The Official Meetup HQ Blog

New and improved email settings management

by Nate

Managing your Meetup email just got a lot easier.

We are excited to announce a new, streamlined Email Settings page for managing your Meetup email and communications options.

You're now able to opt in and out of different sorts of emails for each of your Meetup Groups from one Email settings page, instead of hopping to each Meetup Group individually:

You can manage other Meetup email (like new Meetup Group announcements and who may contact you through Meetup) on this page as well. We've simplified some of the language to make the settings easier to understand, too. Check it out here.

Nate is a Product Manager at Meetup.

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Update: Suggested Meetups on your Member Calendar

by Zeve

We just made it even easier to discover new Meetups. The Member Calendar on your home page now features Suggested Meetups based upon your interests and location:


Suggested Meetups are public events and will appear alongside Meetups from your current Group memberships. They are listed as 'Suggested' so you can easily gauge whether you can attend. Click 'RSVP' to be directed to the Suggested Meetup's details, where you can RSVP and join the Group in one simple step. To enable or disable suggestions, simply toggle the switch at the top of your calendar to 'on' or 'off'.

There are so many fantastic things happening in your neighborhood! The perfect Meetup for you might already be suggested on your calendar. Find out over here.

Zeve is a Product manager at Meetup.
He is hopeful for some friendly new greetings on his profile.

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Introducing the New Group Member Profile

by Zeve

Today I'm happy to introduce some changes to the group member profile.

As you know, each Meetup member has a profile within a group's context. We've made some improvements:


Who is this person?
The layout of the profile has been cleaned up to give a clearer picture of who a member is in the Meetup Group and on the Meetup platform. Custom titles and roles are now featured prominently at the top of the profile, along with the link to send the member an email. If a member choses to make the information available, the list of other Meetup Groups that member is in will now appear directly below his or her profile photo. This gives people viewing a member's profile an opportunity to discover activities and interests they might share with that member.  

Improved photos experience
Tagged and uploaded photos now show up directly on the member's profile, instead of being hidden behind a separate tab. Clicking on a photo opens a light box for easier browsing. 

Streamlined greetings 
Greetings are now featured directly below a member's profile questions, instead of being hidden on a separate page. When you write a new greetings for a member the profile page updates automatically, with no page refreshes required. 

Simpler admin tools for Organizers
Organizers will now see an 'Admin tools' drop down on their member's profiles, with the ability to manage a members roles, remove that member from the group, and remove that member from the mailing list. Attendance stats are still at the bottom of the profile, but not include a link to view the member's RSVP details as well.

We hope you'll love the updated profile as much as we do! And of course, we are always excited to hear your feedback regarding changes to Meetup.

Zeve, a Product manager at Meetup, is hopeful for some friendly new greetings on his profile.

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All Meetup Groups now have the new look!

by Matt

I'm pleased to announce that today we've wrapped up a long and extensive process of evolving Meetup Group home pages and event pages to better reflect the vibrancy of Meetup Groups and their Meetups.

This all started back in the winter with feedback and research from the Meetup community. In June, we unveiled a new look for Meetup Group home pages and invited Organizers and members to try it out and send us their feedback.

Over the past three months, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Organizers and members sent in tons of feedback, and we made further updates to the new look based on what we saw and heard.

We also monitored how the changes impacted the Meetup community. In August, we were happy to report that Meetups with the new home page layout were attracting more members than Meetup Groups that had not made the switch.

As of today, all Meetup Groups are now on the new layout.

Building a community from scratch is hard and sometimes thankless work. As a Meetup Organizer, I know that it is also incredibly rewarding. We are a small team here at Meetup HQ and we are inspired by the thousands of Meetups happening every month.

We invite you to keep providing feedback on how we can help make your Meetups even more successful and we will continue to do everything in our power to make them better and more rewarding. If you have feedback on these changes that you would like to share, you will find a contact form on your Meetup Group home page for the upcoming week where you can easily reach us. You can also find us through the Community Team's Help and Resources section or on Meetup's UserVoice.

