The main reason I love Twitter
Here I am... at it again!
I love Twitter because I love people and their stories – not to mention the jokes, banter, fake band names, and shock-value photos that make me laugh (isn’t that right @eatsshootsedits?)
And nothing fleshes out this love better than actually meeting my Twitter contacts in real life, like I did last night. It was a St. Patricks day “tweetup” at St. Augustine’s on Commercial Drive – and in case it’s not obvious, this term means a meet up arranged by people on Twitter.
We ended up with about 10 at the table – and I’m not going to list them all here – but we sat, laughing and sharing stories til the place closed. A few folks came and went, but there was a core group of four (including me) who were there for the whole time.
One man wouldn’t have been able to attend because he’s having a struggle with money. He said (via Twitter) he was too broke, but then another super-nice guy from Twitter (who he had never met in person) said: “Just come down and I’ll buy you some beers.” So he did make it to our tweetup afterall – and the two men hugged when they met for the first time in real life.
You see that all the time at tweetups: people hugging hello! It’s so exciting to see these online contacts in the flesh – after you’ve been following them online for weeks or months. So often you hear: “Oh!!! So you’re [insert Twitter handle]!!!”
The first time I went to a tweetup, I felt kind of weird and stalker-ish (and a bit shy) to walk up and introduce myself to someone I knew online only, but now it feels totally natural. Every single person has been friendly and it’s not at all clique-ish. I’ve heard of a few people alleged to choose their conversations with a “What can you do for me?” attitude, but I’ve never encountered it. All I’ve ever experienced are genuine, welcoming people who seem to like socializing as much as I do. I guess that’s why they call it “social media”…
I agree taking it offline and meeting IRL (in real life) is a wonderful bonus of twitter. I’ve also seen people who’ve never met in person get together in person to raise money for various causes or, most recently, a personal tragedy of a tweeter’s friend, whose husband had died in a car accident leaving her alone with her baby boy.
That all said, I also love the banter. Some of my fav tweeters have nothing to sell and don’t even have personal blogs.
PS: Hope to see you at tommorow night’s tweetup PuddingFest 2.0…;)