140 Characters E-Book

Dom Sagolla

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 175

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Make the most of your messages on Twitter, Facebook, and othersocial networking sites The advent of Twitter and other social networking sites, as wellas the popularity of text messaging, have made short-formcommunication an everyday reality. But expressing yourself clearlyin short bursts-particularly in the 140-character limit ofTwitter-takes special writing skill. In 140 Characters, Twitter co-creator Dom Sagolla coversall the basics of great short-form writing, including theimportance of communicating with simplicity, honesty, and humor.For marketers and business owners, social media is an increasinglyimportant avenue for promoting a business-this is the first writingguide specifically dedicated to communicating with the succinctnessand clarity that the Internet age demands. * Covers basic grammar rules for short-form writing * The equivalent of Strunk and White's Elements of Stylefor today's social media-driven marketing messages * Helps you develop your own unique short-form writing style 140 Characters is a much-needed guide to the kind ofcommunication that can make or break a reputation online.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

The Short Form

The History of Twitter

Part One - LEAD

Lead by Example

Chapter 1 - Describe A Brief Digression to Discuss Journalism Is Warranted

Observe the Truth

Play with Perspective

Lead with Action

Chapter 2 - Simplify Say More with Less

Constrain Yourself to the Atomic Unit of One Message

Appreciate Craftsmanship as a Thousand Small Gestures

Start Small and Serve a Special Niche

Limit Yourself to One Sentence, One Thought

Chapter 3 - Avoid Don’t Become a Fable about Too Much Information

Remember What Not to Do

Find Your Lowest Common Denominator

Divine a Strategy against Too Much Information

Practice Self-Defense

Reinforce, Don’t Replace, Real Life

Part Two - VALUE

Chapter 4 - Voice Say It Out Loud

Extend Your Range

Build Your Repertoire

Strengthen and Amplify

Chapter 5 - Reach Understand Your Audience

Measure Reader Engagement

Gauge the Reaction to Your Message

Identify Your Fans

Chapter 6 - Repeat It Worked for Shakespeare

Enable Repetition of Your Message

Repeat the Words of Others, Adding Your Mark in the Process

Exploit the Twitter Effect

Chapter 7 - Mention Stamp Your Own Currency

Design Your Mark

120 Is the New 140

Post One or Two Replies, then Take It Offline

Chapter 8 - Dial Search for Silence, Volume, and Frequency

Pipe Up Just When It’s Quiet

Understand the Use of CAPITALS

Discover Your “Office Hours”

Chapter 9 - Link Deduce the Nature of Short Messages

Study the Anatomy of a Single Message

Share the Power of Hypertext

Change the Meaning of Words by Linking Them

Chapter 10 - Word Expose the Possibilities in Phraseology, Poetry, and Invention

Design Your Own Pattern

Build Your Own Lexicon by Inventing New Words

Poetry Is a Guide

Part Three - MASTER

Tame

Cultivate

Branch

Chapter 11 - Tame Apply Multiple Techniques Toward the Same End

Technology Will Consume Us If We Don’t Learn to Control It

Discover the Antidote to Each of 12 Stages

Manage Multiple Accounts Effectively

Remember: It’s All about Timing

Chapter 12 - Cultivate Meet 140 Characters, Each with a Unique Story

Create a Culture of Fun

Imagine Your Audience

Focus on Learning

Chapter 13 - Branch Steady, Organic Growth Is Most Manageable

Don’t Let Success Go to Your Head

Do the Same Thing, but Differently

Never Stop

Part Four - EVOLVE

Filter

Open

Imitate

Iterate

Chapter 14 - Filter Teach the Machine to Think Ahead

A Little Programming Goes a Long Way

Breaking Things Is a Path to Learning

Chapter 15 - Open Give and You Shall Receive

Go Positive

Never Limit Yourself to One Platform

Chapter 16 - Imitate There Is Nothing Original, Except in Arrangement

Become an Apprentice

Take Someone Else’s Style One Step Further

Create a Caricature of Yourself

Chapter 17 - Iterate Practice a Sequence of Tiny Adjustments

Write Everywhere and Often

Games for Words

Ignite Change

Part Five - ACCELERATE

Increase

Fragment

Chapter 18 - Increase Do More

Produce a Series on a Short Subject

Manufacture Velocity

Exceed Constraints

Chapter 19 - Fragment Do It Smaller

Decrease the Size of the Atomic Unit, the Message

Embrace Ambiguity

Recommended Reading

Glossary

Index

Praise for 140 Characters

“Inspired by new mediums of publishing such as Twitter, this book provides a refreshing look at the breadth of linguistic techniques that shine with the advent of the modern short form.”

