Are you a business owner wondering about the value, the ROI of twitter and social media? Let me tell you about The Big Wine Tweetup that happened in Scottsdale, Arizona on Wednesday June 16th, 2010.  The event was organized by a group of twitterers based in the metro Phoenix area to do something special for fellow Seattle based Twitter personality and social media expert, Seattle Wine Gal.  The Big Wine Tweetup was a two part event.

The first part was a dinner organized by Foodies Like Us co-owner Susie Timm and was held at FnB restaurant.  Guests included @SeattleWineGal, @bspargo, @gritsnyc and hubby, @dragonflytweet, @diyamarketing and @CookieCaroline.  I asked Seattle Wine Gal to observe the way co-owner of FnB, Pavle Milic, greeted every customer.  He greets everyone as a guest of honor, so warm and friendly – something totally lacking in most restaurant experiences these days.  For wines we enjoyed some of Sam Pillsbury’s Rose and some sparkling Chardonnay from Canelo Hills.

After dinner we headed around the corner to Kazimierz World Wine Bar.  Thanks to @foodieslikeus and @ciaomari for the reservations.  This is where the tweetup got interesting, and where the ROI of twitter began to show itself.  We were joined by quite a few people and the group swelled to more than 20 people.  We were moving furniture around and eventually took up the whole front entrance all the way up to the bar, and even that wasnt enough room.  We were joined by Arizona Wine Grower’s Association executive director Rhonnie Moffit (@AZWineries) and her husband @AZVineyardguy.  Also in attendance was Bulbstorm’s @Tena_Hartwig, @Cardiogoop, @DesertSmokeBBQ, @Sandy161, @KadeDworkin, @mywinehelper.  There were also a bunch of people who were not twitterers, but were friends of twitterers and just wanted to come out and have a good time.

So, how much money do you think

Could you use a few more customers?

we all dropped on dinner and after dinner drinks?  How much do you think that is worth to a business owner?  I counted up the total followers of all the Twitterers at the wine bar and it was over 22,000.  Everyone sent out a few messages during the even- as people on twitter have a difficult time not tweeting about something fun they are doing! How much do you think it is worth to a business to have their name sent out to 20,000+ people, repeatedly.  And the next day too, as people were remarking about what a great time they had.

If you are a business owner you might want to think about getting involved in a tweetup.  But how do you do that?  How do you organize it, especially if you are not even on Twitter?  Just reach out to people who are.  You can reach out to me! @wklywinejournal  or send me an email.  If you are in the Metro Phoenix area you can reach out to any of the twitterers I mentioned I’m sure they would be glad to point you in the right direction.  Getting back to what it might be worth to host a Tweetup, a Wine Tweetup or a cocktail hour Tweetup.  It might be worth offering some kind of discount to the Twitter community.  After all, you are going to be getting a ton of buzz from the event.  And just think, what if your Tweetup had 40 or 50 people, tweeting to 40 or 50 thousand people?  You could have a packed house!

The next Big Wine Tweetup is being planned right now, the Weekly Wine Journal is looking for interested guests and hosts, so get in touch!