good.  An example that Kawasaki used was changing the script of an infomercial from “operators are waiting, please call now” to “if operators are busy, please call again.”  You also can create the perception of ubiquity or the perception of scarcity to overcome resistance.  Kawasaki (2011) explains, “when people are uncertain or doubtful of your cause, use social proof and ubiquity methods to make them feel comfortable.  When there’s little uncertainty or doubt, then use the scarcity method to move them into action” (p. 77).

Another way to overcome resistance is to show people your magic.  You can offer factory tours or behind the scenes looks.  You can find a way to agree with people, even it means agreeing to disagree.  Some ways to find a way to agree include:  getting personal, getting professional, harmonize your objections, asking “what if…”, or moving the window (proposing something less acceptable to move your idea into the acceptable window).  Finding a bright spot, something that’s already working and implementing it is also a way to move reluctant people.

Chapter 7: How to make Enchantment Endure

The main goal of enchantment is for it to be a long-lasting change.  To make enchantment endure, you should first strive for internalization.  Internalizing your values is a three step process: conformity, identification, and then internalization.  Next you need to separate the believers.  Companies should create a separate building for the people creating the new products and services.  They shouldn’t be near the main headquarters.  You should also push implementation down, because the middle and bottom people are who does all the real work, anyways.

Money is not the ultimate motivator, and it won’t make enchantment endure.  Instead, use intrinsic methods.  You want to invoke reciprocity.   Give with joy, give early (before you need favors), give often and generously, give unexpectedly, and ask for reciprocation (never hesitate to ask for a question!).   Catalyzing commitment and consistency helps endure enchantment on three levels: it reduces the likelihood of people reconsidering past decisions and looking at all other options, people like to honor their commitments, and telling others about a person’s commitments creates another reason for them to honor them.

“The presence of a community that complements a cause fosters endurance” (Kawasaki, 200, p. 104).   Building an ecosystem can increase the satisfaction of the people you’re enchanting.  The components of an ecosystem include: user groups, websites and blogs, consultants, developers, resellers, and conferences.  Here’s how to motivate people to join or create your ecosystem:  create something that’s worthy of an ecosystem, identify and recruit your evangelists, pick a champion for building the ecosystem, give people something meaningful to do (believers need the ability to change and improve your cause), publish to communicate to the world that your organization is open and willing to help external parties, welcome criticism to fix problems, foster disclosure (participate in the exchange of ideas and opinions, and listen to what the members have to say), create a reward system, and publicize the existence of the ecosystem.

Diversifying your team in terms of having different backgrounds and ethnicities will indeed help enchantment endure, but Kawasaki says that having people who offer different points of view is even better: the advocate sides with your customers, believers, and followers, the skeptic challenges your ideas to make them better, the visionary anticipates the needs of believers, the adult helps to make things happen in an efficient, cost-effective, and legal way, the evangelist tells people why your cause can make their life better, and the rainmaker closes the deals.

Chapter 8: How to use Push Technology

“This is a golden age of enchantment because reaching people around the world has never been easier, faster, or cheaper” (Kawasaki, 2011, p. 112).  Some general principles Kawasaki gives include: engage fast, engage many, engage often, use multiple media, provide value, give credit, give people the benefit of the doubt, accept diversity, don’t take any crap, limit promotion to 5%, and disclose your conflicts.

When creating a presentation, you should customize your introduction to your audience.  Kawasaki says that when he was presenting to Hewlett-Packard, he showed a picture of all the printers and faxes in his home office.  Sell your dream in your presentation, not your product; you will enchant more people by doing that.  When presenting, think screenplay, not speech.  You want people to give their input instead of just staring at you and the screen.  Dramatize your presentation by using evocative pictures, powerful videos, and sizzling product demonstration.  The goal of presentations is to provide inspiring info that will move people to action.  Your presentation should be short, you should practice, warm up the audience, and speak a lot.

To use email as a tool of enchantment you should start off with getting an email address that uses your organization’s domain, keep your email to six sentences: let them know why you’re contacting them, who you are, what your cause is, what you want, why the recipient should help you, and what the next step is.  You should minimize attachments in your first email to someone because most are skeptic about getting viruses through emails.

Kawasaki says that one of the best enchantment tools he’s ever used was Twitter.  To improve your twitter skills for enchanting you need to spruce up your photo and provide a descriptive profile that throws your business card, resume, positioning statement, and pitch all into one.  Use your twitter to promote your cause, and post informative links.  Also make sure to respond to at least some, if not all, of your tweets.

Image via CrunchBase

Chapter 9: How to use Pull Technology

Pull technology is the opposite of push technology; it brings people to your story.  The advantage of it is that you can provide large quantities of information with it.  For websites and blogs, you should provide good content and refresh it often (every 2 to 3 days), make sure it loads fast, don’t use too many graphics and pictures, provide a FAQ page, and help visitors navigate your page.  It’s also helpful to have a page where you introduce your team.

Mari Smith, co author of Facebook Marketing, gave some incite to some Facebook enchanting techniques:  make use of your friends lists, use your personal profile for professional networking, use “@” tags strategically for acknowledging and thanking people, provide an area for your fans to promote themselves, respond to your fans’ posts promptly and personally, chat live with your fans, and get your fans involved in product and content creation.

When using YouTube, you want to make sure your video provides intrinsic value: inspiration, entertainment, enlightenment, or education.  Keep it short.  Foster discovery, sharing, and identity by using relevant keywords, titles, descriptions, tags, and thumbnails.

Chapter 10: How to Enchant your Employees

Motivating employees is not as easy as handing them a big, fat check.  Kawasaki suggests providing employees with a MAP: mastery, autonomy, and purpose.  Create the job at a mastery level because employees want to improve their own skills and competency.  Being autonomous means setting goals for you employees and letting them get their work done without you micro-managing.  Purpose is most important because employee satisfaction depends highly upon having a big purpose.

Empower them to do the right thing.  Judge your results and others intentions by being harsher on yourself rather than others.  Embrace an attitude of understanding others, for example, “at least his intentions were good.”  You can also enchant your employees when you address your own shortcomings first.  Be good at self-criticism; find out what your employees think your shortcomings are, then when giving a performance appraisal, address to them your shortcomings first and how you plan to work on them.

