Meetup.com

What Is It?Meetup.com is a network of local groups. You can create a group for any interest you can think of: backpacking, sewing, bicycling, gaming, coding practices, etc.

Setting Up Meetup

Create a ProfileEveryone has their own profile, listing their own interests. If there are groups in your geographic area that have overlapping interests, you will be alerted.

Include a photo of yourself and write a little bio as an introduction.

Member accounts are free!

Create a Meetup GroupMeetup groups are NOT free. There is a $10/month fee for the basic plan, which limits the group to 50 people. $15/month gives you unlimited membership numbers. (Prices subject to change.)

Some groups have a fee for members to join, to cover these costs.

Configure the GroupA Meetup group can be customized to have a unique look and feel. Add graphics from your chapter and a color scheme to your liking. Our chapter leaders all have accounts with Meetup.com and are part of the group. You can assign titles to members of your group.

TopicsEach Meetup group has a selection of keywords associated with it to identify the interests of the group. These are known as topics. Topics our chapter uses include:

Information Technology Mobile Technology Writing Writing Workshops Documentation eLearning Technology Professionals

Writers Group Technical Writing Instructional Design Technical Communicators API Documentation DITA Documentation Web-based Training

#stc15, #stc15leaders Timothy Esposito tmesposit@gmail.com

Using Meetup.comUse Meetup.com to schedule your meetings. You can provide a topic, a date and time, a host, a location, details about the event, and even charge people directly through Meetup.com.

My practice is to use Eventbrite to handle official registrations. Payments handled there, not in Meetup.com. However, if you have no such registration system, then Meetup.com can handle that for you.

After members register for an event, you can automatically send them questions. I use this functionality to remind them to go register on Eventbrite to really commit.

Once people have registered on Meetup.com, you can send emails to them through the site, alerting them to updates to your event.

Effectiveness of Meetup.comThe Philadelphia Metro Chapter has 37 members in their Meetup group, as opposed to about 100 members in the chapter.

Meetup.com has attracted new members from outside the chapter.

Joining our Meetup group is free so there is no obligation for people to join the chapter or attend events.

New people join the group all the time. Some make it to our meetings, so we try to recruit them to the chapter.

Networking with other Meetup groups is possible. Our chapter has twice been approached with partnership offers for co-sponsoring events.

#stc15, #stc15leaders Timothy Esposito tmesposit@gmail.com