Holiday Carol: O Little Town of Twitterville

Sung to the tune of the carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” 

O little town of Twitterville,
Thy Tweeps are far and wide,
And with their sweet and endless tweets,
The hashtags all go by.
Yet though the Fail Whale cometh,
When they want news the most,
Thy conversations keep them warm,
And happy coast to coast.

When at their work or in their homes,
Short text they love to send,
To share a funny URL,
Or follow a new friend.
For email is so 1.0,
And blogs take long to read,
One hundred forty characters
Are best for what they need.

Though snarky weenies sneer at you
And say you have no worth,
You have proven your worthiness
To many folks on Earth.
From Mumbai to the Hudson,
Iran to Sichuan,
You help us build community
In hopes we’ll all be one.

FYI, this is the first ever “Twitmas Carol” and was tweeted by The Marketing Consigliere (Allinio’s President, Joe Zuccaro) on December 20, 2009.  Not a great claim to fame, but it’s fun to say this.

Here’s a good holiday stocking stuffer to give the Marketer in your life who should start 2010 smarter.  Like the last book that The Marketing Consigliere recommended you to read, Twitterville by Shel Israel is an exemplary study on the growing microblogging phenomenon Twitter.

Twitterville is a very good, comfortable read for anyone that needs convincing whether Twitter is right for their organization. In the book, Shel traces the origins of Twitter, its use during significant events around the world, and documents a multitude of individuals and organizations that are using Twitter to have conversations with their respective audiences.

Israel quotes the people behind the tweets, giving their voice as witness to the utility of Twitter.  Richard Binhammer of Dell calls it a “nonstop feedback loop;” and Tony Hsieh of Zappos says, “Twitter allows us to both build and expose company culture internally to employees and externally to customers.”  Wisely, Shel also warns you of the “Dark Streets” of Twitterville, which unfortunately like anything else digital, is prone to opportuntists who spam and scam.

Even seasoned Twitterati will enjoy this book; dozens of them helped provide Shel with leads to good stories that he documented and elaborated on to illustrate his points.  And being a “Man for All Seasons,” Shel did the right thing and credited those people in his Acknowledgements, including acquaintances of The Marketing Consigliere such as Justin Thorpe of Clearspring fame and other noted area social media leaders such as Shonali Burke.

The Marketing Consigliere is also in the book under his old Twitter handle @WebConsigliere (now @joezuc) and is grateful to Shel that he recognized the interesting story that 2008 B2B Twitterer of the Year winner @UnitedLinen was and included them and their marketing director, Scott Townsend, in Chapter 9, “B2Bs Are People Too” in Twitterville.

So take a trip – buy Twitterville; you’ll see what all the fuss is about regarding Twitter.  You’ll also get a lot out of reading the book and even more out of “staying” in Twitterville .