Meetup - Launching Your Next Event Using The Meetup Platform

Once you've started the Meetup, you want to be able to promote that Meetup. And you're going to be using third party services, as well as your social media accounts. And so in this course, we're going to look to connect our third party services using Zapier so that we will be able to promote creatively those meetings that we're going to be having on Meetup. We'll also be looking at different aspects of monetizing our meeting, such as dues, contributions and sponsors. So we'll be looking at individual autoresponders such as AWeber, get response and MailChimp also look at payment alternatives, just stripe, as well as online meeting alternatives using GoToWebinar And finally, we'll look at notification options using the SMS connector Twilio. So we'll start the process by connecting to our social media accounts given to us by Meetup.

You are already going to have your social networks tied to you personally on Meetup. However, for your Meetup groups, you do want to make sure that you're going to have specific social media accounts and pages tied to your group. And to do that, what you're going to do is to go inside of your group. And then you're going to go to your group settings. And then you're going to go to your optional features. And then you're going to come all the way down to the bottom we're going to notice is that when you click the box, there isn't going to be an automatic tie in, you're going to have to write in your groups specific page into the dialog boxes. And you'll do the same for Twitter, as well as for LinkedIn, Flickr, and Tumblr. And you're also going to want to make sure that your group page on the web is in here. Also, once you have all these things, you're then going to click Save. And it's important to know that you're going to be putting the links here because if you try to connect using your personal profile, what you're going to notice is that it's going to try to tie directly through the web. And if you have your account tied to any other plays on Meetup, you may not get a positive response. So you won't have to worry about that when you're doing that for your individual groups. That's important to note that these settings are individualized for your group. So that when you seek to put in another site, or another Facebook page for another group that you have, you won't have to use those same links that you use for your other Meetup. However your social media accounts on your personal profile will appear across all of your meeting group profiles.

One of the things you can do to keep your group active, and to keep interest in what's happening in the group is to manage your newsfeed. And you can do that by posting your content on a regular basis. When you have upcoming events that will appear in the newsfeed of the individuals inside of your group, they'll also get notice through their email, which you'll also see or any photos that are posted. So anytime that you are posting and adding photos, your members will get notice of it. And they'll see it in their note newsfeed any discussions that you start or that are conducted with individuals in the group that will also appear in the newsfeed and you will continue to get notifications going out from Meetup about your group, to those who have subscribed to notifications about what's happening inside of the group. Any active polls that you create will also appear inside of the group. Any polls that you create will appear inside of your newsfeed. So if you keep the activity centered around your posting on your social networks, what you'll find is that the discussion will be generated around those social networks. So you want to be able to test trying to get people involved in having discussions on your Meetup newsfeed, one of the things you'll notice about the discussions here on your feed is that those are going to be different from those inside of your message boards. And so you'll see here that there is a discussion, however, that's going to be different. If we go to the more area and we go to our message board, what we'll see is that we can start entirely new discussions here in the discussion area and then track this message board. And so this is a another way to generate activity for your group. You'll notice then that this discussion will then be viewable by everyone once you submit it. And so as you begin to set up your posting schedule, one of the things that you can do is to manage Meetup just as you would a social network, depending on how the members respond to the things that you're posting.

