Does Twitter Replace Face-to-Face?

Absolutely not.  It can extend your reach, enhance your current relationships, and forge new relationships (offline and online).

Recently, I was at Panera U (go figure) and was delighted to see several meetings of folks that either met originally via Twitter or extended their concise-ities of Twitter to a larger conversation offline. These were mostly business conversations.  Planning. Producing. Collaborating. Networking.

For those who say that they prefer face-to-face over online conversation, I agree with you. Those who "tweet" and "blog" are not hiding behind an online mask for fear of offline conversation. They are not socially incompetent. Rather, they are often better at, longing for, and immersed in greater offline connection because of their online efforts.

When I was with AOL Communities, I was always on the lookout for ways to connect the online community to an offline meet. It deepens the relationship.

Some are now using Twitter to start a connection that goes from online to in-the-flesh. Shouldn't you?

How are you developing your online community offline?

Photo on Flickr by me (of @jennipullen and @benstone)

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Find Your Social Media ROI

I hear it from a lot of business owners: “Where is the ROI with all this Social Media?“ If this is a question you ask yourself, maybe we should work together a bit more. We can work together solo, or via a professional learning community. Find and increase your ROI. There is a “there” there.