Using the Catalog Page Type in the Mobile Management Area

Catalog/Menu Mobile Pages

One of our favorite page types in the Mobile Management Area is the Catalog/Menu page type. With this page type you can add a stylized menu or list of items. Each item has its own detail page with any type of content. The most popular use of this page type is for restaurant menus, but it can easily be used in other ways.

How to Use the Catalog/Menu Page Type

To start, you select "Catalog/Menu" 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".

Now, the page is saved and you can get started with adding content. There are two types of content you can add: "Item" and "Spacer/Title". A Spacer/Title is a display only element which has a different appearance than items and can be used for categorizing items on your menu, or as a heading.

Items are the main function in this page type. Each Item has a name, a "price" and content. You can add text, add images, embed videos and more in the content area. The Item name displays on the menu page. When a user selects that item they are taken to that item's page where the content details are shown and the "price" is shown in the top right corner.

Click Here to See an Example >

Alternative Uses

Though this page type is ideal for restaurant menus and retail catalogs, it is not limited to these uses. For example, the 'Price" field is labeled as such, but the word "Price" does not appear anywhere on the front-end mobile website. You can easily use this field for any other type of label.

A great example of an alternative use is to use this page type for a staff page. Each member of your staff would be added as an item with their job title in place of a "price". You can use the Spacers to categorize your staff into groups.

Another great example is to use it as a portfolio. If you offer professional services, you can use spacers to divide things into service categories. Items will be used for each example of services you have offered, be it a case study, customer testimonial, visual examples etc.

The Catalog/Menu page type if powerful and flexible. It allows you to quickly and easily create an organized and effected area of your mobile website. It has a variety of uses and possibilities.

Using the News Page Type in the Mobile Management Area

The Mobile Management Area in Squareberry allows you to create dynamic pages for your mobile website in a variety of ways with different page types. One of these page types is the "News - RSS/Tweets" page type. Using this, you can easily add fresh content to your mobile site that is constantly updating without you having to go in and update it.

Creating a News Page for Your Mobile Website

Start by going to the Mobile Management Area and clicking the "Add Page/Sub-Menu" button at the top of the Mobile Content area. Then click "Create New Page". On the New Page screen, select the News page type from the drop down, give your page a name and select a menu icon. There are two options for a News Source: Show recent Tweets or Show Recent RSS Posts. If you want to show Tweets, you will be asked to provide a Twitter ID. Recent Tweets from this ID will be pulled and shown on your News page. If you want to use an RSS feed, you will need to provide a direct URL to the RSS feed online. Recent RSS feed posts will be displayed on your News page.

Not Just Your News

The most common reason to implement a News page is to share your brand's news and updates. This means your blog's RSS feed or your Twitter account's Tweets. But, a News page can be used to share other people's news to further enhance your mobile website. For example, if your have an organization that offers professional services of some kind, you can create a full "News" section on your mobile site and pull in various sources. Here is how you would do this:

• 1 - Create a Sub-Menu called "News"
• 2 - Identify Twitter/RSS news sources that offer tips, ideas, updates and information about the type or services you offer or your industry.
• 3 - On the Sub-Menu, create a "News" page as discussed above. Use one of the sources you identified and name the page accordingly.
• 4 - Repeat step 3 with more news sources until you have a nice assortment of news pages.
• 5 - Review and look at what you have created. Make sure all the news sources are working and showing up on your mobile website.

With the steps above, you can create an entire News section of your mobile website. This can help take your site to the next level. It will be a resource and a destination for information. It will also help boost your brand and help your organization appear stronger and more in-tune with your industry.

Consider the Wording in Your Scheduled Social Messages

Scheduling Social Media Messages Far in Advance

Squareberry allows you to schedule messages far in advance to publish to Facebook Profiles, Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn Profiles, LinkedIn Groups and Twitter accounts. Scheduling messages in advance allows you to plan your communications and takes care of the other parts of your organization, without worrying about updating social media accounts throughout each day.

Message Wording

Real Time Wording

When you are scheduling your messages days, or even weeks in advance, you still want it to sound like you are sending the message at that time, for that moment. A while back, we offered a blog post on wording your scheduled messages: http://squareberry.com/news/tuesday-tip-scheduled-real-time-messages/

Give Details

Even when scheduling messages in advance you can include details in your posts. For example if you are having a live music night, you can send out messages with details of the band. Instead of a generic tweet like "Live Music Night is going great." you can offer some details such as "John from 'Grey Cycle' is truly rocking it tonight! Get here soon to see the rest of their set!"

