By now you’re likely very familiar with Twitter, although you may still be wondering, why should Twitter matter to me or my business? Indeed valid questions and Twitter may or may not be of use to your business workflows, however, given the hype surrounding the “TwitterSphere” there’s no arguing that you can’t simply blow it off without some level of investigation… enter the Tweet-Up.
A Tweet-Up is typically a cozy, local event that brings together Twitter users for some face-to-face discussion… no 140 character limit here! Many Twitter users are connected with people scattered all over the World, however, if you Tweet, you will no doubt eventually become connected with some local people that live and work in your community. A tweet-up provides you with the opportunity to mingle with some locals and to try and get a feel for how, why, and where other people Twitter. If Twittering is something that your still on the fence about, I suggest you consider attending a local Tweet-up (or a local social media event) where you can meet others just like you and get some questions answered.
Just last week I attended a small tweet-up event where several of us got together and shared a couple of beers along with some stories about how social media is being implemented in our business processes. I may not have met any other GIS professionals, however, I did connect with a PR professionals, met a new open source and mobile developer/programmer, picked the brain of a newbie Twitter user and facebook junkie, and made a good connection with the manager of a local hotel… you never know who you’ll meet and how you might take advantage of these connections in the future.
A side-note.. last month at the ESRI UC in San Diego I organized and attended my first Tweet-Up and had a great time meeting some very cool Geo-Tweeters… I suggest you give it a try yourself some time, perhaps at a future GIS event! You can follow yours truly on Twitter @gletham or @gisuser
