{"id":2845,"date":"2020-07-28T20:03:53","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T00:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/?p=2845"},"modified":"2021-06-23T17:50:29","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T21:50:29","slug":"finding-community-in-a-pandemic-a-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/finding-community-in-a-pandemic-a-success-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Community in a Pandemic, a Success Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A first-time Meetup organizer shares his journey of building his first community and his business network during a pandemic. Travis Lee (organizer of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/DMV-Homeowners-Community\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DMV Homeowners Community<\/a>) shares what it takes to become an organizer, best practices on hosting a successful first event, and advice for other first-time organizers hosting online and developing their business networking skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Recording: Finding Community in a Pandemic, a Success Story\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b3Sp_UWC5Rc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Main Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Travis on his first event: <ul><li>My first event was incredible. It was an intimate setting where I was able to converse and get a pulse on the local market. It was a candid honest discussion and I received some really great feedback. Even after that one event, I\u2019ve had several people reach out to talk more and I had more people join the group.<br><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Tips from Travis before you start a new group:<ul><li>Conduct research to learn more about your area of interest.<\/li><li>Create a strategy.<\/li><li>Market your group through <a aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/engage-members-where-they-are-online\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">other social platforms<\/a>.<\/li><li>Think about member outreach (send a survey to get to know your members).<br><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Tips for first-time online event hosts:<ul><li>Get to know your audience and do some prep work before the event.<\/li><li>Make a checklist to help you stay organized.<\/li><li>Enlist the help of others and assign tasks.<\/li><li>Have a dry run prior to the actual event.<ul><li>Check sound quality and technology<\/li><li>Test the content&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Be prepared 20 minutes prior to the event.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Top Q&amp;A Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>What\u2019s the advantage of using the Meetup platform?<ul><li>You get to create the tribe and narrative. In business, there\u2019s always disruptors trying to take your clientele, and it\u2019s not a bad thing. On Meetup, I get to create a space. I can become the brand of choice. Marketing is usually just a one-way conversation but when you create a platform and you\u2019re in conversation with your members, you can become what the customers want.<br>Learn how to <a aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/lp\/keep-connected\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">start a group on Meetup<\/a>.<br><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Knowing what you know, what would you do differently? Any advice for non-business groups?<ul><li>I would have started a couple of years ago and I would have joined more groups, and looked into what groups had done to be successful. If there\u2019s something you\u2019re passionate about, and if you have a group of people in real life, bring it online.<br>Get started. There\u2019s a lot of cool ideas that never materialize because people strive for perfection. I\u2019d say just go for it.\u00a0<br><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>What have been your time and and money costs?<ul><li>When it comes to time-cost, I\u2019ve gotten time back. This is because in real estate, it\u2019s usually a one-on-one conversation. Thanks to COVID, instead of one-off or one-on-one conversation, it\u2019s become a community of conversation\u2014a safe space to discuss real estate together.<br>Also, there are so many really inexpensive online ads, it\u2019s ridiculous. Thanks to technology, you can leverage it so it\u2019s not a lot of money out of pocket.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"post-excerpt\"><p>This first-time organizer shares his journey of building his first community and his business network during a pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":2873,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,44],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Finding Community in a Pandemic, a Success Story - Meetup Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/blog\/finding-community-in-a-pandemic-a-success-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Finding Community in a Pandemic, a Success Story - 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