The grandfather of all self-help books, which spawned an industry devoted to self-improvement, is being updated for the age of Facebook and Twitter. Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People was first published in 1936. Its updated version provides an unlikely transplant of 1930s precepts to the modern age of social media and the internet.

Three-quarters of a century after the original, How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age has hit the shelves. Out goes much of the old advice on how to impress and befriend people with face-to-face interaction or letters. Instead there is advice on how bloggers should interact with their readers and a caution about how celebrities mishandle their public wrongdoings.

The original book was based on a series of lectures given by Carnegie, who become one of the most famous public speakers in the world.

It was aimed originally at the emerging middle classes of the 1930s and 1940s. But many experts say it is as relevant today, even though social networking rather than a handshake might be the more common way to make new contacts.