Tweetup or Meeting Connections
I’ve been on Twitter for over a year now. For the first few months that I was on Twitter, all of the connections that I made were with people that I did not know outside of Twitter. Over time, there have been a number of people that I know that joined Twitter and there were some people that I met in person and then connected on Twitter. There have also been people that I’ve gotten to know over Twitter that I’ve met in person. This was easiest with people tha
t I worked with (I wrote a blog post of one of my first “Tweetup” - which is where people who use Twitter get together). Just like the cartoon on the right, how to you meet a Twitter connection: Meet in real life (IRL) and then connect on Twitter or connect on Twitter and then meet IRL.
The small group meetings with coworkers or individuals that I’d met through social networking does not properly explain the “Tweetup”. Last week I had a meeting in Boston to see one of the bloggers that I met at the World Innovation Forum. Michael Stallard led a great discussion about “The Connection Culture”. It turns out that there was a large Tweetup only 1 block away from my meeting and since I’m not often in town (I live an hour outside of Boston), I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see what a big Tweetup was really like. This one was dubbed #roofup (the hashtag is used on Twitter to allow tracking of an event easier) since it was held on the Roof of the Rattlesnake Bar & Grill. There were well over 100 people and from people I talked to, it was one of the better events. How to describe it? First of all, it is not a bunch of people standing around Twittering. I would describe it more of a mashup of the dating scene and a networking event where the attendees are mostly in their 20s and “into technology” (is it OK to say a little geeky? geeks are cool now, right?). I chatted with two people that I knew through Twitter already and the host Sarah Merion (also pictured to the left with one of my coworkers Dan Schawbel, who everyone there knew). Many of the people were very friendly, and if you wanted to discuss social media, it was an easy conversation to start. If you’re into the scene, it seems that there are plenty of events going on.
The large group and loud environment weren’t really what I’d look for on a regular basis. I prefer a smaller and quieter location where conversation is easier and preferably where I know some of the people and have more shared interests. Just today I got to meet 2 well known bloggers - Stephen Foskett (@sfoskett) and Christofer Hoff (@beaker). I’d talked with Stephen on blogs and Twitter and when he planned a trip to Boston for a conference, he sent an email (yes, many of us still use email) and I gathered some other EMCers that he knew from online and we had a nice chat about social media, storage, kids and more over some curry. One of the things that I really like about social media - if you strike up a dialogue with people online, it does build that virtual community (or Tribe if you’re a Seth Godin fan). So whether you like small gatherings or large events, don’t be shy if you want to meet the people that you connect with on social media.
Cheers,
Stuart Miniman
Twitter @stu
