‘Explainer’ Video, Photo Upload and Organizer Data View – Service Improvements to Eventility

We’ve added some exciting new improvements to the site as well as a fab new homepage video.

The video explains more about us, what we do and how using our website can help you.  If you don’t have time or can’t view it on your device, here’s a roundup of the main points.

What is Eventility?

If you run a club, group, chapter or event, things can get complicated and confusing. With so much to organize it can be difficult enough just knowing where to start. It’s not just the organizing that’s the difficult part however – promotion is just as important because without it, how are people going to know about your group or events?

Eventility is built to help organizers, organize and people, take part.

Why Use Eventility?

We give you everything you could possibly need to help you organize your club, group, chapter or event and best of all, it’s free. You get lots of fantastic features including:

• Email tracking and SMS
• Sell tickets or invite attendees to RSVP to your events
• A mobile apps which allows you to manage everything on the move including scanning tickets
• A live feed to share photos, documents and comments and lots more
• Subscription/membership/dues collections
• Everything you need for promotion including professional web pages, social networking and plug-ins that integrate with your existing website
• And if you want to, the option for us to share your public information with our partners to make it even easier for people to find your club and events

Get Started – It’s Free

If you aren’t already signed up to Eventility and using it, then get started today – it’s free! Simply register or log-in and you will be guided through the quick and easy process so you can get organizing and promoting your club, group, chapter or event immediately. If you ever get stuck at any stage or have further questions, our support site has everything you need to know including details of how to contact us.

So What Else is New?

Upload Photos to Your Live Feed

It’s slick, it’s fast, it’s really, really, easy!  Posting photos to your club or group’s live feed is simple. Just browse and select, or drag and drop. You can also add a description of your photos so you know who was there and where you were.

Upload and share your photos here

Your Data at a Glance With Our Organizer Panel

Available on your own homepage and for every club, group or event you’re organizing. Get key stats on emails, membership, attendance and sales – all at a glance!

For clubs or groups, you can straightway see your total number of members, the percentage of members who have joined, the number of requests to join, and the percentage of those who have paid their membership fees/subscriptions/dues.

You can also see the results of the last communication you had with your groups via Eventility. It shows how many emails were sent, the percentage opened, clicked, bounced and the percentage of unsubscribes – so you know exactly what’s going on.

Login and view your very own Organizer Panel

What is Eventility? Our brand new video explains it all

Here at Eventility we have just launched a brand new video which explains more about us, what we do and how using our website can help you. Those of you who would like to see the video can do so by clicking here or alternatively, if you don’t have time or can’t view it on your device, here is a roundup of the main points.

What is Eventility?

If you run a club, group, chapter or event, things can get complicated and confusing. With so much to organise it can be difficult enough just knowing where to start. It’s not just the organising that’s the difficult part however – promotion is just as important because without it, how are people going to know about you?

Eventility is an online platform that makes life easy for organisers and promoters because everything can be done quickly and easily via our website and even while on the go through our mobile app.

Why use Eventility?

We give you everything you could possibly need to help you organise your club, group, chapter or event and best of all, it’s free.

When you sign up to Eventility, all of our members get a communications hub to help manage members and it includes a number of fantastic features including:

• Email Tracking
• SMS
• An events app which enables you to sell tickets or invite attendees to RSVP
• A mobile app which allows you to manage everything on the move including scanning tickets
• A live feed to share photos, documents and comments
• Subscription collections
• Everything you need for promotion including professional web pages, social networking and plug-ins that integrate with your existing website
• The option for us to share your public information with our partners to make it even easier for people to find your club and events

Get started for free

If you aren’t already signed up to Eventility then you can get started today for free. Simply register on the website and you will be guided through the quick and easy process so you can start organising and promoting your club, group, chapter or event immediately. If you ever get stuck at any stage or have further questions, our support section contains everything you need to know including details of how to contact us directly.

How Social Media and Online Platforms Can Be Used Effectively in Event Organisation and Promotion

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Our Founder, Robin Brattel recently gave a talk at the 30^th anniversary International Confex show at ExCel. As an expert in his field, Robin spoke about how social media and online platforms can be used effectively in event organisation and promotion. He discussed how these platforms are currently being used in the industry, compared the different options available and vitally, measured the effectiveness of each.

It is becoming more and more evident that social media is here to stay and can be an incredibly powerful tool when organising an event. In fact, 72% of event organisers now see social media as a very important part of their job and 78% are planning to use it even more than they already do.

