Here in the #NWiTweetup world headquarters we are bit slow and way behind. Oh, I could offer up a ton of excuses like:

1. Finn has been out of town
2. Daver have been way busy with new clients & out of town
3. the weather has really been crappy
4. Richard – he really has not done anything to blamed for lately, but I will just so he does not get to comfortable

Well, we are getting caught up and so that time has come once again for Northwest Indiana to come together and hold our monthly #NWiTweetup. The April #NWiTweetup will be at…

*click the pic for the map

Here are the vitals":

• When – Wednesday April 27th from 630 to 830PM
• Where  – SMASH MOUTH BURGERS & PIZZA
                    764 E US Rte 30 
                    Schererville, IN 46375  – Route 30 & Cline Ave
• What – it is a tweetup, a meetup, networking and some serious sharing of ideas
• more what – it is pizza and burgers, Might, I add some damn fine pizza and burgers
• Why – cause you like taking the online offline

If you need more information just hit him up @DaveWoodson , call him at (219)872-8000 or you can email him at dave@nwitweetup.com

We look forward to seeing you all there, and we are working on a May NWiTweetup with a few places in mind, but if you have a suggestion. We would love to hear about them.

Dave

I want to thank Chatelle Flannery for inviting me to come down to Indy’s MBO Conference (Masters of Business Online) If you don’t know Chantelle, she is a graduate of Valparaiso High School and co-author of Coporate Blogging for Dummies. Er, guys like me and a few others that I won’t mention. Plus, the really cool news is that she will be speaking along side someone else at the November #NWiTweetup on the 11/11/10 in Golden’s Boiler Room in Valparaiso.

Again, I hear the chant of “Free Beer”, but what should really draw most of us is Chantelle and that other guy. I say that, especially after catching her presentation at Indy’s MBO Conference. I know, at times, I really come off as a know it all, and after sitting through her presentation and beginning to the read the book. I have come to learn that I have a ways to go. Good news, so do a lot of other people.

Here are a couple of my take-a-ways from her presentation:

1. Google wants you to succeed so they give you free tools
2. Keywords – help get you indexed properly
3. Promote – where – EVERYWHERE
4. Remember, your blog is your company voice
5. Engage – consumers want to know that they have been heard

The trouble with Indy’s MBO is that there is so much good information that it is hard to hit all the presentations, but I did a good run down on the ones that I hit over at DaveWoodson. So, if you are a small to large business in NW Indiana, I think you should start planning ahead for 2011,and attend it will be worth your while. You will learn how to generate a higher quality lead online while reducing your ROI.

In the meantime, Chantelle will be here with some guy, on the 11th where I am sure she will share her vast knowledge on blogging,  The bad news, is that no one else from MBO will be, unless they want to make the trek up from Indy.

Seriously, NW Indiana plan ahead – it is well worth your time and it will a profound affect your online marketing.

Dave

Oh, that other guy will be none other than Doug Karr. We all know and love Doug, some more than other. He was here with us in February on a night that they should have stayed home.

Oh, I completely forgot to mention that all of this wonderfulness is being sponsored and hosted by Golden Technologies, with offices in NW Indiana and SW Florida. A map for directions and other information can be found here.

We are still working out the details for Social Media Day whether it is going to be a lunch or a after hours extravaganza.  We would like to get a few more businesses there and then have some great learning sessions and some of the best networking in NW Indiana.

So stay tuned for more details and there is going to be one great low-lite reel on this very special episode of #NWiTweetup Video Recap

Social Media Day June 30th, Pepe’s In Valparaiso, Social Media Luncheon more details coming soon

and for the record, I know the sound is off on this I am working on it.

Stay tuned

Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error.
Benjamin Rush

Can't we all just get along?

For those just now checking in for details on tomorrow’s tweetup at the Blue Chip Casino – see our original post Kyle Lacy Tweetup at Blue Chip Casino

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE EVERYONE!

Now for the controversy that rocked  NW Indiana on Friday some bullet points:

• The NWIndiana Tweetup has been working terrific for the last 14 months as a collaboration of many participants, no one person has control or is trying to make money off the effort.    (@nwitweetup)
• There is an active social media scene in the Michiana area and a tweetup was destined to take place.  At some point in 2009 Cheryl from Michianatweetup.com began the planning, set up a ning social networking site, and starting connecting interested people.
• Our own group here in NW Indiana thought it might be fun to reach out and do a joint event in Michigan City, and the opportunity was upon us with Indianapolis author and social media expert Kyle Lacy coming to town tomorrow April 13th for another event.   We asked Kyle if he would be willing to stay around for the evening and join us.  He agreed and it was on!
• At some point in the promotion our own Dave Woodson (@davewoodson) talked to a Wayne Clayton of another group calling itself Michianameetup.com but moving quickly on April 6th during these same conversations to attempt to take control of the name #MichianaTweetup for his company.   He even went so far as to suggest that because they were scheduling an event on April 30th, they could not help promote our event on the 13th.  Weird!
• It would be awesome to show Wayne’s first mildly threatening comment on this blog, but he has since edited our the threatening portion.   Well after threatening this blog with words suggesting that he owned the term and would like us to stop using his term … the floodgates opened wide.
• Now some 80 comments and 45 retweets later it would appear that Wayne’s company was attempting to be the only Michianatweetup organization, and perhaps even profit off the name.   To put it simply … things started to get ugly.

