Meetups are the most fertile ground around.
More and more Realtors I know are having epic problems with their tried-and-true farming efforts. The recurring problem is smaller and smaller “crops” every year. Want to create new, super-fertile farms? Use Meetup.com and it will blow up your farm (and I mean that in the best way possible)!
The Meetup.com value proposition is simple. You’ll find it in big letters at the top of their home page: “Do something. Learn something. Share something. Change something.” These four actions are at the very core of how to meet and bond with new people that will become a fresh new infusion into your social and business sphere.
Below is a screen shot of what the Meetup.com site looks like. At the very top left, you will see two red buttons: Find a Meetup and Start a Meetup.
The four window panes above are rotating photos from Meetups all across the country. You can see the Cascade CSS (Tech) Meetup in the Bay Area, a Meetup in New York for practicing your German language skills, gaming events in Colorado Springs area, and the Puget Sound Sailing Meetup Group in Seattle, Wash. That’s a pretty broad representation of what you’ll find on this site. I believe that Meetup.com has something for everyone.
Now, let’s take a deeper dive. Look above one more time; on the right side you’ll find a box to Find a Meetup Group near you. Go ahead and see what happens when you type in a topic or interest, and your ZIP code.
Below you see my results: two great Meetup.com groups 10-12 miles away from me.
Wow! You can see the San Diego Surfing Moms have 95 members. They meet weekly for surfing and socializing, with built-in shared child care while they hit the waves. Join the one below Surfing Moms and you’ll find yourself among 60 other self-proclaimed “Fun and Fabulous Moms” who do all kinds of fun activities listed in their description above. I already love their enthusiasm and group energy!
Are you passionate about causes, but feeling lost about where to start? I joined my favorite Meetup group because of the group title: “Do-Gooders Who Drink.” Their mission is best shown right on their group page below.
Fellow “Do-Gooders” include more than 500 members. This group is very diverse. All ages, all professions. A nice-sized number of us gather a couple times a month for lunch, brunch or happy hour, and we include simple tasks like everyone bringing five stamped postcards to write and mail to U.S. servicemen and servicewomen stationed overseas. (Shhhh! They’ll never know we have cocktails in hand while we write, unless we tell them.) This month the Do-Gooders are collecting simple care items and making “Welcome Kits” for families staying with children at San Diego’s Ronald McDonald house.
Do you have a pet? Check this out, below.
Some of the most active Meetups involve our beloved family pets. Above are Corgi owner and Yorkie owner Meetup groups that have more than 600 and 700 members each. The Corgi group description reads, “Imagine 50 stubby Corgis frolicking at the park or running through the surf. Now imagine their owners laughing and discussing what makes them similar and what makes them separate personalities. That’s what this Meetup is all about.” (Note: I am actually in the Yorkie Meetup group picture, just above. I am the person with the tiny cobalt blue jacket near the far left.)
Whether you are in a major metropolitan area, or a small city like Spokane, Wash., where I recently lived (I was the communications director at the Spokane Association of Realtors), you will find Meetups to build your contact sphere naturally with interests you share with others. Below is the results page after I searched “sports” and a Spokane ZIP code. You’ll see two outing and adventure excursion Meetup groups for Spokane and Kootenai County residents with more than 1,000 members between them! Look to the right and you’ll see exciting jet boat trips on the Snake River, and volleyball events coming up in the next few weeks.
Want to know about what’s trending on Meetup? Just type in your ZIP code and click “Find a Meetup” at the top. Here are my results, below. You can see that I have four great choices: hiking, wine tasting, meeting some exceptional entrepreneurs, or talking personal finance. (Tip: Type in “social media” and you might just find a local meetup filled with approachable, affordable talent for SEO, CSS, WordPress, etc.)
Just above in the light blue box, you can see that there are 970 Meetup groups near me in my town of Carlsbad, Calif. Look below that now. Did you find “Encinitas Guys Poker Night” at Robby’s? Farming can be a whole new and energized experience on Meetup, so go ahead and blow up your farm — in a good way! You know how to do that now, using Meetup.com.