Exactly which platforms are those in the industry using however?

• 84% are using Facebook
• 61% Twitter
• 42% YouTube
• 42% LinkedIn
• 36% Google+
• 31% Blogs

If you’re not familiar with the world of social networking you may question why so many people are now using it. The most obvious answer is that with millions of people actively using these sites every day, what better way is there to reach out to people instantly, so easily and often for free?

If you are organising an event for example, social media can help you to collaborate with partners, colleagues, attendees and other people who may be interested but you wouldn’t normally have access to. Having the ability to post information and updates on these sites eliminates the need for so many emails which can be costly, it’s not intrusive because people have chosen to log-in and importantly, it enables them to share your news with others in their network.

With so many companies now realising the benefits of social media, you would struggle to find one that doesn’t have at least one online profile set up. This provides you with many great opportunities to discover suppliers, venues, caterers and any other service you may need. 61% of people now read online reviews before making a purchasing decision. This is hardly surprising when you consider that buyers can now see how companies interact with their customers and what people who have used them thought about the service.

Although social media can become a fundamental tool for event organisers, you have to work at it before you start to reap the benefits. In order to be successful, you need to become part of a community that knows and trusts you before you can activate it. There are generally six stages of online community development that as a brand, if you understand and work at, can help you to guide people from someone who simply follows you to a brand advocate.

Stage One – The Lurker – A lurker is someone who liked or followed your page  – they have taken the first step but that’s it. Chances are that at this stage they’re barely paying attention to what you’re saying and are highly unlikely to join in any conversations.

Stage Two – The Eavesdropper – Once you have said something that has captured the attention of an individual, they are likely to become an eavesdropper. This means that they’re beginning to develop an interest in what you’re saying but they are still unlikely to interact with your content.

Stage Three – The Acquaintance – Now you have said or posted enough things to catch someone’s attention, they are mildly interested in what you have to say. Just like an acquaintance in your neighbourhood, you will start to have some surface level interactions.

Stage Four – The Active Participant – As interactions become deeper and more meaningful, followers will start to comment, ask questions and even initiate conversations rather than simply just ‘liking’ things.

Stage Five – The Brand Loyalist – At this stage, loyalists will have an affinity for you over the competition, even if they are cheaper or more convenient. This is because they are buying more than a product or service – they’re buying into your mission and believe in what you’re doing.

Stage Six – Brand Advocate – Brand advocates are such strong members of your community that they will even start recruiting other members to join. They will encourage others to buy from you, share good customer service stories and willingly answer questions from people.  This is a great stage to be at because people trust recommendations and are more likely to buy from you as a result.

Stay tuned for the second instalment of Robin’s talk which focuses on getting your audience to engage with you. If you can’t wait until next week though, you can view his presentation on Slideshare.

How to Promote Your Event, Club, Group or Community

Whether you’re organising an event, creating a community or putting together a club or group, once you’ve signed up to Eventility, there are lots of different ways to promote it. Below is a quick guide to some of the methods you can use to raise awareness, create excitement and encourage people to join your group.

Social Media

With billions of people using social media sites all over the world, they provide brilliant platforms for promoting and sharing your group or event. Here at Eventility, we’ve made it really simple to share on social media sites and you can even post updates directly to Facebook and Twitter from your Promote tab.

Your Website

Your own website is a great way to let people know about your activities and if someone has made the effort to visit your site in the first place, then chances are that they are more likely to be interested in joining any groups you have created. Adding an Eventility Events Plugin enables members and any visitors to your website to see a live feed of your up-to-date events. Use the Events Plugin builder in the Promote tab of your listing to easily create the features you want to show on your website. When you’ve finished, hit Get the Code, copy the code and just paste it into your website HTML. It’s that easy!

Emails

Email marketing has become an incredibly popular and effective way of reaching out to people. Since the introduction of smart phones, users now have the ability to check their inbox regardless of where they are or what time it is. Sending out emails is a great way to thank people for joining your group, keeping them updated with events and encouraging them to alert and invite others. Simply import your email list from Webmail or an Excel file and within minutes you can send out your notification to all your contacts directly from the Eventility site with a few clicks. You can see when emails are sent, opened and if any have bounced. With new member lists you can now separate your members into different lists e.g. beginners, intermediate, advanced, and email and SMS them separately with different messages.

SMS

A study by Nokia found that the average person checks their mobile phone 150 times per day. Sending out SMS messages to your group members is a sure fire way to promote your event and ensure that your community is kept up-to-date with all your latest news. Setting up auto-reminders means that Eventility will send out your SMS reminders at the time you have specified so it’s one less thing you have to worry about.

