MeetUps are a little known and little used Social Marketing platform from which you can build your own following and platform. Here are 7 tips to get you started off in the right way.

1) Name your MeetUp to attract your target market – Just like the title of a blog post, name your MeetUp with keywords that will attract your target market. If your MeetUp is about Gardening and you are in St. Louis, you could call it “Gardening St. Louis.”

2) This is NOT Social – YOU are the Expert – Almost everyone that holds a MeetUp sets it up as a social meeting organized around a topic. Don’t do it like everyone else. Set yourself up as the leader and the expert. Have time for networking sure, but make the majority of the event focused on you presenting your expertise.

3) You don’t have to spend a lot of $$ – The monthly fee to be listed on MeetUp.com is only $7. And you don’t have to spend any money on a place to meet. Find a nice grocery store, library, or cafe with a meeting room, who will supply the room in exchange for your members spending money in their store.

4) Have a regular schedule – You want to have the meeting at the same time each month so people can both plan and look forward to the meeting. And then create a regular schedule out of the structure of the meeting. Predictability is very important in forming a strong community.

5) Make it known you have products & services that can help them – I made the mistake of not doing this when I first started out. People kept asking me for resources and for coaching, and I didn’t have any! Finally I wised up, created some, and I was stunned by the number of “ready make customers” who scooped them up.

6) Get testimonials – So many people are shy about getting testimonials. Don’t be! When someone says something good about you or your MeetUp, get the testimonial. Don’t think you will get it later. The best time to get a yes is right away. The best testimonials are video testimonials, so keep you Flip Video nearby and use it.

7) This is your target market testing ground – This is a great place to experiment with new ideas. It’s also a great place to ask your target market what they most want to learn, and then deliver it to them, refining and improving as you go.