Social Media Interactions to Real Life Meetups

I’m thinking about attending more networking events, meetups and blogger parties in the coming months because they will help with my work, especially when it comes to reaching out to bloggers and influencers on behalf of my own projects or my consulting clients.

Theoretically, face-to-face meetups always thumps social media interactions simply because you tend to leave a deeper impression in people’s mind when they see you and hear you speak. It also proves that you are a real person rather than just an avatar on the Internet.

Have you attended meetups or events organized by pages that you’ve liked, groups, tweetups or meetups arranged via Meetup.com?

What are some of the things that I should absolutely do before, during and after the event? Any suggestion is appreciated. :slight_smile:

Hi Wayne,

Yes, meetups are awesome for learning, as well as joining a community of people that share your interests.
I’ve attended various meetups in Melbourne and got quite a bit from them.

No need to do anything before hand, just rock up and be willing to participate if there’s opportunity to ask questions or input.
Afterwards, you can follow up by trying what was spoken about and letting the members know what you’ve done with it.

I have heard about or read about a lot of such meetups. Announcement of the upcoming event like the venue,celebrities or known faces to be present etc, other than this I also often see or get to read about its success story, or any sequel like plans etc. So, I would say that after attending any such events, you may discuss or share your experiences of attending the event socially. There are a lot of readers who aren’t able to attend, generally wait for such things…!

Prepare yourself a little bit for conversations. Get ready with some of the presentations to show in the meetups. Be friendly with the other participants. Exchange your business cards with each other participants will surely help you to get some of referrals through them.

I have read a lot of blogs on the meetups held outside India, I am yet to join a meetup and meet new personalities and bloggers meetup, yes, definitely, the face to face meetup enhances the chances of the social media presence and also will help a great deal to drive visitors from the contacts of the bloggers you meet up at the meet up.

Yup, I’ve attended one local meetup last month and arranged for another face-to-face meetup with a Twitter user that I have been interacting with online. I am looking forward to attending more of these in 2013 as I realize that seeing people face-to-face adds a lot of meaning to future online interactions. You can somehow imagine the expression of a particular person even though you are just reading their tweets, blog posts or status updates.

Just wondering, what is holding you back from attending a meetup? Is it because of location? If attending an organized meetup is impossible, you can try to arrange for a quick coffee session with one or two social media connections that you’ve been wanting to meet. I find that this is much easier than trying to attend a meetup with 20 to 50 attendees. The conversations tend to be more focused and fruitful too! :slight_smile:

Meetups is a great place to actually interact with like minded people. You can also pursue your interests via meetups.

For example I love skydiving so I have had 2 meetups where people who love skydiving came together and we had such a amazing experience.

Via meetup you can also organize some kind of seminar with people where you can have a minimum entry fee like $2-$10.

Then connect with more and more people and expand your business.

Hi Wayne

Yes, it’s great to meet people off-line too!

If you’re using Meetups then one thing you can do is check the profiles of the people who say they are going to attend the meeting. That will give you a bit of background and also show you their faces.

When you get there, try not to waste too much time talking to people who can’t do you any good. Sure, you should help newbies – and from a practical perspective this week’s newbie could be next year’s success story (though I’d say help newbies because you’re a nice person) - but don’t spend too much time on it.

If someone can’t help you then move on. I don’t know if you’re comfortable with that, and I know for some people this will take a bit of practice – to have the confidence/balls to walk up to someone and just start chatting. In my experience, though, people in IM are very willing to network – because they want to make good contacts too!

I like to keep a note of who I’ve met and what we discussed, as well. Because my memory is not really great, like my partner’s is LOL, and next time I meet them – which might be in six months – I’ve got a chance of remembering what we discussed if I have some notes to refer to on my way to the meeting.

Good luck.

Malc :slight_smile: