Meetup Pro Best Practices
-
Meetup Pro: How do I grow my Pro Network’s reach?
Your Meetup Pro Network is growing—we’re here to ensure you find *all* of your people.
Host new events regularly
Keep a cadence of events on the calendar—it makes it easier for potential members to join your group and get involved right away.
Even if your group has one clear directive or goal (e.g. coding), change things up sometimes by scheduling unique events. As the Pro admin, you can create a variety of event templates to help your local organizers quickly put together a new member mixer, a happy hour—whatever your community needs! Scheduling a laid-back event for socializing:
- Makes your community more approachable for new members
- Inspires more veteran members to share new event ideas
- Keeps more events on the calendar
Foster collaboration
As a Meetup Pro Admin, you lead a large team of co-organizers. You chose these people for a reason, and they will all have something great to contribute to your goals. Encourage them to share new ideas and collaborate on projects together.
- Share your group’s upcoming events with blogs or newsletters in your industry—Bibblio Events gets the word out by sharing upcoming events with the tech newsletter Gary’s Guide.
- Start your own community newsletter and encourage local organizers to contribute stories and learn from each other’s successful practices. We love the way Magento shares updates and events in their #MagentoMonday Community Digest.
Keep in touch
A perk of being a Meetup Pro customer is that your members can share their email address with you when they RSVP to any event in your network. Encourage members to share their email address so you can send customized emails, share photos, highlight upcoming events, and celebrate your accomplishments
- You can access the emails via your Meetup Pro Dashboard (access the ‘Members’ tab and then click ‘Export’).
- MailChimp users can also directly connect their Meetup Pro account to their MailChimp account. To sync your MailChimp account, visit the ‘Members’ tab of your Pro Dashboard and click on the ‘MailChimp’ button.
-
Meetup Pro: Where should I start my next group?
When you’re growing your communities, sometimes it’s hard to decide where to go next.
Here are some tips for scouting out potential Meetup group locations:
Research the topics page
- Take a look at Meetup’s topics page. You’ll find the most popular topics under each category.
Above: Topics in the Career & Business category
- Select a topic, and you’ll land on a page with related topics, groups near you, and overall largest groups focused on that topic worldwide.
- Take some time to learn from these details—where are the people with the most interest? What places would benefit from your Pro network’s presence?
Above: Related topics and locations under the ‘Business Owners’ topic
- Examine your group’s current topics—what locales have the most groups around that topic already?
- Check out the largest groups and their locations—are they active? Do people meet regularly about the topic? Maybe they even have organizers that could be good local organizer candidates for your future group.
Above: Largest groups under the ‘Business Owners’ topic
Ask your community
- Listen to your brand or organization’s current fans and ambassadors—what are they doing and where do they live?
- Download your current member list (under your Members tab) and see where your members are actually located—some people may be traveling further than you think! It might be worth starting another group in a surrounding city.
Find your member list under the Members tab
- Use your social media networks to ask your communities where they want to meet IRL.
- Consider using a Twitter or Instagram poll or other voting tools to find out where your people are.
Wherever you choose to grow next, having an amazing local organizer is key. As long as you’re supporting your team, they’ll be successful.
-
How do I launch my Meetup Pro network?
Congratulations on your newly active Meetup Pro account! Here are some tips to get started on the right foot:
Start small. Identify a pilot city (or cities) where you will launch your program. You should choose a city where you have a receptive audience and a local leader on the ground.
Be prepared to hit the ground running. Plan your first couple of events so that you can keep the group active and engaged while you plan for growth. Events have the best chance of succeeding when events are scheduled early and often.
Brand your Meetup network. Writing a strong group description is critical, as is creating a consistent look and feel across your network. Meetup Pro allows you to create an appearance that is true to your organization both on an individual group level and the network level.
Plan for future growth. Identify additional cities and start the search for local leaders.
Starting a new Pro group in your network
To start a new Meetup Pro group in your network, log in to Meetup Pro and navigate to the Groups tab from the left navigation bar. At the top right, click ‘···Groups’ and select ‘Start new group’ from the drop-down menu and follow the prompts.
After you write your description, your new group will be reviewed by our community team. Once approved, we will help announce to potential members. Be sure to schedule your first event as soon as possible in order to capitalize on the heightened attention!
-
Meetup Pro: How can I help my local organizers succeed?
You have great local organizers and you’ve provided them with all the tools they need — how can you ensure their success?
Set clear goals
What do you want your groups to accomplish? Create goals and be clear and direct with your local organizers. Consider using S.M.A.R.T. goals — goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.
