Twitter users get a little face time at Va. Beach 'tweetup'

VIRGINIA BEACH

So, you know all those people who spend so much time talking to each other on Twitter? They also like to meet in person, as they did Wednesday evening at a "tweetup."

More than 90 Twitter users met at Gordon Biersch restaurant at Town Center to see each other in the flesh. Most were professionals networking for business and personal reasons.

"A tweetup is just a gathering of people that use Twitter," said Naoma Doriguzzi, 32, who has hosted about 10 this year. "Just meeting the people behind Twitter."

Some Twitter users on Wednesday wore suits; others wore jeans. What they had in common was use of social media to network, meet people and, for many, do business.

Keith Parnell, 46, of Norfolk is the founder of Jase Group, an advertising and marketing company. At a tweetup, people talk about everything, he said, just as they do on Twitter.

"They're growing relationships," he said. "They're growing both personal and they're growing business relationships."

Jennifer Taylor, 26, of Suffolk said she got a job interview Wednesday with a marketing company, lined up by someone who followed her on Twitter.

Most of the networking was in person Wednesday night, although some people brought laptops to update Twitter.

Twitter makes it easy for people to have conversations about anything, Doriguzzi said. She is the social media director for New American Mortgage and uses Twitter to brand herself. People she has never met have recognized her because of her photo on Twitter and Facebook, she said.

"I've met random people online that I've never met in person that I've actually done business with - new clients," she said. "It's an easy conversation. Because it's so simple... you can talk to people in a casual way."

Click here for a guide to Twitter.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com