P.S. A full timeline of this process is available here, and you can check out the full list of updates that have been introduced.

Matt leads the Product team at Meetup.

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New feature: Learn more about Meetup attendees

by Matt

Now, when you're looking at an upcoming or past Meetup, you can easily learn more about the attendees!

From any upcoming or past Meetup page, simply hover over any member in the attendee list. A box will appear with information about that particular member, pulled from that member's profile in the Meetup Group. To learn more, you can always click the member's name or photo to visit his or her full member profile page.

Matt is a Product Manager at Meetup.

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New feature: Updates to Meetup announcements

by Nate

We've made some changes to how Organizers are able to announce newly created Meetups to their Meetup Group's members.

First, you'll notice that once you schedule a new Meetup, you are shown a dialog box. This dialog box allows you to easily send your Meetup Group members an email to notify them of the new Meetup. Organizers can include a custom message in the email. Here's how it looks:


If you don't want to announce the new Meetup right away, you can come back to it later. The 'Announce Meetup' button will stay on the page with the Meetup's details until the Meetup is announced. Here's how the prompt to announce a Meetup looks:

We've also updated the email template for the announcement email itself.

Now, Meetup announcements from Organizers will have the same look as many of the other emails we send out. Here's an example of an announcement email, complete with a custom message from the Meetup's Organizer:

Nate is a Product Manager at Meetup.

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New feature: Invite your friends to Meetups

by Tegan

Now when you RSVP Yes for a Meetup, you can quickly search for and invite individual Facebook friends to join you at the Meetup!

Going to a Meetup alone for the first time can be intimidating. And even if you've been to dozens of Meetups, you probably know someone who might enjoy attending a Meetup with you.

Here's how it works:

Once you've RSVPed for a Meetup, you'll see a confirmation page. Towards the bottom, you'll see the option to invite friends from Facebook to join you at the Meetup:

Once you've connected your Facebook account with your Meetup account, the confirmation page will pop up a random selection of your Facebook friends.

Beneath each friend, there's a button to 'Invite' that friend to join you at the Meetup. You can scroll through all of your friends by clicking 'More friends' in the bottom right:

Or, you can search for a specific friend by typing his or her name in the search box:


Clicking 'Invite' beneath your friend's photo posts an invitation to your friend's Facebook wall. For public Meetup Groups, the wall post looks like this:


The post lists the Meetup Group and the specific Meetup's details, and links your friend to the page with that specific event's details.

If you invite a friend to a Meetup in a private Meetup Group, the wall post looks pretty similar, but doesn't include specific details about the event. Instead, wall posts created by inviting your friends to a private Meetup Group link to the Meetup Group's home page, and includes a bit of that Meetup Group's public description.

Enjoy!

Tegan is on Meetup's Community team.

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A new design for Meetup event pages

by Matt

Starting today, we'll be rolling out a new version of Meetup event pages for groups. The new version includes a cleaner, map-free layout and simpler RSVPing. We also reorganized the tools so it's easier to find frequently-used editing options. 

Here's what Organizers will notice:

1. Reorganized tools - The most common actions are now just one click away, which should make it easier to Edit, Cancel, Feature, Export and Share Meetups. Above the list of attendees you'll find RSVP-related options in the 'Tools' dropdown menu, along with a button to 'Email Attendees'.

2. Basic information more prominent - The date, location and description of the Meetup are now front and center, and all three can still be updated right from the page. Organizer-only options like waiting lists and event fees can be edited by clicking 'Edit' at the top of the page.

3.  Streamlined description editor - The Meetup description editor now includes a more prominent 'Add image' option. You can upload photos from your computer or select any image from the group's photo albums. Additional options for editing the Meetup description are still available by clicking 'Edit'.

Here's what members and potential members will notice:

4. Easier RSVPing - The RSVP box is easier to locate on the top right corner of the page. Members can RSVP by answering 'Yes' or 'No' to the question "Will you attend?" and clicking the RSVP button.

