I’ve just been out at a Battersea-centred, Wandsworth Tweet-up organised by James Cousins, a councillor.  A tweet-up’s just a meet-up but of people who know each other through Twitter.

Now, I do know James already – I knew him a bit before and I’ve gotten to know him better through Twitter.   As part of my job, I work with councillors and local government practitioners who use social media.  For a lot of that, there’s a necessary professional remoteness.  When councillors in some distant part of the country are communicating about some local issue, I’m really only interested in how they’re doing it.  But when it’s my council or MP (or prospective candidate), it becomes a lot more interesting on a personal level.  These are often issues that I care about.  And when a councillor uses social media to convene a group of people (in a very nice pub – The Goat on Battersea Rise) to just have a chat, it’s interesting and fun.

James got into a bit of hoo-ha recently when he siggested on his blog that surgeries (where councillors can meet local people to discuss issues) need another look and may even be a waste of time.   I’m not against the idea of surgeries – although I’d just email my councillors, but I do think councillors need to be looking at other ways to engage with local people and social media provides some great opportunities.  James clearly understands that – and is trying to bring online relationships to the real world.

It was also good to get out – motherhood has really hampered my social life – and it was great to ignore the tears and the wailing and zip down to Battersea on the 219.  My only regret is that I failed to meet the husband of someone who I’ve known online for years (but never met) who was also there.  Failure to connect online and failure to connect in person.