The second example is actually easy. Certainly you can know the name of the band and the name of one of the band members ahead of time. You can still offer details about what is going on at your location, even if this message is actually scheduled days in advance.

Search Friendly Words + #Hashtags on Twitter

Of course when we talk about wording, we need to consider the actual words. Twitter offers search features that allow users to see who is talking about certain topics, etc. Try to use words that people will search for, such as your neighborhood/city, type of business you are, services/products you offer, etc.

Using hashtags for Twitter posts is an obvious and essential strategy. You want to Tweet about things other people are also Tweeting about and you want to encourage your followers to use the same hashtags to help spread the news. Use hashtags (don't abuse them) for your Twitter posts and keep in touch with what hashtags people in your community are using.

Using Twitter Search to Find Leads

When using the Search section of Squareberry's Social Conversation Area, there are a variety of ways to find people relative to your business. Using these techniques can help you find new leads, generate conversation activity, spread the word about your brand and more.

Longer Strings of Words

The more detailed your searches are the better chance you have of finding the right Tweeters. Simply searching for "Miami Restaurants" will pull a lot of Tweets from a wide range of contexts. Instead, you can string together longer phrases like "Miami Lunch Spot" or "South Miami Sushi Lunch" to get refined results. Adding more detail about your type of food or the neighborhood you are in can help you find better potential customers.

Use Quotations

Using quotations around words causes the search to pull results with that exact word sequence. So if you search "Live Music in Miami" you will pull results (when available) of Tweets with the phrase "Live Music in Miami".

This search practice is fairly common and can also be done on many search engines. Searching without quotations will pull results with the words you dictate, but not necessarily in that order and not necessarily all words.

Think About Your Customer

Always think about the person you are trying to reach. What would they post on Twitter? What kinds of questions would they ask, hoping for a response from friends? For example, if you own a restaurant, you may search for "grab lunch downtown". This will pick up Tweets by people asking "Where is a good place to grab lunch?" or "Any suggestions for where to grab lunch downtown?". If you are using Search as a means of bringing in new customers, your goal should be to find Tweeters who are searching for your type of company or in need of your services.

Then What...

After you find a potential customer or lead you just have on thing to do... TWEET them. Send a Reply to their Tweet right from inside Squareberry. When they respond to your Tweet, the conversation can be tracked and managed in your Social Inbox.

Using Listen&Count Polls on Your Website

Listen&Count Interactive Polls

One of the newest aspects of Squareberry is the Listen&Count polling features. Listen&Count allows you to track keyword responses on social media, through SMS, on your mobile website and even on your existing website. Adding polls to your existing website is easy and is a great way to make your website more interactive with visitors.

How to Embed a Poll on Your Website

If you want to add an interactive poll to your website you just need to follow these few easy steps.

1. When creating your Listen&Count poll, make sure you check the option "Track on Website Poll". This will cause a new text box to appear labeled "Enter Text to Display on Your Website Poll and Listen&Count Mobile Page(s)". Text entered in this box will appear on the Web Poll Widget that you embed on your website.

2. Every Listen&Count poll you create can be embedded on your website using a simple embed code. On the Listen&Count list screen click the "Web Poll Widget" for the poll you want to embed. A pop-up will appear that displays the embed code for this poll and you can select and copy this text. Paste this embed code into the HTML code of your website in the appropriate place and the poll will display there (just like embedding a YouTube video).

Best Practices for Website Polls

Home Page

Usually, the best way to feature something on your website is to put it on the home page. Adding a poll to your home page is the best way to ensure people see it and respond.

Side Bar

Another great way to feature your poll is on the sidebar of your website (if your website has a sidebar). Sidebars often run across websites and display on every page. This means your poll will be see throughout the site.

Graphic Links to Poll Page

Another method is to embed your poll on a page on your website, then link to it with graphics/buttons around the site. Create a graphic for your homepage that says something like "Take Our Weekly Poll". A nice graphic will catch the attention of site visitors and get them to click on the graphic and take the poll.

Mobile Website Tips for Multi-Location Businesses

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.

In this post, we look at a few ideas and methods for handling multi-location businesses on your dynamic mobile website.

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.

Listen&Count Polls on Your Mobile Website

Mobile Management Listen&Count Page

In the Mobile Management area, you can easily add an interactive poll to your mobile website. In Mobile Content, click "Add Page" and then "Create New Page". On the Add Page screen, 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".

Use Current/Latest 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.