Tuesday Tip - Last Minute Promotions & Events

Squareberry allows you to plan and schedule your event and promotions far in advance. This helps make your life easier. You are not scrambling to post social messages or updating your calendar late at night. Your schedule can be ready to go ahead of time.

But, things happen. Sometimes you need to run an event/promotion at the last minute. You may need to drive more traffic after having a slow couple days or you may need to react to a situation in your community. Whatever the reason, you will most likely need to run a last minute event or promotion at some point.

The Sooner the Better

"Last minute" is just an expressions. Don't actually wait to the last minute to tell people about it. The sooner you can get the word out, the better. The whole point of an event or promotion is for people to participate in it. Events without people attending them are not exactly exciting.

The sooner you can start to get the word out the better. With social media, sharing is king. You want to give as much time for things to spread as possible and as much time as possible for people to fit your happening into their schedule.

Last Minute Strategies

• Post to Social Media Right Away - As soon as you know you are going to run this last minute event or promo... POST IT. The sooner the better so get on it. Post instant message to Facebook and Twitter. Schedule some message to go out periodically over the next few hours and make sure you include details on the event/promo.


• Still Add it To Your Calendar - Just because your event is last minute does not mean it shouldn't be on your calendar. Some people don't plan their social outings in advance and you want to make sure everything happening at your organization is visibile to those checking. Additionally, it is good to fill your calendar as much as you can to show the "non-regulars" how much stuff you have going on.


• Tell People At Your Location About It - If you are a restaurant or store, people are at your location even when there is not a special event or promotion. Tell these people about what you are doing later. Tell them you are having an event tomorrow and to invite their friends. This can go a long way.

Mobile Website CMS - Info, URL Redirect & Custom Pages

Squareberry offers a mobile website management system with various page types that can be created. Each page type allows you to add a different type of page to your dynamic mobile website and easily create an enhanced experience for your mobile site visitors. This week's tip looks at 3 of the mobile CMS page types, how to use them and ideas on what to use them for.

Info/About Mobile Page Type

The Info/About page type creates a great looking page with various features and elements. It starts with a custom content area at the top, perfect for text and images. Next is a phone call button which allows you to dictate the label on the button and the phone number that will be dialed when this button is selected by a mobile device user.

Below this are social links which allow you to link to your various profiles and social media pages around the web. This is great for boosting your complete online presence. You can also select locations to show on this page so people can easily find your locations and get directions.

The Info/About page type does not need to be restricted for an "About" page. Another great use for this page type is for individual locations of businesses with multiple locations. A restaurant or retail store with multiple locations can create an About/Info page for each of their locations, complete with its own info, phone call button, social links and location map.

URL Redirect

The URL Redirect page type is very simple. All it does is send the mobile site user to a URL you specify. Other than dictating the URL, you can decide if you want the URL to open in a new page/tab or on the same page. Remember, this can link to any URL, not just a webpage. You can link to a PDF, map or file download you have hosted online.

Custom Page Type

The custom page type is a blank slate. There is no template, options or set fields. It is just a large content area that you can add your own custom content to. You can add images, text and embed objects such as videos. There is even an HTML button for advanced users who want to add their own HTML code.

In theory, you could make an entire mobile website of just custom content pages. But, this is not recommended. Take advantage of the other page types Squareberry offers to build your dynamic mobile website. Think of more alternative uses for the page types and play with the different features and settings to achieve the look you want.

Using QR Codes for Your Mobile Pages

Squareberry's Mobile Management area makes it easy to link directly to a mobile page or utilize a QR Code to send people directly to a page on your mobile website. Every page you create in the Mobile Management area has a unique URL and a unique QR code that points to that page.

Utilizing QR Codes to Boost Your Brand

At the top right corner of the edit screen for each mobile page is a button "Link & QR Code to This Page". Click on this button to get a QR Code for the page you are currently editing. You can easily download the QR Code at that time.

Calendar Pages

Calendar pages are always great to utilize. Add a QR Code to your restaurant menu, in a local publication or on a mail-out. You can quickly send people to your events/promotions page on your mobile site to help draw them in to your location. Calendar pages help you carry people from printed material to mobile-friendly site, from mobile site to real world events and promotions.

Contact Forms

Your printed advertisement, brochure or mail-out can quickly be given an easy call-to-action by utilizing a contact form. Add a QR code on your printed material that links to your contact form. This allows anyone who sees your ad or brochure to instantly contact you via contact form/email. This can help generate leads, generate sales and get registrations.

Photo Galleries

QR Codes are perfect for enhancing printed materials. Local newspapers, magazines and publications can utilize mobile photo galleries and QR Codes to take their printed items to another level.

Start by creating a photo gallery page type. Upload photos related to the article or topic you are covering in the publication. The QR code can then be placed on your printed publication next to relevant information/articles. Now, people reading your publication can easily scan the QR Code and get a touch-friendly photo gallery on their mobile device to enhance their reading experience.

Create a Photo Gallery on Your Mobile Website

How to Add a Photo Gallery Page to Your Mobile Website

Squareberry's Mobile Management area allows you to add sleek photo galleries to your mobile website. Every photo gallery is optimized for mobile devices and is touch-friendly. Users will be able to swipe between photos and more on their mobile devices.

To start, you select "Photo Gallery" on the New Page screen. You will need to provide a name for the page and a menu icon to use. After adding these things, click "Create".

After you create the page you will see a "Photo On This Page" section. Here you will add new photos to your gallery page and reorder them to your liking. Click "Add Photo" to upload a new image to add to your gallery.

Images you have uploaded will then show up in the "Photos On This Page" section.

You can drag and drop the images you have added to change the order they display in your gallery. After reordering and uploading new images, make sure you click the "Save" button to save the changes you have made.

You can always come back, edit the page and add more images. You can redorder and add new images at anytime.

Reasons to Have a Photo Gallery

Many different organizations can utilize a photo gallery on their mobile website. It is always great to have a gallery showing off your location, parking, the front of your building etc. Things like this can help people more easily find your locations and get into your business.

It is also great to utilize photo galleries to show off your past events. You should take photos at every event or special promotion you have. Put these photos on your mobile website to show off how much fun people have at your events. Featuring media from past happenings can help boost attendance at your future happenings.