You can integrate the activity and third party applications to your Meetup account. However, there are only a select number of those activities that you can do with Meetup. Now if you'll notice here in the app section of our group settings, you'll notice that Zapier is going to be connected we're going to do for the sake of this video is we are going to revoke access to Zapier so that we can walk through the process of connecting it again. So we're going to click this button. And anytime that you have an application inside of Meetup connected to the API, if you want to disconnect that application, you'll need to just come inside of your settings, and then go to this apps link, and then click revoke access. So now what we're going to do is walk through the process of connecting Meetup to Zapier. If you go inside of your Zapier account, and you go to the Meetup integrations page, you're going to see that there are a number of applications that can connect to Zapier to do various things. What we're going to do is we're going to first connect our Meetup account, we're going to give our zap a name. And then we're just going to choose a trigger. We're then going to do is click Save and Continue. Now we connect our Zapier account, you'll notice it's going to say it's not working. That's because we have already disconnected it. So we can do is either reconnected or connected again. For the sake of this video, we're going to click connect an account. Now we are already logged into our Meetup account inside of our Chrome browser. So all we have to do is click this allow button. And then Meetup is going to make the connection through our Chrome browser. We're going to click Allow. We're now connected to Zapier, we're going to give this Meetup count a name. And then we're going to test it. It's now successful, we're now going to click Save and Continue. And we're going to choose an individual group. And then we're going to click Continue. We're gonna choose an app to connect to this case, we're going to choose to connect to our Twitter account. And we're going to choose to create a tweet when we set a new event we're going to do now is connect our Twitter account. We're going to make sure we're logged in to our Twitter account before we connect through our Chrome browser. Now we are connected so we can continue on through the process. And we're going to click Connect. We're going to authorize Zapier to connect we're going to say yes. We're then going to authorize Zapier for Twitter. We're now connected to our Twitter account. We'll then click test. And we are now connected. And so the Twitter integration requires that we write a sample message and we're then going to click Continue. We're then going to send the test and we're then going to click Finish. And when we're ready for this integration to start, we can then turn one our zap every time there's a new event, we will automatically have a tweet created.

One of the ways you can extend the functionality of Meetup is to use the online cloud based ticketing application Eventbrite, which also integrates with Meetup. And so in this case, we're going to click on Eventbrite. While we're on the Meetup page inside of Zapier, what you're going to notice is that there are several integrations we can do. One integration we can do is that we can add new Eventbrite events into Meetup. And so to do that, we're going to use try it. You may also want to take a look at some of the other integrations that you can do. And you can find them in these two columns. We're now going to do is click try it. Now the trigger is going to be an event bright event. So you are going to want to first make sure you have an event right account. Second, that you have an event scheduled. And third that you're logged into your Eventbrite account, because you'll need to connect that Eventbrite account to your Zapier account. That being said, what we're going to do is now click Continue. As we said, this event right account is already connected to your Zapier account. If you needed to connect a new account, you can click this button. And then Zapier will tell you what it needs in order to make the connection. And basically, it's going to log in on your behalf. So if you have an email address for your Eventbrite account, you'll be able to connect it through Zapier through this interface, you're going to test our connection. It is successful. So we're then going to click Save and Continue. We're going to do now is we're going to go inside of our Eventbrite account, we're going to select the event organization. We're then going to click Continue. Now what Zapier will do is it will look to pull a sample event. We're then going to click Continue. Now what we're going to do is we're going to set up an event in Meetup every time there's a new event set up in Eventbrite. So now what we're going to do is we're going to use our connected Meetup account to make the connection between the two applications. So we're going to choose our Meetup account, then click Save and Continue. We're going to choose the group. And then we're going to write in our description. Once we have the information in will then click Continue. So what we've now done is connect our Eventbrite account, so that whenever there is an Eventbrite event, it's automatically going to be placed inside the group that we specify.

One thing you want to note about Meetup and Zapier is that not all of the connections are going to necessarily work extremely well. For example, there are integrations between Meetup and autoresponders, such as AWeber. And you'll see that you can have a trigger, such as a new group member in your Meetup, and then the ability to create a new subscriber as the action. However, one of the problems with making this connection is that Meetup does not require an individual to make their email address available on the platform. That means then that creating subscribers would be virtually impossible, even though this is an integration technically within Zapier and Meetup. So you want to make sure that you go all the way through the connection. So you'll see if there's something that you can actually do. For example, if we were to choose a logical connection, new group member, then create a subscriber inside of our autoresponder that would be something that we want to do, we would then want to connect it. However, if we look to make the connection with the email, what we'll notice is that if we scroll through all of the data, we don't have an email address to connect with. And this would make this integration, non functional. And there are some cases where you can connect custom information associated with a profile. However, this is contrary to the spirit of Meetup and so even though the connection is there, it doesn't necessarily work the way most of these integrations work. So you want to be aware of that before you set one up.

