Nothing too urgent, so time to put my laptop to bed.

Little did I realize that I was about to get the lesson of my life from golfing legend and 1991 US PGA and 1995 Open Champion, John Daly. Not a golf lesson – but a lesson in the masterful use of social media. Twitter in particular.

I glanced over to Twitter and there he was – holding court.

For the uninitiated, John Daly has become something of a Twitter phenomenon. He was not the first PGA Pro to get on board with Twitter but now he is playing it like it is another Golfing Major.

What amazed me was the way he was working the room. He must have been holding conversations with at least another half dozen tweeters before I decided to throw in my own comment. I recommended he grab some fish and chips from a place I knew around the corner from Wentworth, where he was practicing tomorrow. Yep, pretty silly suggestion – but small talk has never been one of my strengths.

I felt, if this was the best I could contribute to the banter, then my chances of cranking up a conversation with the golfing legend were pretty close to zero.

Not so, the subject of food seemed to grasp his attention.

Whilst this was going on, fellow tweeter and prominent blogger, Andy Brown from St Andrews in Scotland was lining up an encounter with John Daly at the London Club

Not only that, but a few other Tweeters were helping him upload photos to the Net. The tweets were flying back and forth in every direction. He was driving the conversations.

John Daly was having fun last night – we all were.

He was laughing out loud (LOL). At one stage he said Send some more twitters my way I’m liking the new meets on here

The Hog jumped in for a fashion discussion with the big man. More silliness.

Others were wishing him well on the European Tour. He is currently in exile from the US Tour after a a slight indiscretion which caused the powers that be to slap a 6 – month ban on him.

So, what was the big lesson in all of this?

For me it reinforced the assertion of wine entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, who said that Twitter is word of mouth on steroids . He was dead right.

How many of us are today telling our friends about the one-on-one conversation(s) we had with John Daly? We all had a story to tell. We all touched the hem. We all felt that we had his personal attention – and we had, if only for a few fleeting tweets.

There is no doubt that John Daly used Twitter to grow his fan base last night. In fact he repeats the performance almost on a daily basis. The man is reinventing himself on so many levels. And twitter is one of the most potent, viral marketing weapons in his arsenal. More fans, more eyeballs, more value for the sponsors – everyone wins.

And then the hunger pangs kicked in. At last my inane fish and chip comment was given some context.

John Daly gave up on the camera and went off to grab some dinner.

Hope you enjoyed the steak John. He would no doubt have tweeted about the experience later but it was all too late for me.

Congratulations, John Daly. Your talent extends well beyond the golf course.

To follow John Daly and many other Tour players on Twitter Visit TwitRGolfer Tour Tweets

Well the breaking news today is that, not only did John reach his goal, but the book Dream On has just gone to #1 in the Amazon best seller list for Golf. Yes, John Richardson did what he set out to do. He broke par within a year despite having a full time job and a young family.

Dream On is the story of how he got there.

But the untold story, is the novel way in which he chose to market his book. John Richardson, made a deliberate decision to shun the traditional book launch approach. Instead, he relied on the power of social media phenomenon, Twitter to drive the publicity campaign for his book.

According to John: The fascinating thing is how it shows the power of twitter vs old media. I actively chose not to have an old-fashioned launch

As one marketer put it “Twitter is word of mouth on Steriods”. Well John Richardson has proven that to be true.

Having amassed some 4000+ followers on Twitter, John used Twitter to spread the word.

But he didn’t have to hype it. A few tweets to his followers and the retweets took care of the rest. For the uninitiated, a retweet occurs when someone retransmits a Twitter update to their own followers. This is how the viral effect can take place.

What is even more remarkable, is that Dream On hit #1 on Amazon even though the book was actually sold out at the time. Obviously Amazon, had not counted on Twitter power driving sales so they weren’t prepared for the demand.

You can read more about John Richardson’s Twitter Strategy Here

Oh, and you’ll want to buy the book won’t you?

You can Buy Dream On Here

In this series of ‘Skyperviews’, Steve talks on a range of topics including Stuart Appleby and K.J Choi’s performances at The Masters, the golf course setup, what the players are working on this week and about Greg Norman, Geoff Ogilvy, Aaron Baddeley (who is back working with Steve’s coaching partner Dale Lynch) and of course, Tiger Woods.

Steve provides viewers with a unique insight into The Masters experience, through the eyes of a PGA Tour coach and his star players. Watching these videos, you get an idea of the kind of hard work that goes into preparing for a Major championship, but also the human side of the players and coaches in this highly competitive business.

In keeping with the New Media theme, Steve and Stuart Appleby have also joined the Social Network “Twitter” and will be providing regular updates through 140 character messages known as “tweets”.

You can check out Steve Bann’s Videos from Augusta at “TwitR Golfers”- The website for all golfers who are on Twitter.

Check out the videos at: http://www.twitrgolfers.com/video

http://www.twitrgolfers.com/profiles/blogs/twitter-craze-hits-augusta