With everything you could possibly need to organise and promote your event or group in one easy to manage place, Eventility really couldn’t make it easier. If you need any help, why not use our support site which includes FAQs, access to our forums or email support@eventility.co.uk.

So, if you organise any event, club, group or community and aren’t using Eventility yet, why not give it a try, it’ll help make your give a little bit easier.

Eventility – Group Organisation and Promotion Made Easy.

The Power of Online Communities for Local Businesses Infographic

Social networks have long been seen as a ‘leveller’, enabling local businesses to compete with big brands for a decent share of customer attention. In many respects local businesses are better placed to take advantage of social media than big brands. They find it easier to create meaningful relationships with their customers – they might even be on first name terms – and, since the majority of their customers’ social media connections will also live locally, are well placed to benefit from recommendations.

As well using social networks to engage with existing customers online, businesses are also attracting new ones. The fact that there are over 1 billion smart-phone users and that 40% of mobile searches are for local businesses gives an indication of the importance of having a strong web presence and making your business easy to find.

Yet lots of small businesses are still not tapping into their online communities.

To help fix this situation – we’ve produced this handy infographic which highlights the importance of online communities and how local businesses can make the most of them.

One of the key things the infographic highlights is the sheer number of small businesses that are already using social networks and gaining new customers as a result. Almost three quarters of small businesses use Facebook and over half are using LinkedIn and Twitter. Added to that, research by Manta suggests that 78% of small businesses are gaining a significant proportion of new customers through social media.

Generation Y in particular are using social networks to inform purchase decisions, with 61% turning to social media to decide where to go when going out. Online reviews also play a significant role in this, with 52% saying that positive online reviews make them more likely to use a local business.

Promotions offer a great way to reward existing customers and to attract new ones, with 73% of consumers saying they search for discounts and promotions online. They are also a great way of increasing footfall, with research showing that 59% of consumers have gone into a store or business premises as a result of finding an offer or coupon online.

Of course, social media can’t stand on its own: email marketing is another hugely valuable tool for local businesses. There are roughly 3 billion email users in the world and 19% of all time spent online is devoted to reading and responding to emails. As a marketing tool it is clearly has value – 77% of small businesses have reported email marketing increases their revenues and as a result, 85% plan to increase their use of email in 2013.

It’s also important to consider the role that SMS marketing can play. It’s estimated that 8,000,000,000,000 text messages were sent last year (yes, try saying that number!) and 90% of them were read within 3 minutes. With such a high open rate, it’s a great way to advertise promotions to your community or to send reminders – so long as you’ve got their permission to text them.

Of course, all of this takes time and that’s why we created Eventility. If you haven’t tried us out yet – Eventility brings all of this into one easy-to-use online platform, offering an effective way to manage and promote your business.

You can manage your contacts, organise and advertise events, run targeted promotions, manage your social media engagement, collect customer reviews, add your location to online maps, deliver SMS marketing and send emails with in-built tracking – all using one powerful tool – plus we can power your website too.

www.eventility.com/tour#place

Honourable Intentions – New Year Resolutions and How to Keep Them

New Year resolutions have been made since the beginning of time.  The ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts. The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named. In the Medieval times, the knights took the ‘peacock vow’ at the end of the Christmas season each year to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.

It’s now getting close to the end of January, and the New Year and any resolutions we may have made seem like such a long time ago. We might have promised ourselves go to the gym more often, get up-to-date with the DIY, drink less, join a club, learn a new language or even fall in love.

So, did you make a resolution and keep it, or did you, like so many other people give up after a couple of weeks?

It’s pretty common at this time of year to find people breaking their New Year resolutions.  A 2007 study by Richard Wiseman at the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people found that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions failed, despite the fact that 52% were confident of success at the beginning.

Last year, an Interflora New Year resolution survey found that just 33% said they expected to keep their resolutions for the whole year, 56% were unsure and 11% said that they expected not to keep their resolution. Those sceptical ones were proven right, of the 39% who said they made a resolution in 2011, just 5% managed to keep theirs for 9-12 months. Over a third of last year’s resolvers lasted less than three months with their New Year aims.

What kind of resolutions do people make and break?

Year on year, the top resolutions don’t really change very much and according to the University of Scranton, USA, the top resolutions for 2012 were:

• Lose weight
• Getting organized
• Spend less, save more
• Enjoy life to the fullest
• Staying fit and healthy
• Learn something exciting
• Quit smoking
• Help others
• Fall in love
• Spend more time with family

Why are we so bad at keeping resolutions?

