Nothing beats face-to-face, beating hearts and bodies in a room, especially for business owners keen to create a vibrant community of like-minded souls. But how do you attract people? Meetup: a social media site designed to get people away from the internet and talking together, you know, the old-fashioned way.

The advantages

Advantages of Meetup include an intimacy and social atmosphere that’s can be far more difficult to achieve online. Meetup is based on both geography and interests – start a group and Meetup will send out an invite to Meetup members whose geography and interests match yours.

Once together, your Meetup is as successful as your event skills – if you’re great at putting on events, you’ll love this. Even better for business owners with premises which may well be underutilised at various times of the day.

To work well, your Meetup should be no cost or low cost, and high on value. Ideally, your Meetup will grow quickly, as members invite others and return to your events, knowing they’ll have a great time.

Finally, a major advantage to you as the Meetup group owner is to position yourself as a leader, authority and expert in your field. You don’t have to be up on a soapbox at every Meetup, sprouting complex philosophies, but you’re bringing people together and, perhaps, organising other thought leaders and experts to come along to present.

Disadvantages

It can be incredibly nerve-wracking inviting strangers to get together. If you’re not social and find parties painful, Meetup won’t likely work for you. Your RSVP numbers don’t necessary mean people will show up – in fact, up to 80% of RSVPs won’t, so don’t take this to heart.

This is not a sustainable way to make money from events unless you’re able to crack the big time and grow your member base quickly. Meetup works best for business owners who are serious about growing their community and invested in the long-game of marketing, appreciating that valuable things such as authentic community, take time, love and effort to build.

10 tips for using Meetup for marketing

1. Be clear on your intentions

Meetup works best when you really want to help people and build a solid community. If you’re doing it thinking, “Hey I can sell myself to this group!” it’ll be obvious to people and they won’t return.

2. Commit to regular monthly meetups

Aim to organise at least one event per month, and schedule events up to three months in advance.

3. Do your research on venues upfront

You need a reliable venue that is low cost (or free), central and easily accessible and, depending on your needs, has food and drink within easy access. Ideally, you’d be able to use your own facilities to keep costs lows. Otherwise, co-working spaces, bars, restaurants, cafes, library rooms or universities are good starting places. It’s best to stick with the same venue so that your people know exactly where to return to each meetup, so take your time upfront to choose a good one.

4. Make each Meetup theme or purpose clear

To increase the appeal of your Meetups, make sure each has a well-defined theme which is relevant and interesting to your tribe.

5. Don’t forget to promote

Meetup won’t take care of all promotions – supplement your Meetup emails with a Facebook event to invite people, encourage wider interaction, and provide some continuity in communications. Always post about your events afterwards and thank your presenters and participants afterwards.

6. Send follow-up emails

Use Meetup to email attendees of your most recently meeting to thank them and remind them about the next meeting.

7. Keep it local

One major advantage of Meetup is its geographical focus, so consider inviting local leaders and people from synchronistic businesses to come and speak at your Meetups.

8. Seek collaborations

Look for ways to hold joint Meetups with other groups that have cross-overs. It’s advantageous if you can take the lead and get people to RSVP at your Meetup group’s page to help grow your own group.

9. Be price conscious

If you want to charge for your Meetups to cover incidentals, keep it low ($5 to $10 is common). A small fee increases the likelihood that people will show up after RSVPing.

10. Mix it up

If things are stagnating or your numbers are shrinking, you likely need to mix it up – try a completely different theme that is still relevant to your original Meetup, get out there and invite a respected industry leader to present to your group, introduce a movie, games or other group activities. Keep it interesting to keep people invigorated (including yourself).

Visit Meetup and get involved!