For months I've been trying to come up with a term to describe the experience of meeting someone in person who I had previously only known on Twitter. Twitter is a microblogging platform that has a low barrier to entry in terms of finding and making connections. I've written about several Twitter-to-real-life experiences, and have would like to float this suggestion out to the Twitter community of a term to describe them:
Tmeet1 verb, tmet (pt and pp of tmeet), tmeet-ing, noun
— verb (used with object)
1. to come upon; come into the presence of; encounter, after interaction through Twitter: "I was fortunate tmeet @phillymac in Cleveland after knowing of him through Twitter"
2. to become acquainted with; be introduced to, after interaction through Twitter: "I tmet @worleygirl at the Forrester conference in April."
3. to come together, face to face, or into company, after interaction through Twitter: "We tmet at social media breakfast" or "I tmet @warrenss over lunch last week."
4. to become personally acquainted, after interaction through Twitter: "When @RichardatDELL tmet @tobydiva, it "felt like [he] had known her forever."
Each time I tmeet someone there is that aura of familiarity that reduces the awkward barriers of first conversation – many times it feels like we're old friends already. Chris Brogan points out that an avatar helps, especially when tmeeting someone in person. Is it worthy of everyday Twitter vocabulary? We'd all save many keystrokes (precious in 140 character limits) and remove the "met in person for the first time" "meet someone in real life" and all other similar phrases. What do you think?
1 Borrowed some format and language from "meet." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 14 Aug. 2008. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/meet>.
photo credit: orinrobertjohn via flickr
