Meetup: Networking with Carbon-Based Life Forms
“The more interesting and diverse the things and the people around you, the more interesting your own ideas become.”
Looking to meet people who share your interests? Feel like your face-to-face social network is getting smaller? Then Meetup.com may be for you.
Meetup has been around since before the rise of MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites. It’s designed to help people meet in their carbon-based form (rather than their silicon-based form). At Meetup.com you build a profile, indicate your interests and connect with like-minded people. And, unlike other social networks, Meetup doesn’t suffer from the TMI syndrome. You’ll never have to know what your new friends had for breakfast, or when their kids’ baseball games are.
There are two levels of participation: Organizer or User. As the name implies, an Organizer is someone who has started a “Meetup Group” around a give topic. A User is someone who indicates interest in the topic. You search for “Meetups” by zip code, insuring that the groups are local to you.
Two years ago, after twenty years of trying to learn to play guitar, I realized that I actually knew how to play—what I needed was friends to play with on a regular basis. Not actually having any musician friends, I turned to Meetup.com. After searching the site I decided that New York was a bit far to go from Detroit, so I started The Thursday Night Music Club. Six to eight of us get together regularly for jam sessions, open mic nights and parties, and guess what…I’m getting better. Now, I just need to go to that Spanish language Meetup…
If you’re like me, you don’t have time to make a website, keep it updated, find people, schedule get-togethers, then send out emails and reminders. Meetup.com makes joining or organizing a group simple, and takes care of all of those pesky details.
Your Meetup Profile. This is where you provide basic info about yourself and what topics you’re interested in. Whether you’re a musician, a music fan, a movie buff, or an Obama fan you’ll find a Group. When you find Meetups you like, join the Group and you’ll start receiving information and emails on upcoming events. If you don’t find the perfect Meetup in your area, you can have a notification sent when someone starts one. Or, you can start one (although there’s a fee for Organizers—more on this later).
Groups. Each Meetup Group has its own site. This is where you’ll find a description of the Group, a calendar of Meetups (meetings and events), a list of members, photos, a message archive, polls, and more.
Communicate. Every Meetup Group has a mailing list. You can send emails to individuals, or email the group. Replies can go to the entire group or just you, allowing for group conversation. Individual messages, called “shouts,” (not sure the logic behind the name) can be posted to a person’s profile.
As an organizer, there are several features of Meetup that I find invaluable.
Automatic Notification. The system sends out email reminders for my Meetups. This is a lifesaver for anyone who is busy (that would be all of us). If left to my own devices, I’d be emailing the day of the event, if I remembered.
New Member Notification. Meetup tells me when someone has joined the Group, allowing me to send a personal email. I like to send these so that folks know that the Meetup really does have an actual person behind it. Somehow in this world of email, IM and avatars, that seems important.
Promotional Materials. The Meetup folks are kind enough to provide badges for Craigslist and MySpace and a Facebook widget to help get the word out. There are also more conventional materials like name badges, flyers, business cards, t-shirts and table tents. And, there are templates and advice for sending press releases.
RSVP. Once an email is sent out about a meeting, Meetup does a good job of nagging people to RSVP. This is especially helpful for organizers who hold Meetups in public locations. For me, it’s just helpful to know whose coming. And, I figure if someone commits, they’re more likely to show.
Payments. If your Meetup requires a fee to attend, you can use the soon-to-be-released “Require payment to RSVP” feature, which lets attendees pay through Pay Pal. Once payment is made, Meetup will notify the user of your refund policy and also allows you and them to view payment information.
It’s free to put up a User profile at Meetup. As an Organizer, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee. It’s $19 /month, $45 for 3 months, or $72 for 6 months. While this may seem steep, it keeps the site ad-free, weeds out the riff-raff (fees keep the Groups legit), and allows you to be the Organizer for up to three Meetups. One legitimate complaint I’ve heard is that the site doesn’t notify you that there are fees until the very end of the registration process. In fact, I had the devil of a time even finding the info for this article and (disclaimer) I’m not sure it’s even current.
Meetup is not only a great tool for casual networking, like The Thursday Night Music Club, but also allows for a new level of professional networking. If you’re an expert in an area, Meetup gives you a streamlined way to market yourself and make revenue by conducting meetings, seminars and other events. Upcoming new features, like developer APIs will only serve to strengthen Meetup. We’ll soon see all types of mashups that extend info on topics, groups and events out to other sites. So, if you’ve got a burning passion that you want to share, take a serious look at Meetup. Heck, what’s to lose—you can start by joining for free.
Questions and comments may be sent to Robin.Danek@CrucialPop.com.
