One of my favorite things to say is that online is just the aggregate for offline behavior. This came to me after a thorough examination of my behavior – what blogs I read, what links I click on, what friends I interact with – and the answer came down to the simple fact that if someone is actually doing something in “meatspace,” I am far more likely to engage with them.

So – it’s not a shock to me that Digital Media Buzz is catching on to the trending of “Twitter parties” as a marketing strategy. It’s more a long the lines of, “Where have you been?”

So many companies work on wooing celebrities and superstars to come out to events like store openings, product launches, etc but tweet ups and other social media influenced offline events can often drive engagement that – while it might not engage as many eyeballs as a Kardasian – it converts at a much higher rate. Offline engagement has been driving marketing endeavors for most successful social media companies. Scott Monty seems to throw a Tweet up whenever he is in a city – drawing engaged followers and creating opportunities to generate that word of mouth buzz both offline and on at very little cost. (Not to mention Ford having test drives with bloggers and the Fiesta Movement cars out there driving real people to give real opinions on the vehicle) Having worked with Jyl Johnson-Pattee of MomitForward.com – they drive lots of action through their digital #GNO campaigns and now have offline events centered around campaigns like Office Max’s A Day Made Better (Slideshow below is from the Denver event.  Photos via Greeblemonkey). Flying Dog Brewery has sponsored Tweet ups in the Denver area with much success. Twestival – the twitter inspired charity drive – has created events in over 200+ cities. It’s been done and done and done – it’s not a trend, it’s an established and successful strategy.

As social media becomes more directed at offline behavior (think Foursquare, Whrrl, and other mobile apps of that sort), companies are going to need to embrace the fact that these online influencers that they’ve pursued via the internet are now creating large networks of offline influence. The innovators are already on this and, as usual, other companies are just waiting to play catch up…

(FTC Stuff: I have a HUGE ball of rubber bands that I got from an Office Max “A Day Made Better” event in Denver. I have a crush on Jyl from Mom It Forward – but to be fair, I also have a crush on her husband who is a fellow Yankee fan. My buddy Jeremy Tanner is a Ford Fiesta Agent and has driven me places – which means “Uncle Scott” picked up the tab for gas. A few friends that work at Whrrl have bought me beers at bars during events like SXSW, BlogHer, and Blog World Expo. I’ve received a free keg of Flying Dog for an event that I put together in Boulder called Kegs and Kites. While the ball-o-’bands, free gas and beer, and platonic crushes are amazing – it doesn’t change anything I would have written in the above post. I appreciate the trust my readers have in me – so thanks for reading!)