According to Forbes.com, some of the reasons New Year resolutions didn’t stick were:

1. Didn’t make a plan for it – A lot of people forget that a resolution is really just a goal and it requires structure, otherwise, it’s just a wish.

2. Forgot the reasons why you were doing it – Motivation matters and if you don’t know why the goal is important, it’s easy to drop.

3. Didn’t plan for setbacks – No one is perfect, we all fall off the wagon at some point. You need a plan for what to do when this happens and how you’ll get back on that horse.

4. Didn’t have a strong support network – Support is important with any goal, it’s important to surround yourself with people who believe in what you’re doing and want to see you succeed.

5. Took on too much too fast – Many of us get a little over-keen around the New Year, we want to make huge leaps of progress overnight, but real growth is a slow and steady journey.

6. Weren’t accountable to anyone – it’s easy to get persuaded by that nagging negative voice inside your head that says you’re not cut out for this. An accountability partner helps keep you focused and on track, even when you think you’re ready to throw in the towel.

7. It wasn’t that important in the first place – Perhaps you set a goal that others wanted you to set or one you felt you ‘should’ set. It’s easy to give up on something that never really mattered that much to you in the first place.

So, what are the hints for keeping your New Year resolutions?

1. Choose a goal that matters – Don’t do it for anyone else but you. If it’s not something you truly believe in, you’ll never succeed. Take some time out and reflect upon what you really want to achieve.

2. Avoid previous resolutions – Often re-visiting a past resolution sets you up for frustration and disappointment. Choose something new or approach an old problem in a new way. For example, instead of trying to lose 3 stone in weight, try exercising more.

3. Plan ahead – Look for possible obstacles and prepare for how you’ll deal with them.

4. Take it one step at a time – Often people make the mistake of trying to achieve too much. The chances of success are greater when people channel their energy into changing just one aspect of their behaviour.

5. Recognize that things will get hard  – Unexpected obstacles will get the better of you but that’s no reason to give up completely, find ways to forgive yourself and keep motivated.

6. Gather your supporters  – Let them know what you’re doing and why and ask if you can count on them to help you reach your goal. Joining a club or group is a great way to get support from like-minded people and help spur you on when you feel like giving up.

So, if you want to improve your health consider doing classes – Aerobics, Zumba, Sh’bam and Pilates are popular ways to get fit and help lose weight. There’s also the group mentality, which is perfect for that extra ounce of moral support.

Want to meet new people and try something new? Then joining an existing activity group or club could be what you need.

Why not use Eventility.com, to set up your own sports or activity club or join an existing one – you can search for what’s on in your area. Eventility is free and really, really easy to use.

https://www.eventility.com/

Social Media for Sports Clubs Infographic

Of the 6000 plus clubs, groups and communities that use Eventility.com to organise and promote their fixtures and events, sport is one of the most popular areas.  Local clubs and teams, as well as sports organisations such as the Sport and Recreation Alliance and spogo are turning to the web to help reach potential new members, communicate with existing members and organise their activities.

As our CEO, Robin Brattel, says: “Organising a team or club has always been a tricky business, frequently involving the time consuming process of emails and last minute text messages. But social media platforms like Eventility have the power to change all that by providing a free one-stop-shop for team or club organisation and promotion”.

With that in mind, we put together this infographic (below) to look at how sports clubs of all sizes are using social media platforms successfully – and some rather less successfully.

As you’d expect, the London 2012 Olympics were a huge social media triumph. There were over 150m tweets about the Games and 67% of British adults used social media to follow the action live. Spice Girls aside, Usain Bolt attracted the most mentions with tweets peaking at 80,000 per-minute following his victory in the 200m.

Of course, here at Eventility we’re especially interested in how local sporting events make use of the web. It’s encouraging to see that 76% of sports event organisers use social platforms to promote their events, but this figure is only 50% when looking at smaller events.

I’m sure this will improve throughout 2013 – and we feel we’re playing our part by offering an amazing free platform to help clubs stay organised. Just in case you missed our pitch: Eventility helps teams and groups to save time, effort and resources, and to communicate easily with members and reach out to new members.

Sport and Social Media – Eventility Infographic

New Year, New Look and Feel, Plus More Features and Improved Functionality

It’s the New Year so Eventility.com has a fresh new look as well as improved functionality and some fantastic new product features.