Adjusting Your Social Marketing Dashboard

Changing How Your Dashboard Looks

Squareberry allows you to customize and change your dashboard to display your social/mobile statistics and feedback accordingly. Every organization focuses on different aspects of marketing. Some are Facebook heavy with little Twitter use. Some organizations love to run interactive polls while others focus more on scheduled events. Every organization is different. Squareberry's dashboard has various boxes that each show off different aspects of your marketing efforts. These boxes on your dashboard include:

• Facebook Followers
• Twitter Followers
• Social Statistics
• Facebook Demographics
• Listen&Count Polls
• Recent Twitter Followers
• Most Viewed
• Recent Sent Messages
• Social Influence Widget
• Recently Created Items

To adjust the Dashboard, click the "Adjust Dashboard" button at the top of the page. A pop-up appears allowing you to drag and drop the boxes into the order you want them to display. The left side of this pop-up is your active dashboard and the right side shows available boxes you are not currently using.

 

PDF Dashboard Report

Squareberry's Dashboard also allows you to export the Dashboard as a PDF Report. The PDF Report exports a set of boxes showing off a nice summary of your marketing stats. Simply click the "PDF Report" button at the top of the Dashboard page to export the Dashboard report.

 

'Email Send' Mobile Page Type

Squareberry's Mobile management area offers a variety of page types to make building a mobile website easy and effective. The newest page type is called "Email Send" and it can be quite useful for many different organizations.

What it Does

The 'Email Send' page will do just that. It will send an email. It is essentially the same as creating a "mailto:" link in HTML. When an end user clicks this page on the menu it will call the default email program on their mobile device. The email subject and message you dictate will show up in their pre-composed message. This can be quite useful for getting people to share your site or information about organization.

Build Your 'Email Send' Page

First, create a new page in the mobile management area. Give your page a name and select 'Email Send' as the page type.

Next, select an icon for your page. In this example we have selected a heart since it is all about showing how much you love Maile's by sharing it with friends.

Then, it is time for the main content. You need to provide an email subject and the email body content. The subject would be something catchy that the end recipient will want to open and read. The person sharing your email will more than likely not change anything in the subject or message. They are more likely to add to it then alter it.

Save your page and you are ready to go.

The Result

Now, when someone selects this page on your mobile site, it will generate an email using the default mail app on their phone.

Search Twitter Keywords, Generate Leads, Start Conversations

In the Social Conversation Area of Squareberry, there are three main sections: Search, Social Feeds and Inbox. The Search section allows you to monitor keywords on Twitter. Any keywords you add will be on the left tabs and feed in public tweets using those keywords.

Search Tips

1. Use quotation marks to search for phrases. When you are inputting a search term, you can add quotation marks to search for the whole phrase. If you search for multiple words without quotation marks, your results will include Tweets with those keywords, though the words may be separate in the tweet.

2. Add Local Terms. Use your city name, neighborhoods, or local phrases to help bring in Tweets from people talking about your specific area. There are so many Tweeters out there, you want to do the best you can to bring in the best possible leads.

Reply to New Leads

Social conversation goes both ways. Not only will you monitor what is being said, but you can easily join the conversation. Hit "Reply" next to any of the Tweets in your search and you can instantly reply to that person. Recommend your business, answer their questions or even ask for feedback.

Think of these Tweeters as leads. Everyone out there Tweeting is a potential customer or new follower. The more you engage and be part of the conversation, the more traction your can gain, people you can influence and business you can generate.

Use the Active Category Feature on Your Calendars

This feature can be found in the Calendar & Widgets Area and can be applied to any of your custom Event Views.

What is the Active Category Feature?

This feature allows you to specify which categories will be active by default when someone loads your calendar. Meaning, you could have a calendar with 5 categories on it, but only one category is showing when the calendar loads. The other 4 categories can then be checked by the viewer and activated.

When to Use It

This feature is great for organizations that want to cross promote happenings. For instance, a restaurant company with multiple restaurants may want to cross promote things happening at their restaurants. On the website calendar for "Bob's Burgers" there could be a category for "Stacy's Stir-Fry" which is not active by default. A user could see it and activate it to see those events also, but they are distracted by these events for another restaurant at the start.

Using this feature allows you to focus viewers on certain information to start while still presenting them with the option to get more information regarding other things (other categories).

Step by Step

• Go to the Calendars & Widgets Area
• Create a new Event View
• Select Categories you want to include in that Event View (all the categories you want to be on that view)
• At the bottom you will see "Specify Active Categories" - check this to activate it and then select the categories you want to be activated by default
• The categories you specify here will be checked and active when a viewer loads the calendar

The Active Categories feature was based on user feedback and suggestions. We appreciate all the feedback we get and encourage users to take part in our Support and Tips Forum.

Encourage Sharing of Events & Promotions

Word of mouth has always existed. When people have a good (or bad) experience, they want to talk about it. They want to share. Social Media was built for this kind of interaction and promotion. It was built for people to tell others about things they like, things they are doing, and things they want to do.

 

1. Send messages encouraging people to retweet or share your page with their friends. You could write a message like “Tell your friends about our events and promotions!” or “Everything is better with a friend! Tell them about our upcoming events.”

2. Encourage sharing and viral activity within your events. Every event you make in Squareberry features social sharing buttons to send across Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and email. You need to encourage people to utilize these buttons. “Hey! Share this event with friend on Facebook to make it even better!”

3. Run promotions that get followers to bring more people. When running a special promotion, it is always good to make the promotion include more meals/people. For instance, instead of a promotions giving 10% off a yogurt, run a promotion for “15% off when you buy two yogurts. Bring a friend!” You can encourage social interaction by running promotions that involve more than one person. 

Squareberry is all about driving people to your real world location for your happenings. Encouraging social sharing and promotions which encourage multiple visitors can help increase the number of people coming to your location, participating in promotions and experiencing you events.

Get Feedback by Asking Questions

Get Feedback

...and feedback is a good thing!

Social Media and other aspects of the web have given organizations a great opportunity for getting feedback, responses and more information from their customers than ever before. Organizations should take advantage of this to gain insight and optimize the way they do business, plan events, communicate and more.

