Category: Saffire

At Your Service!

What constitutes “good service” is changing. The Internet has made self-service very attractive. Getting out of your PJ’s to do a job isn’t even a requirement. Explaining your needs to an actual live human being? Hardly necessary. Creating a clear definition of your project to hand over to an expert? Nah, just sign up and … Continue reading “At Your Service!”

AtYourService

What constitutes “good service” is changing. The Internet has made self-service very attractive. Getting out of your PJ’s to do a job isn’t even a requirement. Explaining your needs to an actual live human being? Hardly necessary. Creating a clear definition of your project to hand over to an expert? Nah, just sign up and get started!

In fact, whether you’re shopping for new furniture or concert tickets, most of us find it easier to grab our iPad and “just do it” without reaching out to anyone for help.

But what if you need to do something just a little out of your comfort zone? Like build a website or sell your own event tickets? Is pure self-service the way to go? It might seem attractive if your budget is teeny-tiny, since it generally uses an inexpensive online service and there is no “guy” you have to pay for the service. But when it comes right down to it, this can be a very scary path because on the web, it’s not IF something will go wrong, but WHEN. And when you’ve only got one shot at selling your tickets online, it’s imperative your website and ticketing systems work.

Burned by the DIY approach, folks tend to flip the script and try full service instead.  It feels like a “safer” way to go. But we’ve heard so many horror stories. Event managers left in the lurch when their website or ticketing “guy” wasn’t available or went on vacation, always when he was needed most. Or worse, they were charged top dollar for terrible service provided by a huge organization with no personal connection or skin in the game.

Saffire believes that being At Your Service means you can manage any part of your website and ticketing on your own, and we’re just a quick chat away if you ever need help. Prospective clients ask us, “Do you enter my site content, or do I? Do you create my tickets, or do I?”

Our answer usually surprises them – “What would you prefer?”

Let’s put it another way; what does great service look like to you? Are you a “tinkerer?” Awesome! We have step-by-step videos and articles to help you manage any part of your website and ticketing. Does the thought of setting things up or making changes scare you? Not a problem! We are happy to do it for you, or hold your hand while we show you how it’s done. For our most timid or technology-challenged clients, our favorite moment is when they end up feeling smart and empowered to manage things for themselves. We’ve got their backs all along the way, ensuring the warm-fuzzies instead of cold feet!

Saffire’s hybrid approach to service represents the best of both worlds and the “latest and greatest” of service in the age of technology. We get to meet people where they are, helping them ooze with the confidence that they can ease into managing raging website and ticketing success on their own, with us right by their side as a safety net, just a call, chat or email away.

For over 7 years it’s worked for us, and it’s worked for the clients we love. Listen to them. We sure do.

 

Two of our happy clients! 

“I’m just really not sure where to start in describing what an amazing experience we had in launching our new website with Saffire. From receipt of their response to our request for proposal to our go live launch date, every single interaction with our Saffire team was beyond ideal. Their design team is smart and intuitive. Their customer service is so over the top that they literally redefine the term “customer service”. And after you launch, you are part of this amazing culture of excellence as part of the Saffire family. Hands down, bar none, choosing to go with Saffire for our new website was the best decision our office has made at least in my time with the Conroe CVB if not in our history.”
Sherry Morgan, Event & Marketing Manager
Conroe Convention & Visitors Bureau

“I am beyond excited about where I think our event can go with the help of Saffire. We will no longer get lost in the crowd of fairs! From the incredible customer service to the educational webinars, it’s clear that Saffire honestly wants to improve the overall online presence of the event industry! I have never been more pleased with a company we were working with and I’m glad we are a part of this movement.”
Brittni Kaczyk
San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo

 

 

 

 

 

What’s Your Social Story?

Snapchat! Facebook! Instagram! Other than all being social platforms what do they have in common? “Stories!” Snapchat created the original Stories feature where users could upload snippets of their life and offered fun photo filters that would change your face, voice or background. In the past nine months, both Instagram and Facebook have released their … Continue reading “What’s Your Social Story?”