There is a workaround with Zapier Meetup and your autoresponder. Now, as stated in the previous video, you won't be able to connect your Meetup account to your autoresponder so that you create new subscribers. But one thing that you can do is to make sure that new subscribers are created when you have a new attendee inside of your Eventbrite account. And you can do that through Zapier. So what you're going to do is you're going to write in first Eventbrite,

and then you're going to write in your autoresponder you can use AWeber. But there are other autoresponders that will connect to Eventbrite when to do now is going to click Make a zap. Now what we're going to use as the trigger is we're going to use that there's going to be a new attendee registered at our event right event.

We can be a little more conservative and use it so that when a new attendee checks in to our event, so we're going to do is we're going to use the less conservative way, new attendees registered. We're then going to click Save and Continue.

We're going to use our connected Eventbrite account and we're going to set up the identifying information for our event. Once we do that, we'll then click Continue. Zapier will pick a sample individual will then click Continue.

And then we're going to select the autoresponder we're going to select AWeber we could select Active Campaign or MailChimp.

Now when an attendee is registered, what we want to do is we want to make sure that there is a subscriber created. We're then going to click Save and Continue. We're going to use our connected AWeber account.

And this time, you'll see that we are going to have an email available to us through Eventbrite. So one way to work around the situation with Meetup and Zapier is to make sure that they get registered through Eventbrite is to make sure that they get a ticket through your Eventbrite account.

One integration that may help you with promotion will be a connection between Meetup and LinkedIn. And so if you are inside of Zapier, and you're at the Meetup integrations page, you can go and search for LinkedIn. And what you can do is click LinkedIn. And what you'll see here is that one trigger can be a new event. And another trigger can be a company update, you can also create a share update inside of your personal LinkedIn account. Both are good ways to promote your Meetup event. And so what you can do is you can set your trigger at the new event, you can then set your action at a company update. We're now going to click Connect. We're now going to connect our Meetup account. We're now going to select the specific group. We're now going to click Continue. We're going to click the pull in my samples. And now we're going to connect our LinkedIn account. But we're going to do is we're going to create a company update. We're now going to click Continue. We're now going to connect our LinkedIn account to our Zapier account. We're then going to click Allow.

What we're now going to do is click Save and Continue. We're now going to select our LinkedIn company page. And then we're going to write in our update content. Once we have our required information in We're then going to click Continue. We'll then send our test to LinkedIn. And then we'll click Finish. We can then name our zap. And then once we turn this app on, every time we create a new event inside of our group, it will be posted as a company update on our LinkedIn company page.

Another way we can promote our Meetup is to make sure that it is posted to our WordPress website when we set it up, and we can do that inside of Zapier. Right now we're on the Meetup integrations page with Zapier, we're going to do is we're going to write in WordPress. And you'll see that one of the more popular zaps is for us to be able to create a WordPress post for our new Meetup event. We're going to click try it. And the trigger is going to be the new event, we're going to set up our Meetup account. And we're going to choose the group where the event will be set up. We'll then use a sample to set up the event will then click Continue. But we're going to do now is going to have Zapier create a post for the Meetup event. And what we're going to do is we're going to use an already connected WordPress account. But if you don't have one connected, you click this button. This will give you access to a page that will integrate your WordPress site. And what you'll need is your URL, your username and your password. And you could set up a username and password just for your Zapier account for this individual WordPress website. We're now going to click test. And then we'll click Save and Continue. What we can do is we can determine that we want the post to be a certain level. For example, we can make sure that we want the draft post to be set up until we go in and approve it. Or we could set it up so that this post would automatically be public or private. So what we're going to do is now click Continue. We'll then send our test to WordPress. Once we do that, well then click Finish. And once we turn this zap one, we'll be creating a post that will be in draft form in our WordPress site. Every time we set up a Meetup that we can go in and approve.

