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The Value of the TweetUp
It’s Facebook question of the week time (clap, clap, clap)!
Unfortunately, I have had zero time to scan the questions and record a video.
You may be asking yourself why I have time to type a blog post and not record a video. It’s because I’m still in my PJs…and a portion of this blog post was already in my drafts folder.
So we’re going to talk TweetUps today. And I’ll be back on schedule next week.
A few weeks ago, Joe Thornley, Martin Waxman, and I (as the hosts of Inside PR) had the pleasure of co-hosting a TweetUp with PRSA at their international conference in Orlando.
As the RSVP list began to fill, there were common questions from those deciding if they were going to attend: What do I do at a TweetUp? Do I need to bring my phone so I can tweet? Is it weird that everyone is on their phones instead of talking to one another?
The truth of the matter is, there is no tweeting at a TweetUp. Rather, you actually spend time getting to know one another face-to-face (gasp!).
It’s a weird time we live in. Ten years ago, if we’d talked about meeting someone online and becoming friends with them (or dating and marrying) before meeting them in person, you’d think them certifiably nuts.
Now we think nothing about meeting people online and calling some of them friends. Close friends even.
But nothing replaces the in-person meeting.
While we were at the conference, we recorded several podcasts with old friends and new. We found the chemistry and the flow was much different than the three of us sitting in our own offices, recording with the technology of Google Hangouts and our Zoom recorders.
The same goes for a TweetUp.
You get to know people through their avatar. Some people do videos so you learn a little bit more about them. But, mostly, what we know about our online friends is conceived through 140 characters and photos.
We create a mental image, based on the information given to us and our own experiences, and sometimes that image is right on and other times it’s dead wrong.
The TweetUp allows us to put aside our perceptions and really get to know a person. We can read their body language. We can see the twinkle in their eye. We can understand the sarcasm. They can actually hear us LOL and know we mean it.
Three years ago, I attended the International Franchise Association conference and we hosted their first-ever TweetUp. Twenty people showed up.
At the PRSA TweetUp, 175 people attended. Not because of Inside PR and PRSA, but because people are beginning to understand the informal gatherings at large events is the only way you’re going to be able to see everyone you want to see.
Technology allows us to make friends with people we’d otherwise never meet. It flattens out the world. It broadens our reach. And it ensures a reason for meeting people from around the world while at the same conference.
So, the next time you attend a conference, either plan or attend a TweetUp. It’s a great way to kill many birds with one stone and put bodies with their avatars.
A portion of this first appeared on Examiner.
One of the best things about social media is how we can use it to become acquainted online before we become friends in person. There's so much at issue with this word "friend" isn't there? In English we have a special differentiation for the stage before friendship - but it's so awkward to refer to that online, and there's no shorthand for the terminology of getting acquainted with someone. And yet it's funny that in other cultures, there's no marker for this stage of friendship - either you're friends, close friends or not friends.
There's no replacement for in-person contact, whatever we call it. There's even some research being done on whether we leave microscopic traces with each other after parting - maybe this is why the handshake means so much.
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I'd love to go to a TweetUp, but I live so far away from everyone interesting that I follow. Maybe they should all take a vaction to Maine to meet me :-p
Actually I have met one of the people I follow on twitter, but I actually didn't add her on twitter until after we met.
MatthewRideout ...or take a vacation in Texas! I live far away from most of the people I follow on Twitter, too.
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Erin F.MatthewRideout I like the 'Texas' idea! What's half-way b'tween el paso & austin?
BethKSchmitzMatthewRideout Maybe Abilene? I'd prefer Abilene to Midland/Odessa. If we have a tweetup in Abilene, I can go harass the professors at HSU. :D I wouldn't mind getting back to Austin, though...
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I still remember my first meet with online friends. That was back in 1989. Sadly, I don't remember their names, but I remember them.
1. A seeming demure librarian that did sex shows (performance art) and fanned Derrida
2. A VP from a telecom that performed naked as a heavy metal vocalist on the weekends
3. A millionaire transvestite that was the son of a major Bollywood director
4. A housewife married to a GM executive that could recite Shakespeare and poetry from the American poet Anthony Hecht
I was the only boring guy there. Just a college student that sang for his lattes on the weekends. Yeah, I had a partner in crime too. Me and a homeless guy, Brian. We did Cat Steven's songs at a Venice Beach (Los Angeles) coffee shop called Van Gaugh's Ear.
Faryna That doesn't sound so boring to me! What a great story. And, my, how things have changed!
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ginidietrich And wow have they changed!
Ha, 175 people showed up because there was free food and drink. If you needed more I could have brought that many with me from Lakeland and they wouldn't have even known what a tweet was....
Actually, I attended a tweet up in my early social media days so knew what to expect. In most cases it's an industry specific after hours cocktail party. Yes, real talking does occur....
