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Meetup
At its core, Meetup is a facilitator website for people with common interests. At Meetup you can do two basic things: (1) Find a group that fits your interest and (2) Create your own group if you don’t find exactly what you are looking for. One of the big advantages of Meetup is that they will help you get your Meetup Group advertised in their network, something that BNI will not help you do.
Meetup, however, is not organized like BNI at all and should be approached in a completely different way; most of the groups are very loose, don’t get a lot of traction and don’t necessarily have to be oriented to business.
Pros:
- Variety: there are literally thousands of Meetup Groups and these can be identified not only by interest, but also by area, so it is easy to pinpoint, say, Web Developers Groups in Miami.
- Ease of joining: Meetup Groups are always free to join. You only have to click on the group, click on Join, answer a few questions and, presto! You now belong to the group.
- Some meetup groups are highly organized and very active, with leaders that hold regular meetings, organize events and provide value.
- You can belong to as many groups as you want… there are no category exclusivities, or limits. As a CPA, for example, you could conceivably belong to real estate groups, restaurant groups and any other group that might have members who use your services.
- Meetings and events tend to be after work hours, so that you might, conceivably, do one a day and network more effectively.
Cons
- Meetup groups are not necessarily business oriented, so you need to evaluate each group individually. It might be advisable to email the organizer (leader) of the group to get more information.
- Many meetup groups are also highly disorganized, so that only a couple of members will show up for a meeting or event, making your networking dicey.
- Many meetup groups are tiny, having between 2 and 10 people, so that your networking would not be effective.
- There is a cost associated with building or forming your own group (but less than $100/year)
- Going through the list of groups that you might like and which are in your geographical area does take time, Meetup itself is not organized that way, but by “likes” so that, for example, if you like photography, then you start first, looking at all the photography groups in your area, then drill down to specific groups. As a CPA, for example, you might have to invest time in researching groups which you might “like” to join.
Other Groups and Networking Organizations.
There are probably many other networking groups and organizations near you. Our advice is to just Google it, invest time in researching them and go to some guest meetings. Almost every networking group will allow guests to attend a limited number of meetings (for example, BNI has a limit of 2 visits per group). That way, you will be able to judge, first hand, how good of a fit any particular networking group is for you.
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Creating Real Strategies for Small and Medium Sized Businesses