One thing you can do to promote your Meetup is to make sure that you have a pin on Pinterest every time that you set up a new Meetup. And you can do that inside of your Meetup integrations inside of Zapier. And what you're going to do is you're going to write in Pinterest into the search bar, what you're going to notice right here in the selections is that you have a selection where you have a new group photo, the rest are not necessarily associated with photos that you choose to automate based on the event on the comment on the member or RSVP, none of those triggers are going to give you an image based element, the only element that's going to be imaged base is going to be the new group photo. So what you're going to do is you're going to start with a new group photo. Again, that's going to be the only one that's going to give you the option of giving you something image base to create a pin and to automate that creation. So what you're then going to do is select the action of creating a pin, you're then going to click Connect, you're going to test your Meetup account. Once it is successful, you're then click Save and Continue. You're then going to select the group inside of Meetup where you're going to be grabbing the photo. Once you have the group, you're then going to click Continue. Now to run the test Meetup will grab a photo that you have available to you. What you're going to do then is you're going to click Continue. What you're then going to do is you're then going to click on Pinterest, you're then going to create a pin. What you'll do then is you'll then click test. You'll then click Save and Continue. Now you're going to choose a specific board on your Pinterest account. And you'll need to have created a board based on how you want to promote your Meetup. Now then, you'll want to pick the image that is part of your test. And Meetup will give you the high rez link, you'll typically pick that photo. And then you're going to write in a note that you want to standardize every time Meetup reposts your new photo, you'll probably want to be keyword specific. What you can do every time that Pinterest post this link is you can include a link that you want people to click on in order to get more information. In this case, you may want to create a link back to your Meetup. Now by default, what Zapier is going to give you is a link back to all of your photos. Again, you may want to change this so that this is always going to be the link back to your Meetup, so that when somebody clicks it, they'll be able to see your Meetup activity. Once you've done this, you can then click Continue. You'll then send the test to Pinterest. Once you've done that, you'll then click Finish. And once you've done that, you can then give your zap a name and then turn it on. And then every time a group photo is uploaded to your Meetup account, you'll use that photo to promote your Meetup inside of Pinterest.

Stated earlier, you want to keep your activity focused on your Meetup fee. However, you may want to promote your activity inside of a group, whether that group is going to be designated for your Meetup or a group related to your Meetup. And so to do that, you're going to be able to connect to your Facebook account. And so we're going to do is we're going to write in Facebook, to the Zapier Meetup integration page. And when you first start the search, you're only going to see five available to you. However, if you write one more letter, you're going to see that there is a group integration with Meetup, we're going to click that integration.

Now again, there are a couple of things that you can do, one thing you can do is auto post your new event to your Facebook group. Now the thing that you can do is auto post any group photo, just as you did with Pinterest. In this case, the most sensible thing to do would be to post a new group photo we're going to do is start the trigger at the new group photo. And then we're going to post that photo to our Facebook account we're going to do now is we're then going to click Connect.

We're then going to test and then connect our Meetup account. We're going to select the group, and then we're going to click Continue. Zapier will then grab a test photo, and then we're going to click Continue.

We're then going to choose our Facebook groups. And we're going to post a photo into our group feed.

Now you'll want to be logged into your Facebook account. And what we're going to do is we're going to connect our account to meet up you're going to give Zapier permission and click Continue. You're going to give Zapier publish permission and then click OK. We'll then test our connection.

Once it is successful, well then click Save and Continue. What you want to remember is that this is going to happen every time you post a group photo. So you want to be careful about which group you're going to be using. And so we're going to do is we're going to select the group that we want to consistently publish to where they then going to grab the photo URL.

And then we're going to write in a description. Now remember, this description is going to be one that's going to be posted every time you have a new photo posted inside of Meetup. We're now going to do is click Continue. We're going to send the test to our groups. After your test is successful, you can then click Finish. And once you give your zap a name, it will then be turned on and every time you post a new group photo, it will then be posted to Facebook.

If for some reason you cannot connect successfully to meet up through Zapier, what you're going to need to do is to come inside of your group settings, you're then going to need to click Add apps then search for the Zapier application. And then make sure that this app is enabled. If it's not add the app, then you'll be able to connect to Meetup through Zapier to your Facebook group.