Why is feedback so great? Well, it helps you modify and perfect the way you are doing things. It is important to constantly adjust your methods to fine tune them and create the ideal experience for your customers/visitors/etc. Questions can also help promote further conversation and discussion.

Ask Questions on Social Media

Social Media is the perfect outlet for getting feedback. You could post a simple question on Twitter or Facebook. Your question is seen by the people following you, who can respond instantly. Before social media, gaining feedback so instantaneously was uncommon or difficult.

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Respond to Comments/Mentions with Questions

You can instigate further conversation by asking questions to people who have already commented or mentioned you on social media. For instance, someone may mention you on Twitter, saying that they are at your restaurant. Responding with a question like "Have you tried the Salmon?" does two things: it recommends something to your guest and it carries the conversation on, encouraging them to respond further and keep the conversation going.

Squareberry Tally Feature

Squareberry allows you to place a single question on every event you make. Each question comes with 3 buttons allowing viewers to answer "Yes", "No" or "Maybe". This feature allows you to get quick feedback from your viewers while adding an interactive element to your event page.

Calendar Widgets With Just One Category

Custom Event Views

In Squareberry, you have the ability to create customized "Views". A view is essentially a group of categories in your account. They can be categories you have made or even categories you have snagged from other accounts. You can also select whether or not to show events and/or promotions on each View you make.

Once you create a customized view, you can then embed this view as any of the calendars or widgets in the app. You can embed that view as a Month Calendar or Vertical Slider Widget.

Single Category Views

An excellent strategy is to create a calendar view with just a single category. This is simply an Event View with only one category in it. This can be used for a variety of things.

If you are a Sports Bar and Restaurant, you could use single category views for a few different things. Snag the category of your local sports team. You can then turn around and create a view with just that team's schedule. On your website you can add a simple list widget on your sidebar showing upcoming games for this team.

You can also make a category called "Special Deals" and create an Event View with just this category. Then, embed a Slider Widget of this View on your home page. Now your Home Page is displaying every promotion and event you tag as "Special Deals" on an eye-catching and interactive slider. Your website will have fresh, relevant content to help drive traffic to your restaurant.

"Featured"

A common method for this is to have a category called "Featured". You can then create a view with just the "Featured" category and display it as a widget or calendar on your website.

Remember that events and promotions can be tagged in more than one category. So, your promotion may fall under "Drink Specials" but it could also be tagged as "Featured" so that it will be sent to display at any View which has the "Drink Specials" or "Featured" category in it.

Tuesday Tip - Mobile Restaurant Menus and Store Catalogs

Yes, On Mobile

The Mobile Web can be just as feature rich and informative as desktop websites. More and more people are browsing on mobile devices and using their phone as a primary resource for information and search.

Restaurant Menus

Most people searching for a restaurant website online are concerned with a few factors: hours, location, prices and food. (What else do you need to know?) Your mobile site needs to offer all of this information and in a sleek, easy-to-use fashion. You may not need to include every single menu item (though there is nothing stopping you). But, people want to know how much things generally cost and what you offer. Be sure to show the range of your offerings to get interest from as many people as possible.

Catalogs

Some people may never see your full website. If they find you on their mobile device - that may be it. That could be your only chance to catch their attention or sell to them. Why not have your catalog or featured catalog items right on your mobile site?

For example, if you own a stationary store, you will want to show off the products you offer. Including a catalog of your products on your mobile site is the best way to show off what you have and why someone should visit your location to make a purchase.

Catalog/Menu Page Type

The Mobile Management Area features a Catalog/Menu page type ideal for building categorized item lists. Add items with details, photos etc. Show off your menu, provide a catalog of items or even build a staff directory page.

Contact

Also, do not forget about the Phone call buttons. Most mobile users are on phones and including buttons such as "Order Now" or "Call Us" can help encourage people to call your restaurant right then and there. Of course, be sure that someone is there to answer the phone and take the order.

Events and Promotions on your Website Home Page

A website's home page is the ideal location to show off real world events and promotions. In many cases, web surfers only see the home page. If your goal is to drive them to your real world location or drive participation in an event or promotion, the Home Page needs to be part of your strategy.

Home Page Widgets - What's Happening!

Home page widgets are the ideal way to communicate your real world happenings on your website. Rather than plopping a traditional calendar or static graphic, these widgets will auto-update to show off your upcoming events and promotions. You can select specific categories when creating your views, to limit your widgets to just those selected categories.

With auto-refreshing widgets, you never have to worry about making sure your website homepage is up to date. You know you are always showing off your upcoming events and promotions and driving people into your real world location. Special Events and Coupons are the perfect way to get more people to your location.

Easily Add a Calendar Widget to Your Home Page

Adding these widgets is very easy. With Squareberry, you are given simple embed codes for every type of widget. These can easily be added to any website. It is as easy as adding a YouTube video. You can create customized views with certain categories, allowing you to show off just the events and promotion you want with any widget or calendar.

The Slider Widget gives any website motion and solid content. Events and Promotions slide by, creating an eye-catching display of your happenings. The List Widget lists your upcoming happenings and auto-refreshes to show off your next X number of events or promotions.

Tuesday Tip - Add Notes To Locations

Many locations are not as simple as an address. Maybe you are on the second floor or to the right of the elevators. Adding helpful notes to your location(s) is a great way to help people get to where your events and promotions are being held.

Your Location May Be More Complicated Than You Think

Many locations are not big buildings with huge signs on busy intersections that everyone knows about. Often times your location is more complicated. You may be in a crowded shopping center or around the corner. It is important to provide useful help and tips for people who have never been there before.

You location notes do not have to be about directions. They can also be helpful tips to make a customer's experience better. For instance, your building may have a small parking lot in the front, and plenty of parking in the back. Letting people know about the parking lot behind the building (which usually has more spaces) is a great tip to add to your location notes. It lets a first time visitor feel comfortable and more willing to come to your location.

Ask a First Time Visitor

A great way to find out anything bad or difficult about your location is to ask someone who is visiting for the first time. Getting this kind of feedback can be very helpful in determining what you need to let people know about. In many cases, you may learn something you never knew about your place. It may be difficult to see from the road, or the sign is only visible from one direction. There are a variety of situations that you would never think of on your own, since you go there all the time and are so familiar with it.