When you celebrate the success of your employees you bring on the following positive effects: motivation to work harder, unify common goals amongst the team, uplifting employee mindsets, building momentum, and reminding them that they work for a winning organization.

Kawasaki says to suck it up, meaning (according to urban dictionary) “to endure a period of mental, physical, or emotional hardship with no complaining.”

Chapter 11: How to Enchant your Boss

Enchanting your boss starts with making your boss look good.  You also should drop everything and do what your boss asks, if he/she asks you to do a task.  You want to under-promise and over-deliver.  For example, at Disney World, the wait times for attractions are over estimated, so when a sign says the wait is 20 minutes and the guest gets there in 10, it excites and enchants them.  Also when doing a task for your boss, prototype your work.  Complete part of your task, and then ask for feedback from him/her.  This will make them see you as a proactive worker.  Show and broadcast your progress.  Kawasaki (2011) says, “If you don’t toot your own horn, don’t complain that there’s no music” (p. 168).  Forming a friendship with your boss makes you more efficient and effective.  Also, friends beget more friends, and many friends create the halo-effect, and people don’t screw around with people with many friends.  Asking for mentoring from your boss is a good way to enchant them because it benefits you by getting their help, but also it’s flattering to them for you to ask.

The Video Lounge

In this interview with author, Guy Kawasaki, he goes over the three pillars needed to enchant: likability, trustworthiness, and a great cause.  Virgin America achieved likability through its CEO, Richard Braxton, Apple has a great cause, and Zappo’s has trustworthiness.   He explains how every company needs at least a small portion of all three to enchant.  He then describes how you can achieve each element.

Personal Insights

Why I think:

• The author is one of the most brilliant people around…or is full of $%&#, because:

The author, Guy Kawasaki, looks at things a different way than most entrepreneurs and/or managers.  He’s not all for making money and doing business.  He wants to enchant people.  He wants to be likeable and trustworthy and create relationships with people he works with and does business with.

• If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

1. Guy Kawasaki uses a ton of analogies in his book Enchantment.  Many of them are great, but instead of explaining some of them, he just gave an example.  I think he should have done both, explained it and gave an example.

2. Kawasaki repeated a few things in Enchantment.  I know sometimes people repeat something for importance or to make a point, but I’m not sure if that’s what he was going for.

3. Kawasaki is a very enchanting person, and I honestly do not think there is anything else I would change or have done differently if I were him.  I liked the way he set the book up, what he had to say, and his writing style made it very easy for me to read the book in a timely manner.

• Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

1. Reading this book made me think differently about my motivation and why I do certain things.  If I thought of others more, I could enchant them, causing a win-win situation.

2. Enchantment made me feel differently about what others’ motivations are.  If I go into a store, are they trying to sell me something and get a transaction out of me? Or are they trying to enchant me so that I become a loyal customer.  At my current job, we try to enchant our customers.  We don’t care how much money they give to our company, we just care that they’re happy and will stay loyal to us.

3. I’ve always noticed how once someone goes Apple, they don’t go back, whether it be the iPhone or the Macbook, but I never realized just how enchanting the Apple company was and is.  Apple has truly enchanted their customers by first of all having a great product, but also by achieving trustworthiness from their customers and definitely likability.

• I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

1. Upon climbing the ladder of success in the business world, I plan to enchant people on my way up.  I don’t want to just create transactions.  I want to create relationships.

2. When I become a manager one day, I’ll know how to enchant my employees.  I’ll motivate them not by money, but by providing them with a job that will be difficult for them, so that they’ll improve their skills.  When giving them performance appraisals, I will address my own shortcomings first, and let them know how I will improve myself.  I will always celebrate their successes and team wins.

3. One thing I will begin applying now, that I have trouble with is showing up virtually.  I am not very good at answering all emails, texts, tweets, Facebook comments, etc.  I know that to be able to enchant people and achieve trustworthiness, I need to respond to people, not only in person, but on the web also.

• Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

Everyone seems to enjoy Kawasaki’s Enchantment.  I have read all great reviews.  Travis King says that Guy is an enchanting person, and he enjoys his relaxed style of writing.   King thinks that Enchantment has value to freelancers in terms of it can teach how to understand what clients are thinking prior to a purchase and then how to address those concerns.  Since Kawasaki likes constructive criticism, King included that he thinks that Kawasaki has a man crush on Steve Jobs, and he also thinks that he may have a hidden agenda pushing readers towards Apple Products.

Dan Zarella said that he can’t recommend it enough.  He thinks the book is great for people who are very engaged with digital social interaction and technology (which, in my opinion, is everyone).  He says that Enchantment can help us all to connect to people in meaningful ways.

Ryan Hattaway (2011) says, “Enchantment succeeds at illustrating the important fundamentals behind connecting brands and people in meaningful ways, and picks up where most other business books leave off.  Not only was Enchantment both informative and insightful, I also found it was a refreshing review on many business strategies I’ve studied over the years.”

Bibliography

Hattaway, R. (2011, March 14). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://mogultheory.com/2011/03/business-book-review-enchantment-by-guy-kawasaki/

Kawasaki, G. (2011). Enchantment. Guy Kawasaki.

Kawasaki, G. (2011, February 24). [Video Tape Recording]. The pillars of enchantment., Forbes., Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f66naHGTsFU

King, T. (2011, June 24). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://freelanceswitch.com/general/enchantment-book-review/

Zarella, D. (2011, April 14). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/12028/Book-Review-Guy-Kawasaki-s-Enchantment.aspx

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Contact Info

To contact the author of this article, “A Summary and Review of the Book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, by Guy Kawasaki,” please email danielle.smiley@selu.edu.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

About the Publisher

David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Laborde Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.org), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. His blog, Career News 24/7, can be viewed at http://wyld-about-careers.blogspot.com/.

Texting
Texting is a great thing.  Text new people; it really helps get through the day.