Then you can also connect your Meetup to your Facebook page. And you can do that through Zapier. And what you're going to do is you're going to write in Facebook pages, or in most cases, you may see it in the popular connections. So you're going to go ahead and click your Facebook page. And there are a few popular connections between Meetup and Facebook. And you can use it by going to either posting a Meetup to your Facebook page, or sharing a Meetup group with Facebook pages post. We're going to post our Meetup to a Facebook page. And we're going to click try it. So we're going to start with an event that comes from our Meetup and then click Continue. We're then going to connect our Meetup account and then click Save and Continue. Then we're going to select the group. Once we go with our sample, we're then going to click create a page post. We're going to do now is we're going to connect our Facebook pages to our Zapier account, so that we can then post our Meetups. We're going to click Connect as our Facebook profile. We're then going to connect our Zapier account. We're then going to allow Zapier to manage our pages. And then our Zapier will then be linked. We're then going to click the test button. Our pages will then be connected well then click Save and Continue will then choose the appropriate Facebook page. We then have our data entered by Meetup will then click Continue. Then going to click and send a test to our Facebook page. Once that Facebook page test is complete, we'll then click Finish. And once our zap is turned on, then every Meetup that we have will then be posted to our Facebook page.

The question is often asked if you can do a webinar as one of your Meetup events. And as was noted in a previous video, you may have seen this paragraph in the guidelines. And it says that Meetup should not be used only for hosting online meetings, conference calls or webinars. So it's possible that you can use online meetings to support your Meetup and support your face to face meetings. And this practice is being supported by prominent bloggers such as Neil Patel, who suggests that you use a webinar to add to your Meetup.com account. And doing a simple search in Google, you'll see that there are Meetups that are indeed online webinars and meetings. So although there is no specified ratio of online meetings to webinars, you want to make sure that the bulk of your events inside of your Meetup are going to be face to face meetings, and that you're going to have your webinars to support this activity.

One way to monetize or pay consistently for the expenses for your Meetup is to use dues. And you can do that by going to your group. And then you can go to edit your group settings, you scroll down to the bottom, you're going to see this panel that says member dues. Now the idea behind dues is for the members to help you to cover the costs associated with then your rental, and any other expenses that you are going to incur. Now, basically, dues will work like a subscription. And you will also be able to take credit card payments from the individuals that will be paying the dues. So for example, what you'll be able to do is you'll be able to charge an individual a certain amount monthly, you can write that amount in. And then Meetup will tell you what you'll receive after processing fees. You'll want to make sure that you use the Meetup specified indicators, telling individuals how their dues will be spent. Now what's important is that Meetup will administer this part of the Meetup. If you decide to set dues, then individuals will only be able to be part of the group if they pay their dues on a regular basis. You'll note here in the frequently asked questions you'll be able to change your dues or turn them off later. processor you'll be using is called we pay to take credit cards and debit cards. So once you decide to move forward, you can then click Next. And what you'll need to do then is set up your Meetup payments with we pay so you can then begin to take dues from the new members.

Another way to offset some of the expenses of your Meetup is to allow members to contribute. And if you don't want to take dues and you don't have sponsors, you can give members the option of contributing to the expenses of the group. And you can do that by going to your group settings. They're going to click Edit group settings. Once you get there, you're going to scroll down to the bottom, there's going to be a panel here for contributions, you're going to click that panel. And then you're going to see that what we need to do is to sign up for we pay, and once you sign up for we pay, once you've signed up for we pay, then you'll be activated to take contributions for your group. A Meetup will suggest that you write a message, you can skip this step. But once you remove that message, you'll then be ready to start taking contributions. So when individuals see this button that says help support your Meetup and they click chip in but then be taken to we pay in order to make a contribution to your Meetup.

One of the other ways to monetize your group is to have sponsors for your events. And so to do that, you're going to go to manage your group, you're then going to click edit your group settings. Once you get there, you can scroll down to the bottom, and there's going to be a tab here, for sponsors. And you're going to click that tab. Just so that you'll note, you'll see a link here to upgrade to Meetup Pro. And if you have multiple Meetups and what you're doing is managing a network of Meetups, then this will be necessary, otherwise you won't need Meetup Pro. In order to add a sponsor. When you have a sponsor for your events or one of your events. All you need to do is to click this link that says Add a sponsor. And basically, what you're going to do is you're going to give these individuals a custom badge. They will then be displayed on your Meetup group pages so that individuals can go and purchase from them or to support their cause or their business. You want to write in their website or their landing page in this area. And then you want to add in a photo as their logo. Once you do that, you can then click Add sponsor. Once that person becomes a sponsor, you'll then have the opportunity to email individuals about the sponsor, so that they will not only get credit for sponsoring your Meetup, but also they'll get promotion from you. You can also choose to skip this step. Once you've done that, you will have successfully added this sponsor to your Meetup. And when you're ready, you can come back and add another sponsor.

