Making The Effort To Be Social

L-R: Dj Nexeus Fatale, Rob Blatt, Julia Roy & Me

A few days ago I was trolling around Facebook and came across a tweet up here in NYC. What is a tweet up? To be honest, I’m not 100% sure what it’s supposed to be but it ends up being a get together where you drink and meet people in person that you’ve meet or been in conversation with on twitter. Since I’ve never been to one, and I’ve heard lots about ‘em, I decided I’d go, try to be more social and do some networking. The bottom line to be a success in doing any of this social [media] stuff (Music, film/video, podcasting, etc) is just being out there, making the effort for face to face meetings. So with that said, I feel I’ve slacked off from that for a while.

In my usual self, I did have a minor amount of apprehensiveness about going. There is a small part of me that is a bit introverted when it comes to events like this; I sometimes I talk myself out of events. It’s a shame but it happens more often than not. So, I ended waffling around for a bit saying to myself “Meh, do I really want or need to go to this?”  In the end, I didn’t let “The Negatore” (the name of my negativity monster – nemesis) take me hostage and leave me staring at my computer monitor refreshing Huffingtonpost, a depressing procrastination thing I do…but a whole different blog post altogether. Once I made the agreement to go I accepted the R.S.V.P. thing on Facebook and began to see who’s going. A few hours later I got a “follow” request tweet from a rather striking blonde, @juliaroy, so I decided to check her out and see if she was real…again a whole different post altogether.

Being There & Connecting

Once I got good and dressed I made the trip out. This event started at 6:30pm but I didn’t show up till 7:30pm (just like me) but I knew this would go on a bit so I wasn’t crushed. Before I left I got together a few things to make this an effective use of my time and networking. I’d like to share my list.

How I Prepare For Social Media Gatherings (try ‘em):

1.  Business Cards

• Here is where it’s the most important for me. If you can, spurge. I use Overnight Prints to make color, glossy, rounded edge cards that I designed myself. They don’t look like standard black text on white  paper business cards and it’s not really to expensive. If you want to stand out, take the time make it happen. I have yet to have anyone not say, “Ooo, cool card.”

2.  Load An iPod (or other mobile device) With Your Work

• If you’re a video editor or a musician like me, have your best stuff on hand ready to be shown! I’m amazed when I meet people that make me have to go to them later. Why? #1, I always forget and #2, if you have an iPod or iPhone, that can perfectly show off what you do there on the spot, there is NO better time than NOW! With mobile devices these days, there is NO excuse to NOT carry your work with you. I’ve gotten gigs on the spot because of this practice. Test me the next time you see me, I’m ready!

• Bloggers, you too…use iFeedPod (Mac Only) to capture your blog feed(s). A person may ask what you write about, so show ‘em!

• Photographers, send your stuff from Aperture (Mac Only) to iPhoto and sync! I need to redo this again myself.

3.  Do Homework; Learn Who’s Who Before Going

• Make it a point to meet those you have spoken to online. Try to remember faces and names (I’m kind of bad at this so I try to add them to my address book on my ipod so I can see their photo) but remember sometimes people look different from profile pictures. If you don’t know anybody at an event, call some friends. I called & text’d about 10 and one showed (thanks @Ronen).

• When you’ve found that person you wanted to meet, don’t be afraid to start things off. People like when you introduce yourself; do this carefully though, being too forceful turns people off.

4.  Wear Something Nice

• The world is swayed by those who look good, so, look good. Smile and be confident. I didn’t do this before but when I changed my attire, I was amazed by the amount of people who would chat me up! Social media is full of interesting, intelligent and nice looking people, I feel I want to fit in.

I hope this didn’t sound like a rant or critique but these are things I try and do to force, engage and inspire myself to go to events. The bottom line for me is to try and always be inspired. I could go on and on about specific other things…let me know what you thought so far.