Facebook
While Facebook can be rather draining after a while, it can be fun to look through.  Keep in mind it isn’t just for looking through people’s photos and reflecting on past memories.  Not that all!  Facebook is the it thing right now; take advantage of this. It’s not all about connecting with people and getting caught up with drama.  Not at all!  Get in touch with your favorite things through pages; often there are free samples, give aways and things like that.  You also can learn about things going on in the world and the world around you.  Learn more about the things that interest you. 

For example I’m very much into cars and motorcycles.  I liked MotoGP on Facebook and I’m so much more in touch with the sport than ever before.  Even in the off season I know more about what’s going on what will effect things as the season starts up!

Search for Free Samples by Mail
Avoid having to pay or do surveys.  Use trust worthy companies that you know already and have heard of.  The big thing now is to have to go to their Facebook page, like the page, then you get a form to sign up for the sample, where you input your address.

Take Breaks
Take a break every hour. Get up, go to the bathroom. It will kill some time and you’ll have gotten up which will make you feel awake

Read The News
News is interesting and kills time.  Even if you’re not that into the news, surely you can scroll through headlines just because.  AOL and Yahoo are good sources to get basic everyday news.  BBC news is good for what’s going on in the world.  Local news is interesting to find out police reports, things like who has been arrested in your town, etc.

Celebrity Gossip
I rarely do this one, but on the really slow days, I might subject myself to this.  Celebrity gossip can be amusing even if you don’t know who all the big name celebrities are.  Perez Hilton has hilarious commentary so that’s my only site of perference.

Look at Homes for Sale [in your area]
Even if you’re not buying, it’s nice to know what homes are selling in your area…and for how much.

Learn about new things
Every think about things that you wish you knew more about?  Write them down and research them when you get bored.

Look for a new job
If you’re that bored in your job, maybe it’s time to move on to bigger and better things where your skills are better utilized.  Check your companies job postings.

E-Books
Do a Google search for PDF E-Books.  PDF are usually easier to read on your work computer without hassle from others.

Image via CrunchBase

Executive Summary

The Tao of Twitter by Mark Schaefer is a great book that is all about getting the most out of your twitter account. It is somewhat of a guide to using Twitter from starting it up to the most advanced functions of Twitter. This is a great book and it really explains everything you need to know to get the most business benefits and connections out of your Twitter. Twitter is one of the most powerful marketing tools around these days. When you think about it you can talk to anyone from anywhere around the world in real-time over twitter. This creates so many business and personal opportunities that were previously unheard of.

There are three main steps to creating your own Tao of Twitter. The three steps, or ideas, are: Making targeted connections, providing meaningful content, and offering authentic helpfulness. These three steps create your path to a successful Twitter account. These three ideas when combined should grant Twitter users the most bang for their buck. Even though Twitter is free it is all about getting the most out of your Twitter and out of your tweets.

The first step is to make targeted connections. This is what the author refers to as building your tribe. This is the first step and the most important. If you don’t have a great tribe then you aren’t getting your message out to anyone that matters. You need to build your followers and following list up with people from the same industry or same set of ideas. This will help you connect with the people that actually matter. You should search terms that matter to you and find the people who talk about them so you can build up your tribe with those relevant in your field. Having a great tribe will help you get the benefits that you desire from your Twitter. The more relevant and influential people you follow and connect with the more business benefits you can gain out of your Twitter.

The second step is to provide meaningful content. This is when you provide the tribe that you have built with information that you both find relevant. There are many different ways to do this. You can tweet your own feelings about topics that are going on in the current market. You can tweet links to your own blog or others blogs that you or your followers may find interesting. You can also tweet links to articles that are currently interesting to you and your followers. This is how you really build those connections. You have conversations about topics relevant to the tribe that you have built.

The third step is to be authentically helpful. This means that you help your tribe out whenever they have a problem or a question. The key is to help them without expecting to sell anything or receive anything in return. You want them to trust you and know that you have their best interests in mind. This will cause them to connect with you on a deeper level and will provide you the most business benefits out of your Twitter and that is what Twitter is all about. It is all about connecting to people and gaining the benefits from that, not from trying to sell yourself or your product to your tribe. You want them to feel connected to you and trust you and the business benefits will begin to multiply if you follow this Tao of Twitter.

The Ten Things Managers Need to Know from The Tao of Twitter

1. Twitter is not for everyone. You must really evaluate yourself and your business to decide if Twitter is really for you. All people do not have the personality for Twitter so don’t try to force it, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work. It is better to just not do it than to do it poorly.

2. You must go all in on your Twitter. You cannot have a Twitter for your business and only give it half the attention it needs. You really need to immerse yourself in it and put in the time it takes to get everything that you want out of it. If you don’t go all in then you will not get the business benefits you want because you aren’t putting in the work for the benefits.

3. You must know the Twitter basics. You should know how to use the basic functions of twitter such as mentions, replies, ReTweets, and Direct Messages. This will help you when you are first getting started and must learn how to talk to interact with people to create connections

4. You must then learn the advanced Twitter functions. These functions will help you really gain the competitive advantage you are looking for from your Twitter. These functions include advanced searches, background changes, and promoting your tweets so more people see them.

5. You should learn how to use the Twitter Chat function. This is a great way to meet new people from your industry who may have many new ideas for you and your company. They can also provide you with new business connections that will help you gain customers, providers, or just a new friend.

6. You should know the language of Twitter. There is just as much technical jargon on Twitter as there is in football or a Doctor’s office. There is a lot of shorthand on Twitter so it is important to know what everything means. It can look like a different language and can be hard to decipher at times but it is very important.

7. You need to know the first step of the Tao of Twitter which is to make meaningful connections. This is how you surround yourself with people that are influential in your industry and are interested in the same things as you. This is the key to opening up the Twitter world to the business benefits.

8. You need to know the second step as well. You must provide meaningful content to the connections which you have made. This is what helps you relate to them and can help you make those connections deeper. This can be done by providing them with information on the industry through: tweets, ReTweets, and links to either blogs or articles.

9. The last step of the Tao of Twitter is to be authentically helpful. This means that you help your followers because you want to help them. You are not helping them because you want to receive some sort of payment for helping. You help them because it is the right thing to do. You build a lot of trust by doing this and make those connections even deeper.

