Twitter + Networking = Tweetup?

Last night at the British Banker’s Club in Menlo Park, California, over a hundred tech and web industry professionals met in an effort by Forrester Analyst Jeremiah Owyang to connect those who are looking for work with those who are hiring. It turned out to be a really great event with many people (if not all) hearing about it through Twitter.

But what’s the point of these meetings? As much as you can have conversations with people online, it is still essential to assign a face with that anonymous chat. So once you’ve built that rapport, you’ll be able to know more about that individual.

Here’s some helpful tips that I used to make this “tweetup” a most enjoyable occasion:

• Have an appropriate avatar for your Twitter icon: If you ever plan on using Twitter for in a professional manner, then it would be best to put a picture of yourself on there so in the event you decide to go to a networking event or “tweetup”, people will be able to associate your face with your Twitter ID.
• Research from Twitter or other sites are helpful in talking to people: Getting to talk to people at the event was even more helpful when I had read the profiles of some of the followers I knew were going to be at the event.

In one of my earlier posts, I talked about how cool it was to meet with people that I’ve formed some sort of professional relationship with online. Tonight was just one more of those great events that I managed to meet with several big names…of which I’m proud to say that I had a chance to speak & exchange information with Shel Israel. If you don’t know him, he’s one of the authors of “Naked Conversations“, which I have found to be a great book for learning the fundamentals of social media. In addition to this meeting, I was able to connect with some other great folks including ZNet’s own Jennifer Leggio (@mediaphyter) who has written many web industry articles that I’ve found informative; Secret Sushi’s own Adam Helweh (@secretsushi); Clara Kuo, Sophia Chiang, Antonio Copo, Elliott Ng, and the President & CEO of Sales & Marketing Executives International Willis Turner (@willisturner).

Twitter has proven to me that it has become a great networking opportunity for me. I have had much success just building my network here in San Francisco and within the Bay Area by getting to meet people on Twitter and learning from them and sharing my insights. It is because of these mediums that I feel that I have the ability to relate to these individuals by the time I meet with them face to face.

For now, I will continue to try and obtain new followers who are interested in my insights and will look forward to the next time when Twitter (or someone on Twitter) will connect us together face-to-face.