5 People from Twitter I’d Like to Meet Offline

If you use Twitter the right way — that is, you use it to engage with other people, not just to share headlines or Foursquare check-ins — then you provide a window into who you are.

That’s why, if you’re active on this social network, you often find you think you know people really well when you’ve never actually met them in real life.

I have that “problem” all the time: I forget that I don’t really know some of the people I interact with on an almost-daily basis.

But that’s a good thing, I think (thus the quotation marks around “problem”). I wish more people used Twitter in a way that made it seem equally personal.

I wanted to find a way to recognize some of the people I enjoy following, but I didn’t think a simple Follow Friday tweet would do it. So I thought I’d start a regular feature here on my blog, a list of a few people on Twitter who I feel I kinda already know and would love to meet offline.

You won’t find celebrities or politicians or other big names here, even though, sure, I’d love to meet Cory Booker, Bill Maher, Alec Baldwin, the writers of Modern Family, and others like them. I’m keeping this list limited just to regular people, ones with whom I’ve never been in the same room.

Here are the first five, in no particular order:

1. Jonah Lupton – @jonahlupton
This Boston-based guy gives (at least) 110% to everything he does, whether he’s weightlifting, advising entrepreneurs, building his own businesses, negotiating with hotels, or inspiring others. He shares quotes, content, and advice, plus photos that show how hard he works out, and you can’t help but respect the guy for all he’s accomplished, and all he’d like his followers to accomplish too.

2. Rachel Figueroa-Levin – @ElBloombito
I don’t know much about Rachel Figueroa-Levin, the Jewish–Puerto Rican woman behind the awesome parody Twitter account that makes fun of New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s penchant for awful Spanglish, but anyone who can be this funny, this often, for this long (she’s been doing it for almost two years) is someone I’d love to spend some time with. (BTW, her legit Twitter account is @jewyorican.)

3. Jason Douglas – @jasondouglas
I want to meet this Minneapolis-based social media marketing strategist not because we work in the same field, but because we share a love of argyle. Whereas I’m a fan of Argyle Wednesday, and have created a Facebook Page for it, Jason celebrates Argyle Friday, and has a Twitter handle devoted to it. I’m assuming that if we were to meet up, it would be on one of those two days — possibly even during a Red Sox/Twins baseball game.

4. Remy Bergsma – @remybergsma
Remy’s an industry colleague who also tweets with the handle @emailblog, and he’s a very smart and friendly guy, but we’ve never met offline because he lives all the way over in the Netherlands. Bummer. In addition to talking shop with Remy, I’d love to hang out with him and see more of his photography. Remy’s an awesome photographer and videographer, and he posts a lot of his stuff on Twitter (and Facebook, where we’re also connected).

5. Brian Stelter – @brianstelter
If you’ve seen the great documentary about the New York Times, Page One, then you know Brian. He’s a media reporter for the paper, and a tweeting machine; some of his tweets read like live updates about stories he’s working on as he writes them. Brian knows a ton about the business of TV (he has a book coming out in May about the morning talk shows), so I’m sure we’d have plenty to talk about. But given his schedule and the fact that he seems to always be working, I doubt he’ll ever have the time to meet up.

So those are five people I follow who I would like to meet offline — and who I think you should follow too.

Do you agree with this list? If so, send a tweet and help me spread the word!

Is there anyone you like on Twitter who I should know about? Let me know in the comments section below.

And please, come back next week to see the next five people on my list!