10. Maybe the most important thing managers should know is that Twitter is all about people. You should not try to simply make sales and annoy customers on Twitter. You need to make those connections on personal levels because those are the strongest bonds. If you do this and follow the Tao of Twitter the business benefits should be coming soon.

Full Summary of The Tao of Twitter

Introduction

The introduction to The Tao of Twitter explains the fact that there are no written rules or guidelines to Twitter, until now! The book says that 60% of the people who start a Twitter quit it within 2 weeks. Mark Schaefer, the author of the book, believes that this is due to the fact that there is no instruction manual or guide to Twitter. This book is that instruction manual for Twitter and will explain to you how to gain all of the useful benefits that Twitter has to offer on both a personal and business level.

Chapter 1: Discovering the Tao of Twitter

Most people don’t fully understand the power that Twitter has. Even the author Mark Schaefer himself did not realize the possible implications that Twitter could have on him and his business. He says that the first tweet he received was “Its 4 A.M. in the morning” which made him think to himself what everyone initially thinks about Twitter, This is the dumbest thing ever. When people go into Twitter already thinking that it is a waste of time it doesn’t take much to get them to quit. One must really commit to Twitter to realize all of the power that comes from using this application.

Mark had his epiphany one day while he was looking at Twitter and saw a “Trending Topic” about the swine flu. A trending topic is like a national chat where everyone can communicate with one another by tweeting about the same thing. He discusses this in much more detail later in the book. While looking at this trending topic Mark realized that this was the first time that people from all around the world could communicate real time about anything. This opened his eyes to the possibilities that Twitter offers. This is a huge opportunity for marketers and entrepreneurs to communicate with their customers, suppliers, and even check up on their competitors.

The next realization that Mark made was during a severe storm in which he and many other Tennessee residents lost power. The only thing he had was Twitter to connect to the outside world. He then saw that they had others talking about an app that tracked the storm and had updates on the power outages and such. This showed the real-time capabilities of Twitter and how it could be used as more than just updating people on useless information on what they are doing today.

Image via CrunchBase

Chapter 2:  The Tao of Twitter in Action

Mark tells the story about how one tweet can open up a whole world of new business opportunities. He tweeted “Go Steelers” and someone tweeted him back talking about the football game and from there the two became friends and would talk via Twitter on occasion. Come to find out she was a social media enthusiast herself. They then began to help each other out with different blog questions and other social media related topics. They then told other people about each other’s talents and built other relationships from there. This opened a number of different opportunities for them with other bloggers and networkers. It gave Mark a chance to consult different customers whom which he would have never met if it wasn’t for Twitter and gave the woman a chance to do the same. This example shows just how powerful twitter really is. Just from one tweet about something that was completely unrelated to business a whole new world of opportunities opened itself up to both parties.

Chapter 3: The Tao Explained

There are 3 main ideas that make up the Tao of Twitter. If you combine these three ideas you should create an effective Twitter that will bring you great benefits. The first idea is to make targeted connections. This means you should follow people that have the same interests and are in the same business as you. This will connect you to important people in the industry which will help you connect with people who can help you and whom you can help with any business problems either party may be experiencing. The second idea is to provide meaningful content. If you create a following of people who are influential in your industry then you should try to get yourself out there and connect with them through meaningful content. This can be in the form of tweets or links to articles or blogs that you think are interesting and hope they think are interesting as well. This will help you really connect with your followers on a business level because they will understand what you are all about and what you are trying to do. The third idea is to be authentically helpful. This means try to help people with their problems without trying to sell anything to them. Just be genuinely nice and helpful to people. Doing this will lead to business benefits much faster and much better than just trying to sell help to people. If you show people you care about them then they will want to help you as well. If you combine all three of these basic ideas they will create your path to success which is the Tao of Twitter.

Chapter 4: The Business Benefits of Twitter

There are many different Business Benefits of Twitter. The problem is that all of them are not measurable by conventional standards. You may find it tough to measure a Return on Investment of using twitter. However the business benefits greatly outweigh the costs if you use Twitter effectively. For the most part you can get the benefits for free. You can find out what some of your competitors are doing real-time. This can help you greatly when trying to gain a competitive advantage. You can also get a pulse of the market. You can find out what people think about your company, your opponents companies, and what they want. You can find all of this out for free by just listening to what they are saying on twitter. You can also promote and advertise your business to influential twitter followers and gain the exponential power of word of mouth marketing on Twitter. One other great benefit of using twitter is to try to solve customer problems. You can see what they are saying and try to help your current customers in any way possible. This can help other customers see that you care about them and want to keep them happy.

Image via CrunchBase

Chapter 5: Tao 1: Making Targeted Connections

The first step in creating the Tao of Twitter is to make these targeted connections. This is what you do to build a great follower/following list. The author also calls it a tribe. To create a tribe of influential people you should search the terms that are important to you. If you are interested in social media marketing, then search the term and it will bring up everyone who talks about social media marketing. This is how you can find some of the influential people in your industry. You should try to get at least 200 followers so you have the potential to make more connection, the more people you connect with the better chance you have to make business connections. The main thing is to make sure that they are people who are interested in the same things as you and to make sure they are real people. You should never buy lists of followers just to make yourself look more popular on Twitter. Another way to gain the right followers is to post the link to your twitter on your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. The author lists 22 ways to help build up your influential tribe that are very helpful. These are just the main ways to start off and help you make those targeted connections.

Chapter 6: Tao 2: Providing Meaningful Content

This is step number two in the Tao of Twitter. This is the easiest step out of the three. After you build up your tribe of people with like interests and agendas you should talk about things that interest you. One of the easiest ways to do this is to provide links to different blogs and news that are interesting to your industry. You should also talk about things that aren’t about business to show a human element so people can connect with you on a more personal level as well. A really easy way to connect with your tribe is to ReTweet them. A ReTweet is when you like what someone else tweets so you basically quote them to all of your followers. This shows that you are interested in what they have to say and shared it with other people. This will also give them an inclination to really connect with you and ReTweet you and promote you to the rest of their followers. He also goes into when to tweet. You should tweet at different times of the day so you can connect with all of your followers. Everyone is not up at 6 in the morning or at 12 at night so try to spread your tweets out. He also gives a tweeting regimen for beginners. This gives beginners an idea of what they should be doing to try to provide this meaningful content to their tribe. This is very important because if you don’t provide your tribe with meaningful content then they will never really connect with you and all of those potential business benefits will never be realized.

