Our resident Social Media Guru, Tom was one of the lucky 400 people in possession of a ticket to London’s Global charity event Twestival last Thursday. Poor Tom had to stand outside in the freezing wind and snow waiting to get into the venue in Shoreditch but we think it showed true dedication on his behalf to the fastest growing social media phenomenon: Twitter! With an annual growth rate of 813%, Twitter has well and truly surpassed the all important tipping point and is now ranked as the world’s third largest social network (even if it is technically defined as micro-blogging) behind Facebook and Myspace. The Twestival event primarily was for the charity ‘water‘, however for Tom it was all about getting together and blurring the boundaries between online and offline communications by being able to meet the real faces behind the computer generated avatars. Tom reported that he actually had some time away from the Twitter interface and did not tweet once during his time at Twestival.  He was too busy communicating in person with new acquaintances and friends. Consistent with his Twitter behaviour, Tom was hopping around from person-to-person getting involved in the conversation that was somewhat less formal than Twitter conversations about social media and other musings.  This was true offline social networking. The Guardian featured the event and if you check out the photo that accompanied the article below, you will see Tom’s face featured in the bottom right hand corner.