You'll notice when you guys tried to lose me out by the pool area I actually made it to the party first. I was going to say I know a thing or two about free food and drink but obviously not since I spent my last dime at the lounge before we even went in. However, if I wouldn't have had my social monitor with me I would have surely taken some of those extra tickets you had............:).
See, you might have had your doubts if I really was a dork or not but I actually got to prove it to you. Talk about spot on, huh?
I have made some good friends online but I'm always up for a face to face, but I'm social like that....
bdorman264 The twinkle you saw in my eye was Bill's reflection. :)
bdorman264adamtoporek WHAT?! I thought it was because we were there!
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bdorman264 I reached into my back pocket yesterday and pulled out six drink tickets. None of us used the free drinks that night.
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This is so true Gini. Meeting people I've been tweeting with for years at conferences like PRSA is incredibly important. In fact, many of us have been talking about how it's even MORE important to have in-person time today than it was before Twitter. I feel like I have a bond with many of my tweeps but once I meet them in person it's exponentially stronger. And, I've found the tweet-ups where there is a lot of tweeting are not nearly as valuable as those like the one at PRSA where there was no tweeting, unless it was pictures of people you finally got to meet IRL.
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mdbarber The thing about social media is we're meeting far more people now than we did without it. So, I agree, combining it with the in-person meeting is critical.
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I've been ruining the Brighton UK Business Tweetup for the last year and I love it :-)
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LOL ..... running....
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WendyKier HAHA, I thought you were just being self-deprecating! LOL.
WendyKier LOL! Ruining. That's funny!!
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I've never been to a tweetup. I think I would quite like it. I really need to get out of my tiny bunker here in this tiny Iowa town.
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ExtremelyAvg I'm up on a mountainside and I haven't made myself fit for human consumption in about a week. I don't even know if I should admit this.
ExtremelyAvg Yes, you do! Chicago is a nice little drive. You should come for our TweetUp on December 5.
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Wow, I feel like I have already seen Facebook question of the week today. Must be my imagination. Anyhoo, I am a big fan of Tweetups. I have had quite a good time meeting some of my cyber friends in real life.
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TheJackB You did...on KenMueller blog.
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I <3 TweetUps almost as much as I <3 Twitter. You already said it above so don't really have much to add. It's so wonderful to meet people and not be constrained with 140 characters and get to know them even more.
And they say that online crowds are antisocial. RUBBISH!
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SamiAri Hiiiiii! Are you coming to our TweetUp on December 5??
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ginidietrich Hiiiiii!!! I can't because I'll be at a Japanese dinner I'm hosting :( . But but but I do have a tweetup a week before if you're free!
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Thanks for posting! I added it to our #bvilletweets FB page for our upcoming TweetUp
kanemackay Cool - thanks!
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Great post Gini - can we call them something other than a Tweet up though? Sounds so dorky. If we have a Spin Sucks Community Meet up I will attend. If it is a tweet up I'll probably just laugh at it ;-D
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danielnewmanUV We can call it a "Suck Up!" hahahaha.
Maranda danielnewmanUV awesome!
danielnewmanUV I dare you to tell Scott Monty what you think of the name.
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we seriously need a Spin Sucks community TweetUp
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deleted_91832_Sean McGinnisKenMueller My kitchen is too small. We'd have to rent a kitchen.
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ginidietrichdeleted_91832_Sean McGinnisKenMueller Soup kitchen.
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KenMueller I like that idea.
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Erin F. KenMueller SeanMcGinnis I can't wait to start having Tweetups!
Lisa GerberErinSeanMcGinnis Where? in Idaho? how many people in Idaho are on Twitter??
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KenMuellerLisa GerberSeanMcGinnis Well, we can't have it in El Paso. It's a Twitter dead zone. What's halfway between Texas and Pennsylvania? Maybe Missouri?
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Erin F.KenMuellerLisa GerberSeanMcGinnis Wrong direction. LA is the place. People are good and weather is great.
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TheJackBKenMuellerLisa GerberSeanMcGinnis I'm much closer to LA than some of these other folks. It's a possible location.
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I totally, completely agree. In person is MUCH better. ;)
rustyspeidel Especially when I'm there!
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I prefer Twitter Rave Parties myself. But still haven't found any. And sadly bassnectar stantonwarriors theglitchmob and _rd are now full on rockstars living in swank digs shunning those underground parties so many Tweeters hang out at. Unless of course you go to Burningman but that event is so last decade.
But ginidietrich I promise one day when we plan to hang out instead of sending SMS Texts like Shonali and I did we can do it on the Twitter so as we don't break any rules here.
HowieSPM Have you met ginidietrich IRL yet?
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Shonaliginidietrich no I have not. I am scared to meet her. I heard she can be wicked mean in person.
Conversation from Twitter
MediaTip Thanks for the RT!
sos_jr Thanks for the RT. I'll just bet you know my friend, Jim Evans :)
ryanthompson Hope you can fit us in tonight! ;)
Love tweet-ups! RT jenniferwindrum The Value of the TweetUp http://t.co/HD8utXba via ginidietrich
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