Re: [UG-ADMINS] Promoting your PUG

I am admittedly bad at this (or maybe "lazy" is the right word).  I use
meetup.com and send out emails to my co-workers (meetings are held here at
the office).  I don't have a separate Twitter account for Lake / Kenosha
PHP, but I tweet from my personal account (when I remember to).

-Patrick


On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 12:26 PM, Ben Ramsey <[email protected]> wrote:

> I have to second what Keith said about Meetup.
>
> When I was with Atlanta PHP, we were originally on Meetup.com, and when
> they started charging, we dropped our account. In the year that followed,
> we noticed that people couldn't find us because they were looking
> exclusively on Meetup.com for PHP user groups, and on at least one
> occurrence, someone else created another local PHP user group because they
> didn't know ours existed.
>
> To be honest, this boggles my mind, but Meetup.com is definitely where a
> lot of people are looking for your group, so it benefits you to have your
> group promoted there.
>
> -Ben
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 9:27 AM, D Keith Casey Jr
> <[email protected]>wrote:
>
> >
> > Use Meetup.
> >
> > I know it costs money ($72/6 months?) but I am *amazed* on how many
> people
> > check there first and exclusively for groups. Even after promoting the
> crap
> > out of DC PHP for years, it never grow as fast until Sandy Smith put it
> on
> > Meetup.
> >
> > Three months ago in Austin we launched the AustinAPI group and went from
> 3
> > (founders) to 132 right now. Yes, we use Twitter extensively and each of
> us
> > are relatively known in the space, but none of us know at least half of
> the
> > people.
> >
> > If it's *really* just a matter of cost, drop me a message offlist as we
> > (Twilio) can probably sponsor.
> >
> > keith
> >
> >
> > On 6/27/13 9:13 AM, James Titcumb wrote:
> >
> >> PHP Hampshire, still early in it's life, we use Twitter extensively to
> try
> >> to connect with developers in the area. We use Eventbrite to organise
> our
> >> events, so I'm slowly building up a list of "previous attendees" that we
> >> can market to, as well as our Google Group account.
> >>
> >> Twitter is working really well for us, and as Joe rightly mentioned you
> >> get
> >> out what you put in.
> >>
> >> I think the best way to promote is just to put yourself (or, rather, the
> >> group) out there and wave it as much as possible in people's faces.
> >>
> >> Giving away free stuff is always helpful if you can afford it, I think.
> >> (e.g. ask companies for giveaway material, or pizza/beer type thing).
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 27 June 2013 15:05, Joe Ferguson <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>
> >>  For MemphisPHP:
> >>>
> >>> 1) Meetup.com has been GREAT for us. I also use Twitter (admittedly not
> >>> as
> >>> much as I should). Hootsuite is a great way to que up a month of tweets
> >>> promoting your group. I use it for other things at the moment, I just
> >>> need
> >>> to add MemphisPHP to the rotation. I also have made friends with a lot
> of
> >>> the other User Group leaders in town and we regularly have "super" user
> >>> group meetings were we all meet at the same time and do lightning
> talks.
> >>> It's a great way to get your city's developers together for talks and
> >>> networking. In Memphis, most of the User groups have started using a
> >>> shared
> >>> meetup.com account. This lets us all advertise to all the user groups
> >>> for
> >>> a
> >>> broader reach. MemphisPHP is going to start using it very soon so I'm
> >>> expecting good things for our future. Contacting nearby groups/speakers
> >>> has
> >>> helped us out for ideas for topics / presentations. We also have a
> local
> >>> user group leader's email list so we can easily call for help /
> speakers
> >>> /
> >>> ideas with other local UG leaders. All of the user groups use a common
> >>> hash
> >>> tag on twitter (#memtech) for helping get our message out to the local
> >>> tech
> >>> community.
> >>>
> >>> 2) Social Media has worked great for us, but you get out of it what you
> >>> put
> >>> in. There are tools out there to help. Also connecting with other user
> >>> group leaders has helped with the sharing of ideas and in some cases,
> >>> talks
> >>> / presentations.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 8:26 AM, Cal Evans <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>  Hi all!
> >>>>
> >>>> Ok, so let's talk promoting PUGs.
> >>>>
> >>>> 1: What have you done to promote your PUG?
> >>>> Social Media?
> >>>> Visiting Other Groups?
> >>>> Contacting Schools/Universities?
> >>>>
> >>>> 2: What one thing worked best for you?
> >>>> Why do you think it worked so well?
> >>>>
> >>>> Cheers!
> >>>> =C=
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> *Read this book* before you hire a
> >>>> developer to build your website.
> >>>> *Avoiding a Goat Rodeo* <http://avoidingagoatrodeo.com**>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> - Joe Ferguson
> >>> http://www.midsouthmakers.org
> >>> http://www.memphisphp.org
> >>>
> >>> <https://www.google.com/voice?**pli=1#phones<
> https://www.google.com/voice?pli=1#phones>
> >>> >
> >>>
> >>>
> >
> > --
> > Usergroup Coordination Mailing List (http://ug.php.net)
> > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
> >
> >
>