Chapter 7: Tao 3: Offering Authentic Helpfulness

The third and final step in the Tao of Twitter is to offer authentic helpfulness. You should want to help people in your tribe for nothing in return. You should not do help people just to get paid or to get a favor in return. You should do it because you are being nice not to get people to owe you anything. If you provide this authentic helpfulness people are more likely to trust you and to help you if you are in need. If you only do things to get paid or to get favors back then no one will believe you really want to help them or that you really care about them. If people believe you want to help them then they will most likely want to help you if you are in need. This is what you want to accomplish with your tribe. You should all help one another because you care about one another not because you want anything from them.

Twitter (Photo credits: www.mysecuritysign.com)

Chapter 8: Immersion

This is where all of the technical jargon of Twitter comes into play. The author explains to you what all of the words on Twitter mean. A mention is when you directly tweet at someone, whereas a reply is when you reply to someone who mentions you. An avatar is the picture that you have on your profile. Your feed is also known as the timeline and is basically just the live feed of what everyone you follow is talking about. Hashtags are very important because this is how you search things or group tweets together. If you want to use a hashtag all you have to do is put it in front of the word and skip no spaces. This will cause the tweet to go into a separate group of tweets that all contain the same hashtag. This is where the trending topics come from. Trending topics are what everyone is talking about and are usually current events from around the world. He talks about a few other Twitter terms but those are the most important. He then talks about getting the most out of your tweets. There have been studies that show that Twitter is more about quality than quantity of tweets. This goes back to creating the meaningful content. If you post things that people actually care about you are more likely to be viewed more influential than if you tweet a thousand times a day. You should also make the first few words draw your audience in. You must understand that people are seeing tweet after tweet so you must make yours stick out to them. It is like creating an attention grabber but with only two or three words. This is one of the most technical chapters and a must read for any beginning Twitter users.

Chapter 9: Lists- The Key to Twitter Sanity

Twitter lists are a way to group your followers by category. This is very helpful once you really start building up your tribe. If you have 1,000+ people you are following you see a lot of tweets everyday so by separating them into lists you can help yourself separate tweets from different groups so you can find what you are looking for in a much faster way than looking through the tweets from all of the people you are following. You should name your lists descriptively and interestingly. People can see your lists and follow the list. If someone follows your list they will follow everyone on the list so make sure to include yourself in all of your lists.

Chapter 10: 20 Ways to Toast Your Competition

This chapter talks about a lot of ways to give you a competitive business advantage on Twitter. This is more of the business to business part of twitter even though it is really supposed to be person to person. Many of these ways will give you a chance for a great connection with your customers. It talks about listening to what your customers are saying so you can know what they really want and how to give it to them. You can run specials for your store on twitter almost like a coupon. You can also have links to different product ideas or surveys on your Twitter. The key must always be to try to keep it as human as possible. Twitter is all about real connections so try not to make it to business like or you will lose that real connection with your customers and miss out on these possible benefits.

Chapter 11: Twitter Time Savers

This chapter gives two different sets of instructions for two different types of twitter users. It gives a 20 minute challenge for beginners and a 20 minute challenge for pros. The challenge for the beginners is to try to spend at least 20 minutes a day on twitter and try to build your tribe and tweet at least once a day. The 20 minute challenge for pros is to spend at a maximum 20 minutes because if you are already set up it Twitter can take up a large amount of your time and you can get lost in reading different tweets and following links to articles. There are definitely two different styles needed for the two different groups. They also have some different apps you can use to track all of your lists and followers and the app also allows you to schedule tweets so you don’t have to send it yourself it will just be sent at a predetermined time. This can save you a lot of time on Twitter. They also have ways that you can outsource your Tweeting activity where people will tweet for you. This can be counterproductive because remember it is all about that personal connection, and you can’t connect with someone who doesn’t tweet for themselves, you are simply connecting with a random tweeter.

Image via CrunchBase

Chapter 12: Balancing the Personal and the Professional

There are three different forms of business twitters. There are the strictly professional, which tweet as the company and have a company logo as their avatar. These Twitters are all business all the time and are used to promote the brand and that is about it. There are the people who tweet on behalf of a company so they have a picture and have a twitter name associated with the company they represent. These are mostly business but also have a little bit of a personal feel but are still all about the business. The other type is an entrepreneur who owns their company and tweet as real people and as business owners. These are the Twitters that will generate the most business benefits from the personal connection they have with their tribe.

Chapter 13: Secrets of Influence on Twitter

This is a great way to integrate the Tao of Twitter. It is important to try to get connected to the biggest influencers on Twitter. You can do this by following the three steps of the Tao of Twitter. You should first follow them and maybe mention them and ReTweet them from time to time to try to gain their attention. You should also tweet meaningful content that you would both find interesting. This is a way to hopefully gain their attention and get your name out there. The last way is to be authentically helpful. If they ask a question try to answer it in an authentic way to show them that you really do want to help them. This will help you really get your name out there to the most influential people who will make you more influential to your tribe and to Twitter as a whole.

Chapter 14: Advanced Twitter Concepts

This chapter is for the Twitter pros. This chapter talks about the more in depth things you can do via Twitter. It talks about the advanced searches that you can do to really help you find what you are looking for. They also have ways to customize your background so you can put a company logo or picture as your background to show your affiliation with the company. There are ways to promote tweets so everyone will see them but it will say promoted above the tweet so you may not get the audience you want since a lot of people will look at the tweet as if it is spam. Spam is very prevalent on Twitter but they are getting better at eliminating it. While they are getting better the spammers are also getting better so it is a non-stop tug-of-war between the two. Avoiding spam is key because they can hack your profile and send out messages and tweets that you would never send.