Getting to Your Location is What It is All About

Your location is what it is all about. Those coupon promotions you run and special weekly events are all about getting more people in the doors. Utilizing the location features in Squareberry can help drive more real world traffic. Isn't that what all this marketing stuff is about?

Announce Your Schedule Changes

Often times, your events social media messages and coupon promotions are planned and scheduled far in advance. In fact, that is one of the great things about using Squareberry. But, there are always uncontrollable circumstances and things that happen to break up your plan. It is important to communicate changes to your schedule to keep your followers, customers and community updated.

 

Why the need to say anything?

In the digital age, people store, track and organize their lives in a variety of ways. Some set reminders, others schedule in their personal calendars. Many keep updated through social media and other apps to know what is going on where and when. Your steady followers and customers may be accustomed to a certain schedule or plan. Others who have checked your web or Facebook calendar may have seen an event or promotion coming in the near future and planned to participate. If these people show up and find your location closed or not holding the special happening they thought was going on, it can cause confusion and dissatisfaction.

Canceling or Changing

With social media, you have the power to quickly and effectively communicate any changes to your schedule. You can blast a few messages out across your various social channels and quickly get everyone informed about your changes. Additionally, you can mark any events or promotions you have scheduled in Squareberry as "Canceled". The Canceled feature is a great alternative to simply deleting items. The happening appears crossed out on any calendar or widget view you have - easily identifying it as canceled to your viewers/followers. Instead of saying nothing, your automated reminders about the happening will say "Canceled" and clearly let everyone know that your event/promotion is no longer happening. Clear communications allow people to stay happy and up to date.

Offer an Alternative

If you start sending out messages about a canceled event it is important to offer an alternative or special to replace it. For instance, if "Live Music Night" is canceled you may want to send a message like this: "Live Music is CANCELED tonight. BUT we got you covered. Half off all drinks from 7-9 PM. COME ON IN!". This can help drive traffic that you may have lost due to the cancellation. You can also let people know your canceled event is rescheduled or coming soon. "Live Music will happen next week at the same time."

Make Your Mobile Website a Place to Come Back To

The key word in the title of this article is "back". Like your website, Facebook page and your actual business location, you want people to come BACK. One visit is good, but repeat visits is what you are looking for. Your mobile website needs to be an ever-updating hub of happenings, news and fresh content. Tell people to use it and keep them coming back.

Events and Promotions

For many businesses, special events and coupon promotions are what draw people in. Your mobile website should serve as the ideal location for people to find this information. Create calendar pages on your mobile site to show off your upcoming events and promotions. People, who are out and about, will be drawn in by your happenings.

Mobile News Source

News pages are a great way to keep your mobile website fresh. With Squareberry, you can feed in RSS (such as a blog) or publish your Twitter feed. These options give your mobile website fresh news content without the need to login and update the news page. Your mobile website keeps updated via your existing main news publishing tools.

Keep It Updated

The most important thing to do is keep your mobile website updated with fresh content. Squareberry's calendars will automatically hide past events/promotions, but page content needs to be maintained (if applicable). Don't leave a message about New Year's on your home page until March. Out of date content can turn off potential customers who will think nothing has changed at your business.

If you are a restaurant, keep your current menu updated/available on your mobile website. Squareberry offers an intuitive Menu/Catalog page type which allows you to easily create and update a full menu of items.

Tell People It Is the Place to Come Back To

Signs on your door and/or tables can go a long way. You are probably already featuring Facebook on your collateral, do the same with your mobile website. Tell people they can easily see what's going on, gets news and find promotions on your mobile site. Spreading the word helps get them on your mobile site. Fresh content, news and events/promotions keep them coming back.

Customizing Your Calendar Views

Showing off your events and promotions on your website is a key aspect of integrating your complete online presence. Squareberry allows you to create customized "views" with specified categories. This means you can have any number of calendars and widgets which display certain events/promotions based on the settings you dictate.

Create a New Event View

When you create a new Event View, you start by giving it a name. This name will be displayed on the top of the calendars. Next, you select what categories you want on this view. Events and Promotions from the categories you select here will be used on these calendars and widgets.

There are also various color settings you can alter. These colors effect the calendar views but have no effect on the widgets. You can also dictate a timezone for your view, this will adjust the time of the events to display in the specified timezone.

Lastly, you can decide to include events and/or promotions. If you do not want promotions on your view, simply uncheck the promotions setting. This allows you to control categories and event/promotions so that you can fully customize your calendars and widgets to show exactly what you want to show.

Embed Your Customized Views

Once you have created your customized view, it is easy to add it to your website. On the Calendars and Widgets list screen, there is an embed button to the far right of every listed calendar/widget. Click this button and you will get a pop-up with the embed code. There are different options for each calendar/widget which you can adjust to customize this particular embed. When ready, copy and paste the embed code into the HTML of your website.

Single Category Views

An interesting and effective strategy is to create single category views. This allows you to feature certain events and promotions on your website. Read More Here >

Samples of Calendars & Widgets

Click Here to check out samples of all the calendars and widgets currently available on the Squareberry platform.

Adjusting Your Dashboard

Changing How Your Dashboard Looks

Squareberry allows you to customize and change your dashboard to display your social/mobile statistics and feedback accordingly. Every organization focuses on different aspects of marketing. Some are Facebook heavy with little Twitter use. Some organizations love to run interactive polls while others focus more on scheduled events. Every organization is different.

Squareberry's dashboard has various boxes that each show off different aspects of your marketing efforts. These boxes on your dashboard include:

• Facebook Followers
• Twitter Followers
• Social Statistics
• Facebook Demographics
• Listen&Count Polls
• Recent Twitter Followers
• Most Viewed
• Recent Sent Messages
• Social Influence Widget
• Recently Created Items

To adjust the Dashboard, click the "Adjust Dashboard" button at the top of the page. A pop-up appears allowing you to drag and drop the boxes into the order you want them to display. The left side of this pop-up is your active dashboard and the right side shows available boxes you are not currently using.

