Understanding Event Views

Event Views control your calendars and widgets. Calendars and Widgets allow you to push dynamic content to your website, connecting your entire web presence and showing off your events and promotions. Event Views are designed to be flexible and powerful, allowing you to control what content goes where.

On the Main Menu of your account click the "Calendars & Widgets" button at the top.

Default Event View

Every account starts with a single Event View. This is the default Event View. Every category in your account is automatically added to this view. The name can be changed and color options can be adjusted. But, this Event View can not be deleted.

Custom Event Views

You can add any number of additional event views you want. Click the "Add Event View" button at the top of the page to create a new Event View. Give your new view a name and select the colors you want to use. You will also select which categories will be included in this Event View. You can select any number of categories. You can also decide to include events, promotions or both. Lastly, you can specify active categories.

Calendars & Widgets

Once you have a new Event View created or if you are just using the default Event View, you can grab calendars and widgets. For each Event View you have there are a variety of calendar and widget options listed. Each calendar or widget has an embed code you can grab for placing the calendar or widget on a website. The calendars and widgets will use the settings you have provided for that event view, thus dictating what categories will be pulled in, etc.

Ideas for Using Your Event Views

Follow the links below for additional reading on Event Views, including ideas on how to best use Event Views and how to customize them to meet your needs.

• Single Category Views
• Specify Your Active Categories
• Widget Placement on Your Website

Understand Your Account Settings

It is important to fully understand all aspects of your Squareberry account. This week we wanted to take a quick look at the Settings area found in the Account Management drop down. These settings can alter small aspects of how your accounts works and control who gets updates/alerts.

After adjusting any setting, make sure you hit the "update" button at the bottom of the page to save the changes you have made.

Account Image

The Account Image is a square graphic that shows in various areas. Your Account Image will show up in the top left corner of your calendars and the top left corner of your events and promotions. The Account Image is usually accompanied by your account name and helps identify your calendars, events and promotions as yours.

Default Event View

Your Default Event View determines which event view is seen at www.squareberry.com/. You can select one of your existing event views that you have created in the calendar & widgets area.

Email Addresses

The "Contact Email" is used for general contact and category Snag approvals. If your categories are set to require approval before being snagged, snag requests will be sent to this address for approval.

The "Reply To Email Address" dictates the reply-to address for all emails sent from your account to followers. This includes emails sent to individuals who have subscribed to categories to get reminders in your account.

The "Email To Send Alerts To" determines the address that is emailed when there is an issue in your Squareberry account. The most common alert emails are Facebook ReAuthorizations and Social Account issues. This makes sure you are alerted when publishing is no longer working so that you can quickly restore any connections that need to be fixed. Alert emails can be disabled by selecting the checkbox for "Disable Alert Emails".

Default Category Icon

The default category icon is used for events and promotions that are in more than one category. This allows you to select a more generic icon to use when multi-category events and promotions are displayed on your calendars and widgets.

Date Format Settings

The date format is simple. It determines what format your dates are displayed in throughout your account and on your events.

Advanced Settings

These settings are set-up by default but can be altered for your account. These advanced settings dictate certain publishing times and behaviors.

The “Special Happenings Publishing Time” controls the time at which social message reminders for “All Day” “Time TDB” and “CANCELED” happenings are to be sent.

The “Account Start of Night” and “Account End of Night” determine the range of time that social messages use the word “tonight” to describe events. For example: You have an event that starts at 1 AM on Sunday, a social message sent on Saturday would say “Tonight at 1 AM” instead of “Tomorrow at 1 AM” if your “Account End of Night” is after 1 AM.

Boost Your Weekend Sales

Weekends rule for a lot of reasons. Football games. Free days. Alarm clocks are turned off. Sunday brunches. For many local businesses, weekends are the busiest time. Restaurants and bars see a huge influx on weekend nights and many retails stores are busiest on Saturdays and Sunday afternoons.

A recent article published on The Buffer Blog entitled "A scientific guide to posting tweets, Facebook posts, emails and blog posts at the best time" looked at research and statistics on social media posting to determine the best times to post.

The data that was looked at enforced the idea that the end of the work week (Thursday & Friday) is the ideal time for posting to Facebook. Twitter has strong engagement on the weekends themselves and later in the day. Click here to read the full article.

Start of Week

Some people do start planning their weekend in advance. Additionally, as the weekend gets closer there is more and more noise on social media channels. For these reasons, it can be beneficial to post one or two messages at the beginning of the week about what you have going on during the coming weekend. This can help your grab some early deciders and plant an idea in other people's head that will be reinforced by your posts closer to the weekend.

Thursday and Friday

This is the peak of Facebook engagement. People are getting bored at work and checking their News Feeds. They are checking to see what is going on during the weekend. Use these days to boost your weekend events & promotions. Post reminders throughout the day and at night to grab as many eyeballs as possible. Encourage sharing of your posts to help your events & promotions spread virally.

The Weekend Itself

The weekend is time for last minute decision makers and friendly reminders. Twitter has better engagement on the weekends, so make sure you have a solid number of tweets going out. Remind people about your events & promotions and send out messages with pictures from your events as they are taking place.

