Twitter Meets the Real World Hot
As the numbers rose for both those following me as well as who I followed - I noticed an interesting result - as some of these followers and I retweeted one another or other Twits who we mutually followed - we also began to have more direct conversations or seek out opinions from each other. Then a step further - with more mini email-esque direct messages (private tweets between two Twits) to have direct conversations.
Before we knew it - then we were sharing email addresses, even phone numbers to have business conversations. Examples include :
- questions on which virtual meeting providers to perform due diligence on,
- which netbooks were best for Windows 7
- how did I use my Macs in financial services
- and so on...
This came full circle to the physical world when I attended the Tools for Technology conference this past weekend in San Diego. A number of us who had been conversing virtually on Twitter suddenly found ourselves face to face in the halls of the conference - thrilled to finally meet in real life. Quite honestly it was not like meeting a stranger - it seemed oddly easy to sit down as a group and jump right into conversations we had initiated online.
If nothing else - I hope this helps folks exploring the halls of social media perhaps consider ways to use these powerful new media communications tools for peer networking and conversations if not for participating in more public conversations.