I have just finished reading some more of Twitterville.  I got the book almost 3 months ago,  but I am a slow reader,  and I find myself spending more and more time posting and paying attention to what is going on in the “Twittersphere” which @shelisrael calls Twitterville. 

I suppose that this experience of mine is one of the better recommendations for Twitterville,  since my response is not to post things like “Great read”  (which it is)  but to keep noticing things based on observations and cases that Shel has narrated and documented so well. 

It’s one of those books that many people who have not read it will often scoff and automatically think that here is yet another book milking the popularity of a trendy topic.  “I need to write a book on Twitter and become rich”.  Well,  this is the only BOOK I have and am likely to read that focuses solely on Twitter.  The rest of the insight and inspiration I get re: Twitter is going to come from Twitterville the place,  not Twitterville the book.  (Except for those further insights I might gain from the remaining 24 pages).  Sometime after that,  I will be posting my wholehearted recommendation in the form of a much more extensive series of posts and tweets.

I also cannot stress enough how important I consider Twitterville (or something like it in coverage and insight)  for groups such as churches.  I am in the process of developing a twitterlist called socialmediaologists,  in which Shel is included along with others.  These are people who look at Social Media sociologically and talk about how people use it and how it works,  and these things are crucial for the communicator to understand.  They concern themselves with user interface,  performance issues around usage,  tools and what people are up to in creating new ones,  and these sociologists often bring their own passions and sense of morality/social values (and spiritual)  into the picture.  I keep track of what these people think of what’s out there,  and what’s going on.  The church communicators and yes,  even Web site designer/builders would do well to pay heed to these.