Last night we hosted a tweetup at the Dessert Gallery in Sugar Land- a “Sweetup” to be exact (when a theme that good strikes, you just run with it).

Over cupcakes and coffee we met- bloggers, entrepreneurs, photographers, marketers, students, editors; each sharing their thoughts and experiences with social media.

Our guest speaker Karen Walrond shared her own story- from her first blog post about adopting her daughter in 2004, to leaving her career as a lawyer to pursue writing, to her appearance on Oprah, photoblog and recent book deal. Beyond the delight of her stories, she offered some great insight into her own success in social media.

Dessert Gallery cupcakes from last night's Sweetup, photo by Karen Walrond.

A few of the takeaways:

• Don’t assume all social media sites are reaching the same audience. Take the time to know who you want to reach out to, and where they like to go for their news. (I personally recommend starting with Quantcast- great demographics on just about every social site.)

• Once you establish that list, link it all up. Sync Blogger to Twitter to Facebook. Link back from Flickr. Interconnect on the internet.
• Personal and professional worlds mix and mingle in the online world, and while it is important to be authentic, do so in a way that is mindful of your audience.
• Social media allows your brand or company to have a real personality, and the one-on-one interaction you create with your clients and potential clients shows you care. Monitor conversations about your brand, using tools like TweetDeck, so that you can say thanks, answer questions and respond to complaints.

Overall, a great first of what we hope will be many tweetups. Thanks to all who attended!