Alliance Blog
We've got a lot of exciting changes happening in the coming months!
MeetupAlliance.com is going to be fully integrating with Meetup.com in order to make everything work more smoothly and quickly, offer more features, and open up Alliance to many more people. We're hard at work on the first stage of this now.
What are some of the advantages for people in Alliances?
- You will be able to use the same email address and password for Meetup.com and MeetupAlliance.com. Logging into one will automatically log you into the other.
- You will be able to join as many groups as you like to an Alliance. (You are currently limited to one per person.)
- When you join a Meetup Group to an Alliance, you won't have to type all the information in, but rather just choose the group from a list of your groups - Alliance will already know all about it.
- We will also automatically use your group photo and group description from your Meetup Group. (Which means, unfortunately, if you typed something different for your group description for Alliance, this might get cleared out.)
- Your account information will now live on the Meetup.com site, all in one place.
- Because everyone will have a Meetup profile, you will be able to contact Alliance Organizers and members, just like on Meetup. (Including all privacy options.)
We also heard from you that you want an easy way to invite Meetup Groups to your Alliance. This is the most common request we've received, and the Meetup.com integration will allow us to build this invitation tool soon.
Please note that these changes will not affect the ability to add non-Meetup groups to Alliances, which you will always be able to do.
The first stage of this transition will be launching in the coming weeks. Please share your thoughts or questions below and let us know what you think!
- Jesse
Hi everyone,
We're pleased to announce the launch of two new features that you've been requesting!
1) Event Calendar Gadget
The Event Calendar gadget shows all the events going on in the groups in your Alliance. However, the calendar is currently only able to show information from Meetup Groups. To add the calendar to your Alliance, click "Add Gadgets to this Page" and choose Event Calendar from the list. You can choose to view it as a visual calendar or in list format.
2) Announcement Capability
Alliance Organizers can now send messages to ALL the members of their Alliance. Currently, starting a discussion thread only emails members who have opted to receive discussions via email. Announcements, on the other hand, will send an e-mail to everyone. Sending an Announcment also simultaneously creates a discussion post, marked with "Announcement." To send an announcement, click "Email Members" in the left navigation.
Note: As with everything on Meetup Alliance, e-mails do NOT get sent to individual members of the groups, unless they have joined the Alliance independently.
We look forward to seeing everyone use these new tools and anxiously await your feedback.
Thanks,
Jesse
Meetup Alliance
We're pleased to announce the launch of two new features that you've been requesting!
1) Event Calendar Gadget
The Event Calendar gadget shows all the events going on in the groups in your Alliance. However, the calendar is currently only able to show information from Meetup Groups. To add the calendar to your Alliance, click "Add Gadgets to this Page" and choose Event Calendar from the list. You can choose to view it as a visual calendar or in list format.
2) Announcement Capability
Alliance Organizers can now send messages to ALL the members of their Alliance. Currently, starting a discussion thread only emails members who have opted to receive discussions via email. Announcements, on the other hand, will send an e-mail to everyone. Sending an Announcment also simultaneously creates a discussion post, marked with "Announcement." To send an announcement, click "Email Members" in the left navigation.
Note: As with everything on Meetup Alliance, e-mails do NOT get sent to individual members of the groups, unless they have joined the Alliance independently.
We look forward to seeing everyone use these new tools and anxiously await your feedback.
Thanks,
Jesse
Meetup Alliance
I'm pleased to announce the launch of the newly redesigned Meetup Alliance site. Based on your feedback, it's now much easier to use and you have control over what you want to feature on your site.
Check out a 2-minute demo
6 highlights of the new Meetup Alliance
1) The core functionality is the same.
You still have a group directory, discussions, group updates, etc. It is just easier to use.
2) Your Meetup Alliance homepage now has "gadgets".
You can choose what you want to display on your Alliance and where it goes. Click on the "customize this page" and click on a gadget's title bar and drag it to where you want it to go.
3) Embed parts of your Alliance on other sites.
Any gadget in your alliance can be embedded into other websites (just like a YouTube video).
4) Add photos and feeds from other sites into your Alliance.
Feature content from blogs, group feeds, and even photos from Flickr.
5) Links to new resources pages are now featured in your navigation bar.
6) "Updates" and "Discussions" are easier to use.
Group updates and discussions are now separate. Going forward, updates will only be shown in the activity gadget.
To reach Alliance members, create a new discussion by clicking the link in the left navigation bar.
Questions? Comments? Feedback? Praise! Email me
Check out a 2-minute demo
6 highlights of the new Meetup Alliance
1) The core functionality is the same.
You still have a group directory, discussions, group updates, etc. It is just easier to use.
2) Your Meetup Alliance homepage now has "gadgets".
You can choose what you want to display on your Alliance and where it goes. Click on the "customize this page" and click on a gadget's title bar and drag it to where you want it to go.
3) Embed parts of your Alliance on other sites.
Any gadget in your alliance can be embedded into other websites (just like a YouTube video).