—Britt Selvitelle, Front End Engineering Lead,Twitter, Inc.

“In the midst of all the conflicting hype about Twitter, Dom Sagolla has produced a veritable bible that will guide anyone in participating in the most interesting social networking phenomenon of the past several years (without appearing to be a newbie!). His deep insights will inform both beginners and longtime Twitter users alike, and his inimitable style makes it an enjoyable read!”

—Andrew C. Stone,@twittelator ofstone.com

“With 140 Characters, @Dom has captured and conveyed the potent new short form language of the emergent twenty-first century Twitterverse in a way that only a master practitioner and true pioneer can.”

—Bruce Damer, Virtual Worlds pioneer and author of Avatars (PeachPit Press, 1997)

“Reading 140 Characters, I found out how to create value and look cool using Twitter.”

—Gifford Pinchot, Co-founder and President Emeritus of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, and author of Intrapreneuring (Harper Collins, 1986)

“Timeless.”

—@AdamJackson

“Provocative.”

—@Susan

“Illuminating.”

—@MarkLukach

“Essential.”

—@bmf

“Insightful.”

—@Case

“Quotable.”

—@ChristopherA

“Literary.”

—@Vigoda

Copyright © 2009 by Dom Sagolla.All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation.You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at [phone], outside the United States at [phone] or fax [phone].

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com.

eISBN : 978-0-470-58838-3

For @Meredith

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Case,Varese, Britt, and Jack for encouraging me.

Thanks to my son Leo for inspiring me.

Thanks to Adam for joining me.

Thanks to Jenna for writing about this.

Thanks to Erin for reading on a weekend.

Thanks to Shannon, Deborah, and Matt for picking me up.

Thanks to my reviewers and contributors, especially Mom, Dad, Mer, Mark, Vigoda, Erik, Andrew, and Alex for comments, and Miguel for the feather.

Thanks to Schwa for working on the Hypertext Edition.

Thank you for helping to make this work better by emailing [email protected] or visiting www.140characters.com.

Foreword

What you’re holding in your hands is a set of guidelines. A collection of protocols which describe an approach to another protocol, something we call Twitter.

The amazing thing about this particular protocol is that it’s being defined daily. By you. Twitter was inspired by the concepts of immediacy, transparency, and approachability, and created by the guiding principles of simplicity, constraint, and craftsmanship. We started small. We built something out of love and a desire to see it flourish throughout the world. We defined a mere 1 percent of what Twitter is today. The remaining 99 percent has been, and will continue to be, created by the millions of people who make this medium their own, tweet by tweet.

I leave you now in the capable hands of a documentarian, storyteller, and practitioner of a new protocol of communication. Listen, learn, and most importantly, define it for yourself.

—Jack Dorsey Creator, Co-founder, & Chairman, Twitter, Inc. San Francisco

Introduction

The irony of 40,000 words on the topic of 140 characters is not lost. This book began as a work in hypertext, published online bit by bit. One of those bits (“How Twitter Was Born,” the basis for this Introduction) resulted in an interview, and the project was written up in the New York Times. That article charmed a mighty agent of letters in New York City, who engaged the fleet publishers of John Wiley & Sons.

Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.

—Blaise Pascal, 1657 (Translation: I have only made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter.)

This introduction contains some definitions, a brief history, and a caveat. Feel free to skip to Chapter 1 for the first lesson, on leadership. I will proceed to tell you the ways that I do things, but I fully expect you to do whatever you want anyway.This is my first book, and I’m publishing it simply to get a break from reciting its contents.

Use this book as a guide, the way you would use a field manual for camping or travel. Use it to discover a new genre of literature.

The Short Form

The combination of short and instant message services, status appliances, and social networks has created an audience that both is voracious and has a deficit of attention.

We as readers define the short form within the limits of our own attention. Material that makes a reader react and subscribe becomes successful, while other attempts fall by the side. We witness literary natural selection as people publicly endorse each other’s messages.

Constraints can define a genre. Screenplays, for example, have a certain style due to the constraints of the form. Stray outside of that convention and the work becomes something else.

The short form may be recognized by several unique features. It is measured in number of characters, it is time-sensitive and serial, but it also allows for hypertext. Just as constraints can define the genre, so too do they necessitate style. Any genre is measured by its expressiveness.

