6 Reasons To Get Up And Attend Offline Twitter Meetups

Nov 14, 2011 3 min readSocial Media Marketing

Yes, I admit it. For a long time, I couldn’t imagine the thought of meeting someone that I only met online. However I believe that things have changed considerably over last few years and it has actually become one of the most natural things for me to do.

With last weeks BlogWorld expo happening and also our weekly Buffer meetup here in San Francisco, I found that meeting people offline can have a lot of benefits to you. So here are 6 reasons why it might be a good idea to attend one of the meetups around you.

You build stronger relationships

Although you might argue that there are ways to build strong relationships via Twitter too, there are a few things my number 1 Social Network just can’t replace I found. Meeting someone in person from the online world, simply builds a much stronger connection.

For example jumping onto a plan a few weeks back and meeting a lot of Twitter folks in LA for BlogWorldExpo was just an incredible experience. Above everything, it created a super strong bond between me and the people I met.

Get out of the house

Have you ever had this problem? In my case, there is a danger of ending up working away in front of my laptop every evening. Saving a night for an awesome Tweetup is just a great opportunity to get out of the building and meeting up with people IRL.

Taking some time off and chatting away about the things that interest you can also be a great boost of motivation. In a different environment it is often much easier to develop new ideas your desk and laptop just couldn’t bring you I found.

Meet your customers

Another reason that became very true in our case is to get a chance to meet the people using and paying for your business. Over here at Buffer, we have started to organise weekly Buffer & Coffee sessions every Tuesday to get to know the people using Buffer a little better.

Getting together with them and having a cup of coffee can be a great opportunity to get feedback and learn about other existing problems you still have to solve. In our case it’s also just a lot of fun to finally meet the people you only see signing up via email otherwise.

You can follow your real interests

The first and foremost reason for me to attend these events is that you can really connect with people who are genuinely interested in the same things that you are too. This is different from old colleagues from high school, friends from college or co-workers.

When I attended my first startup meetups, I found this thoroughly refreshing. You can connect with people and have conversations on the topics that interest you on a much higher level right from the start. It is also a great filter for meeting people that you are naturally more likely to connect with.

Expand your thoughts beyond 140 characters

Besides blogging, I often explain thoughts only via Twitter. This can sometimes be a very tough challenge. Meeting people you directly met through Tweeting can give you a chance to expand these exact thoughts beyond 140 characters.

Whilst our conversations in #ToolsChat for example are very much to the point each time, hearing and discussing things IRL can give you a lot more room for what you have to say. Of course, I wouldn’t see Twitter’s 140 character limit as a limitation, yet with Tweetups you can strike a really good balance.

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You Will Have A Lot Of Fun

These meetups aren’t like meetings. It’s a super casual and relaxed way to get to know people you have only met via Twitter. In fact, this has turned out to be a lot of fun for me. There is no pressure to get a concise outcome, yet you will be amazed how valuable these connections can prove in the futre.

So take a chance and try attending a few meetups, there are plenty happening everywhere. Have you already attended one in the past? What was your experience with these events?

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