Last week, Chappaqua resident Chris Dessi tweeted this question: “Why would a company advertise on a billboard at a train station if everyone waiting on the platform is looking at their Blackberrys and iPhones?”
Dessi, a self-proclaimed “social media evangelist,” was the keynote speaker at Westchester”™s first Tweet-up, held Oct. 14 at Pour Café & Wine Bar in Mount Kisco.
Dessi said the Tweet-up, a networking event organized by seven Twitter users, including Dessi, who had never met in person, is indicative of a changing culture.
“The manner in which we aggregate and disseminate information has completely changed,” Dessi, director of sales for Manhattan-based technology company Buddy Media. “The culture of the community being the experts has come to fruition. Nobody watches commercials anymore. That”™s not to say people aren”™t open to seeing advertising, but it”™s much more niche.”
Social media networks like Twitter, which Dessi described as “word of mouth on steroids,” allow businesses to build a virtual community ”“ using 140 characters or fewer per tweet ”“ and generate a following ”“ for free.
Chris S. Cornell, owner of Cornell Gallery in Pleasantville, said the event was organized over the course of a few days.
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“Immediately we got an enthusiastic response,” Cornell said. “We posted the RSVP invite online Monday at 10 p.m. and it started to fill up immediately. Within 72 hours it was booked solid for 50 people.”
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Cornell said more than 20 businesses, including Scarsdale bakery Everything LuLu and Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, donated items from cupcakes to spa gift certificates to movie passes for guests of the Tweet-up, which he said was “highly successful.”
“I don”™t think we could have done this event six months ago because I don”™t think there was an interest for it,” Cornell said. “It makes me think that two months down the line we could have an even bigger event. People are already asking when we”™re going to have the next one.”
Anthony Colasacco, owner of Pour Café & Wine Bar is already thinking along those lines.
“It”™s amazing how quickly we pulled the event together to be at capacity,” Colasacco said. “I knew it would work and I knew the people behind it were very passionate about it, even though none of us had ever met. I would like to host those on an ongoing basis.”
Colasacco, who has been active on Twitter for about three weeks, already has more than 100 followers.
“The reach is just enormous,” Colasacco said. “It”™s almost like compound interest ”“ you take a penny one day and you could have $1 million after a month ”“ and it”™s free. Especially in this day and age, free is a nice price.”
Colasacco warned other small-business owners not to be overly self-promotional on social networking sites or potential customers might be turned off.
Instead, offer relevant information that people will find interesting: most of Colasacco”™s tweets are directly related to the wine and food industry, including news, commentary and funny drinking quotes.
“It”™s all geared towards what I do,” Colasacco said. “I just want to keep it fun and engaging and hopefully people will like it.”
