I was working with SMEI Central PA to get their members to start interacting with a new SMEI Central PA affiliate meetup group I was developing on meetup.com. They had shut down our meetup group and refunded our money after 2 days of setup time and no warning or rectification period to resolve the conflict.
Found out later that their terms of service does not allow group organizers to reference other website links—in our specific case, all members must sign up to events through the main SMEI corporate sight. I told them if they would open some of their terms up to include these types of transactions, they will see a whole new level of business profit stream. They just gave me a very condescending response with no chance of working with them.
Instead of taking advantage of an opportunity to expand their software and customer base, they decided to hide behind their terms of agreement. I realize that social tool providers need to protect their property and customers, but to completely ignore an opportunity with the poor service behavior lessens a particularly good product.
Background: Meetup.com is an excellent tool that provides a space for anyone to run and manage a networking or non-profit meetup group. You can request member sign up, RSVPs for meetings, emailed event reminders, request feedback, post videos and pictures of events and more. Too bad they limit it’s use!
Welcome to an extension of my website http://www.imagineme.net. This blog was meant for you, the creative and marketing professional seeking a blog that challenges your creative side and empowers your marketing one. I’ll be posting everything creative and marketing, from what I believe to be examples of bad and good corporate branding to clip art logos, poor marketing strategies and clever creative messaging.
My colleagues will tell you that I offer brutal honesty with better solutions, so you’ll never need to guess where I’m coming from. Use this blog to vent your frustrations when poor kerning has taken place, when bad social marketing strategies go wild, or when companies make bad marketing decisions in a down economy. This is for you the Designer, Marketer, Creative Director, Agency Owner, Media Buyer, Production Artist, and anyone else interested in everything creative and marketing.
Please comment, bloviate, laugh at or laugh with everyone obsessed in what will eventually become the leading intro on the headstone of our lives—creative and marketing. Seriously though, welcome to all who will take part in future discussions on this blog. Let’s get creative!
