Meetup groups can have two content visibility settings: public or private. These settings determine how much of a group’s content and membership information is visible to non-members and search engines.
Different content visibility settings affect what content people who are not members of your group can see before joining. These settings only affect the content of your group and have no repercussions on your group's discoverability: both Private and Public Meetup groups will appear in search results and recommendations to members.
How do I change my group’s content visibility to Private?
❗️Before you consider switch your group to Private, keep in mind that making a group private is a permanent change. If you make your group private, you cannot switch it back to Public again. |
Log in to Meetup on a desktop computer.
From your Meetup group’s homepage, select Manage group.
Choose Edit group settings.
Select Group Privacy.
Choose either Public or Private.
Confirm with Save.
What piece of information is always visible for both Public and Private Groups?
Group title and description
Event titles, dates, times, and the number of members attending
Username and photo of the organizer
Group's cover photo
Number of members in the group
Topics associated with the group
Group reviews
Names of the group organizers (including co-organizers and assistant organizers on the Leadership Team)
What piece of information is hidden for non-members of Private Groups?
The following information is hidden from non-members and search engines:
The usernames and profile information of the group’s members, including answers to profile questions requested by the organizer
The location for past and upcoming events
The event descriptions for past and present events
The group’s photo albums
The group’s Discussions section
Members can also choose to hide their group membership and their interests from their personal profile pages. However, in public groups, membership and profile information of members is still visible to non-members and search engines. Learn more about your account privacy settings.
Is it still possible for non-members to find my group and for my community to grow, even if I set it to be Private?
Yes, your Private group's discoverability is not penalized in any way compared to Public groups. Private groups are visible in searches and recommendations to people that match an interest in the same topics — they show up just like public groups when people search on Meetup.
The private setting doesn't hide the group from being discovered, as the privacy aspect only protects the membership information and member details from public view.
There are no further operations you need to do to make your group more prominent to interested members: you can choose to invite people directly if you want to by sharing a direct link to your group with them, but it's not necessary for the group to grow or be discovered by potential members.
Once someone finds your Private group through search or recommendations, they can join on their own (unless you set up member approval, in which case they'd need to request to join and wait for approval just like they would for a Public group).