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Community Corner

Tweetup Draws About 50 People Face-to-Face Tuesday Evening

To socialize, network, learn; turnout higher than expected.

Some 50 men and women wearing nametags with the names they were given as well as names they’ve chosen more recently gathered Tuesday evening at . Some knew each other by their newer monikers better than by their given names.

SocialCap introduced three speakers:  WoburnPatch, BeaconGrille and prkanderson.

SocialCap is David Crowley, founder of Social Capital Inc.; WoburnPatch, editor Danielle Masterson; BeaconGrille, Joyce Vyriotes; and prkanderson, Pastor Keith Anderson of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. Their other names are their Twitter handles.

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They and the other guests attended a TweetUp, an opportunity to meet, socialize and learn more about social media, particularly Twitter.

The goal of the TweetUp, according to Crowley, an event organizer, was to get people connected in local communities. Crowley went to his first TweetUp, a Red Sox event, this spring, he told Woburn Patch. The number of local Twitter users has reached a critical mass, Crowley said. SCI held a social media class about a year ago, he noted.

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Crowley approached Beacon Grille to hold the TweetUp there, Vyriotes told the crowd. They received 50 RSVPs, she said; they had expected half that many.

Some of the people at Tuesday’s event are relatively new to Twitter. Take Annemarie Gangi from the . She described herself as a Facebook queen but a relative newbie to Twitter.  Gangi said she started to use Twitter socially. Her sister got her started. Then she attended a business conference, she said, and got excited about using the medium for business. She attended the TweetUp, her first, “to learn, get ideas and better understand all of it.”

Jodi Crowley, David Crowley’s spouse, also described herself as a Twitter novice. She is particularly interested in health and wellness, she said, and wants to meet new people.

Larry Bouchie—TechPRGuy—president of TurboPR, which he described as a small PR firm in Melrose, came to be part of the TweetUp. After using Twitter for about six months, “Now I get it,” he said.

Connie Battle runs two companies:  Clearpoint Web Solutions, a web site design service which she started in January and Bagalicious, a handbag and accessory company. With a background in software, she said she knows how to Tweet. She came to the TweetUp, she said, to meet other businesspeople who use Twitter, to network and to learn from others who to follow on Twitter.

Christi Showman Farrar, teen librarian at the , also came to the TweetUp to make connections.

Carissa Penney came to promote the . The more people you meet, the better, said the club’s membership sales consultant.

Social media is a place to be professional and social at the same time, Patch’s Masterson told the audience and a place where she can check that “we’re doing what you (readers) want.”

Pastor Anderson uses social media to improve communications with his congregation, he said, and to provide transparency, a window into the church.

Vyriotes, who Tweets for Cummings Properties as well as Beacon Grille, said she uses Twitter to build relationships with entrepreneurs who may at some point need space for their businesses.

Woburn Patch contributors Raquelle Matos and Irene Simas also attended the TweetUp.

Crowley said he recognized some people at the TweetUp by their Twitter handles more than their given names.

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