 "Photo: Josh Shannon")
 "Photo: Josh Shannon")
 "Photo: Josh Shannon")
At most parties, guests who spend most of their time looking at their phones would get dirty looks. But, at the DelTweet tweetup held Wednesday night in Newark, such behavior was not only tolerated, but encouraged.
More than 170 Twitter users met at Kildare’s Irish Pub on Main Street to network and to meet in real life the people they’ve gotten to know through the popular social media Web site.
Many clutched iPhones and Blackberries, tweeting and retweeting about their experiences at the event – all in 140 characters or less, as required by the site. At the front of the room, a large computer monitor displayed a live feed of tweets from the crowd.
Attendees wore badges displaying their Twitter usernames, and many walked around the restaurant looking for people they recognized from the site.
“It’s like you’ve shared moments with them on Twitter,” said Mina Mansour, of Pike Creek, who uses the Twitter handle @IdaApps. “That’s what makes people friends, so it’s easier to network when you’ve shared moments on Twitter.”
That is precisely why social media is important, said Ken Grant (@kengrantde), one of the organizers of the event.
“I see social media paving the way for a better society,” Grant said. “Social media encourages community, rewards transparency and allows communication in a way that we’ve never enjoyed before.”
Wednesday’s event was Delaware’s third tweetup. DelTweet, an organization made up of Delaware Twitter users, sponsored two similar events last year.
Attendees were asked to bring a donation to the Food Bank of Delaware, and by the end of the evening, organizers had collected $710 and a box full of canned goods. Kildare’s provided complimentary food for the event.
Major Highfield (@majorh), another one of the organizers, said he heard about tweetups in other states and joined with Grant and other people he met on Twitter to organize some for Delaware.
“The cool thing about the Delaware Twitter community is that because Delaware is such a small state, it makes it easier for us to interact in person,” Highfield said. “That’s the thing that makes our tweetups cool.”
Even Gov. Jack Markell (@GovernorMarkell) got into the act, using the tweetup as an opportunity to send his first-ever tweet.
“I didn’t think anything that could limit a politician to 140 characters was a very good idea, but I decided to give it a shot tonight,” Markell joked.
He said he has had a Twitter account for a while, but just recently decided to start tweeting himself.
“I think it’s a really important way for me to hear what’s going on and a way for me to share what’s going on as well,” Markell said. “It’s a great way to engage with people without using the traditional mediums.”
A few minutes before tweeting, he said he was still deciding what his first post would say.
“I’m still trying to decide,” he said. “I think it’s going to strike me at the moment I step up to the laptop.”
With the crowd looking on, Markell went to the laptop at the front of the room, typed “Working with twitter and #deltweet to bring and create jobs in Delaware!” and pressed the button to post his tweet.
“Where did it go?” he asked a staffer, before realizing that it would take the Web page a few seconds to refresh.
But he soon got the hang of it and lingered at the laptop to send several more tweets.
“He’s getting addicted already,” one onlooker shouted out.
Grant, who asked Markell to attend the event, said social media is changing the way politics works.
“Unlike previous years when corporations could pay for ungodly amounts of advertising, those corporations cannot buy the passion of social media,” he said, adding that communication between people on Twitter and other sites will prevent politicians from promising different things to different constituencies.
Newark City Councilman Paul Pomeroy (@PJPomeroy3), one of several other politicians at the tweetup, said he has been using Twitter to communicate with Newarkers for nearly a year.
“One of the reasons I got on there was to be able to communicate more readily and be more accessible to my constituents,” said Pomeroy, whose marketing firm co-sponsored the event.
Beyond politicians, Highfield said, Twitter has drawn a broader spectrum of people to social media.
“For a lot of people, blogging was a bit too much and a bit too time-consuming,” he said. “I joined Twitter simply because you can do it on the go and it’s quick and to the point.”
Asked, in the spirit of Twitter, to describe the tweetup in 140 characters or less, Highfield paused and then responded with 91 characters to spare.
“DelTweet 3.0 rocked. Come back for the next one.”
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