Short messaging has a long and increasingly humble history of expressive creativity, from the first telegraph message in 1844:

What hath God wrought?

—Samuel Morse

to the first SMS (short message service) text message sent over mobile in 1991, said to be:

Merry Christmas

to the first man-made tweet in 2006:

We have also seen a compression of time between innovations.

At the heart of these innovations are simply words.The tale of each creation is marked by moments of inspiration and lessons learned along the way. Allow me to share a few moments and some lessons we learned while creating Twitter.

The History of Twitter

The entire Internet as we know it is barely a teenager, instant messaging (IM) a toddler, and the short form a mere babe in comparison. Social networking was just one of an emerging class of “Web Apps” only a few years ago.When Facebook was born in 2004, mobile applications like SMS had barely gotten started in the United States.

While Facebook remained closed to the general public (only certain higher education students and alumni were allowed in at first), alternative online community platforms exploded and fizzled. In 2005, the buzz was around “user-generated content.” It seemed like rich, mobile media was the future of the Internet, and podcasting was on the rise.

The service now known as Twitter was hatched in early 2006 as a side project by: @Jack Dorsey, @Biz Stone, @Noah Glass,@Crystal Taylor, @Jeremy LaTrasse, @Adam Rugel, @TonyStubblebine, @Ev Williams, myself (@Dom Sagolla), Evan “@Rabble” Henshaw-Plath, @RayReadyRay McClure, @Florian Weber, @TimRoberts, and @Blaine Cook. We worked at a podcast company called Odeo, Inc. in South Park, San Francisco, and had just contributed a major chunk of open source code and shipped the software for Odeo Studio.

I had been brainstorming with Ben @Vigoda at the MIT Media Lab, and invited him to visit Odeo. He gave a talk outlining our ideas for ongoing, asynchronous group discussion via cell phone. Ben suggested converting Odeo’s existing AudioBlogger technology into a kind of group voicemail dispatch service where people could both post and listen to ongoing conversations.

AudioBlogger was our only revenue-generating product at the time, based on a small deal we had with Google to record audio and send it automatically to Blogger.com. The service was designed and built by Odeo co-founder @Noah Glass, who was very keen on Ben’s and my idea of a “mobile listening post.”

AudioBlogger and our podcast directory with casual recording tools didn’t generate the level of usage that we had expected, however. This, along with tremendous competition from Apple and other heavyweights, sapped the optimism of our investors and the Odeo corporate board.We were forced to reinvent ourselves.

Rebooting or reinventing the company started with a daylong brainstorming session. We broke into teams to talk about our best ideas. @Florian and I chose to be in @Jack’s group, where he first described a service that uses SMS to tell small groups what you are doing.

@Jack described an idea he’d had since 2001 called “Stat.us” (see www.flickr.com/photos/jackdorsey/182613360). His concept was based on early experience with LiveJournal’s status feature during a time when he was writing software for dispatch couriers. “I want to have a dispatch service that connects us on our phones using text,” he said.

His idea was to make it dead simple for anyone to just type something and send it to multiple other phones, and to the Web. Typing something on your phone in those days meant you were probably messing with T9 text input, unless you were sporting a relatively rare smartphone. Even so, we got the idea instantly and wanted it.

Later, each group presented their ideas, and a few of them were selected for prototyping. Days and weeks of demos ensued, in a survival of agility. @Blaine, @Rabble, and I each had prototypes for sharing status via voice instead of text. The mobile listening post concept made it quite far along into the working stages.@Jack’s strictly text proposal rose to the top as a combination of these and other status-type ideas. @Jack, @Biz, and @Florian were assigned to build version 0.1, managed by @Noah. The rest of the company focused on maintaining Odeo.com, so that if this new thing flopped we’d have something to fall back on.

The first version of @Jack’s idea was entirely Web-based. It was created on March 21, 2006. His message, and the first messages of the other joiners, was automated by the system.The first truly substantive message was prompted by hand:

That first prediction was quickly borne out as we each signed up to communicate with each other at all times, wherever we might be.

We struggled with a code name and a product name. “It’s FriendStalker!” joked @Crystal, our most prolific user. The user base was limited entirely to the company and our immediate families. No one from a major company of any kind was allowed. For months, we were in Top Secret Alpha, because of competing products like the now-defunct Dodgeball, txtmob, and UPOC.