Now that raw nerves have calmed down, and cooler heads in both NW Indiana and Michiana have prevailed we come to the point of a few salient summaries.

• First, no one owns a twitter hashtag
• Second, this tweetup in Michigan City was probably going to be attended by our normal 40-45 people … but now due to the controversy we can expect to see a far greater number of attendees.  The shear volume of comments, tweets, retweets, and other blog posts about the subject has driven the information into more hands.
• Third, as we’ve noted in the past … a whole lot of links and events get promoted in the many hashtags on twitter.  But in the absence of the A-list users getting involved, it’s hard to get noticed.  This is the same as any other kind of media or marketing.  Twitter is no different, the only real change is that you can become an A-list Twitter user if you put in the work to collaborate, engage, retweet, and give freely.   It takes time, and buying 15,000 followers does not an A-lister make!

I would suggest that the controversy was good for Northwest Indiana and Michiana.   Did Wayne suffer from wading into the fray, sadly yes.  But even at that members of our own group have offered to cross promote his profit making event and work with the competing group.  Why, because we’ve all benefited from the collaborative environment that exists in NW Indiana.

As a political fan, one who doesn’t think all things political are bad, this raises the question of fabricated controversies.  In this instance there was no battle until Wayne jumped into the fray with a veiled threat.    But what are the twitter and blog ethics surrounding fabricating a controversy just for the sake of traffic, activity, promotion, and profits?

Or did we …”

(Contributed by guest author Steve Dalton (daltonsbriefs) from Northwest Indiana Real Estate and Mortgages)

Every month, I am more and more amazed at the crowds we are drawing to the monthly nwitweetups even when we have 2 in one month.

Needless to say, we brought a lot of business to Brickworks and we greatly appreciate everything you all did for us with the half-price beers that I think we all took advantage of. Even though, @parrotheaddad5 wanted a martini he got along just great with a couple of Phaino and even @babysteph took home a growler to the husband at home.  The long distance award go to my good friend @drdoughpizza who came to us via Joliet and was greatly impressed with the crowd that showed up and there are some talks of heading to Plano for a pizzatweetup.

Sadly, we have a tragedy in out midst.  I lost the sign-up sheet, but we had over 40 names on it and we all know not everyone signed in.   However, if you want a copy of the business cards just let me know.

I want to thank our sponsors that night for the fantastic give-a-ways.  Rick from @gossersales for the great #nwitweeup logo hats if you want to order one just let Rick know or you can visit his northwest Indiana custom logowear website.  Thanks again for the hats, Rick.  I love mine.

Also, @coachlee for letting us give away your great coaching book on how to increase sales by being the “red jacket”.  I think that is something I do very well.

Let us not forget, the great t-shirts from @brickworksbrew and the great NW Indiana brew experience.  I saw you give a couple of tours and I know that @drdoughpizza and @fanbrew greatly appreciated it.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and having a great time.  We got some great stuff planned for April and remember this is a team effort.  If you have an idea or want to go someplzce special we are here to help.  We want everyone to have a good time and lets have some fun while we learn, network and take the online offline and be social.

Dave

We all had a really great time Inmans , you can also follow them at @InmansValpo in early December.  We had a little over 40 attendees on a cold Monday night.  A great time was really had by all with me bringing up the rear and coming in last in all but one of my games.

If you are looking to book a part, I could not recommend them higher.  I think it would be perfect for a date night, a evening with other friends or a several couples that simply want to have fun in a smoke-free environment.   I am cigar smoker, but I love being able to go out and enjoy time with friends and not coming home smelling like smoke that is such a plus for me and many of my friends.

Also, I know coming up in January Inmans will be having some league nights for Cornhole/bean bags toss.  So, if you are anyone you may know are interested please visit the link and sign-up today.  I am sure the league will fill up fast.  Oh, I would be silly not to mention that they have bowling leagues every week.

So, if you are looking for family fun, a night out with friends, or just hanging with some friend to have some beer and pizza while you bowl, toss bean bags or play in the arcade.  You should head on over to Inmans in Valparaiso.

and from the entire #NWITweetup Crowd, we thank Brian Kadar and the entire crew @ Inmans for a great time.

For more information make sure you visit InmansValpo.com