5. Days left and Spots left - Similar to the new Meetup group home page, days left and spots left are displayed next to the RSVP button.

Everyone will see the new event page layout for all of their Meetups starting today.

Thanks!

Matt is a Product Manager at Meetup.

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New feature: Updates to Sponsors and Perks

by Mark

Now it is easier for members to distinguish between a Meetup's Sponsors and Perks!
 
On your Meetup's home page, a new section titled 'Membership Perks' will display up to three randomly selected Perks and direct offers from Sponsors.

Sponsorships from Meetup and Sponsors uploaded by Organizers will continue to be shown in the 'Our Sponsors' section.

On your Meetup's 'Sponsors' page, Sponsorships and Membership Perks are also separated into two sections.

For more information about Perks and Sponsors, check out our Help and resources section here.

 
Mark is a Product Manager at Meetup.

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New look for Meetup Groups (Updated 9/7/2011)

by Andres

Over the next few weeks we will roll out a new look for Meetup Group home pages. The new look is intended to better reflect the vibrancy of Meetup Groups, and holistically address some key issues raised by the Meetup community.

The maps are gone. Customizable headlines are back. Recent activity and photos are more prominent while keeping Meetups front and center. We’ve created a quick video tour that gives a run down on what’s new:



(If you want to check out a full list of the updates, click here)

We’ll be asking Organizers over the next few weeks to opt in, give the updated look a try, and send us feedback on how it affects your Meetups. We’ll monitor the new look’s impact and make revisions based on what we see and hear. The plan is to have every Meetup Group on the updated layout this summer.

We realize the changes we made a few months back created a lot of stress and frustration for Meetup Organizers and members, and we’re sorry about that. Every change we make to the Meetup platform is aimed at fostering robust local community. Sometimes we nail it. Sometimes, we miss the mark, but we are committed to doing everything in our power to help Organizers and Meetups succeed.

Organizers and members work tirelessly to make Meetups happen. We’re proud that we’ve helped spark millions of Meetups so far, and look forward to working with our community to spark millions more. 

Special thanks to everyone who provided feedback through UserVoice, online and in usability testing. We could not have done this without you.

Up next: a new layout for Meetup event details pages. Stay tuned for that. We’ll roll it out when the transition to the new Meetup Group home layout is finished.

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UPDATE 6/14/2011 - Over the last few weeks we've received an overwhelmingly positive response regarding the new look. We've made a few additional modifications based on the the feedback we've received. The full list of updates here includes all of the latest changes.

As of today, we will make the new look available for all Organizers. Please give it a try and let us know how it impacts your Meetup Group. Thanks again to everyone who has provided feedback and insight!

Next up: updates to the layout for event details pages. Keep an eye out for those changes in the coming weeks.

 

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UPDATE 8/8/2011 - We've made a few additional changes to the layout in the last few weeks: our latest enhancements include an expanded calendar view and improvements to the feed so you can see more information at a glance. We’ve also upgraded the photo logic to showcase even more recent images.

We've had some time to measure how the recent changes have impacted Meetup Groups across the Meetup platform: Meetup Groups with the new look are attracting even more new members than Groups who haven’t made the switch. Due to the success of the trial, we will be switching all Meetup Groups to the new look on August 30th September 7th. (See below.)

To everyone who contributed ideas and input throughout this process: thank you! We couldn't be more pleased with the feedback and response from the Meetup community.

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UPDATE 8/24/2011 - We're down to the wire!

If you're an Organizer but you haven't tried the new look yet, you've got two weeks to take it for a test drive before it goes into effect for all Meetup Groups. Just head to your Meetup Group home page and click the 'Try it out' button.

We've revised the timeline slightly: on Wednesday, September 7th, all Meetup Groups will be switched to the new three-column layout automatically.

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UPDATE 9/7/2011

We're live! The new look is now in effect for all Meetup Groups. Get details here.

-Andres

Andres is Meetup's VP of Strategy & Community.

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