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.