4) Add photos and feeds from other sites into your Alliance.
Feature content from blogs, group feeds, and even photos from Flickr.
5) Links to new resources pages are now featured in your navigation bar.
6) "Updates" and "Discussions" are easier to use.
Group updates and discussions are now separate. Going forward, updates will only be shown in the activity gadget.
To reach Alliance members, create a new discussion by clicking the link in the left navigation bar.
Questions? Comments? Feedback? Praise! Email me
Wondering how best to promote your Alliance? Many of our most successful Alliances flourished out of a blog post.
You can see examples of this with:
The Feministing Alliance and their Introduction to Alliance ,
John Birch Society and their Introduction to Alliance.
Remember, everyone has their own needs when launching an Alliance, but the thing to emphasize is that this is an opportunity for local groups to get to know and support one another.
If you post about Alliance on a blog or forum, please let us know, we're always eager to hear how our members use their Alliance.
We heard from many of you that you need to be able to invite groups easily for your Alliance to be successful. We're introducing a new feature to help you do just that.
Alliance Organizers can now invite groups using a new form. Make sure you're logged in. You'll see a link that says "Invite Groups" on your Alliance homepage, right above the Alliance Update field. Input the email addresses of the group leaders you want to invite, write a message, and send it off. The people you invite will be pre-approved to join your Alliance. You'll get a notification when they join.
We hope this helps you share your Alliance and get groups involved. Let us know what you think!
Alliance Organizers can now invite groups using a new form. Make sure you're logged in. You'll see a link that says "Invite Groups" on your Alliance homepage, right above the Alliance Update field. Input the email addresses of the group leaders you want to invite, write a message, and send it off. The people you invite will be pre-approved to join your Alliance. You'll get a notification when they join.
We hope this helps you share your Alliance and get groups involved. Let us know what you think!
We just made it easier for you to edit your Alliance preferences. Until yesterday, you had to go into your account settings to change your group information or email settings. Now, you can do that on a new page: Alliance settings. To get there, go to your Alliance's homepage. If you're logged in, you'll see a "settings" link under the Alliance name. Changing your email address or password still happens on your Account page.
We also updated the "join" form for the Alliance. This should help inspire people interested in your Alliance to get involved. Check out the changes and stay tuned for more.
We also updated the "join" form for the Alliance. This should help inspire people interested in your Alliance to get involved. Check out the changes and stay tuned for more.
We
just launched a new feature called "Discussions."
We're hoping this helps you and the other members of your Alliance communicate. You'll be able to create discussions and reply to them either on the site or through your email.
How to use it:
From now on, you'll also be able to mask your email address if you're concerned about privacy. To do that, check the "hide my email address when I write discussions" checkbox in your account settings. We recommend that you don't mask your email address so other Alliance members have the option to reply to you individually rather than reply to the entire list.
Please note: If you do not mask your email address when you write a discussion, other Alliance members will see your email address, even if you post from the site.
Talk, Share, Coordinate
Our goal is to help organizers help each other. We're excited to see what you do with this new feature. If you have any more questions about what this can
do for your Alliance, email support@meetupalliance.com.
We're hoping this helps you and the other members of your Alliance communicate. You'll be able to create discussions and reply to them either on the site or through your email.
How to use it:
You can participate in discussions through email or on the site. If you want to participate in discussions without having them clog your inbox, you can select "stop sending me discussions" in your account settings. You'll still be able to read and post discussions on the site. You can also choose to get specific discussions emailed to you by subscribing to individual threads.
Email:
Send and reply to discussions using your Alliance's email address: <alliance_URL>@meetupalliance.com
On Site:
You'll see a new tab on your Alliance's homepage, called
"Discussions." If you click that tab, you'll see all
the discussions for your Alliance.
To create a new post click the "start a discussion link" at the top of the discussion section.
Privacy
When creating a new discussion, you can choose to make it public so anyone viewing the site can see it, or private so only Alliance members can see it. Unless you're sharing sensitive information, we recommend you make your discussions public so they're easily accessible to search engines and people interested in the Alliance.From now on, you'll also be able to mask your email address if you're concerned about privacy. To do that, check the "hide my email address when I write discussions" checkbox in your account settings. We recommend that you don't mask your email address so other Alliance members have the option to reply to you individually rather than reply to the entire list.
Please note: If you do not mask your email address when you write a discussion, other Alliance members will see your email address, even if you post from the site.
Talk, Share, Coordinate
Our goal is to help organizers help each other. We're excited to see what you do with this new feature. If you have any more questions about what this can
do for your Alliance, email support@meetupalliance.com.
Welcome to the Meetup Alliance blog! My name is Karina. I'm a Research Analyst here at Meetup. I've spoken with many of you over the past couple of months and I've been following your Alliances since they launched. Wendy, our Senior Quality Assurance Engineer, and I will be using this space to tell you about new features, explain what we're working on, and share great stuff going on Alliances.
