When you create an event, you can share it with your members right away or wait to announce it later. Once published, your event will appear on your group calendar and homepage, but your members will not receive a notification until you announce it.
How announcements reach your members
Members will receive notifications of varying importance and interest depending on their account settings. Because of this, your members may not consistently receive your group's event announcements via email or push notification.
Every event announcement is always visible in a member's on-site notifications. We're continuously testing ways to promote events to members, and to ensure that the notifications we send are the most impactful and relevant they can be.
While it may seem counterintuitive to send fewer emails and push notifications to your members, we've learned that fewer and more impactful notifications result in more members RSVPing to your events and fewer members unsubscribing from notifications altogether.
If your members report not receiving event announcements, they may need to update their email or push notification settings. They can also contact Meetup's Community Support team directly.
Sending the announcement
After you publish your event, you'll be prompted to announce it to your members. To send an invitation immediately, select Announce it now. Your members will receive a notification on Meetup through various channels, such as onsite, email, or push.
You will receive a confirmation email that the event has been scheduled.
Sending an announcement later
If you’ve selected Do it later, there is an Announce button on the event page. This reminder will remain at the top of your event homepage until seven days before the event is scheduled to take place.
If you don’t announce the event within seven days of it, the Announce button won't be visible on your event's page. We’ll automatically send a reminder to your members six days and one day before the event.
If you believe event reminders aren't going out or your members aren't receiving them, we recommend reviewing our troubleshooting guide on missing email and push notifications. It outlines the most common reasons and helpful steps to resolve the issue.
Announcing multiple events
Meetup's announcement notifications are optimized to reach your members and interested people in your area. Some organizers choose to schedule multiple upcoming events and announce them all right away. To maximize the delivery of your announcements, we recommend waiting at least fifteen minutes between announcing each upcoming event.
Automatic event reminders
Members of your group may receive various notifications about an upcoming event in addition to the initial announcement (if you made one).
Standard reminders
7-day reminder → sent to members whose accounts are active, but who haven’t accessed Meetup or RSVPed to any events in a while.
1-day reminder → sent to members whose accounts are active, but who haven’t accessed Meetup or RSVPed recently.
Day-of reminder → sent via push notification only to members who RSVPed Yes for the event.
Event reminders are only sent if the following conditions are met:
No announcement (manual or automatic) has been sent in the last 24 hours
There are at least 2 RSVPs for the event (for groups older than 30 days → applies to the 1-day reminder)
👉 If your group has multiple upcoming events, reminders may be combined into a single notification.
Tips for successful event announcements
Want to connect with top organizers who use Meetup to build thriving communities? Join the Meetup Organizer Community on Discord and learn more about when and how to announce your events!