PDF Dashboard Report

Squareberry's Dashboard also allows you to export the Dashboard as a PDF Report. The PDF Report exports a set of boxes showing off a nice summary of your marketing stats. Simply click the "PDF Report" button at the top of the Dashboard page to export the Dashboard report.

Mobile Web Tips For Businesses With Several Locations

Many small businesses and restaurants have the opportunity to open additional locations. Often times, multi-location businesses have a cohesive marketing strategy for their brand while allowing each location to host their own events and even their own promotions. But, it is unlikely that each location would have its own website. A single website for all locations is much more common and generally a more efficient and effective option.

Show Off Your Locations

Use Info Pages

Squareberry's mobile management offers a "Location" page type which allows you to simply show off locations and provide directions etc. But, utilizing the "Info/About" page type allows you to provide more details, links, images, text and more.

On your mobile website, you can create an Info/About page for each location your business has. Each of these pages can feature a phone call button, location, links to social media pages and a general content area where you can add text/images about that specific location.

Use Sub-Menus

If you have a lot of information, photos, videos and more about each location you can utilize sub-menus on your mobile website. Simply add a sub-menu for each location and then add an assortment of pages to each location's sub-menu. This means you can have an Info page, Contact page, Video page etc. for each location. Your mobile website visitors can select the sub-menu of whatever location they are interested in and find a plethora of information and media options about that location.

Events and Promotions

Your upcoming events and coupon promotions are an essential aspect of your marketing. The flexibility of Squareberry's Mobile Management Area allows you to lay them out in a variety of ways. Events and promotions can be featured on your mobile website in a variety of ways.

You can add a Calendar Page for each location featuring only categories of events and promotions relavant to that location. Alternatively, you can use topical calendar pages with certain categories that include events from all locations. This option helps in cross-promoting events from location to location.

The best solution always depends on your business and your customers. Make it easy for people to find your events and promotions while still communicating newly scheduled happenings and cross-promoting your locations.

Add Your Events & Promotions to Your Website

Home Page

Your website's home page is obviously a great place to start when featuring events and promotions. The home page is what everyone sees. It is where your most important information is and might be the only page someone sees.

Great options for your home page:

• The List Widget - Very popular for the home page. It is simple and always shows your next X number of upcoming events. Another popular strategy it to put a link to a full calendar page right above or below your home page list widget.
• Portrait Slider Widget - This is a bold statement and can span the whole width of your home page. The items in this slider widget are larger and very eye catching. When using this widget it is highly recommended to add images to your events to get that bold/visual appeal.
• Landscape Slider Widget - Similar to the Portrait Slider Widget but smaller in size, this widget is a great alternative if you do not want to take up as much vertical space. Again, the idea here is eye catching featured items.

Website Sidebar

Many websites have a sidebar. This is a very common element of a website. For sidebars, the list widget is the most popular item. The List Widget offers the ability to show off your upcoming events and promotions across your website with a small feature on your sidebar. You can make it as small as you want, showing off just 3 or so upcoming happenings.

Full Calendar Pages

Widgets are great, but don't forget about a full calendar. For organizations like schools and churches, calling attention to your full calendar is a great idea. This is one of the top reasons people visit your website. They need to see what is going on.

Now, if you are a small business or restaurant, you may not want to call as much attention to your full calendar. But, it is still good to have. People like to see what is upcoming. Placing links/buttons next to your widgets that send people to your full calendar is a great way to utilize it without throwing it in people's faces.

You can see samples of all the views and widgets here: http://squareberry.com/features/online-calendars/web-calendars-widgets/

Send Customers to Mobile Pages with QR Codes

The Mobile Management Area allows you to create mobile websites for your organization. Each page you create for your mobile site can be linked to directly using a QR code. QR codes allow people to easily and quickly reach your web page by scanning the code with their mobile device.

Utilizing QR Codes to Boost Your Mobile Brand

At the top right corner of the edit screen for each mobile page is a button "Link & QR Code to This Page". Click on this button to get a QR Code for the page you are currently editing. You can easily download the QR Code at that time.

Calendar Pages

Calendar pages are always great to utilize. Add a QR Code to your restaurant menu, in a local publication or on a mail-out. You can quickly send people to your events/promotions page on your mobile site to help draw them in to your location. Calendar pages help you carry people from printed material to mobile-friendly site, from mobile site to real world events and promotions.

Contact Forms

Your printed advertisement, brochure or mail-out can quickly be given an easy call-to-action by utilizing a contact form. Add a QR code on your printed material that links to your contact form. This allows anyone who sees your ad or brochure to instantly contact you via contact form/email. This can help generate leads, generate sales and get registrations.

Photo Galleries

QR Codes are perfect for enhancing printed materials. Local newspapers, magazines and publications can utilize mobile photo galleries and QR Codes to take their printed items to another level.

Start by creating a photo gallery page type. Upload photos related to the article or topic you are covering in the publication. The QR code can then be placed on your printed publication next to relevant information/articles. Now, people reading your publication can easily scan the QR Code and get a touch-friendly photo gallery on their mobile device to enhance their reading experience.

Adding Interactive Polls to Your Mobile Website

Listen&Count Polls

Listen&Count allows to to create interactive polls to ask questions, gather feedback and make your social/mobile marketing more interactive. With Listen&Count you specify keywords that will be tracked on Twitter, SMS and/or a Website Poll Widget. Any responses with one or more of these keywords are counted and tracked in your account.

Adding a Listen&Count Page

Start in the Mobile Content area, click "Add Page", and then "Create New Page". Select the "Listen&Count Poll" page type. You can name the page and change the menu icon, like any other mobile page type. For Listen&Count Poll pages, you have two options: "Use Current/Latest Listen&Count Poll" or "Use a Specific Listen&Count Poll".

The first option uses the current/latest Listen&Count Poll that you have created. This means, the page on your mobile website will automatically update to show new/fresh Listen&Count polls that you create. If you create polls that have an End Date, they will no longer display on your page after reaching the end date. A newer poll with a later end date will then replace it. If you have no dated poll created, it will then display the most recently created poll with no date range.

