In the past week I attended two functions which turned out to be very different for one simple reason – Twitter. First up was the first annual Chicks Who Click (CWC) in Boulder on January 10th. Then I attended the Mobile Marketing Association’s Best Practices Forum (MMA) on January 13th in Denver. (See my write up about the MMA Forum here.)  Bottom line, both events were terrific and well worth my time. They just felt different.

From the moment I stepped into the room at CWC I started looking around for familiar faces. And I found them. All over the place. Ladies I had seen virtually every day in my Twitter stream. Even if I hadn’t met some of them in person I knew what they did, what their latest blog post was, what they were looking forward to about the conference.  When we met in person we started with common ground already in place. It was so much easier to work the conversation around doing business together – the ultimate goal of a networking function.

It reminded me of growing up in a small town. When you went to the grocery store you saw people you knew. Eating out at restaurants was fun because the people at the next table were your friends and neighbors.

By Twittering during the event we got to know each other even better. Throughout the whole day there was constant chatter on the hashtag #cwc09. (See it here.) This extra layer of conversation during the event made it so much richer. As people were learning and networking we were talking about it. It made it entirely possible to talk with everyone in the room and get to know people who were sitting at different tables. It made the whole day dynamic.

By contrast when I walked into the MMA room I looked for familiar faces and found only a handful. The folks I had met in real life at other functions. Of course it was great to see them but everyone else was a complete stranger. I knew nothing about anyone – where they worked, who they were. Nothing. It made walking up to someone to say “Hi” seem uncomfortable. Just like networking used to be all the time.

During the meeting we sat there listening to the presentations in our own island. No one knew what anyone else was thinking about the topic. No one was commenting about how smart the speaker was so that people who didn’t attend the conference could check out their site and make a connection. The people running the event who were trying desperately to get more feedback and input missed out on the natural flow of feedback that could have been there.

For me this is proof positive that social networking is so much more powerful than we give it credit for. It adds a layer to business that feel s like breathing when you are used to it.

If you are interested in learning more about Social Media and how to move yourself forward with this powerful set of tools, please look into the Social Media Telesummit starting next week. I am just one of dozens of great speakers and you will find your business so much more dynamic because of it.