mindmeister.com

Mindmeister is a tool that I love using, and for me, it stimulates brainstorming sessions whenever I create, plan and organize. The central questions was: What relevant service can I provide the members of the Florida Tweetup community that would advance their professional and business endeavors and facilitate those connections throughout the state of Florida? Bingo.

Let’s travel back a year when I first established @floridatweetup on Twitter. My main goal at the time was to build one huge Florida Twitter list. (this was prior to twitter rolling out the list feature) I set out to ONLY follow Florida tweeps and businesses and this fact still holds true today. In effect, anyone who desires to do so, can simply scroll down the 4,000+ accounts that are followed on @floridatweetup and be certain that a large portion of the Florida demographic is centralized and still continues to grow. My motivation was to create a hub for professionals, entrepreneurs, and businesses who provide goods and services throughout our state, a way to connect.

After setting up the Twitter account, the Florida Tweetup Ning community was established to provide a central location for Florida peeps to mingle and get to know one another and also allow for the creation of professional and business pages showcasing professional expertise, business services, and product offerings. This is the vision that I’m moving forward with in a big way. It is my belief that the community can grow in a way different from that we experience on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The commonality between people within isolated demographic can be more personal and relationships have the opportunity to be fortified on a deeper level – “bringing together in-person those who create relevant connections through social networks, digital media, and mobile technologies”.

With the enormous amount of networking events that take place everyday at multiple locations throughout our communities, the purpose of Florida Tweetup is specific to social-tech events. Tweetups, barcamps, expos, workshops, and conferences that take place throughout our state will be the focus and provide a one-stop-shop for events that are driven by the social-tech space and the people who advocate and honor the possibilities in our quest to learn, teach and share.

The vision for the Florida Tweetup community is about connecting professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners and corporate executives with  like minded peers,  facilitating in-person meetings throughout the state of Florida- city to city, county to county, neighborhood to hood. A community built to encourage communication about upcoming social-tech events, post event interaction, and for those awesome spontaneous road-trips to meetup and tweetup. Let’s do this. Are you with me?

In light of the recent and not-so-bad changes that were announced by Ning a week ago, I have set out on a journey to explore a variety of community platform options. For now, I believe it would be best to stay put, pay the fees, and continue to build the Florida Tweetup community. The plans also include expanding the blog, fullfilling the mission and vision for the community, and activate an aggressive membership campaign.

To celebrate, plans are underway for the First Annual Regional Florida Tweetup scheduled to take place sometime late this summer with the first location being on my home turf, Sanibel and Captiva Islands. The Regional Florida Tweetup “survivor” weekend will include  beach volleyball, sunsets on the beach, kayaking, biking, hiking, ( hopefully other ing’s) and with much hope, a special permit for a beach firepit seafood fest. YUM! I  hope you’re as excited about this as I am.

A separate e-mail and blog post will be made available with the details very soon. Most of you know that the Florida Tweetup community has never been a revenue stream for me and that I also facilitate several other grass-roots events aside from my business. In order to maintain and grow of the community, I have set out on a mission to choose a virtual assistant to help with general administration . This way, I can oversee the direction of the community and focus on communicating with you, the members.

Getting back to the Florida Tweetup community and community needs – I have crunched a few numbers and came up with a dollar amount. An extremely small contribution from each member would oil up the wheel and move the ship forward. We’re talking about $25 bucks a member for the year. At this time, you have an opportunity to become a founding member. Founding members will remain in this special category and will always be recognized as early supporters and will include:

• your bio featured in the weekly newsletter
• your business logo placed and linked to your website on the blog for an entire month
• recognition on the Founding Member Twitter List Forevah
• a cool media pack
• a few deals here and there
• your special focus spot on the Ning community on your designated week. (Your pick)
• a Super Uber Geeky Tweetup Badge

There will be no other requests for money until the beginning of 2011, although sponsorship options are  being formulated and will also be offered to large brands and corporations. Personally, I detest networking events that nickel and dime you to death….”this fee to join, that fee to attend, more money to advertise and ohhhh those raffles”….in my opinion, sometimes it’s just a bit over the top. And this is precisely why, you will never be asked to pull out your wallet at Tweetups aside from your personal purchases….except for the regional hooplah, but that’s to be expected. The membership subscribe link is at the end of this post. Look for the incentives for recruiting some Florida friends to come join the fun : ) Hope you enjoyed this news and that you’re excited as I am about all the fun stuff happening. Stay posted! And please, feel free to comment : ) Nicely though – I have a fragile heart.

and include the following:

• Your Name/Organizer’s Name
• Tweetup Name
• Meetup Location
• Information URL
• Twitter ID

Looking for Florida Tweeps to contribute your Tweetup event information and post-event details.

• BarcampMiami February 2010
• BarcampOrlando April 2010
• BarcampSWFL January 30, 2010
• BarcampSarasota April 2010
• BarcampTampa TBA

(4th month; 4 squared=16)

Did you know that April 16th is Foursquare Day?

We thought it would be a great way to generate some activity for SWFL local  businesses and non-profits by participating in Foursquare Day.

So here it is, the SWFL Tweetup’s April Event!

Cities across the globe are getting ready to host parties and swarms in hope of acquiring a coveted Swarm Badge and help push #4sqday into Twitter’s trending topics.

We encourage businesses & non-profit’s to participate!

Tips in using Foursquare for Business

Want to join us for the first Foursquare Day?

When: Friday, April 16

Time:  5-8 p.m.

Where: Market Plaza near Borders Bookstore at Gulf Coast Town Center

Why: According to Chris Silk, NDN Social Media Expert and Community Events Manager – “To eat, drink, socialize and pursue the elusive “Swarm” badge, acquired when 50 or more Foursquare users check-in at one location at the same time.”

Here’s the article on Naples Daily News.com—->

Since then, between 20 and 40 professionals from around Florida’s gulfcoast gather every month.  SWFL Tweetups are always free of charge and only requires you share a common passion for technology, Twitter, and social media.  Area restaurants provide the venue and generously provide complimentary appetizers and bartender-inspired Twittertini’s. Tweetups have taken place at Hotel Indigo, Cin Cin, Blu Sushi, Bistro 41, Naples Tomato, and Cape Harbour.

Tweetup sponsors benefit through the immediate publicity that social networks, such as  Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr garner. The professional and business community in Southwest Florida and its strong presence on each of these social networks, help create the viral messages.

Here is a pic of the very first SWFL Tweetup taken in March, 2009 at Phi in the Sky at Hotel Indigo. Among us and standing from the left is Dean Piccirillo, Kerri Goldsmith, Melissa Isley, and Gail Lamarche. Sitting from the left is Terry Read, Tyra Read, Kirsten O’Donnell, Cory O’Donnell, and Catherine Hunter. Not in this photograph is Homer Gaines, Shellie Casey Hoffman, Judy Chiappini, Carlos Kelly, Jane Kelly, Jeremy O’Guinn, and of course the photographer, yours truly @ghostexecutive.

SWFL Tweetup #1 at Hotel Indigo-Phi in the Sky March 27, 2009

http://bit.ly/dsKdcS

SWFL Tweetup March 2010

SWFL Tweetup July 2009