Selecting this option allows you to create pages like "Weekly Poll" or "Latest Poll' which will automatically update to show new polls you are creating in your account. There is no need to keep coming back to the Mobile Management Area, you can easily create new polls and they will automatically be displayed on your mobile site.

Use a Specific Listen&Count Poll

If you select the second option, a drop down appears allowing you to select any of your existing polls to display. The selected poll will show up from that point on and will continue to display until you change it. This setting is useful for permanent/ongoing polls with no end date, or polls you want to display for a long time without being replace by other polls.

Restaurant Menus on Mobile Websites

The Catalog/Menu page type in the Mobile Management area is perfect for building restaurant menus. This page type allows you to add items and organize them using "spacers".

Add Spacers

A "Spacer" is a simple displayed title that can be used to organize your menu. A common use for this is to organize your menu by food types: "Soups" "Salads" etc. Below each spacer you can add items (the actual menu items).

Add Items

Items are your actual menu items. This would be a specific soup, sandwich or salad that people will order. Items have 3 fields. First you add a name and then a price. The 3rd field is a content area where you can add a description, insert a photo or even add a video.

Menus Are Essential

One of the main reasons web users visit restaurant websites is to view the menu. They want to see what you have and find out how much it will cost them. Many people are unlikely to go to a restaurant with no idea what the food is like. Having some kind of menu, be it a sample or a full menu is essential to bringing in customers.

School Athletic Calendars

Creating a Custom Event View

Squareberry allows you to create customized Event Views with selected categories. In the Calendars & Widgets section you can create new event views and select the categories you want to show.

Once the Event View is created you can grab the embed code for a widget or calendar that uses the settings you just set. Many schools have pages on their website dedicated to athletics. This is a great place to add an Athletics Calendar.

Athletics Page on Website

Select the month calendar embed option and copy the embed code. This can then be added to the website. A dedicated athletics calendar makes it easy for parents and students to see the schedule of games and know what's coming.

This same strategy can be implemented with other areas of a school. You can create a Fine Arts Calendar, Field Trips Schedule, etc. Create customized event views to spread things out and add more relative content to your website.

Utilizing Calendars & Widgets

Calendars and widgets are the best way to tie your Squareberry events and promotions into your website. Your upcoming happenings can be displayed on your home page, on sidebars, in the footer or on their own pages. Each widget or calendar is a different size and ideal for a different part of your website. You can view examples of all of our calendars and widgets here.

Below we take a look at what parts of your website are ideal for each type of calendar and widget.

Calendars

There are three calendar views: Month Calendar, List Calendar, Icon Month Calendar.

• Month Calendar - Traditional calendar view, Similar to other calendars you see. Ideal for most websites.
• List Calendar - Lists events line by line in order of date. Ideal for those who want to show more events at a time in a list format.
• Icon Month Calendar - Condensed month calendar. Ideal for websites that can not fit the full month calendar.

Widgets

There are four widgets to use: List Widget, Day Widget, Landscape Slider Widget, Portrait Slider Widget.

• List Widget - Simple short list. Ideal for sidebars and footers.
• Day Widget - Day cells showing events. Ideal for footers or individual pages.
• Landscape Slider Widget - Event cards sliding either horizontally or vertically. Ideal for home pages or footers.
• Portrait Slider Widget - Larger slider with cards moving horizontally. Ideal for home pages.

What is the Subscription Widget?

The Subscription Widget can be found in the Calendars & Widgets section. But, it does not display events like the other widgets. The subscription widget allows you to embed a small form on a webpage to quickly get subscribers to categories. The image below shows what the subscription widget looks like.

What it Does

The subscription widget subscribes those who input their information to the categories for that widget. Meaning, all of the categories you have selected for that event view are subscribed to when using that views subscription widget.

Reminders about upcoming events and promotions are then sent to subscribers based on the settings you have set for each category. Reminders are sent via email and SMS text message.

Use Views with Select Categories

Depending on your organization, getting email and SMS notifications from every category may annoy or overwhelm a subscriber. Instead of using your default event view which contains all of the categories, you can add a new event view with a few select categories and use that subscription widget.

For example, a school may have a large number of events going on each week. Events views can be broken up with different categories. A fine arts calendar, an athletics calendar etc. You can also have different subscription widgets for each of these. This would allow people interested in athletics to only get reminders about athletics.

It is also important to note that subscribers can subscribe to multiple things. If a user subscribed via one widget on your website, they can still subscribe via another widget to add more categories to their subscription.

Put Events in Multiple Categories

Squareberry allows you to select categories for your events and promotions. Categories determine when automated reminders are published about your events, on what calendars/widgets they are displayed on and which subscribers will get an email/SMS reminder.

Multiple Categories

Events do not need to be limited to a single category. Adding categories functions like tags. You can add multiples to any event. This comes in handy as many events apply to more then one category. A restaurant may have a Family Event that falls in the Family Fun category as well as the Food Specials.

Calendars & Widgets

Multiple categories comes in handy with calendars and widgets. You can have a "Featured Events" category and a widget on your website home page that displays only this single category of events. However, you may not want to only tag events as Feature, you may also one to tag them with "Food Specials", "Family Fun", "Contests" or whatever category best classifies them. Utilizing multiple categories allows you to arrange things for optimal widget and calendar display.

More Subscribers

Adding multiple categories increases the reach of that event with subscribers. If you only use one category, only subscribers to that single category get the notification. More categories means more subscribers getting notified.

Alias Tips for Listen & Count Polls

When creating a Listen & Count poll, you can add various keywords to listen for. For each keyword you can add aliases. Aliases are other words that count as responses for that same keyword. Below are a few tips to on using the aliases feature.

Common Misspellings

Typos are fairly common on mobile devices (or even on the computer). Listen & Count polls are conducted via web widgets as well as Twitter and SMS. It is not uncommon for someone to type a response with a misspelling. You will want to make sure this misspelling is also counted as a response. Put common misspellings of your keyword as aliases. If someone submits one of these misspellings as a response it will still be counted.

Synonyms or Related Words

Many words have synonyms or shortened versions. These alternative words may be submitted by your followers. You don;t want to miss a response simply because someone typed a word that is not the exact word you wanted.

Examples

Below are some examples use the two strategies for aliases mentioned above.

