Events organized and promoted through Twitter where users meet in person to network, discuss hot topics, fundraise or socialize. Tweet-ups have sometimes been compared to a flash mob because of the short time frame from the conception to execution of an event and the huge number of people who attend. Often attendees of tweet-ups have never met face-to-face, but may have developed strong relationships online.

An interesting example of a tweet-up on a much larger scale is Twestival, which took place in 180 cities including Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, New York, and Los Angeles. On February 12th 2009, Twitter users and their friends gathered to raise money for Charity Water, a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Twestival attendees met up with their local Twitter community to fundraise, network with other “tweeters” and participate in the live global “twestival” conversation happening online (and in some cases were able to see the Twitter conversation on large screens at the venue). The event promotion and conversations about the event were communicated primarily through Twitter.

We’ve seen other examples of successful Twitter meet-ups dedicated to coming together for a cause. In December, #HOHOTO, a sold out 600-person Toronto Twitter event, raised $25,000 for the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank.

Key learning:
The Twitter community is very active online but also in person. The strength of twitter is in the large number of frequent, short updates from users. The public’s text based messages allows information about an event, a breaking news story, or a call-to-action to spring up quickly and generate buzz sometimes in a matter of minutes.