More evidence that Web 2.0 people think the world is made of the 50,000 people who care about Web 2.0:
Mashable: "Meetup, a networking event company that grants weekly opportunities for startups to present their elevator pitch to the crowd."
She confuses the Tech Meetups, including mine, with Meetup as a whole. Happens all the time. Tech Meetups are <1% of all Meetups. Others include Parenting Meetups, Small Business Meetups, Health/Fitness-related Meetups, Pets Meetups, Political/Activist Meetups. "Networking event company" makes me want to vomit.
(It's also evidence that we do a poor job of communicating about ourselves.)
I think the onus is on Mashable to get this right.
Sure there's a communication issue, but clearly most PEOPLE out there know that it's not a tech networking company because more people participate in non-tech meetups.
It's an issue with lazy journalists. And how much can you change that?!
Posted by: Nate | 11/29/2007 at 06:09 PM
I think Meetup does a poor job of communicating about itself because of a lack of concentration on the core mission and strengths of the company.
The core mission is helping people meet in person and form communities. All available resources -- marketing, website real estate, personnel, etc. -- should go to promoting that to existing customers and to non-customers, especially because Meetup is still a small company with limited resources. Any idea that does not SIGNIFICANTLY further this mission should be tossed.
What I do not see is "top-down advertising" such as a more professionally-made YouTube video, helping groups with PR, writing to blogs, setting up relationships with venues, etc.
Sheryl
Culture for the Non-Cultured Meetup
Posted by: Sheryl | 12/02/2007 at 11:34 AM
I think Meetup does a poor job of communicating about itself because of a lack of concentration on the core mission and strengths of the company.
The core mission is helping people meet in person and form communities. All available resources -- marketing, website real estate, personnel, etc. -- should go to promoting that to existing customers and to non-customers, especially because Meetup is still a small company with limited resources. Any idea that does not SIGNIFICANTLY further this mission should be tossed.
What I do not see is "top-down advertising" such as a more professionally-made YouTube video, helping groups with PR, writing to blogs, setting up relationships with venues, etc.
Sheryl
Culture for the Non-Cultured Meetup
Posted by: Sheryl | 12/02/2007 at 11:34 AM