Improve your Twitter street cred.
Get your ass to a tweetup.

So you’re a Twitter rock star with an impressive list of followers. You’ve got a killer score of 99.6 on Twitter Grader, you carry on interesting conversations with @reply after @reply and get retweeted a decent amount, too. All is well in your Twitterverse, except…

…none of it is doing you any good in real life. Close your laptop and turn off your iPhone. What happens to your Twitterverse now? Exactly.

GIVE TWEEPS A CHANCE

If for any reason you’ve been weary of making your way to a tweetup in your area, I beg you to get off your rump, take a shot of social courage and meet these virtual tweeps in reality. Sure, there may be a brief moment of awkward introductions. “Hey, so… you’re @johndoe…you look nothing like your avatar…nice to meet you.”  And even after that it may seem like there isn’t much to talk about besides the last four tweets you’ve read from each other or the hottest tweeted link of the day. This is not the case.

Your tweeps are more than handles and avatars and links and hashtags.  Because you share interests (Why else would you follow them?) and converse with them throughout the day, there’s a pretty strong chance you’d have a great time at the pub/bar/pizza joint shooting the breeze for an hour or two.  It solidifies the connections you are using Twitter to establish anyway and like any good relationship, it needs work.

It’s usually not hard to find tweetups since they are, of course, arranged via twitter and we spend a good bulk of our day there anyway.  If you are a casual twitter user and not an obsessed fiend, check sites like Meetup.com or Tweetups.org for local gatherings. Also search for local twitter accounts that announce tweetups in your area (i.e. @soflatweetup, @ftlaudtweetup, etc.).

RECESSION FRIENDLY

Believe it or not, it IS possible to have a social life without breaking the bank. Down here in South Florida we are lucky enough to have quite a few tech events/tweetups that have generous sponsors who will chip in for the booze and food.

This is in no way meant to promote twitter mooching. No one likes the guy/girl who hovers around gatherings just for the free stuff.

Last night at Boca’s First Pizza Tweetup, Tucci’s Pizza (@tuccispizza) in Boca threw in all the pizza (which, by the way, was stellar) if you paid for a drink. There was no shortage of food, the owners were grateful and by the looks of it everyone had a great time. Thanks to @lapp for coordinating and @oweno for the awesome video:

So go forth my noble tweetup scaredy-cats. Drop the anti-social front and meet the people who pleasantly distract you from work on Twitter.

Announcing the #todaysplaylist challenge!

As you may know by now, I have been offering a playlist of the day. Ten songs, usually with some sort of theme. You can find the links and posts about the daily playlist, which is published at varying times throughout the day, on my twitter feed and Facebook status. Today, it just got serious. Ten songs from 90s movies, left up to the Twitterverse to decipher. Be first to guess all 10 movies correctly, become the recipient of a shiny, new $10 iTunes giftcard. Here are the answers to today’s inaugural challenge, won by @alcestisisdead:

1. “Alright” – Supergrass

Clueless (1995)

2. “It’s Tricky” – Run DMC

Can’t Hardly Wait (1998)

3. “The Man in Me” – Bob Dylan

Big Lebowski (1998)

4. “Lovefool” – The Cardigans

William Shakespear’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)

5. “You Never Can Tell” – Chuck Berry

Pulp Fiction (1994)

6. “Any Other Name” – Thomas Newsman

American Beauty (1999)

7. “If You Don’t Love Me (I’ll Kill Myself)” – Pete Droge

Dumb and Dumber (1994)

8. “Secret Garden” – Bruce Springstein

Jerry Maguire (1996)

9. “Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen

Wayne’s World (1992)

10. “A Girl Like You” – Edwin Collins

Empire Records (1995)

Previous Playlists of the Day:

April 9, 2009

April 8, 2009

April 7, 2009

All playlists available on my profile at Grooveshark.com

Tune in next Friday for another #todaysplaylist Challenge! Follow me on twitter to play @malcolli.

Wine bloggers head to Twitter

Dr. Vino, of Dr. Vino’s Wine Blog (one of my favorite daily reads that doesn’t have to do with journalism), had some chuckle-worthy commentary on his reluctance to join Twitter.

I can’t decide if this is a revolution in micro-blogging or a complete waste of time. So far I’ve learned various things such as: one woman was PMSing, another guy hates his job, another guy just finished 18 holes of golf, somebody else is at the farmers’ market (BREAKING!), and yet another guy is pinging his DNS server or some such. I have revealed trivialities as my confusion thinking New York State cider was different from mere apple juice…(read more)

And whether or not he actually wanted to read about the lovely monthly emotional tribulations of said woman, he did. I guess that’s the point, stumbling across random ramblings and tweeting right back. The more people into the conversation, the better, I say! Follow me on Twitter.