Snapchat! Facebook! Instagram! Other than all being social platforms what do they have in common? “Stories!” Snapchat created the original Stories feature where users could upload snippets of their life and offered fun photo filters that would change your face, voice or background. In the past nine months, both Instagram and Facebook have released their own Stories feature and it looks almost identical to Snapchat’s version.

Where should you tell your Story?

So now that the three big social media platforms have the same feature, which one should you use to tell your Story? Well first off, Facebook is seeing incredibly slow growth in utilization of the Story feature. Additionally, Facebook isn’t allowing Facebook Pages to create a Story yet, as this is currently only for individual profiles. We imagine this will be rolled out to Pages and advertisers sometime over the next year.

The advantage of Instagram Stories is that if you already have a maintained Instagram profile, you do not need to acquire new followers like with Snapchat – you have instant reach because of your existing followers. Additionally, Instagram Stories has surpassed Snapchat with the most daily users, with 50 million users using Stories!

Not surprisingly, there has been a significant decline in Snapchat usage and downloads since the launch of Instagram Stories. The functionality is just too similar. However, Snapchat has captured a much younger audience than Instagram, which is heavily used by Millennials that are starting to move into their thirties. Snapchat is still the perfect platform to capture this younger audience.

One of the great things about Stories is that you can save the video to your device from any of the three platforms, so there really is no reason to choose just one! Get out and make some great content and post it to Snapchat, save it and then upload it to Instagram Stories and finally head over to Facebook and upload your video to your Page’s timeline! Someday you should be able to upload directly to Facebook stories, but in the meantime, newsfeed videos are still very attention grabbing and successful.

As you know, video content is king, so get out that phone and start creating content!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saffire Welcomes Amy Pelzl

Austin, TX – Saffire, LLC, a fully integrated website and ticketing provider to over 330 clients across the United States, has announced the hiring of Amy Pelzl as their Director of Ticketing Partnerships.  Amy is a 33-year ticketing veteran with experience in sales, marketing and operations for various markets including performing arts and venues, college … Continue reading “Saffire Welcomes Amy Pelzl”

AmyPic

Austin, TX – Saffire, LLC, a fully integrated website and ticketing provider to over 330 clients across the United States, has announced the hiring of Amy Pelzl as their Director of Ticketing Partnerships.  Amy is a 33-year ticketing veteran with experience in sales, marketing and operations for various markets including performing arts and venues, college and professional sports, fairs and festivals. Amy joins Saffire after spending 9 years with ExtremeTix where she performed many functions including Account Manager, Client Development Manager, Director of Strategic Accounts, Director of Marketing and most recently a role focusing on developing new business within the fair and festival industries.

Saffire founder, Kendra Wright said “Amy’s wealth of ticketing experience and knowledge make her a key addition to our team. As Saffire continues to see explosive growth in the ticketing industry, having someone with Amy’s experience on board is essential, especially as new ticketing services are added, such as the ability to sell reserved seating tickets.”

The ticketing component of Saffire is called SaffireTix, which combines three points of sale (including online, physical tickets and gate sales) into one handy system for comprehensive, up-to-the-minute reporting.

Saffire is the first industry provider to incorporate full website management into its ticketing offering, via its Spark™ content management system. Spark gives clients complete control over website content, navigation, homepage features, event calendar and more. Further, the system allows clients to schedule web content including site-wide messages, events, event tickets and homepage features. This gives Saffire clients one place to manage all items for sale, and their customers one interface and URL throughout the shopping process.

Additionally, Saffire offers unlimited customer support. “Our support is second to none. We provide email, phoneand chat support, and our goal is to answer questions within ten minutes. We also provide Saffire U, an 8-week site launch training process, which breaks website creation up into eight areas of online success. Finally, we provide ongoing webinars, newsletters, town hall client calls and more to help our clients be successful online,” said Saffire’s president Aaron Pederson.

To congratulate Amy or to learn more about Saffire and SaffireTix, feel free to email Amy directly at amy@saffire.com or on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amypelzl/

 

 

 

4 Inexpensive Ways to Go Above & Beyond for Your Sponsors!

By: Jodi Buresh   So the other day in the office, we had a current client ask us if we know of any good ideas on how to report back to their sponsors after their event.  This client was looking for presentation ideas and what to include to show a little more value in that … Continue reading “4 Inexpensive Ways to Go Above & Beyond for Your Sponsors!”