Here’s What’s New…

For Clubs, Groups and Communities
Member Lists – Get organised for 2013 with this powerful feature that lets you organise your members into any number of different lists so that you can communicate with them by email and SMS even more quickly and effectively. Learn more
Message Board – Replies are now sent via email to the group organiser and anyone else who replied to the post
Daily Digest Emails  – Roll up of the message board activity and is sent to all group members. A group/event organiser email includes additional activity e.g. new members joined today, number and type of RSVPs
Photo Upload  – Uploading to a group gallery has been improved and now allows multiple images to be uploaded at the same time
Facebook Posting – if you manage multiple Facebook accounts you can now select which ones to post your reminders to (See My Account > Facebook)
Email Controls – We’ve simplified the layout and clarity of the email controls (See My Account > Privacy)

For Places and Venues
Simplified Configuration  – Checkboxes now allow fine granular control of exactly what is displayed on your venue listing
Rooms Descriptions – For managed venues we support the addition of rooms with description, quantity, rate and image
Booking Solutions/Widgets – Other third party booking solutions/widgets can now be included
iLike – Your venues can now be ‘iLiked’ by anyone on the site allowing them to be added to your venue community

For Place and Venue Communities
New Offers Widget – We’ve enhanced our offers engine to work in a similar way to events with organiser and live views. Promote your offers on your site with the new offers widget
Offers Report – A report is now included to reflect the number of downloads, check-ins and the overall redemption rate. Promote your offers on your site with the new offers widget

Mobile App

Our mobile app is on the Android store  with fantastic augmented reality ‘on the horizon’ functionality

Eventility in the Google Chrome Store

Eventility is now available in the Google Chrome webstore. Click here to get a fab shortcut to Eventility whenever you open a new tab in Chrome and don’t forget to rate and review – we love 5 stars!

Eventility.com

We’ve moved to .com! – Don’t worry, all your events are still there on .co.uk

Plus, lots of other tweaks to the site and bug fixes!

We hope you love the new changes as much as we do, so why not go and have a look around on Eventility and try out the new features.

There’s also more information on these changes on our Eventility Support Site.

We’d really love to hear what you think of the new changes or if you have any site requests, so contact us.

Get Organised For 2013 With New Eventility Member Lists

Now that the new year has started in earnest we’ve released our first site update of 2013 –  Eventility introduces all new ‘Member Lists’.

This powerful feature lets you organise your club, group or community members into any number of lists so that you can communicate with them by email and SMS even more quickly and effectively. For example, if you run a team you might have lists of Managers, Players, Treasurers, Captains, Fans, etc. you can easily separate them into different list.

With your lists set-up it’s simple to add new members, or assign existing members to each list, then send texts or emails with a just a couple of clicks.

In addition, with you can also:

• Add your contacts now, but send them a membership invitation later
• Import, view and edit your contacts mobile numbers (until they become members, then it’s up to them!)
• Send emails and texts to anyone in your lists, regardless of membership status
• Filter your contacts by name, status or list

To celebrate this release we’re giving away Free SMS Bundles* to help you get your events straight into the pockets of your members.

This release has been eagerly awaited, and we’ll be rolling out more great features very soon.  We’d love to hear what you think of the new changes…

www.eventility.com

*To claim your free SMS bundle use the Promo Code: MemberList to receive a 100% Discount when you purchase a bronze pack of 100 SMS credits (RRP £10).

Your Events – Simplified

Eventility V3.3 Introduces a Host of New Event Features

Here at Eventility we love your feedback and are working hard to over-deliver on our promise of ‘Organisation and Promotion Made Easy’.

This week, we’ve got a treat in store when you log-in to add or edit your event. We’ve taken all your feedback and released a new version of our Events Engine with an even simpler interface!

Click the image below or this link to play the 1 minute video overview

Here are a few of the key updates

• New events check-list guides you through five simple steps
• Flip from “Organiser View” to “Live View” and see how your event looks to others
• Event descriptions can be five times longer and include rich-text formatting
• Attendance tracking has powerful email reporting (opened, clicked, bounced, etc.)
• Ticketed events
  • Absorb our charge into the ticket cost
  • Ask up to three questions when someone orders their tickets
  • Create promotional codes
• Promote your event
  • Straight to Facebook or Twitter
  • As a Facebook event
  • With a button on your website
  • With a short link (http://evty.co/)

As always, we love to hear your feedback so please keep it coming. We’ve got lots more great updates in store just around the corner.

The Eventility Team