Since my business is community and collaboration-based, I found these sites very fun to research.
I first joined a few groups on LinkedIn: Conscious Parenting, Mindful Parenting, and San Diego 411. I'm interested to see how they play out and what messages come up on each group. I'll check back later this week.
I also searched for some groups on MeetUp. I used to go to MeetUps in NYC when I had just moved there and was looking for friends. I did meet some nice people, though I also encountered a lot of odd men who just came to the MeetUps to meet women. So with MeetUp now, I would definitely be very selective in which groups I posted on or events I attended. I joined MomsNightOut so far. I didn't see too many parenting groups in there, so that could certainly be a good opportunity for me to create a couple MeetUp events for North County parents! In the same vein, I could try posting things on Eventbrite, since I often use that to find local events.
I don't think Google Maps would work for me right now since I don't have a physical location and wouldn't want to use my home address. Google My Business, however, could be quite useful! And finally, I think Yelp could be useful for me once I get a little more content. I agree it helps people see you as more trustworthy and legit!
As for online collaboration tools, I don't need any of those yet for my business because I'm just a one-woman show! But it was crazy to see how many options there are! I was familiar with Slack, monday.com, Microsoft Teams, and Google Docs but not the others. It's great to see all the offerings if I ever do add some employees, especially since most are remote-based, which would likely be the case for my business.
It's so cool to see that you've actually used MeetUp before! I didn't know it could be used just to find friends, but I might have to try that because I'm not really sure how to make friends outside of work. The creepy men aspect is a little off-putting, but maybe you're right in just being really selective about which groups to join. I saw that you'd be interested in joining Yelp, and I was wondering how that would work for an entertainment based business? I guess I just thought that Yelp was designed for businesses with physical locations, but if they're for everything I think it would be a great idea to join!
ReplyDeleteI think it'd be a great idea to use MeetUp! just be very careful because there are some people out there with bad intentions but that goes without saying. I also think it's a great idea to keep looking further into LinkedIn!
ReplyDeleteHey Megan! I chose to check out your blog because both of our businesses are surrounding childcare. I've never used MeetUp and I appreciate you sharing your cautionary tale. I would love to collaborate with you and make a meeting space for parents to swap tips and tricks and talk about child nutrition. I also don't have a business location but I thought Google would be valuable for sharing business information.
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