• Keyword: Chocolate
• Aliases: coco, cocoa, chocolat, choclate, choco, chocolte

• Keyword: Vanilla
• Aliases: vanilla, vanill, vnilla, vanila, french vanilla

Aspects of an Event

See the Parts That Make Up a Events

Events in Squareberry have a few set fields and an open content area where anything can be added. You can add images, text, links, videos and more in the content editor.

The chart above outlines the various aspects of an event. These pieces make up what is viewed when someone clicks an event on your calendar or clicks a link on a social media reminder message.

Aspects of a Promotion

See the Parts That Make Up a Promotion

Promotions in Squareberry function much like events. The main difference between promotions and events is that promotions have a set of pre-defined fields, rather than an open content area.

The chart above outlines the different pieces that make up the promotion. They are displayed in the same order that the fields appear in when you schedule a promotion in you Squareberry account. Promotions allow you to publish redeemable coupons on calendars, widgets and social media to drive people in to your real world location.

Promotions are also optimized for mobile devices. Your followers and customers who view your promotion on their mobile device will see a mobile optimized coupon that is perfect for redeeming at your location.

Adding Rich Content to Events

If you are just using text when creating your events, you are not utilizing the full potential of Squareberry events. Every event you create has a Content section which offers an open space for adding images, videos, links and more.

Adding Images

Images are the easiest thing to add into an event. Simply click the "Insert/Edit Image" button. The image pop-up will appear and show you other images/files you have uploaded to your account already. Select any of these to add them to the event content area. You can also click "Add File" to upload a new image.

Adding Videos

Squareberry allows you to embed videos from video hosting websites such as YouTube and Vimeo into your events. These video hosting websites offer great features and outstanding performance. Once your video is uploaded simply copy the embed code provided by your video site. For example, on YouTube you will find the embed code under the "Share" tab.

To embed the video in your event content, click the "HTML" button. This will display a pop-up with the HTML source of your event content. Paste the embed code into here.

Adding Links and Download Links

There are two types of links you can add, and two buttons to match. "Insert/Edit Link" allows you to add more traditional links. You can link to a website URL and choose from a few options. The second link button is "Add Link to a File". This allows you to link to a file you have uploaded to your account.

An example of using the Link to File button is to allow the download of a form. You can upload a PDF form that needs to be filled out and brought to the event. This file could be downloaded easily by anyone viewing your event.

To add a link, highlight the text you want to make a link. Once the text is highlighted, click one of the add link buttons. The appropriate pop-up will appear and you can turn that selected text into a hyperlink.

Recapping Our Second Understanding Series

For the past six weeks, we have been taking a closer look at various aspects of Squareberry. Our "Understanding" series has provided insightful looks into popular features and management of your account.

Wait, this may sound familiar. It is. This is our second "Understanding" series of blog posts. You can check out the first series here.

The Understanding series helps you do just that. Fully understand all the features and capabilities your Squareberry account offers. If you missed any of these posts, read below to catch up now.

Understanding the ‘Users’ Features

Read the Full Article >

Understanding Categories

Read the Full Article >

Understanding SMS in Squareberry

Read the Full Article >

Understanding Location Features

Read the Full Article >

Understanding Repeating Content

Read the Full Article >

Understanding Other Things – FAQs

Read the Full Article >

We Love Hearing From our Users

If you have any ideas for articles or features you want to see blog posts about, let us know. You can tell us on the Forum or email us at squareberry@squareberry.com.

Understanding Repeating Content

Squareberry is built like a calendar, allowing you to easily schedule and repeat content far in advance. Social media messages, mobile messages, events and coupon promotions can all be scheduled on the Planner - a calendar-like interface. This content can be repeated in a variety of ways and understanding how to use the repeating features can help you as you plan your marketing communications.

The Scheduled Date

In Squareberry, the original date you schedule your item on is always used. For example, if you schedule an event on Friday and then choose to repeat every Monday, the events will be on that Friday and then then following Mondays. The first instance does not have to fall into the repeating "pattern".

Of course, the initial instance can fall into the pattern. Using the above example you would simply schedule the first instance on the Monday. It would use that Monday and repeat on the following Mondays.

Repeat Options

Each item you want to schedule has a repeat option. Click the checkbox if you want to repeat it. After you click this, the repeat options will display. By default "Daily" is selected from the drop down menu. The other options are "Weekly", "Monthly" and "Yearly".

Daily

A daily repeat can be set to repeat every X number of days. "1" would mean every day, "2" would mean every other day and so on. You can also select to repeat every weekday.

Weekly

A weekly repeat can be set to repeat every X number of weeks. Then days of the week or selected to repeat on. You can select one or more days to repeat on.

Monthly

There are two ways to repeat monthly. First, you can repeat by the date of the month. For example, Day 3 of every 1 month. Second, you can do a conditional repeat based on the day. For example, you can repeat on the second Thursday of every month.

Yearly

Yearly repeat options are similar to monthly but only happen once a year. You can select a specific date to repeat on or a conditional repeat such as second Tuesday of March.

Your repeat options for all of the above can be set to end after a certain number of repeats, end on a certain date or never end. You can also select specific dates to skip.

Understanding Location Features

Locations features in Squareberry help tie your events and promotions to the real world and drive attendance to your locations. Understanding how the location features work is essential to maximizing your real world events and promotions.

Creating & Editing Locations

Most of the fields for creating a location are pretty straightforward. You start by naming the location. This name is shown wherever the location is shown. Next you provide the street address, city, state/province and postal code. You will then select the country from the drop down menu of options. The map below the address fields updates to place the pin at that location. The pin can also be dragged and dropped to adjust exactly where it shows. This is useful if you want to display the entrance to the parking area or a specific part of your facilities.

Your location can be connected to Foursquare for showing check-in stats. Nearby Foursquare locales are pulled in from Foursquare and you can select yours from the drop down menu.

The notes field is where you can provide useful information for your guests. For example, you may say "Park in the garage and we will validate your parking ticket." or "Take the elevators to the 2nd floor and turn right." Adding useful notes to your location can give first time visitors quick info on getting to where you are. The notes you add are displayed along with the location.

