BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

These Influencers Are Taking Their Following Offline, One Meetup At A Time

This article is more than 4 years old.

It’s no secret that offline events are trending amongst content creators. Take Twitch streamer Ninja's Fortnite Conference in Las Vegas, Podcast personality Stassi Schroeder’s live tour, and Instagram’s Amy Tangerine’s DIY 'crafternoons', for example.

As followers are looking to their favorite influencers for meaningful connections, creators are leading live events, meet and greets, and even touring across major cities.

Welcome to 2019. Influencers are now scaling authenticity in a totally new way, spearheading next-gen communities that meet up through local chapters under their personal brand.

“With 50% of our day now spent on-screen and heaps of rising influencers to choose from, followers are now responding to the content that is most authentic. Nothing is as real as belonging to an in-person community who shares your niche interests, lifestyles, or beliefs, curated by your favorite influencer” says Teri Yu, CEO of Vibely.

Meet the top influencers pioneering online to offline

1. Alyne Tamir, 1.1M subscribers Girls Gone Global founder

Otherwise known as Dear Alyne, this women empowerment influencer speaks loudly about cultural issues that women face. 

In 2018, she started the Girls Gone Global community, which now has over 300+ local chapters and 500+ meetups across the world. Most commonly, women come together to form trust circles, in which they support each other through tough times.

As Alyne describes, “When I run a pop up meet and greet, we often discuss local issues, like sexual harassment in Peru, workplace issues in Los Angeles, or moving away from home/traveling alone for women in Asia. My meetups are really rewarding to me (and exhausting!) because when you gather a group of super smart, emotionally connected women who care about issues, who care about the world, the topics often get DEEP!”

Alyne’s meetups are organic and meaningful, turning followers into real connections. It’s no wonder that Alyne’s popularity has tripled since she launched Girls Gone Global.

2) Courtland Allen, 50K downloads per podcast episode Indie Hackers founder

Influencer Courtland Allen is a veteran podcast host. His listeners are entrepreneurs who build, not fundraise.

Since 2016, Courtland has been empowering his listeners to meetup around the world.

“Indie Hackers had always been an online-only community, but one day a few members in San Francisco posted about getting together in real life. Soon, there was another meetup in New York, and an event in London as well… It didn't make sense not to create an official meetups program. Today there are multiple meetups a day in over 60 cities monthly, all over the world,” Courtland writes.

Listeners get beers, exchange ideas over coffee, or coordinate speaker sessions under the podcast’s brand. Ambassadors like Atlanta ambassador KP run local meetups. To maintain the quality of Indie Hackers meetups, Courtland highlights a code of conduct and steps in only when ambassadors request his assistance.

3. Adela Mizrachi, Podcast Brunch Club founder

Audience: Cultural and political activists 

As the host of the PBC podcast, Adela Mizrachi has started IRL chapters in 60+ cities and 6+ continents across the world.

How it works: Members listen to the podcast playlist, then gather in-person to discuss the topics of the month.

“It’s like a book club, but for our podcast episodes,” Mizrachi says. “I've seen so many connections between people that happened through Podcast Brunch Club - not simply people in the same city, but people across cities. To know that I'm making connections between people who may not have met otherwise is extremely motivating.”

How does she do it? She nominates chapter leaders to run monthly PBC meetups on her behalf.

4. Subtle Asian Traits, 1.3M member Facebook Group

Covered on New York Times, the subtle asian traits founders are a team Asian-Australian students that ignited a wildfire of asian-interest memes.

Now with the group’s success, subtle asian traits has expanded into a vibrant local chapters of 300+ and monthly meetups.

“Our members have been requesting meetups and after having a few in Australia already, we wanted to make it easier for our members to have unique meetups across the world. People play board games, get boba, and have hot pot together,” co-founder Tony Xie said.

Influence is now physical and digital

The future is bright for content creators, but not as we traditionally understand it.

“We’re moving into a world in which it’s not about how many followers you have, but how deep that engagement runs,” says Yu. “In today’s attention economy, offline engagement creates a lasting imprint that stays with someone beyond those fleeting seconds. You never forget the brands or people who made a tangible difference in your life.”

As creator platforms become saturated and follower attention is increasingly harder to sustain, everyone will be watching how content creators evolve to stay relevant. We hope it’s to make the world a better place.

Follow me on TwitterCheck out my website