Connections - October 2009 - 21

©IStoCKphoto.CoM/lISegagne The book stirred something in Heiferman, and he was inspired to help rebuild a sense of citizenry. Subsequently he, “found a bunch of [developers] and … locked [everyone] in a room for a couple of months and developed Meetup,” said Heiferman. Meetup helps groups of people with shared interests plan meetings and form offline clubs in local followers around the world. It’s a way to find like-minded people and then connect with them. This social media portal facilitates offline community groups with various interests ranging from venture capitalism to vampirism. Click here to give it a whirl. Simply type in your area of interest, jot down your zip code and then hit the big red “search” button to connect with a vibrant niche market near your own neighborhood. Several people have already taken advantage of this form of social media for the betterment of their business ventures. Randi Babcock, Meetup organizer who advocates the Main Street Chamber Colorado Springs and John Caddell, principal of The Caddell Insight Group are two such examples. They, among others, have used Meetup to extend their reach deeper into a community, save businesses money, and open the opportunity for networking. Babcock used Meetup to serve small business and non-profit communities. She inserts hyperlinks that drive Meetup users to the Chamber’s pertinent hyperlinks. Meetup users could find their postings by going to the site, typing “chamber of commerce” in the search engine, and then clicking “search.” From there a link came up to Babcock’s post for the Chamber’s site as well as a URL linking to drive researchers directly there. Once users found the listing, they would have to go to the Chamber’s Web site and register there to participate. It encourages interaction through the site. According to the Meetup site, Babcock is using the social media tool to provide a support system for small business owners and encouragement of memberto-member businesses. Babcock used Meetup as a way to extend her marketing efforts deeper into her neighborhood. Meetup’s business listings include everything from: “Hong Kong Business Owners,” and “Dubai Business Strategy and Networking Meetup,” to the “Affluent Monthly Investors” in Washington, D.C to “Small Business and Entrepreneurs” in Anchorage AK. Presently there are numerous Chamber of Commerce Meetups in the United States. Click here to access them. Community-specific marketing isn’t the only way to use the social networking site. Meetup can also be used to help with financial pressures. “People are looking for ways to save money, and they see Meetup as a way to do that. [They can use it for] … comparing, negotiating, and pooling,” said Heiferman in a YouTube video.

Connections - October 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Connections - October 2009