Promoting your Meetup

Promoting a WordPress MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. is so much more than setting up a Meetup page. The Marketing Team has crowdsourced some of the things that have worked. We hope that this advice is helpful. Please note that these are suggestions, not requirements. Every community has their own nuance and flavor.

Each Meetup should have a static, repeatable event message that gets edited when a speaker or special event is planned. Also, will newcomers understand what your Meetup is about? How about new-to-WordPress people? Is it a class or a discussion? Have fresh eyes take a look at your Meetup page. Would a newcomer be able to easily find all information?

Familiarity eases anxiety for new people. Be sure Meetup organizers are included in, distinguishable, and tagged on group photos, when possible. Familiar faces and knowing who’s “in charge” diminish social anxiety for many.

Here are some suggestions from the Marketing Team (Original Community Blog Post)

WordPress Meetup Tips & Tricks

  1. Blog after each event on your WordPress Meetup’s web property.
    • Post on Facebook Page.
    • Tweet.
  2. Make the event on a consistent basis, regardless of attendance (3 or more works, etc.)
  3. Make the event known (ie announce the Meetup) on Meetup.com at least two weeks in advance. Chapter Meetup events are visible in the WordPress dashboard (after 4.8), so the title of your Meetup becomes very important.
  4. If you don’t have a Facebook Page for the Group and/or Facebook Group, Twitter, then post on your own Facebook Profile.
  5. Consider creating Social Media accounts for your Meetup
    • Twitter
    • Facebook Page
    • Pinterest
  6. Get support from other local MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. specially Open SourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project Meetups. It helps if organizers or members attend other Meetups, too.
    • JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. Meetups
    • PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. Meetups
    • UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it./Usability Meetups
    • Digital Marketing Meetups
  7. Taking group photos after the event or during the event and then posting on social helps with people feeling included. Ask for volunteer Meetup members to take photos, great way to get them involved! Also, make sure Meetup organizers are included in, distinguishable and tagged on group photos when possible. Familiar faces and knowing who’s “in charge” diminishes social anxiety for some. Perhaps feature organizers in a banner image on the Meetup page.
  8. Weeknight meetings that have a meal provided help with attendance — especially those coming straight from work or who have child-care issues.
  9. Be sure to comment on the Meetup event when someone says they can’t make it or whatever. Pay attention to those Meetup.com notifications.
  10. After the Meetup click “good to see you” for everyone who was there.
  11. Greet people when they enter. If you have more than one organizer this can help a lot with making people feel welcome — especially new people.
  12. Make sure your own (as an organizer and/or attendee) Meetup profile is filled out (with a recent photo).
  13. When you are launching one of the things you want to consider is creating campaigns so people can join the event.
  14. Ask speakers to promote their upcoming Meetup talk/presentation/workshop on their site and social media accounts.
  15. Include a banner image on your WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. showcasing Meetup organizers or a post introducing the link between Meetup and the WordCamp which shows the organizers the day of or before the WordCamp starts.
  16. Filming presentations held in the Meetup and posting them on YouTube (or even a closed Facebook group) can be helpful for promotion. Even a 1-minute video posted showing what things happened at the meeting can help.

Need even more ideas? You can find them in this blog post!

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