No, I will not cross-promote your event!

There is a lot of people that see the benefit of creating events and this way promoting either their own company or their services, and as a meetup organizer, you will be approached a lot to do that. When you then tell them “no, sorry” and they don’t understand, you never really have time to explain to them. So now I created the list of reasons.

I don’t know you

If I have never met you then I am reluctant to promote your event simply because I don’t who you are. What if people don’t like the event? That will reflect back on me. If you also never have participated in any of the events that I have made, that also says a lot about you.

Is it free? Is it non-profit?

If it is not free then it will make me look like I am part of the event in some way even if you are not paying me. If it is a not non-profit event that means that somebody is making a profit on behalf of somebody and that is totally fine, but that also mean that you have money to promote the event.

I don’t like the phrase, “I think it really benefits the community”. Not really when your event cost money, then it only benefits those with money and not the community.

Are you upfront about the cost?

If you write to me about an event and I have to find out myself first after clicking the link that the event cost money, that is a bummer. That is not the transparency that I am looking for.

Have you cross-promoted something that I have made?

If you haven’t even cross-promoted a (free) event that I have made, then it makes even less sense why I should cross-promote your event for free.

Is it affordable?

How much does your event cost that you want me to promote? Is it affordable to people that do not have a lot of money? For me the whole idea about meetup is to create a community where people can meet each other without any barriers, but if it cost money and especially a lot of money that will prohibit a lot of people attending and in a way cut of people that need to attend the most!

Also..

Meetup.com sucks for cross-promoting events! It makes it looks like a whole new event where people can press “attend” even though the have to go to another site to sign up.

This can sound awful rough, but it is simply the truth. I believe it is better to be simple and easy to understand than it is trying not to step on somebody’s toes.

I believe in permission marketing and that is all about building up trust. Really good article from Seth Godin and many of my points really reflects from this way of thinking! http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/permission-mark.html

I like the community!

I am willing to do a lot of things for the community and I love to learn new people, so what I am really trying to say is, reach out and create a connection and be honest and transparent in your intentions :) That is what I am trying to live up to every day!