As part of the first global Social Media Day, the world “met up” this week to discuss, collaborate and celebrate social media face-to-face on a local level.

Online social media guide Mashable acted as host, however – unsurprisingly – only younger generations attended the Social Media Day event in London to talk about how they are using social media for professional purposes.

The event itself was organised through MeetUp – a social networking site – by Kim Crolla-Younger, a young professional with a passion for social media.

Crolla-Younger said she is concerned about the “age-gap” issue with social media because she thinks older businesspeople will soon be left behind. She mentioned this to event attendees, who seemed to agree with her and told her about the older individuals in the office who avoid social media.

Perhaps the older generations are in fact using social media for business and I would have loved to have heard their take on it. Mashable is planning to hold monthly MeetUp events, starting this month to keep the conversation going.

After all, as Croll-Younger told me, communication “in the flesh” about such a broad topic as social media is vital for all walks of life, so we all can understand it and use it for what it is truly intended- as a means of connecting.

Here are some suggestions she gave for business people, especially those in the UK, on how to view social media differently, in this video.

HANNAH DOUGLAS