We all know, as successful business owners, that networking is crucial for business growth and life!

Why? It’s a way to form tight nit relationships, trustworthy referrals, expose your personal brand ,a strong support network, a feeling of belonging, being surrounded around like minded people….the list goes on!

I have spoken to a few people of late who are saying Twitter is for the anti-social – people that are too scared or too lazy to hook up face to face! What a load of bull crap! I have been on Twitter for quite some time now AND my social fixes on Twitter are like injecting myself with 20 cans of Redbull!

 The relationships I have built up on Twitter are strong, powerful and true. Twitter is another form of networking and it can be done from the comfort of your own home to hit a global audience, I believe the people that say it’s anti – social just totally don’t get this space…YET!

A few weeks back I had a brain surge-and I nearly had to go into hospital!

I found that I was engaging in conversations with many people from Melbourne (where I live) on Twitter.  I don’t know about you, but when I tweet with people,  I picture in my mind the type of person they are, what they look like and also what their office/house looks like too? Random I know!

As a social media enthusiast and people lover who has a zest for life, I just had to fizz with these extraordinary twitterers.  They all gave me something on twitter – whether it was support, exposure, a belly full of laughs, referrals, business ….. I JUST HAD TO MEET THEM, face to face!

It was an absolute no brainer to take powerful relationships that I had made on twitter to a whole new level! We all know the power of twitter in lead gen, personal branding and networking. Combine this with an offline networking meet up and shaaazam – add another power marketing strategy to the business model!

@tweetupmellers was born – and for the first meet up,  22 of twitters top talent showed up ! If you are curious to see the  strength of this space then click on this !

My point? Online networking is gold. Combine this with offline networking then you have just hit the jackpot my friends!

Were any of the people that showed up lazy or anti social? Quite the contrary! They get this space and got straight in! They showed up, put in the time and by the end of the night our twitter network was stronger than ever. They all know, as you do that you have to put in the time, care about your network, give great content and be real! When you do THAT then the opportunities are endless.

Twitter is a social networking tool and it’s strength has now lead to an offline networking group too! Both are crucial to any business and both generate powerful results.

Twitter for the anti-social –ppppphffffft – check out @tweetupmellers and the group, then get back to me, wouldn’t you agree?