The original product name/code name, twttr, was inspired by Flickr and the fact that American SMS application names (or short codes) are five characters long. @Florian was commuting from Germany, so to operate with him we secured a “long code” or a full 10-digit phone number, linked to a small-potatoes gateway. Twttr probably had about 50 users in those days.

I followed everyone on the system at first. We had an Administrative page where you could see who was signing up. It was our only means to compile a “public timeline” back then. As the sole test engineer for the company, it seemed like my duty to watch for opinions or issues from our users. This caused some confusion, though, when family members of our team suddenly found themselves being followed by a person they didn’t know.

Thus, Private Accounts were born. @Jack and @Florian created a means for users to mark themselves private, and we admins had the ability to tell who wanted to be private so we’d know not to follow them.There were about 100 users when Private was invented (now called “Protected”).

At the outset, the interaction model and the visual metaphor for the service were constantly in flux.There was no “Twictionary” or cheat-sheet back then; data in the system were referred to as posts or just messages.The lack of clear terminology caused some spirited debates leading up to the spring of 2006.

We launched Twttr Alpha on @Ev’s birthday, March 31, 2006, just 10 days after it was born.We could now invite a slightly larger circle of friends, but still excluding any large companies (with a few trusted exceptions within places like Google). We all knew that we were going to change the world with this thing that no one else understood. That day stands out in memory as the deep breath before a baby’s first cry.

Meanwhile, Odeo management and the venture capitalists were at a tension point. Not only was the value of Twttr difficult to quantify, the relevance of Odeo was declining rapidly. Drastic cuts were recommended. One day in early May 2006, @Ev let four of the 14 employees go: myself, @Rabble, @Adam, and@TonyStubblebine. @Noah and @TimRoberts would later be asked to leave as well.

Looking back on it, our continued use of Twitter after our departure allowed us to stay connected when we might not have otherwise been.After all, we weren’t even public with the site yet, so each of us continued to add value just by using it. Odeo itself was bought back from the investors by @Ev, and then rolled into a holding corporation called Obvious Corp, LLC.

In July 2006, Obvious launched Twttr.com to the public. Still, very few people understood its value. At the time, most people were paying per SMS message and worried that Twttr would run up the bills.

“How and why should we use this thing?” and “Who cares what I’m doing?” they’d ask. Each one of the founding users became a kind of personal evangelist for Twttr, endeavoring to convince our coworkers and friends to use it.

One feature was a big part of Twttr’s early attraction. On July 28, 2006:

Direct message (DM) is the way to contact another Twttr user privately.You can send a direct message only to someone who has chosen to follow you. The asymmetrical subscription model of Twitter distinguishes it from other social networking tools like Facebook, which requires mutual subscription.

Immediately following the DM feature, an application programming interface (API) was developed.The API allowed first the company engineers, then third-party developers to create Web, desktop, and mobile applications that interfaced with Twttr as alternatives to Twttr.com and SMS. These “clients” make “calls” directly to the servers for data.

An API is considered the key to a service’s early success and adoption rate. An early success with the API was TwitterVision, a Web application that shows Twitter messages on a world map as they happen, which landed in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

@Jack was still just an engineer, and the public service was only a few months old when Obvious acquired the domain name Twitter.com and rebranded. Back then, there was no character limit on our system. Messages longer than 160 characters (the specified SMS carrier limit) were split into multiple texts and delivered (somewhat) sequentially. There were other bugs, and a mounting SMS bill.

The team decided to place a limit on the number of characters that would go out via SMS for each post. They settled on 140, to leave room for the username and the colon in front of the message. One day in February 2007, @Jack wrote something which inspired me to get started on this project:

That day I created 140characters.com, convinced that @Jack was right.The evolution of Twitter then underwent drastic acceleration. A Twitter update, instead of simply being listed in a timeline, was also given its own individual Web page. Twitter accounts got automatic syndication (RSS). @Blaine pushed for IM integration. Each major feature added tremendous gains in users and in usage per user.

Odeo, the service, was put up for sale so that Obvious Corp could focus completely on Twitter. Just in time for the media/technology conference South by Southwest (SxSW) in March of 2007, @RayReadyRay rigged a Flash-based visualizer intended for display in the halls of the conference.

I happened to be at the Twitter office in SF when the visualizer went live onsite in Austin, Texas. When people filtered out of their sessions, they could see their recent comments floating along the hallway screens. Twitter won an award at SxSW in the Blog category.