Nov
Meetup.com has lost some of the early luster it had for networking
For the past six months or so I have been going to a number of Meetup.com group meetings.
I have attended different groups like meetups for eBay, Joomla, WordPress, Adobe and other general groups that were geared towards internet marketing and affiliate marketing. I even joined a different Meetup.com networking group that met to share networking leads.
At the beginning I was real enthusiastic about a number of the groups, especially the internet marketing groups. They were good outlets for networking in my field of web design. I have met a good number of other designers through them.
At some point you have to begin to weed out those that are not meeting your needs because they do take time to go to and there is usually some expense to attending a meeting, even if it is only paying for your meal.
I think I was attending 8 meetups at my peak. Now I have pared that down to 4 meetups I attend on a regular basis. I dropped the group about Joomla because I was not learning as much as I thought I would at the meetings and I use WordPress for my blogs anyways.
I also dropped the networking group because I was spending $20-$24 a month for the meals and never got a single lead. The members were all interested in much larger types of businesses and I never felt it was a worthwhile deal to go to during my business day.
The WordPress group, which I have only attended 1 time, met only to socialize and had no structure, plus it met on Saturday in the middle of the day, which was not a great time for me. I like to spend my weekends with my wife and family. I think I will give them another try though.
The best meetups I have attended are the eBay and the Adobe groups. They both have real structure, learning occurs and the organizers always attend and are real involved in the groups. The internet marketing groups are hit or miss. One month the discussion will be targeted and lively, the next time they will be aimless and have sparse attendance.
I did make a real good association at one of the internet marketing meetups with a nice man named Dan Mason. We have been listing one of his products on my eBay account and they have done fairly well. He imports custom-made products from China that he sells in his business.
Try Meetup.com for yourself. You can search for subjects of interest to you and there are thousands of groups nationwide with tons in every local area.
If you have tried Meetup.com, what groups had you had success with?
Powered by ScribeFire.
November 29th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Hey Dennis,
I agree with you only partly. I think Meetup is a great idea but it is only as good as those that are managing it and what people are will to put into it. Some people go for large number of members versus meeting content and to me that makes it unsuccessful. I’ve been to meetings where the organizer doesn’t even show up. And many meetings where nothing specific was planned which in most cases is a waste of time. Very unstructured meetings.
The you have the very structure meetings but they are not for everyone. I think you have to find the ones that fit the individual and their goals. True networking is not a sprint but a marathon. It takes time to build quality relationships that generate good referrals.
Each group is very different. Getting past all of the negative, Hey I met you there! It’s nice to have someone to share ideas with, etc. Plus I’ve met some other really good contacts that I know will come in handy in the future. Plus I met someone recently that I may be partnering with on a loing term project that I’ve been working on for a very long time. If that comes to fruition, it may very well be the best contact I’ve ever met.
Sorry to make this so long. Yes, Meetup has lost some luster but I blame most of it on the lack of organization but many of the organizers. Although I would like to give kudos to those who have very successful groups and continue to grow. It was definitely a needed tool in networking.
November 30th, 2008 at 10:46 am
@ Sandy
Yes, I agree that each of the meetup.com groups has its’ own dynamic in terms of the size and makeup of the particular group.
Some groups have no organization at all, some are very structured and that gives each of them a unique character.
The best part is the new friends and contacts you meet, which can happen in either type of meetup.com group.
I did meet you as a result of meetup.com and that’s very good. I have also forged a business friendship with another person I met at a meetup.com function and that has bebeen very good as well. So it has been a very good experience for me.