The books in the bags were books I’ve had in my bookcase for years. Most of them were purchased for very specific research on topics like appreciative inquiry or psychographics, or simply because they were popular at the time. They were all business related. I gave them to Goodwill because I couln’t find a good reason to recommend them. They simply didn’t stand out in my memory.

The Tipping Point didn’t make it into the bags.

I liked The Tipping Point. It was a quick read with a lot of interesting points to make and a book that lots of other people enjoyed as well.  It is among a half-dozen other books that didn’t make it into the bag, but won’t be taking up permanent residence on my bookshelf. It’s also book I would have purchased for myself had it not been given to me as a gift on 4/21/2000. And if you haven’t read it yet, I’d like it to be my gift to you.

How to get The Tipping Point for free.

Just leave a comment below indicating that you haven’t read this book yet. I’ll randomly select one of the comments and send the book. But here’s the catch: When you read it, you have to write a review, then pass it on to someone else. It’s good to share.

Next on my giveaway list?  A book on blogging. 

He asked if I knew how to create that kind of link and I said I did, but that it would take more than 140 characters to explain. So, he sent me the text he wanted and I created the link for him. You can see how he used it on the link to “@realhughjackman” near the end of Matt’s post about MFFO.

In making the link, it occurred to me that there should be an easy way for anyone to do this.

So, today I passed the objectives on to Steve, gave him some links to a couple of API’s, and he built a simple tool that allows you to quickly and easily create a status update URL for Twitter. How simple is it? In the form window on the page, just type in the message you want OTHERS to send via Twitter, then hit submit. We then generate a TinyURL link that you can use in blog posts, or simply include in a tweet or direct message. You can use it anywhere you can place a link.

If your reader is logged into Twitter, clicking on the TinyURL link will automatically place your words into their Twitter status update window. They can then review the message and hit send. It makes it easy for someone to help you spread your message and gives you more control over that message.

Shortly after we created the tool, I used it to try to get the attention of Hugh Jackman again. This time via a Facebook. As you can see in the image below, I placed this URL – http://tinyurl.com/cw7o5j - in my Facebook status window.

Because it was so simple to do – click on a link, hit send – the single status message created a slew of updates on Twitter. Each update contained the exact message we wanted delivered to Hugh. Real people sending a real message.

The easier it is for your readers to do something for you, the more likely they are to do it. Create a status update URL and your readers will be more likely to help you spread your message.

Would you like to give it a try? Click here to create your own status update URL for Twitter.