A Year In The Making: 140 Characters At A Time

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Twitter meet ups, or “TweetUps” as they are most commonly referred, seem to be everywhere these days – at conferences, personal interest groups and cities across the country. Typically a way to connect with online friends, meet new contacts and network over a few drinks, the growth and strength of the local “LRTweetUp” community over the last 12 months has blown “typical” out of the water.

Celebrating its first anniversary next month with a spoof-genre awards show appropriately dubbed “The LRTweeties,” this strong gathering of more than 200 users will come together to celebrate a year of professional growth, promotions, friendships and philanthropy in Little Rock.

The grand awards festivity, staged to embody the tomfoolery nature and sarcastic whimsy of that of its followers, will be held Tuesday, May 18 at Juanita’s Mexican Café & Bar beginning at 5:30 p.m.  Finalist voting for all award categories such as “Most Likely To Run For Office,” “TMI Tweep of the Year,” “LOL Tweet of the Year,” “Most Creative Use of Hashtags,” and more will begin this Wednesday.

“We’re doing more than just throwing a party for a networking group that has provided a way to connect with colleagues and friends through social media,” said Keith Crawford (@tsudo), one of the founders of the LRTweetUp (@LRTweetUp). “We’re celebrating the creation and growth of a community that has transformed the way many professionals in Little Rock cultivate relationships, do business and promote advocacy and  goodwill initiatives through philanthropic efforts. The LRTweeties are a simple, light-hearted way of honoring that.”

The LRTweetUp is the result of an idea brought on by two of its co-founding members.  In May 2009 two friends, Angel Galloway (@angelmg) and Natalie Ghidotti (@ghidotti) decided to organize a local meet up to celebrate reaching 400 followers. As the word spread and interest grew, the gathering turned into a series of monthly meet ups with the goal of helping members build personal and professional connections.

The community also began to evolve as a self-proclaimed new breed of civic group. Supporting local charities through fundraising and awareness initiatives, members participated in several programs benefiting Central Arkansas charities throughout the year as well including Heifer International’s “Pass on the Gift” campaign and participation in the state’s first “Twestival” which supported Reach Out and Read Arkansas(RORA), a nonprofit that partners with pediatricians and clinics statewide to raise awareness about early childhood literacy and provides resources to families to encourage reading in the home.

Although our organization is still young in terms of longevity, our impact and reach on the community can be seen far and wide,” Crawford said.  “Approximately 35 percent of our membership represent the amazing nonprofit organizations making a difference in the lives of those in Central Arkansas every day. Pair that with the sheer volume of volunteer hours, advocacy and contributions to organizations shared across Twitter stream at any given moment, and it’s hard not to be motivated yourself to give back.”

Personal stories from members of the LRTweetUp community, links to voting and more information about the event can be found at http://lrtweetup.com/.

The LRTweeties are presented by the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau (@LittleRockCVB and @RiverMarket) with support from fellow sponsors CustomXM (@CustomXM), Eric, Rob & Isaac Ad Guys (@EricRobIsaac) and ParaTweet (@Paratweet).

You can download or print the press release here

2010 LRTweeties Press Release

Recent Press

LRtweetup has had some great press coverage of late and we always want to say thanks and highlight the work of our friends in the media.

Where my tweeps at? by Sync

@SyncWeekly wrote one of the best tweetup articles we’ve ever read. They did an amazing job of capturing the spirit on history of #LRtweetup.

"People are just so helpful and want to share their knowledge and that’s where I learned all the basics of it. There’s so many people out there who are ready and willing to make it easy for you and bring you into the community."

Check out the full article online and make sure to follow our friends @SyncWeekly. Thanks Sync!

KATV Daybreak #LRtweetup

Our own @JessicaDean helped spread the word about #LRtweetup during last Thursday’s KATV Daybreak. They invited us to Community Bakery for an early morning gathering and Jessica interviewed @Angelmg and myself. Just click LR Tweetup in the sidebar to see one of the interviews.

Thanks to @JessicaDean and @KATVnews for spreading the word about LRtweetup.

Recognizing the rise of new networks

New Networking Groups Grow, Established Ones Continue Work
By @JamieWalden
11/9/2009

“What began as a casual conversation about the social media snowball Twitter has become one of the newest networking outlets for young professionals in central Arkansas.

“Tweetups are kind of a nationwide thing that people on Twitter have been doing in different cities around the country,” said Natalie Ghidotti, owner of Ghidotti Communications of Little Rock. “We just started talking among a few of us that were on Twitter here in Little Rock that we need to have a tweetup.”

continued at ArkansasBusiness.com

Press Coverage

We’d like to thank these news organizations for helping us get the word out about Little Rock Twestival.

Twestival to Raise Money for Reach Out and Read Arkansas by Monika Rued (@monikarued) of TodaysTHV

Helping Early Childhood Literacy by KARK

International Ink: Paper Trails by Linda Caillouet of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette

and we even got a mention in the London Telegraph

Twestival: Improving the world with Social Networks by Andrew Keen (@ajkeen) of the Telegraph.co.uk

UPDATE: More international coverage from Sky News

Tweeting For Charity: Twestival Events Begin