For those of you who missed the memo IRL means "in real life". My own personal social media efforts began to really turn into business opportunities when I connected with many of those people in real face-to-face meetings. Now for many this process starts in reverse. Social media is a way to connect online with your real offline friends. As those networks grow though you start to discover people that you once knew and moved away and people close by that you don't know yet but want to meet.

Through Twitter I have become part of a wonderful organization, Net2NO (Net Squared New Orleans). In the last year that group has grown from about 40 people to over 300, caused the launch of several other groups, helped connect people that started businesses together, found people jobs, and even helped one organization get a $25,000 prize in business plan competition.

All of this woild never have happened without the connections made on Twitter and Facebook and THEN most importantly moving those offlne to the physical world.

Image courtesy of jeskanola on Flickr