how-to-meet-new-people

How To Meet New People

How to meet new people?

It’s one of the biggest questions we get asked. How do you actually go about meeting people? And in particular, how do you meet new people in a city?

It’s something that you don’t really think about until you’re in the situation, whether it’s moving to a new city alone or your friends have moved away. We’ve been surrounded by people all of our lives; throughout childhood, school, college or university. Suddenly we’re grown up and see hundreds of people walking by every day, but this time we don’t actually know any of them. Meeting new people as an adult isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

It’s strange that we can be surrounded by people but feel so alone at the same time. According to a study by the British Red Cross, over nine million people in the UK report that they are always or often lonely. That’s more than the population of London.

So what can you do? You can’t just go up to someone on the street and say ‘hey, how you doing?‘ and expect them to start a friendship with you. It’s of course nice of you to ask, but you’ll need to try something different if you really want to meet new people.

How to Meet New People

We’ve seen first hand that the community for meeting people is massive. You just need to know where to look.

We’ve outlined the best ways how to meet new people and make friends in your area, as well as explaining how it works, what you should expect and why you shouldn’t be afraid to get out there and meet new people near you.

Meetup

meetup.com

Meetup is the big one. Where ever you are in the world there’s probably a Meetup group set up near you. In each location, however big or small, you’ll find an range of groups you can join from the large ‘let’s get together and have a laugh’ sort of groups right down to the smallest of niches. You can join as many of these groups as you desire, or set up your own.

Simply head over to their website or download the app to start. You’ll need to register an account if you want to make the most of Meetup. Once you’ve created your account and set your location you can check out what’s on near you. You’ll find a list of upcoming events from every type of category, from social and sports to film and dance.

Simply say that you’re attending an event and tag along on the day! Even if the event is something that you’re not quite interested in, you’ll still get the opportunity to meet new people. Everyone is there for the same reason; to meet up and have a great time. You’ll fit right in.

Meetup has a thriving community and so there’s always plenty of people willing to come along. In fact, we use Meetup to get people along to our own MovedTo social events because it works so well.

Head over to Meetup to try it for yourself.

Facebook Groups

If there’s one place you’re going to find lots of people it will be on the world’s biggest social media platform. Although Facebook can be a bit hit or miss with local groups, simply typing in the place you’ve moved to or are currently living into the search will find all the groups and pages from that area.

If there’s no specific pages or groups on Facebook for meeting new people in your area, posting on some of the larger local groups and pages to say that you’re looking to meet new people may get responses from others looking to do the same.

Local Clubs & Societies

Meeting new people is one of our top reasons to join a local club or society. You’ll get to meet people from your local area while following a passion of yours, or even trying something new.

Simply type your location along with clubs and societies into Google to find out what’s on offer near you.

How To Make New Friends

To make new friends in your area you’ll need to put in some effort beforehand. Simply trying out one of the ways of how to meet new people we’ve mentioned above will put you on the right track.

We’ve also put together our top tips to help you integrate into any social crowd:

Be confident

We completely understand that the idea of heading to an event by yourself to meet a bunch of random people can be a little daunting to say the least. But don’t worry, we’ve all been there before!

The biggest thing that we’ve found that holds people back from going to an event to meet new people is the fact that it’s scary. You don’t quite know what to expect. What are the people like? Will I get on with them? What if they don’t like me?

You can take confidence in the fact that:

  • a good proportion of the people that are going to these sort of events are going for the first time, just like you are.
  • People are going to the event because they want to meet people like you.
  • The group or community will welcome you, whoever you are and whatever your background.
  • You’ll feel much more relaxed about going to the next event if you’ve met some of the people previously.

Introduce Yourself

If you see someone standing on their own or in a small group, go up to them and say hi! Introduce yourself and ask others how long they’ve been coming to these events, why they came along and what do they think of it. It’s a great conversation starter.

Take an Interest

Once you’ve got the conversation started, find out a bit more about them. How long have they been living in the area? What do they do? What are their interests?

Friendships are built on trust, and the more you find out about someone the more you’ll begin to trust them.

Be Friendly

And smile. People are more approachable if you come across well. Be friendly with people, smile and have a laugh, and you’ll find people coming over to talk to you.

Attend Events Regularly

Making sure to attend as many events as possible will show your commitment and enthusiasm towards meeting new people. Plus, its much easier to go along to an event when you’ve met some of the people before!

Keep attending and you’ll find yourself naturally integrating into a group of people you most get along with. Your group will eventually split of from the main event group and start doing your own meet-ups outside of the main events.

How To Meet New People?

See what’s on offer near you, attend local events or join a club or society and simply be yourself. You can’t force friendships but we’re confident that following our advice will help you meet new people and make new friends.

Our Story

We moved to a new area to start our careers and didn’t know anyone. At all. We thought we couldn’t be the only ones in our position, and so we came up with the idea of MovedTo and hosted our first social event on Facebook back in 2014. We explained on the event that it was simply a way for people in the local area to meet new people, whether new to the area or not. The thought of heading to an event where you didn’t know anyone was a bit nerve-racking, but we thought we might as well give it a go.

It was a big success. There was a great turnout and everyone was really friendly. So much of a success in fact that we continued running social events to give people the opportunity to meet others from the local area, and we’ve been growing MovedTo events to other locations since.

The great thing about our own MovedTo social events and every other social event we’ve been to is that it’s been so easy to get along with people, because everyone is there for the same reason as you are; to meet new people.

We understand that meeting others isn’t the easiest thing to do for a lot of people. That’s why we’ve put together the top ways to meet new people in your area, as well as advice on how to make new friends.

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