‘Tweet-ups’ become organic networking events for new media mavens

The night before Halloween was the first official meeting of the Social Media Club of Chicago. As dozens of Chicagoland bloggers, Tweeters (those who microblog on Twitter) and other social media enthusiasts descended upon the bar the Pepper Cannister, I wondered how many other Social Media Club events and Tweet-ups were occurring around the world.

Cision Blog blogger Jay Krall and other new media people at the first official Social Media Club Chicago event on 10-30-08.

According to the Social Media Club website, there were two other official SMC events going on that night in London and Dallas. A quick Twitter search for ‘Tweet-up’ (a meeting formed on Twitter) reveals that other events were going on in Washington, D.C.; Boston; Wichita, KS; Orange County, CA; Charleston, SC; Greenville, NC; Tempe, AZ and more. And that was all on one Thursday night in October.

Why has there been this explosion in networking events formed through social media? Because the core nature of social media is human interaction. Shel Israel recently wrote a post on his blog, Global Neighborhoods, titled “Online Tribalism & the Future of Social Media.” In it, he explains, “The relevance of social media is that it allows us to interact in the world increasingly more like we behave in our own physical neighborhoods.” Read it all..