Meetup for Buddhist activities

[Jikan]

I'm trying to use Meetup as a way to spread the word about our humble faith-based organization in Washington, DC. Has anyone here at Dharmawheel used Meetup at all, and if so, what are the ups and downs of it?

I figure if this thing can build a stable groups of local people with a shared interest in Labrador Retrievers or Basque cuisine or whatever, then maybe it can help build stable groups of people who want to practice Mahayana together. There are already a few active Buddhist groups on Meetup within 20 miles or so of ours...

Thoughts?

[Mr. G]

Meetup is OK, but if you're looking to "spread the word", I would recommend the following:

Well designed web site
Blog and commenting on other blogs as well as guest blogging
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube vids
Forums
PR submissions
Article submissions

Basically learn some SEO and Social Media skills

[Jikan]

Thanks for the help.

I have to say that twitter is a first-rate means of making my face hurt.

[Mr. G]

Thanks for the help.

I have to say that twitter is a first-rate means of making my face hurt.

Use tweetdeck

[Jikan]

It's still Twitter. #curmudgeon

[Mr. G]

Hehe, true

[Jikan]

It's true I'm a grumpy curmudgeon lacking in 1337 skillz and patience. There's nothing inherently wrong with Twitter, it's just me being a horse's ass.

[Jikan]

One problem so far with Meetup: zombie sanghas. Like this one:

http://www.meetup.com/Fairfax-Zen-Buddhist-Meetup-Group

Has 98 members, some of whom have signed up in the last week, but only five meetings, most recently many months ago.

It's easy to start a practice group. It's not at all easy to keep one going more than a few months. From what I've seen, the six month mark seems to be the real test of leadership for a new sangha. My point here is that a web tool can bring people together but it's no substitute for leadership, organization, and commitment.

[Jikan]

Six months on, here's what I've learned from Meetup:

*It may well be going the way of MySpace or Friendster at this point. There's just less activity than there used to be. I may be wrong and they may be able to turn it around, but I suspect the sun is setting on Meetup.

*Many of the people who find us on Meetup come once and never again. I think the system is set up to favor a kind of dilettante-ism: you try the nonduality group, the Zen group, the crystal-gazing group. I suspect that people who are looking for Buddhism specifically have other ways of finding it, such as DharmaWeb or DharmaWheel. Or google.

*So we're trying Facebook. Here's what we have so far.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Great-Ri ... 9327670043