Chapter 15: Becoming a Top Cat on Twitter Chats

Twitter Chats are like lists or hashtags that group people together and they have a live chat all around the world. You find a chat that you are interested in and you post tweets and read the ones that are in the feed of the chat and it is like having a live chatroom that is accessible anywhere in the world. This is a great meeting place for like minds and influential tweeters. It can be hard to keep up because people are tweeting so fast so there are third-party apps that you can use just for Twitter chats. You can also create your own chat for the people you want to talk to. You have to register a hashtag for the chat and even a URL to help people gather and participate in the chat. You should also create topics to talk about in the chat and questions to pose to the members in the chat.

Chapter 16: Is Twitter for Everybody

Twitter is not for everybody. Twitter is a great tool that can provide many great benefits but it isn’t for everybody. Even if you are in the right business for it, it does not fit everyone’s personality or preferences. Even if they see the benefits they may still deny the use of Twitter because they just don’t like it. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. This applies to Twitter because some people just do not like the idea of everyone knowing what they are doing at all times and don’t want to know what other people are doing every waking second of the day.

Chapter 17: Tao Power: Putting it All Together

In closing it really is all about people. You should try to follow this path, or Tao of Twitter to try to realize all of the great benefits that are possible. You must remember that you are tweeting on behalf of yourself and your business and must try to build up your connections to relevant people and have a great tribe. You must provide your tribe meaningful content to help them see what you are really all about and realize that you are alike in some ways. The final step is to be authentically helpful. This is very important because you want to earn people’s trust and help them out whenever you can.  The key is to help them because you want to and because you are nice and not because you wish to receive something in the future. If you follow this Tao of Twitter you too can realize the many benefits that others all around the world have enjoyed.

The Video Lounge

This video shows an interview with the author of The Tao of Twitter, Mark Schaefer. In this interview he explains a lot of things such as one of the conventions that they had organized and more importantly the book. He talks about why he wrote the book and what the book is really about. It is very interesting to see how much knowledge he really has on the subject.

Personal Insights

Why I think:

• With business conditions today, what the author wrote is – or is no longer true – because:

Twitter is one of the most powerful marketing tools around today. It allows businesses to communicate on a global scale much faster and much cheaper than ever before. It also allows businesses to track how their customers feel about their company and products. Twitter also allows businesses to track the market as a whole and see what they want and what their competitors are doing so they can gain a competitive advantage.

• If I were the author of the book, I would have done these three things differently:

1. I would have talked more about corporate Twitter accounts and the things that they should do to better themselves in the eyed of other people on Twitter. It was more about smaller businesses or consultants. I think it would be interesting to see what larger corporations are doing on Twitter.

2. I would have also focused more on the language of Twitter for the beginners out there. I know when I started using Twitter I was completely lost with all of the shorthand and jargon on there. I think it would be helpful and stop some people from giving up on Twitter if they understood the language.

3. I would have shortened the section on Twitter Chats because I feel like it is a cool idea but out of the 4 years I’ve been on Twitter I have never once heard anyone talk about a Twitter Chat so I feel that it is an unimportant topic to address.

• Reading this book made me think differently about the topic in these ways:

1. This book showed me the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people so you can make those business connections. It showed how you can benefit simply by talking to the right people and following them and talking to them every now and then. This can open up so many doors in the future.

2. This book showed me how much businesses really are using Twitter every day. I’ve never really thought of all of the promoted tweets and how businesses promote the trending topics and everything out there. It is crazy how much information they gain about their customers from Twitter.

3. The main thing I’ve learned from this book is how much networking you can really do by just following the steps provided in the book. There are so many benefits for businesses and personal Twitter users. If you use it the right way the possibilities are endless on Twitter.

• I’ll apply what I’ve learned in this book in my career by:

1. I will change my Twitter Profile to make it look more professional. I can put more information that businesses are looking for. I can put links to my blog and to my LinkedIn account on my Twitter and just dress it up a lot more.

2. I will also start following some people that are influential in the business field and try to stay more current and relevant with the things that are going on in the market today. I will surround myself with the right “tribe” as the author calls it.

3. I will try to conduct my Twitter more maturely and tweet more about business topics than music and sports. I am actually thinking about starting a whole new Twitter so I can start off professional and have it as a networking tool for my future career.

• Here is a sampling of what others have said about the book and its author:

Most of the reviews of this book are positive. I think they really enjoy the book because it is so current and fresh. It isn’t just a new take on a topic that has been around for 10+ years. Twitter has only been around for a short period of time so it is still new to a lot of people. One review says that the book is a blue print for how to use Twitter which I completely agree with. Another reviewer says that the book goes deeper than the just getting started stage which has never been done before so it makes the book very valuable. Almost all reviews gave the book high marks and really like the way Schaefer breaks everything down and really helps you set yourself up for Twitter success.

One review that has a negative note says that the book contains a false truth that many social media books have and that is they make it seem like a single person can be successful at social media management by themselves. They say that it takes a team to really be successful at social media management which I agree with as well.

One interviewer asked why he wrote the book and he talked about how so many people asked him for help with Twitter so he saw the need for the book and decided to help everyone out.

Bibliography

Akamatsu, R. (2012, September 16). Book review: The Tao of Twitter. Retrieved from http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-the-tao-of-twitter/

Bottom , J. (2011, March 11). Book review: The best guide to twitter you will ever read. Retrieved from http://www.b2bmarketing.net/blog/posts/2011/03/23/book-review-best-guide-twitter-you-will-ever-read

Schaefer, M. (2011). The tao of twitter: Changing your life and business 140 characters at a time. United States: McGraw-Hill.

Strutz, T. (2012, August 12). The tao of twitter: Changing your life and business 140 characters at a time. Retrieved from http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/tao-twitter-changing-your-life-and-business-140-characters-time

Roberts, J. (2012, January 12). The tao of twitter – a visit with mark schaefer. Retrieved from http://www.collectiveintellect.com/news/the-tao-of-twitter-a-visit-with-mark-schaefer/

The tao of twitter: Float or swim?. (2012, December 15). Retrieved from http://mfanotmba.com/post/38012410510/the-tao-of-twitter-float-or-swim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Contact Info

To contact the author of this article, “A Summary and Review of The Tao of Twitter by Mark, Schaefer” please email Tyler.Kampmann@selu.edu .