Here are some suggestions:
- Host 1 Meetup event per month
- Strive for a certain number of RSVPs per event
- Grow your membership base by a certain percentage by the end of the year
Use your Meetup Pro Analytics tab to help track some of your goals.
Create a rewards system
Once your goals are in place, find a way to reward organizers who achieve them. Not sure how your organizers like to be rewarded? Ask them! This will help you design a clear rewards system that your organizers can work towards.
Ideas for rewards:
- Swag from your organization (shirts, coffee mugs, keychains, etc.)
- Special events (e.g. fun activities, surprise guests, etc.)
- Shoutouts and photos on your social media pages
Provide ongoing support
Create an ongoing support system that your organizers can access after their training is complete.
- Check-in calls: Set up a cadence of personal calls to check in and provide feedback
- Buddy system: Pair your local organizers with a partner to keep each other motivated
Tip: Use the Organizer Performance dashboard in your Analytics tab to easily partner your more active local organizers with those that need more support and coaching
- Slack: Create a Slack workspace with channels where organizers can share ideas and cheer each other on
-
Meetup Pro: How do I train local organizers?
You’ve found your team; now help them succeed.
You’re expanding your Meetup Pro Network’s reach with some great local leaders, and now it’s time to help them further your mission. The leaders you’ve chosen have unique skills and ideas to bring to their events. Here are steps you can take to help them create consistently great experiences.
Review the Organizer Guide
Your organizers will come with different experiences, within and outside of Meetup. Meetup’s Organizer Guide is full of inspiration and best practices for managing your community.
Use the buddy system
If you already have some local organizers in place, create a “buddy system” to pair veteran organizers with new leaders. Encourage them to set up weekly times to connect, share resources, and celebrate milestones.
Create a toolkit
Ensure consistency by creating a document that outlines:
- Your best organizing practices and examples
- Top resources
- Brand or company guidelines
- Community policies or important notes
Keep in touch
Make it easy for your leaders to stay in touch and share with each other.
- Create a Slack channel to quickly communicate with all of your local organizers
- Schedule a cadence of video calls with the entire leadership team. Try free services such as Google Hangouts or Zoom.
Celebrate success
Positive feedback is just as essential as constructive feedback. Find ways to celebrate and elevate your top leaders.
- Highlight great organizers on your organization’s social media pages
- Share their tactics and photos with other organizers
- Send them swag such as customer shirts, stickers, keychains — something unique to your brand!
-
Meetup Pro: How do I find local organizers?
Growing your network is integral, but you can’t do it alone.
Whether you’re a single-person company or a large enterprise, you’ll need local leaders to represent your mission in real life and successfully expand your reach.
Ask your current community
Your members already support your mission — ask them to be a part of its growth. If you’re ready to start a group in a city where you don’t know anyone, put out the call.
Use the Members tab in your Pro Console to help identify potential leaders in your existing groups. The advanced filters allow you to find your most active members based on when they last logged in and shows you how many events they’ve attended in the past.
Encourage applications
When you have a pool of potential organizers, it can be hard to keep track of them. Use an online form creator like Google Forms or Typeform to collect and analyze their information.
Write a few questions to help you choose who fits the criteria for being a great leader.
- What about this opportunity excites you?
- What previous experience do you have with [your company or brand]?
- How much time are you able to commit to being our organizer?
Make it easy for you to weed out those ready to lead the group vs. those who could be future members.
Find them on the Find page
Meetup’s Find page is a great resource for finding active communities in other cities. Use it to find active groups that already align with your mission, business, or goals. Look for ones with strong organizers near the places you want to reach.
Note how those groups are run:
- Is the organizer responsive?
- Are there lots of engaging events on the calendar?
- Does the group have active members?
If you think another organizer and group fits your criteria, politely message them on the site and ask if they’d be interested in becoming part of your Meetup Pro network in their city.
Learn more about using the Find page in our Help Center.
Be Social
Put out the call on your social media pages. Craft your top 2–3 requirements for potential leaders. Think about logistics such as:
- Weekly time commitment
- Location
- Previous experience
Share what you’re looking for in a post on your Facebook page, Twitter timeline, Instagram feed, etc.
Once you’ve found the right people, you’ll be able to set up ways to train them, encourage them, and celebrate their success as your network continues to grow.
Want to learn more in person. Join the orgaizer network and see if there is a real life Meetup happening around you. There be people who have done this before, ready to help and you can be part of something special.
Join the org network