Impacts of Tweetups and Ongoing Stewardship

I have the fortunate position of being able to travel quite a bit, and just about every city I go to (just landed in SF a few hours ago from two weeks in Europe), I try to arrange tweetups, sometimes, it’s the first time folks have met, like the one we just had last week in Paris. Often, I get to be the catalyst to kick off tweetups, such as last year in Tampa. The local Tampa news praises Josh (@SIGEPJEDI) someone I’ve gotten to better over the last year, who has really become a community leader in the Tampa space. See how the local news covers his continued community stewardship.

Take for example, I also kicked off the first Maui tweetup, and they’re still getting together, even if it’s just a few folks, often lead by Liza.

I may be able to kick off community events, but it takes the local leaders to continue to steward the community on an ongoing basis. Next week, on June 9th, I’ll be in Seattle for a tweetup with Blake from Visible Technologies, Chris Pirillo, and from Kelby Johnson from Microsoft. I’m doing to try something new at this tweetup, we’re going to try to play the card game Pit, it’s a loud game, and very social.

If your city has never done a Tweetup, take the initiative to lead one. It’s very simple to do, find a place that folks can meet in person, often drinks or dinner is best, but everyone pays their own way. The goal? To meet and greet in person, and solidify the relationships you have from online.

Remember, anyone can drop in an initiate a tweetup, but community stewardship requires ongoing support and evangelism. If your city has never done a tweetup, leave a comment below, and let’s see if we can get kick start it forward with my support –even from a remote location.

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24 Replies to “Impacts of Tweetups and Ongoing Stewardship”

  1. Hey, that me – Liza 🙂

    It’s true, I organized the first tweet-up because you are coming to town. And many tweet-ups had happened since then. This week I was invited to be one of the Maui hosts for the big blogging promotional team sponsored by the State Of Hawaii Tourism. I know that first tweet-up has something to do with that 😉

  2. Anyone want to do a Tweetup in or around Fayetteville, AR? Tweet me at @NJPaz if you’re interested.

  4. I’ve seen Tweetups bring the Toronto tech/new media/design community together over the past year and has helped forge many friendships and professional collaborations. We’ve recently started a tweetup to the west of Toronto under the name TwestofTO http://www.twestofTO.org. We held our first event on May 7 and it was a huge success… looking forward to our future community building efforts in our area.

  5. I could not agree more. To me social media should be a way of enhancing, not replacing, personal social interaction. I started a tweetup group here in Lawrence, KS, because I wanted to connect in person with people I was connected to on Twitter. I have gotten so much out of doing that and as a result have made some great business connections and personal friendships. We now have a group that meets monthly for different events, from regular tweetups in a local bar to a family get-together and cookout in a local park, wine tasting, and next month a partybus-tweetup. We went from 4 people first time I tried to put an event together to anywhere from 40 to 60 at our most recent events. I would encourage anyone to take the initiative and get something going in your local community. It is incredibly rewarding.

    Our tweetup website http://www.lawrencetweetup.com and Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lawrence-KS/Lawrence-Tweetup/47597203931

    @benasmith

  6. Thanks for the kind words Jeremiah, Greatly Appreciated!

    The story of how our small Tampa group turned big has become a fun, exciting, and inspirational opener to each and every Tampa Tweetup. A story which all stemmed from your blogger dinner tweet, last March, and a car ride discussion about the future of http://TampaBloggers.com!

    Until we meet again, friend.

    JOSH

  7. This is really great, would any be interested in tweetups around Boston, MA. Not sure of any organizings around here, i’m on @delomos.

  9. Thanks for being the spark for the Tampa tweetups. I was at the original dinner in Tampa. That’s where I met Josh and yourself. It really is amazing to see where the group has gone since last year. I look forward to bigger things, too.

    You never realize the impact a small action can have.

  10. I find tweetups fascinating. I’ve sparked a few different ones in Auckland city, and even sparked one in Wellington last time I was there.

    What was great was that it wasn’t about me, it was just another excuse for the community to get together and catch up.

    It’s ironic that while people are leaving churches in great numbers the hunger for community with no strings attached continues. You’ve chosen your words very well Jeremiah – it is indeed stewardship, and as soon as it becomes about leadership or worse, ownership, it starts to feel stale.

  11. We have a monthly Twitterazzi Pow Wow in Utrecht The Netherlands. http://www.mindz.com/events/Twitterazzi_Pow-Wow_(Mei)

    Besides networking we make/ co-create the monthly twitter cocktail.http://twitter.com/twitcocktail

    People get free food & beverage, however they have to donate $10 pp or more for the Twitter-Jar-for-Charity. Our present project: La Tortuga Feliz, a turtle preservation project in Costa Rica.http://www.latortugafeliz.com/default.asp?action=pagina&pagina=31&taal=2

  13. I do hope your initiative in Paris will light the spark there too;))Paris needs a strong offline community which meets IRL!
    we will let u know about coming initiatives!;)
    was a pleasure meeting you,
    S.

  14. Could you explain me the subtile difference beetween evangelist_supporter and steward!?I only knew the one busy in airplanes;))
    Stewardship versus community management versus advocate versus coach versus organiser versus PR?

  17. I used the tweetup idea as a way to meet new people in my area. I just moved to the Beaumont,TX area back in November 08 and knew zero people. So I looked online and found that there wasn’t a tweetup already in place. I thought this is my opportunity to meet people with similar interests as me and bring people together. Its called the Southeast Texas tweetup. Its a small group but its growing http://twitter.com/SETXtweetup

  18. I just attended our first local Tweetup last Thursday and it really solidified my reasons for using Twitter. I feel that Facebook is a great way to stay in touch (ie snoop on) old friends and family, but Twitter is really about meeting people you don’t know but have similar interests with. At a time in my life where I have even less in common with old friends it is a great way to meet new friends, new connections, and new mentors. Our first was a great success and I can’t wait to watch them grow.

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  23. I've seen Tweetups bring the Toronto tech/new media/design community together over the past year and has helped forge many friendships and professional collaborations. We've recently started a tweetup to the west of Toronto under the name TwestofTO http://www.twestofTO.org. We held our first event on May 7 and it was a huge success… looking forward to our future community building efforts in our area.

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