Where Locations Display

When creating and editing events and promotions, you can tag them with one or more locations. These locations will display with that event or promotion. This is the ultimate call to action as it offers a visual map of where your happening is taking place and offers directional features to guide visitors there.

Understanding SMS in Squareberry

Email to SMS

There are different types of SMS features in Squareberry. The "Email to SMS" allows you to utilize the automated calendar reminders. For example, on the top of each calendar there is a "Get Email & SMS Reminders" button that takes someone to this screen: http://squareberry.com/holidays - - - on this screen, people can sign-up to receive reminders about upcoming events for different categories. Subscribers will get automated messages about upcoming events.

These reminders are sent by email and by Email to SMS. "Email to SMS" is a free service most mobile carriers offer. Our system sends an email to the mobile number on that carrier, the carrier than attempts to deliver it as an SMS message. Email to SMS is not 100% reliable as carriers tone it down or sometimes fail to deliver the message. But, overall it is a nice free option for most organizations to utilize and take advantage of.

When using Email to SMS this is the extent of mobile SMS features that are offered.

True SMS With Twilio

Twilio allows you to send TRUE SMS messages. Twilio is a mobile gateway that will deliver the SMS message directly to the device from your phone number (number you purchase on Twilio). Deliverability is much more reliable and the message is cleaner (no From or meta content like when an Email to SMS is delivered).

Additionally, when a Twilio account is connected you can send/schedule custom SMS messages. This allows you to schedule messages to send to SMS subscribers the same way you can schedule message for Twitter and Facebook. This custom message publishing is only available when utilizing Twilio.

True SMS sending through Twilio does have extra costs. These fees are paid directly to Twilio and Squareberry does not up-charge or take a cut. You simply have a Twilio account you pay into and connect that account to Squareberry for publishing etc.

Lists & Subscription

When using Twilio for SMS, you are able to add multiple contact lists of SMS numbers. These lists can then be sent instant SMS messages or scheduled SMS messages. The SMS Subscription Widgets is used to get additional subscribers for your lists. Select a list and then copy the embed code. This code can be added to any website and displays a simple field for visitors to add their phone number and subscribe to your list.

Understanding Categories

We are continuing our "Understanding" posts this week by talking about categories. Categories are one of the most important aspects of your Squareberry account. They control where events are displayed, how they are published to social media and who can add/edit them.

Creating Categories

When creating a category you start by naming it. This name will display on calendars and on the events. You also select a color and icon. The color is used for the event name text and the icon is shown next to each event name. The next options regard snagging. Snagging allows other Squareberry accounts to pull your category into their account. They can display your content, but they can not edit it. Decide if your category is snaggable and if it requires approval.

"Settings For Publishing Reminder Messages" controls when automated posts about your upcoming events are published on your social media channels. You can have automated posts go out at different times on different social media accounts. Your social media account must be connected to show up here. You can also determine when events are published on RSS feed and to mobile subscribers.

"The "Day Of" settings dictates how many minutes before the event reminder messages are published on the day of the event. So, if you have automated messages set to go out on the day of (above) and you have the Day Of setting at 45, a message will be sent out 45 minutes before the event start time.

The next two settings help dictate the format of the automated messages. The first one determines if the category name should be included in the automated messages and if it should be at the front or back of the message. The second setting determines if a URL that links to event details should be included in the automated messages.

All of these settings are used by events and promotions that are created and put in this particular category. You can create as many categories as you want and customize the settings for each category to your liking.

Using Categories in Other Parts of Your Account

In the Calendars & Widgets section, categories are selected for each view you create. Read more about this in the Understanding Event Views post.

In the Users section, categories are selected for each Author you add to your account. Read more about this in the Understanding Users post.

Understanding the 'Users' Features

It's nice to have a helping hand. With Squareberry you can add any number of users to your account to contribute to your communications and marketing. Additional users can schedule message, add events, run promotions and more. It is important to understand the different user levels and what kind of access each user would have.

Administrators vs Authors

For both Administrators and Authors you must provide a first name, last name and email address. The email address is how access is gained to the account. This address will be sent an email with instructions on activating their login and accessing the account. For Administrators, nothing else is needed. Administrators have full access to the account and the ability to add/edit anything.

Authors have more options. Authors can be limited by content type (Events, Messages, Promotions) and by category. If categories are selected, the Author can only access events/promotions in that category. When allowing an author to schedule messages, you can then select the social accounts they can publish to.

Author Flexibility

The flexibility for creating authors means they can be limited to any type of content. If you want someone who can only schedule messages to Twitter, you can do that. If you want someone who can only create events and only in two specific categories, you can do that too.

Build Your Team

In some cases, it is difficult for one individual to be entering all the content for an organization. Building a team of contributors can help streamline content adding. Larger organizations such as churches and schools can make authors who are responsible for their department or area. Assess your organization and decide what kind of arrangement will work best for you. Squareberry's flexibility will allow you to build a team to your liking.

New Year - New Followers

Another year is here. Amazing. 2014 is sure to be filled with more exciting technology and marketing opportunities. As your organization begins another year, take this opportunity to gain more followers and promote your various marketing/communications channels. You want to make sure that you have as many followers as possible for the upcoming year.

Your media should promote all of your other media.

Promote Other Channels

Many organizations are strong on a single social media channel, but fall short in other areas. You can use your strong social media channel to promote your weaker ones. For example, you may have thousands of Facebook "Likes" but only a few hundred Twitter followers. Post messages to Facebook promoting your Twitter presence. Encourage people to follow and connect with you on Twitter.

Exclusive Promotions & Contests

Another strategy for getting more followers on a certain channel is so offer exclusive content on that specific channel. Using the same example above, you could post on Facebook that you will be offering exclusive discounts and promotions on Twitter. This will help push some of your Facebook followers to also follow you on Twitter.

Don't Forget Your Website

Websites are still a main destination for web users. It is important to make sure your website sends people to your various social media channels. Beyond simply having social media buttons in your footer, make sure your pages feature social sharing buttons. Additionally, you can create larger graphics and pop-ups that encourage people to connect with you on social media.

Beyond providing information, your website's goal should be to help you gain real and relative connections on your various communication channels. This will lead to an increase in the reach of your events and promotions.