On Thursday, I went to Orlando’s first official tweetup, organized by @etanowitz and The Orlando Sentinel. While tweetups are fairly common in areas such as San Francisco, it was great to finally meet the faces of several people I’ve been conversing back and forth with on Twitter. Not only did I get a chance to meet @Jackbastide and @Garth_Williams in person, but I also met many great new people such as @Jamespero, @Amykr and @Weatherangel!

One of the many topics that were brought up in my conversations revolved around forming local communities. Many of us go about our lives, hanging out with our close friends, often establishing new relationships through friends of our friends. But where do you go to network? What opportunities are out there that you’re missing?

Over 100 people showed up to the Orlando Tweetup. Pretty good turnout if you ask me! Each person had something different to offer. I chatted with people about sleep apnea, iPhone apps and even found someone who lived right down the street from me! In social media, it’s all about showing that you are a human being. No one wants to talk to a robot, or talk about business all the time. But you can guarantee that each person is an expert in their own field and this will of course come up in conversation.

So get out there!!! See what’s going on in your community. Can’t find anything? Start your own Tweetup and spread the word. Even if it’s an intimate group of people, it’s still a win-win situation. Check out this video by @kwidrick to see what some people have to say about the Tweetup.

Be sure to follow me and all my updates on twitter: @MarieGoltara

This Saturday, I attended BlogOrlando 3. Whether attendees were established journalists, technology gurus, bloggers, PR professionals or just a casual passerby wanting to stop in, the conference offered great insight into both the local scene and industry-wide trends. From Etan Horowitz of the Orlando Sentinel to Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb, great interactive sessions took place the whole day.

Among one of the many sessions I attended was David Alston’s “Monitoring” session. He instilled the idea of constantly monitoring social media when it comes to trends, industry jargon, competitors and especially clients. As we all know, negative word of mouth spreads like a wildfire compared to any type of positive comment. As the use of social networks grow, so does the importance of keeping a watchful eye on your company name. Have you searched Twitter for your company name? How about Facebook or Myspace? It is interesting what we find for clients.

It could very well be that you are being mentioned without even realizing it!