Yep, Football is Back

This past weekend, college football kicked off around the country. College students filled stadiums, cities tuned in and fans watched from their favorite local restaurant or bar. This coming weekend, the NFL will start its season across the USA. Football is officially back!

So what does this mean for local businesses? Your events and promotions can easily be centered around your local team's games as well as the big nationally aired games. Use these events and promotions to drive in larger crowds and bigger groups.

Snag Your Teams

You can snag your favorite NFL teams schedule here: http://squareberry.com/nfl

When you snag a team's schedule into your Squareberry account, it will display on your Planner. This allows you to easily plan and schedule your events and promotions to go along with the games.

You can also add publishing settings to your newly snagged category, just like you do for categories you have created. You can have the games publish as reminders to your social media accounts and display them on your web calendars and widgets. Having your team's schedule on your calendars gives your organization a more local feel and shows the local fans that you are fans too.

Promotions

Your game day promotions should be group oriented. Instead of discounts on a glass of beer, offer discounts on pitchers. Instead of buy one get one free, make it buy two get one free. You want people to come in groups to your restaurant, bar or other establishment. People like watching games in groups, so it is a natural fit.

Make Your Mobile Website Interactive

Squareberry gives you the power to broadcast your events and coupon promotions across a wide range of media. Your special happenings are sent on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, SMS, web calendars and on your mobile website. But beyond your events and promotions, it is important to make your mobile website interactive.

Interactive Mobile Website Pages

Adding interactive pages makes your website more functional, giving it a purpose being simply providing static information. Interactive elements can include forms, sharing features and polls, all of which can be done with page types featured in the Mobile Management area of Squareberry.

The "Listen&Count Poll" page type allows you to add an interactive polls to your mobile site. You can add any of the specific Listen&Count polls you have created or set the page to always use the most recently created poll.

The "Email Send" page type allows you to create a menu option that allows users to quickly send an email, sharing information you dictate. This allows you to create a "Share" feature for mobile site visitors to send your site or other information to a friend using the native email functions on their mobile device.

The "Contact Page" page type allows you to utilize a simple contact form and phone call button. This can be used as a contact page, as an online ordering page or anything else you come up with. Not only is this an interactive element on your site, it gets site visitors interacting directly with your and your organization.

Media on your Mobile Site

Rich media, while not fully interactive, is much more engaging than just using text. Add videos and photos throughout your mobile site to better engage your audience. You can also take advantage of the Photo Gallery mobile page type to add touch-friendly photo galleries.

Best Tips of the Year (So Far)

Every now and then, it is nice to reflect on some tips from the past. This week we wanted to look back at some of the best (or our favorite) tips from 2013 so far.

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Create a Media Section on Your Mobile Site

You may be interested in creating an entire media section on your mobile website, rather than simply having a single media page. Rich media such as photos and videos are engaging and help keep people on your mobile site... Read the Full Tip >

Summer is Coming – Will Your Marketing Change?

Summer is fast approaching. More than any other season, summer has distinct characteristics which can and should effect how you market. But, it depends heavily on your demographics and location.... Read the Full Tip >

Consider the Wording in Your Scheduled Social Messages

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... Read the Full Tip >

Listen&Count Polls on Your Mobile Website

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.... Read the Full Tip >

Using Snagged Categories As Planning Guides

Not every tip is a huge, mind-blowing, world flipping idea that will change the way you conduct business or handle your mobile and social marketing. Some tips are small, simple but great. This week’s Tuesday Tip is one of those, offering a simple idea that can lend you a helpful hand in your marketing strategy and planning... Read the Full Tip >

Timely Tips for Local Businesses Near Colleges

Summer is ending. Soon it will be fall. The leaves will change, etc. More importantly, this time of year signals the start of new college/university semesters. Many local retail stores and restaurants service markets filled with college students.

Now is the perfect time to run marketing promotions and hold events to attract new student customers. You don't want to wait until later in the year. At that point, students will have already found other places to go, mostly based on recommendation and word of mouth. You should to not only join but dictate that conversation by starting the new college year off right.

Hold an Event

Who isn't thinking about a party when the semester starts? New and old students alike will want to get out and get social to start their year off. Hold a "New Year Kickoff" or "Goodbye Summer Bash" at your location. This is a great opportunity for new students to check out your business. Just make sure you make a good impression. This will help you draw them back in over the next few years.

Run Promotions

Simple promotions like "Save 10% When You Show Your Student ID Card" can help draw in new business. Your promotions need to be shared by the current students who have been around. New students look to them for advice. Many classes/programs now form special Facebook Groups so students can communicate and offer tips to each other. Getting your promotion shared in one of those groups would go a long way.

How Do You Get Plugged In?

A lot of restaurants and local businesses near colleges are staffed by students who go to that same college. Your employees can help your spread the word about your upcoming events and promotions. Ask them to share your happening on Facebook & Twitter. They may even be able to get one posted on special class groups & pages.