The World Is My Network

I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but I *just* attended my first tweet-up!  Sure I’ve been to a few PodCamp after parties but those were different.  Something about a bunch of people being in a strange town just makes those a given and I’m no stranger to the out of town conversion seen.

Social media is a bit slow in its migration to central Connecticut, so most of the tweet-ups I’ve been aware of have always been “just a little too far” to push me into going, but once I heard @jasonturcotte of Turcotte Data and Designs was organizing one at the Apollo Grill and I had plenty of time to plan on being their, I knew I couldn’t miss it!

All things social are what you make of it.  I once heard Tweetups described as a “Happy Hour with name tags” but it’s so much more.  These are the type of events where the organizer simply lays out the venue and facilitates while the participants actually drive the event.

Here are some simple Tweetup Tips:

1. Don’t Be Shy! – Dive right in.  Find the organizer and introduce yourself.  They *really are* happy you came!
2. Seek Out Your Peeps – You can spot em!  Look for the name badges or the geeky shirts.  Don’t be afraid to jump right into a conversation or just walk up to someone that appears idle and introduce yourself.
3. Share Openly – You’ll meet people from many disciplines.  From hobbyist and gamers to hard core entrepreneurs.  This is more of a venue to share and develop fresh ideas then it is to prospect for new customers, though that’s been known to happen!
4. Casual and Festive, but not too festive! – Tweetups usually involve beer, sometimes lots of it.  But it’s not a frat party, know your limit and try not to get too silly.  Never be afraid to stick with non-alcoholic beverages, I can guarantee that you won’t be the only one drinking a pop.
5. Follow Up – Takes notes, write down names.  Be sure to connect online with anyone new you’ve met.

I personally had some great conversations at this event.  @keithlaflam and I discussed various wireless devices, @writerjax shared her insight and expertise on writing and @JRStratford shared many of  his best SEO tricks and tactics with us.

My only regret is I still had many people I wanted to meet but simply ran out of time.  Can’t wait until the next event!

The last time I reviewed this nifty little Microsoft Outlook add-on program I was blown away just by being able to manage my Twitter contacts from a program I already had running on my desktop but now there are so many more reasons to just love OutTwit.

So obviously you can read the tweets of those you follow and post your own status updates.  But instead of calling up a web application or yet another air application you can manage your social media communications from an interface you are already comfortable with.  Archive, manage group and search your saved tweets as you do with your email.

Keep reins on your brand or topics of  interest by supplying OutTwit with keywords to search for and if will build a database of related tweets, even if you’re not following the author.  This is also a handy way to group your tweets by sender or topic.  Take it a step further and follow these discovered tweets and develop a highly targeted campaign!

Version 1.0.0.50 Beta also rounds out OutTwit as a full featured client by supporting picture posting to TwitPic, Posterous and Twitgoo.

And perhaps a hint at things to come there is experimental support for laconi.ca and identi.ca.

Bottom line.  If you’re a Microsoft Outlook user and  Twitter is an imporatant part of your daily communications then you absolutely must try OutTwit.

The chatter from PodCamp Western Mass is still going strong while Podcamp Boston 4 is already in the works.  Currently the community is working on setting a date.

Thus far the general concensus is to keep it mid to late July to avoid confliting with October’s  Blog World and New Media Expo in Vegas.

Current standings:

I’m still digesting all the goodness I absorbed at PodCamp Western Mass 2009 ( #pcwm ) but didn’t want to delay getting the links out to some of my raw content.  Here are my Livescribe Pencasts of the sessions I attended.

Session 1 – Introduction to Social Media (Morriss Partee)

Mostly revolving around Twitter.  How to and why?  A few things to think about before starting  and some pitfalls to watch out for. (link)

Session 2 – Marketing Yourself in Social Media (Ira W. Yellen)

Understanding and targeting your clients / prospects / audience.  Tuning how you present yourself based on your targets perception. (link)

Session 3 – Managing Your Online Personna – (Tish Grier)

The Internet never forgets.  Who you are online defines.. well.. how you are percieved in the carbon based world.  Things to think about as we plug ourselves into the Matrix. (link)

Session 4 - What Are Your Favorite Social Networks – (Morriss Partee)

What?  There’s more to social networking other then Twitter?  There sure is and in this session we all share our personal favorites. (link)

More To Come!

I’ll keep the #pcwm Podcamp Western Mass 2009 goodness flowing.  More pics and video’s are in the pipeline.

Wiki: http://podcamp.pbwiki.com/PodCampWesternMass

Eventbrite: http://podcampwesternmass.eventbrite.com/

This episode we talk about…

• Tweetups
• Hashtags (and hash!)
• #happy09
• #oneword – The Daily Blonde – @TheDailyBlonde
• @DanialJohnsonJr – How I Got My Job (dot) com
• Digital Social Convergance
• Plurk
• Kwippy
• Utterli
• Brightkite
• Dating myself.. corded phones.. the mall

That’s it for now!  Till next time!  (insert cute news anchor sounding text here!)

 

 The World Is My Network 007 [17:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tyrone and Justin are back!  Just a quickie to re-introduce the show and do a soundcheck.  A REAL episode is just around the corner!  Stay tuned!

 

 Standard Podcast [6:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Thanks for listening!

Okay, doing some work behind the scenes. Changing our podcast host and reorganizing. Look for a new episode of The World Is My Network soon.

Since the world of social networking moves so fast, I’ve decided to remove the archives of the older shows as they are totally dated at this point.

Stay Tuned!