Tweetup

What is Tweetup ?

A take-off on “meet-up,” a Tweetup is a meeting organized for friends, fans and/or strangers on Twitter. Also known as a “Tweetchat,” it can be used in marketing for consumer engagement and brand awareness by building and educating large communities of people.

A tweetup is when a group of Twitter users meet up in person, an event that’s orchestrated via the Twitter social networking Web site. It’s what happens when the members of an online community decide they want to look each other in the face.

Tweetups run the range — from the quickly arranged to the highly organized. Some tweetups are simply a casual opportunity for a group of people who “follow” each other online to meet in real life. Some are larger, more formal networking or charity events. Numbers for these events can be difficult to predict. It’s the way of the Internet. If you’re the normal Bob Twitter user, you might expect six of your followers to show at your tweetup, and, instead, 25 do. Twitterers tend to invite friends who aren’t your followers and who may not even know what the social network is.

The tweetup was invented by the Web site’s users, not by Twitter’s C-suite. But the concept jumped into the mainstream when charity event organizers saw it as a Shrewd way to gather a crowd for a good cause. Other decided Twitter members that use the social network to market their goods and services followed suit.

Tweetup is gaining popularity, unless you’re a Twitter super user, you may not know what these events are all about. How would you organize such a gathering?  Will people really talk to each other or just stand around twittering silently via iPhone the whole time?