This topic may have been talked to death already, but I accidentally learned something the other night and would like to share it.  There were two events being held and I could not attend any of them. I was a bit disgruntled and thought, "If I can't physically be there, maybe some social media freaks (likewise) would tweet the entire event minute-buy-minute." So; I searched for the two hash tags and while the events took I place, I noticed something happening to my feed...

"What was happening!?" you might ask?  What's the one thing all us micro-blogging users want - in regards to following other users? I'll give you a minute to figure it out... Ok; I'll tell - I noticed a pattern emerging as the feeds grew, the folks I monitored were like-minded individuals that were LOCAL!  "What does this mean? Stop baiting us!" Ok; I'll stop.

The two events were IgniteATL and Atlanta PHP Meetup.  While following the search for #igniteatl and #atlantaphp - I realized that I started interacting and thus following (being followed) by like-minded peers.  I could easily make a decision if this was someone I wanted to follow based on how they were interacting with others, what they said, etc.   It was very easy using TweetDeck's column structure. With their grouping option I could subscribe to someone and then put them in a group in a matter of seconds.

What About Hash Tags?

Well, to be honest - Identica (an open source micro-blogging platform) does this very well. It's all integrated into their basic service, but its unfortunate that there aren't a lot of good apps for it. Twitter has gone mainstream and basically took the sail out of their competitors.  I'm a FOSS (free and open source software) enthusiast, so I prefer the Laconica software, but doing business I need to be were everyone else is. Ok; back to HASH TAGS.  You can find like-minded folks to follow using Kevin Rose's WeFollow service, but then you have to go an research their previous posts, maybe their web sites, etc. It's a bit too much work and more importantly - they are probably in another country.

You can use sites like Meetup to find local groups and events. If it's specifically a social media event, you shouldn't have a problem following it live - there's guaranteed to be a few TwitterHeads annotating the event.  In the end - there's just something special about interacting with folks LIVE when they are at an event. It's exhilarating!