In this video, we're going to talk about some less than obvious things that you can do to promote your Meetup offline. First, you want to make sure that your Meetup is treated like a special event, you can use press releases, and then all of the relevant local event calendars. It was a business related event, one of the things you want to do is to contact any of your local business publications to make sure that you are part of their calendar. Also, if it's something that seniors can attend, make sure all of the relevant senior centers note this. Also, if you have anything to do with youth, make sure that all relevant youth promoters know about the event. In other words, you want to make sure that your event is promoted locally in every capacity that you can possibly fit it into. And if you have a regular or a serially scheduled event, this is where you will really benefit. Because a number of people may not be able to make it on a particular day. However, they will be interested in coming when there is a subject that they're interested in, or if they cannot make it on that particular day. Now wherever you have a physical presence, one of the things you want to do is to use a QR code. You can find any QR code generator by doing a simple Google search. And once you find one of those links, you can go to the site. What you'll do to create the QR code is to place your Meetup URL inside of the generator. And then you can create the QR code. Once this code is then created, you can download the code and you can use it in any physical location so that when an individual scans the code, they'll be taken to your Meetup in order to sign up. Another less than obvious thing you can do is to have a fun but related Meetup used to invite people to your more business oriented Meetup. For example, Jimmy j is a multi level marketer has a Meetup where he plays the board game, cash flow one on one, which is the fun Meetup. Then while at that Meetup invites interested individuals to is more business oriented Meetup.

In this video, we're going to discuss online Meetup promotion. And whether you decide to use the automated features in Zapier, there's still some best practices that you want to follow in terms of having your Meetup available online. First, you want to make sure that for the search engines that your content is going to be keyword optimized, and that all local events are optimized for Google. You also want to make sure that your Meetups are going to be cross posted in events, sites, such as eventful as well as Eventbrite. In terms of social media, you want to make sure that all of these links are going to be available on all of the networks. So for example, you should have a LinkedIn related posting. But you also want to make sure your LinkedIn profile is going to be available on Twitter. It's also going to be available on Pinterest, and so on. And so if you have social media accounts, you want to make sure that they are all available on all of your sites. That includes Facebook, that includes YouTube, and also includes Instagram. Of course, all of these sites should also be available on your blog or website. And that's whether you choose to have a blog or website specific for your Meetup or whether it is just part of one of your business pages.

Meetup does promote Meetups within their network. And when individuals are seeking a group to join, they will see suggested groups based on their interest and your keyword optimization. Now this may or may not, this may not give an individual a sense for how active your group is, but it will be fundable within the Meetup network. However, the default setting inside of Meetup will be the calendar within a certain number of miles of your location. And that's going to be the case for anyone signing up for a Meetup. So one of the most effective tools that you'll have is to have regular meetings which will appear in an individual's calendar on their screen, where they can find out both groups and suggestions. And again, these groups are going to be made available to individuals based on the interest and relevance to their chosen topics. This will also give you an idea of other related Meetups to attend, where you can promote your own Meetup if this is something that the host supports.

We've now seen how you can create your own Meetup, as well as promote that Meetup using the various tools available to you in third party applications. We've looked at using zapier.com as a connection point between Meetup and your social media accounts. And we've also looked at workarounds for your autoresponder. We've also looked at how you manage the payments you have coming in to your Meetup account, whether those funds come in through the form of member dues, member contributions, or event sponsors. We've also taken a look at how you can promote your event within Meetup as well as online and offline. And finally, we've looked at the various ways that you can create content within Meetup to treat it as its own social network. So the cost activity will keep members engaged, as well as sharing your content and the Meetup.