140 Characters : A Style Guide for the Short Form

by Sagolla, Dom

• ISBN13: 9780470556139
• ISBN10: 0470556137
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-12
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Writing in the short form (140-160 characters) is not limited to Twitter, but other forms of social networking, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Sagolla offers a style guide for how to best use the 140 characters, and discusses the importance of simplicity, honesty, and humor.

Author Biography

Dom Sagolla helped create Twitter while working for Odeo in 2006. He grew up in New England before attending Swarthmore College, where he earned an English Literature degree in 1996 and created Dom.net. A software engineer in Silicon Valley during the dot-com boom, Dom returned to get his Masters in Education from Harvard University in 2000. Since then he has helped build Macromedia Studio, Odeo Studio, the original Twttr, Adobe Creative Suite, and now produces iPhone applications with his company DollarApp in San Francisco.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Foreword	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xv
The Short Form	p. xv
The History of Twitter	p. xvii
Lead	p. 1
Describer: A Brief Digression to Discuss Journalism Is Warranted	p. 7
Observe the Truth	p. 10
Play with Perspective	p. 11
Lead with Action	p. 13
Simplify: Say More with Less	p. 15
Constrain Yourself to the Atomic Unit of One Message	p. 16
Appreciate Craftsmanship as a Thousand small Gestures	p. 18
Start Small and Serve a Special Niche	p. 19
Limit Yourself to One Sentence, One Thought	p. 21
Avoid: Don't Become a Fable about Too Much Information	p. 23
Remember What Not to Do	p. 25
Find Your Lowest Common Denominator	p. 28
Divine a Strategy against Too Much Information	p. 29
Practice Self-Defense	p. 30
Reinforce, Don't Replace, Real Life	p. 32
Value	p. 35
Voice: Say It Out Loud	p. 39
Extend Your Range	p. 41
Build Your Repertoire	p. 43
Strengthen and Amplify	p. 44
Reach: Understand Your Audience	p. 46
Measure Reader Engagement	p. 47
Gauge the Reaction to Your Message	p. 48
Identify Your Fans	p. 50
Repeat: It Worked for Shakespeare	p. 53
Enable Repetition of Your Message	p. 53
Repeat the Words of Others, Adding Your Mark in the Process	p. 56
Exploit the Twitter Effect	p. 56
Mention: Stamp Your Own Currency	p. 58
Design Your Mark	p. 59
120 Is the New 140	p. 61
Post One or Two Replies, Then Take It Offline	p. 62
Dial: Search for Silence, Volume, and Frequency	p. 64
Pipe Up Just When It's Quiet	p. 64
Understand the Use of Capitals	p. 65
Discover Your "Office Hours"	p. 66
Link: Deduce the Nature of Short Messages	p. 70
Study the Anatomy of a Single Message	p. 70
Share the Power of Hypertext	p. 71
Change the Meaning of Words by Linking Them	p. 72
Word: Expose the Possibilities in Phraseology, Poetry, and Invention	p. 74
Design Your Own Pattern	p. 76
Build Your Own Lexicon by Inventing New Words	p. 81
Poetry Is a Guide	p. 89
Master	p. 95
Tame: Apply Multiple Techniques Toward the Same End	p. 101
Technology Will Consume Us If We Don't Learn to Control It	p. 102
Discover the Antidote to Each of 12 Stages	p. 104
Manage Multiple Accounts Effectively	p. 108
Remember: It's All about Timing	p. 109
Cultivate: Meet 140 Characters, Each with a Unique Story	p. 110
Create a Culture of Fun	p. 110
Imagine Your Audience	p. 112
Focus on Learning	p. 113
Branch: Steady, Organic Growth Is Most Manageable	p. 115
Don't Let Success Go to Your Head	p. 115
Do the Same Thing, but Differently	p. 116
Never Stop	p. 118
Evolve	p. 123
Filter: Teach the Machine to Think Ahead	p. 129
A Little Programming Goes a Long Way	p. 131
Breaking Things Is a Path to Learning	p. 133
Open: Give and You Shall Receive	p. 135
Go Positive	p. 136
Never Limit Yourself to One Platform	p. 138
Imitate: There Is Nothing Original, Except in Arrangement	p. 140
Become an Apprentice	p. 140
Take Someone Else's Style One Step Further	p. 141
Create a Caricature of Yourself	p. 142
Iterate: Practice a Sequence of Tiny Adjustments	p. 144
Write Everywhere and Often	p. 144
Games for Words	p. 145
Ignite Change	p. 146
Accelerate	p. 149
Increase: Do More	p. 153
Produce a Series on a Short Subject	p. 153
Manufacture Velocity	p. 155
Exceed Constraints	p. 157
Fragment: Do It Smaller	p. 158
Decrease the Size of the Atomic Unit, the Message	p. 158
Embrace Ambiguity	p. 159
Recommended Reading	p. 161
Glossary	p. l65
Index	p. 173
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.