Between Facebook, Google+, Twitter and the like, it’s easy to carry out day to day marketing activities without ever meeting your customers and supporters face to face.
But in my experience, there’s nothing like sharing a beer/coffee and the like with your community.
So if you’re looking for new ways to engage consider face to face events as part of your marketing matrix as it can be low cost, effective way to gather support for your product and connect with the industry.
Here’s my top tips for arranging meetups:
- Have an objective: Are you looking for feedback or to connect with specific people? Be sure you’re clear about what you’d like to get out of the face to face meetings.
- Decide if you want to make it exclusive or open: If you’re dealing with sensitive information, you might want to consider a closed community so you can gather feedback with confidence.
- Find a tool that works for your community: There’s loads of way to organise your meetups. Meetup, EventBrite and Amiando are a few tools to help you on your way.
- Start small:Some of the best meetups I’ve been to started with 2 people sitting around a table, discussing something they were passionate about. Don’t be afraid to just get started.
- Engage a co-organiser: If you’re in a start-up, consider asking a like minded start-up to help coordiante the meetings – it’s often easier to engage in conversations (both on and offline) when there’s more than one person doing the organising, and it will mean that no matter what, you’ll at least have one person showing up!
I recently set up a new meetup for Bank 2.0 as a result of my introduction to the world of social & micro-financing through Pollenizer’s latest venture PayPygg.
After only two meetings, I’ve already noticed a lot of benefits:
- Connected with Brett King – the man who (literally) wrote the book on Bank 2.0
- Gained a better understanding of challenges within the banking sector
- Discovered some early beta testers, advisers, leads and partnership opportunities for our new products
Our next Bank 2.0 meetup is schedule for next week, so I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how it’s going (or feel free to join us if you’re interested in the topic!).
What are your tips for hosting successful face to face meetups with your community?