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

About the Publisher

David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Laborde Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.org), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding. His blog, Career News 24/7, can be viewed at http://wyld-about-careers.blogspot.com/.

Introduction

What are the best social media books of all time? This article draws upon a wealth of resources where others have suggested the best books published on the subjects of social media and Web 2.0. In doing so, the author has attempted to present a comprehensive list of the best books out there for those who want to learn more about social media and Web 2.0 to advance not just their education, but their online presence and ultimately, their career.

If you have a title that you would like to see added to a subsequent version of this article – or if you are an author who would like to see his or her work considered for inclusion in this list, please email me at dwyld@selu.edu.

The List

Here is the list – presented in alphabetical order.

A

• The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change by Jennifer Aaker

• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson

• Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson

Cover via Amazon

B

• The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund

• The Social Media Strategist: Build a Successful Program from the Inside Out by Christopher Barger

• The Executive’s Guide to Enterprise Social Media Strategy: How Social Networks Are Radically Transforming Your Business by Mike Barlow and David B. Thomas

• Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava

• Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000 by Pete Blackshaw

• Social Media ROI: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization by Olivier Blanchard

• The B2B Social Media Book: Become a Marketing Superstar by Generating Leads with Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and More by Kipp Bodnar and Jeffrey L. Cohen

• Social Media Strategies For Small Businesses by Phil Bowyer

• The Social Organization: How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of Your Customers and Employees by Anthony J. Bradley

• The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom

• Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in your Organization by Michael Brito

• Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

Cover via Amazon

C

• The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr

• United Breaks Guitars: The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media by Dave Carroll

• Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media) by C.C. Chapman

• The New Social Learning: A Guide to Transforming Organizations Through Social Media by Marcia Conner

Cover via Amazon

D-E

• Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature by Mark Earls

• Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media by Liana Evans

F

• No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing by Jason Falls and Erik Deckers

Cover via Amazon

G

• Social Marketing to the Business Customer: Listen to Your B2B Market, Generate Major Account Leads, and Build Client Relationships by Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman

• Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

• Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync? by Seth Godin

Cover via Amazon

H

• Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman

• The Social Media Survival Guide: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web by Deltina Hay

• Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday

• The Age of Conversation by Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan

• Fascinate: Unlocking the Secret Triggers of Influence, Persuasion, and Captivation by Sally Hogshead

• Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business by Jeff Howe

• The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt

I-J

• What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis

• Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel  

• Brand Like a Rock Star: Lessons from Rock ‘n’ Roll to Make Your Business Rich and Famous by Steve Jones

• The Four Stages of Highly Effective Crisis Management by Jane Jordan-Meier

Cover via Amazon

K

• The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue by Shama Kabani

• Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki

• The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture by Andrew Keen

• Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (And Other Social Networks) by Dave Kerpen

• Accelerate!: Move Your Business Forward Through the Convergence of Search, Social & Content Marketing by Arnie Kuenn

• Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue by Jim F. Kukral

Cover via Amazon

L

• Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself (Que Biz-Tech) by Kyle Lacy

• Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 by Sarah Lacy

• Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

• Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies [Expanded and Revised Edition] by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

• The Cluetrain Manifesto by Christopher Locke, Rick Levine, Doc Searls and David Weinberger

M

• 30 Days to Social Media Success: The 30 Day Results Guide to Making the Most of Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIn, and Facebook by Gail Martin

• Real-Time Marketing and PR by David Meerman-Scott

• The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott

• The Social Customer: How Brands Can Use Social CRM to Acquire, Monetize, and Retain Fans, Friends, and Followers by Adam Metz

• Do It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules by Mike Moran

N-O-P

• Measure What Matters by Katie D. Paine

• Pre-Commerce: How Companies and Customers Are Transforming Business Together by Bob Pearson

• Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements by Robbin Phillips

• The New Age of Innovation: Driving Co-created Value Through Global Networks by C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan

Cover via Amazon

Q

• Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business by Erik Qualman

R

• Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution by Howard Rheingold

• Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide to Creating Passionate Customers to Your Brand by Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi

S

• The Tao of Twitter: Changing your life and business 140 characters at a time by Mark Schaefer

• Return on Influence by Mark Schaefer

• Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing: An Unofficial, Practical Guide to Selling & Developing B2B Business on LinkedIn by Neal Schaffer

• Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success by Dan Schawbel

• The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly [3rd Edition] by David Meerman Scott

• Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky

• The New Relationship Marketing: How to Build a Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web by Mari Smith

• The Social Media Management Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Get Social Media Working in your Business by Nick Smith and Robert Wollan with Catherine Zhou

• Engage! The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build,  Cultivate and Measure Success in the New Web. Revised and Updated by Brian Solis

• The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution by Brian Solis

• The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet by Daniel J. Solove

• Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition by Michael A. Stelzner

• The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki   

T

• Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World by Don Tapscott

• Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

• The Executive’s Guide to Enterprise Social Media Strategy: How Social Networks Are Radically Transforming Your Business by David B. Thomas and Mike Barlow

• HeadStrong: The Keys To A Confident And Positive Attitude During Job Search by Tim Tyrell-Smith

U-V

• The Conversation Manager: The Power of the Modern Consumer/The End of the Traditional Advertiser by Steven Van Belleghem

• The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk

• Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

W

• Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age by Duncan J. Watts

• The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web by Tamar Weinberg

• The NEW Elevator Pitch by Chris Westfall

• Social Media Boot Camp: Wiki of Strategy by Mark M. Whelan

XYZ

• Hierarchy of Contagiousness by Dan Zarrella

• The Social Media Marketing Book by Dan Zarrella

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

About the Author

David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Business News 24/7, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/. He also serves as the Director of the Reverse Auction Research Center (http://reverseauctionresearch.org), a hub of research and news in the expanding world of competitive bidding.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The best Facebook social applications allow users to connect with friends in similar businesses, share tips about how to run their businesses, and remind them to visit and connect. The main differences in these applications involve the topics on which people connect. Here is my list of top Facebook social and business applications by topic:

Facebook Business Applications for those Who Share Social Media Connections

Empire Avenue allows you to meet friends, ask for favors, by buying and selling shares in people hoping to connect. You can easily see how much social activity they are involved in my joining their connections at such places as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, blogs etc. Share prices are based on participation at Empire Avenues, social media and by connections.

