Thank you for joining me; this is Sourcing Different – User Groups, where we will take an in-depth look at Meetup.com and how to source through user groups. Being an active member in your community where you source talent is critical for your profession. Corporate or agency staffing members need the exposure to get your name out. We will discuss the peer to peer networking in the next article.
Meetup.com is a powerful tool, and not many professionals use it on a daily basis. Meetup.com houses thousands of local meetups that cover anything and everything. If you have an interest in something, I am confident there is a meetup for it. The cool thing about each meetup is there are various events to tend to as well as message boards.
The message board and attendee lists are where the sourcing gets fun. You will be able to see the Members, sponsors, and discussions on each meetup. The bigger the meetup, the more success you will have.
The Members Lists – …This is the holy grail of Meetup.com. You’re able to search members, as well as sort by those who are connected via other, meetup groups you’re both members of as well as name, date joined, and last visited. Each person has a bio that tells you a little about them such as; where they work, job title, what do they do, an introduction, and even sometimes links to their social media accounts. All of this information is critical when sourcing for an elusive purple squirrel. You can connect the dots and make a lasting impression on the candidate after you did your homework. You’re able to use your handy dandy chrome extensions like Hiretual and Lusha to uncover contact information as well as message them directly via Meetups messaging center.
Sponsors – This is a great way to view who is the go to companies for local talent. Whether it is for developers, designers, project managers, or business analysts, the sponsor page will show you, who in the local market would be the key players. This can range from organizations, local staffing firms, and corporate partners. This is a good way to reverse source so that you can see what companies are involved in this meetup, because if they shell out the dollar for sponsorships, they have that talent on staff. Also a great way to make connections.
Discussions, Message Board – This is a helpful tool that allows you to see discussions on current hot topics and various meetups. This is also a way for candidates to ask questions on who is hiring as well as other various conferences and other meetups as well. The discussion board breaks down on the replies, views, and date of latest responses which allows you to filter pretty quickly to identify the right source you need.
Boolean – Yes, you can even use Boolean to find candidates. Check out this string:
site:meetup.com inurl:members “software engineer” “san francisco” “member since.”
The really nice thing about Meetup.com is that you don’t need to physically be in the area to join a local meetup. You’re able to search nationally via zip code and filter down by topics. There are some sites that will require you to allow them to access your location to be sure you’re local, however, this one does not, which is excellent!
In my next article, I will be discussing Sourcing Different – Peer to Peer Networking