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

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Understanding Categories

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Understanding SMS in Squareberry

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Understanding Location Features

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Understanding Repeating Content

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Understanding Other Things – FAQs

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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.