Xeeme Engage allows you to track friends in using a phone based app Xeeme which provides a similar list to Empire Avenue without the social activity.

Facebook Social Applications for those Who Love to Share Books

Goodreads is the most popular, allowing users to add the books they are reading, connect with friends, shares their favorite books and suggest books to their friends. Shelfari is similar to Goodreads. The Facebook applications tracks your participation.

Facebook Social Applications for those Who Love to Share News

Mashable is by far the most popular way to share news; the Facebook application tracks your participation. Digg is similar.

Facebook Social Applications for those Who Love to Share Media Interests

Get Glue allows you to share your favorite television shows, books, movies, etc; the Facebook application tracks your participation.

Facebook Social Applications for those Who Love to Share Pictures

Pinterest allows you to pin a photo and associated link to an article or other media; the Facebook application allows you to post pictures and track your participation.

Slideshare allows you to build a slideshow explaining some experience or knowledge; the Facebook application shares your participation.

Facebook Business Applications for Sharing Your Resume

LinkedIn is by far the most popular, allowing you to see the activity you participate in within LinkedIn. LinkedIn helps provide job tips, connects you to school mates and business colleagues.

Branchout is similar to LinkedIn but is a Facebook application only. It allows you to refer and rate friends.

Facebook Business Applications for Sharing Your Knowledge By Answering Questions

Quora is a tool where you answer questions about various topics; the application tracks your participation.

Storylane is a tool where you answer questions about your life and what you like to do; the application tracks your participation.

One of the biggest positive things about Publish Us is its’ simplicity and beautiful layout. The website is not cluttered with annoying ads and just looks nice. You can search for articles on a variety of topics, browse through new articles or communicate with other users. 

The way you make money is quite easy:

1. Click here to register. You can use Facebook, or simply register with your email address.
2. Go to your Dashboard.
3. Press New Article and write your first article.
4. Submit your article for review.

Once your article is approved, it will start to earn you money for every view. At the end of each month, the earnings are calculated. You get your payment via PayPal. Best of all, there is no minimum payment!

Check out Publish Us and let me know how you like it.

Fortunately, there is a huge amount of resources out there for the aspiring Tweeter to find and use for their own purposes. It’s almost overwhelming how much help is out there, and almost all of it is valid. Twitter is a lot more informal than a full blog or even most other social networking sites, so there’s lots of different ways to approach it. Finding what works for you is what is important, and this list of resources will hopefully help you find a way to get started with Twitter in a way that you’ll get the most use out of it.

Twitter for Beginners from TwiTip

TwiTip is a great site for people getting started with Twitter, and the Beginner’s Guide category is truly helpful. There’s loads of posts on how to get started with Twitter, be it how to use Follow Friday right down to basic Twitter etiquette. Definitely give this list of posts a read if you want to get started.

Twitter Tips for Starters

This is another good and concise list for people starting with Twitter. It’s not very long, but it gives you a good starting point for opening your account and your first few tweets, at which point you can look at the more thorough guides on how to use Twitter.

The Ultimate Twitter Guide

This really does live up to its name. It’s a massive list of links and advice for people to explore and peruse at their own leisure. There’s something for everyone here, be it people just getting started on Twitter or even Twitter experts. It’s the best list I’ve seen on the internet yet and I’d feel cheap if I didn’t include it here for you to look at.

Three Useful Twitter Tools

These three tools are mandatory usage for people looking to get a quick start on Twitter. Including websites which help you gain and manage your followers, plus a tool designed to help you manage your Twitter accounts, this list is a must read for anybody looking to get started on twitter.

MTV will remember the epic hit — which spawned dance moves and pop culture phrases such as “GTL” and “smushing” — with a one-hour retrospective special appropriately dubbed, “Gym, Tan, Look Back.”

“Jersey Shore” castmate Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola took to Twitter to thank fans for supporting the show following the goodbye announcement.

“It’s been one hell of a ride but this is just the beginning!” she Tweeted on Thursday. “Thank you all for your love & support throughout the seasons!! These memories will never be forgotten!!”

Paul (DJ Pauly D) DelVecchio also weighed in on Twitter.

“All Good Things Must Come To An End, But #TeamDJPaulyD Lives On And It’s Just Getting Started !!!” he wrote. “Tweet I AM #TeamDJPaulyD If You With Me!”

“Gym, Tan, Look Back” is set to air at 6 PM on Thursday, September 6 (ahead of the 2012 Video Music Awards).

“Jersey Shore” Season 6 premieres on Thursday, October 4, at 10 PM on MTV.

—————————————————————————————————————–

The following is a synopsis from the romantic/erotic/action/thriller, First Degree Lust, from this author:

A night out on the town was all Dennis had in mind. He wasn’t looking for a hookup or even a one-nightstand. But a few spins on the dance floor with Minako quickly lead to much more in her bedroom. And after just one steamy night the married woman decided that she wanted Dennis all to herself, permanently. Not wanting to fall into an escape-proof love trap with a married woman, Dennis succeeds in breaking away from Minako.
 
But his issue with Minako ends up being far from over when she’s found brutally murdered and the evidence points to him. Becoming the subject of an irresistibly huge and highly-publicized bounty imposed by Minako’s immensely wealthy husband, Tetsuya, Dennis spends an entire weekend trying to stay out of the clutches of ragtag bounty hunters while the city is nearly set ablaze.
 
He succeeds in clearing his name only to find his life in even graver danger. Someone is now trying to kill him. Who’s trying to kill him and why? And what’s the connection between the people who now want him dead and Minako’s murder?

Intrigued? Go to http://www.lulu.com/shop/actionsammy/first-degree-lust/paperback/product-20336201.html to order your copy now!