By: Jodi Buresh

 

So the other day in the office, we had a current client ask us if we know of any good ideas on how to report back to their sponsors after their event.  This client was looking for presentation ideas and what to include to show a little more value in that sponsorship. That got us thinking about how all of our friends in the event, venue and destination industries have more than likely solicited sponsorship at some point, so we thought we would put out a post!

The standard basic recap report usually shows the typical statistics of the event, the demographics and how many visitors viewed their website or social media page.  But this client was looking for something ‘different’, something unique that will set them apart from the other events that are trying so desperately to secure the dwindling sponsorship dollars.

For those of you that don’t know, before Saffire, I was the Assistant General Manager at the Red River Valley Fair Association in West Fargo, North Dakota. While at the fair, I helped generate thousands in sponsorships and without those dollars, our events would not have been successful. Below are my top four suggestions to go above and beyond the event recap:

  • Video – If you have a Day Sponsor or Event Sponsor, take a video on the day of the event. For example, we had the Electric Company as a day sponsor for Kids day at the Fair.  On their day, I videotaped myself in front of kids on a carnival ride.  The script read: “Hey Electric Company.  This is Jodi Buresh and we are SO HAPPY that you are our sponsor for today at the Red River Valley Fair.  As you can see, the kids are enjoying the great weather and are having a blast.   We truly appreciate your support!!!”  Throughout the day I took a few more short videos of people or photos of them.  Later that evening, I combined those into a quick video using a video editor.  I used Animoto.com to create the video.  It was easy and took less than 15 minutes.  I would then email it off to the sponsor before I would leave that night!   Cost:  $0
  • Photos – I am a visual person which means I like to show our sponsors what they are getting for their dollars. One year we had a major sponsor for one of our grandstand entertainers.  To show them how much we appreciated their sponsorship, I made a sign with their logo on it.  I got pre-approval from the Stage Management, and asked the entertainer to take a photo with the sign.  That sponsor was so grateful for that photo that they have it framed and hanging in their entryway of their office.   Cost:  $10 for the frame.
  • Gifts – Sponsors appreciate small tokens of appreciation, but they do not want their sponsorship dollars to be spent on gifts back to them. If you are planning to give your sponsors an appreciation gift, be cognizant of the cost.  One year we ordered small individual bags of cotton candy.  Printed a label for the front of it using the Fair’s Marketing scheme for that year.  When I went for the Recap Report appointment, I took along the cotton candy bag.  Cost:  $2 each bag.
  • National Sponsors – Sometimes National Sponsors expect more information from their sponsorship to justify the cost they are spending to be a part of the organization. The Farm Show that we hosted had free admission, so it was difficult to give an accurate count on how many people attended the 3-day event.  We utilized aerial photos showing the parking lots and the grounds packed with people to help secure the sponsor for future years.  We also had additional photos of people near their booth interacting with their sales people.  Cost:  $0

 

There are so many more ideas out there on how to engage more with your sponsors and being creative with the recap reports.  We welcome your suggestions and ideas and will plan to share those in some upcoming issues of The Dirt.  Please send those to us at info@saffire.com

GETTING HEALTHY WITH TECHNOLOGY

By Kendra Wright, Founder of Saffire Although I work in the digital marketing industry, I have a love/hate relationship with technology and how it applies to my life. I love it as a marketing medium and I’m truly fascinated by great user interface design (nerd alert!), but I feel technology plays too high a role … Continue reading “GETTING HEALTHY WITH TECHNOLOGY”

By Kendra Wright, Founder of Saffire

Although I work in the digital marketing industry, I have a love/hate relationship with technology and how it applies to my life. I love it as a marketing medium and I’m truly fascinated by great user interface design (nerd alert!), but I feel technology plays too high a role in my life sometimes. And when I see a group of people at dinner, all together, but each staring only at their devices, it makes me sad.

So how do I find peace with technology? I try to use it as much as possible in ways that benefit me.

We all have our “stuff.” For me, it’s this. Another birthday is looming. My dad’s heart disease is progressing. I’ve recently had stress-related health issues.

I have renewed interest in getting healthy. And to be honest, I think this is an area where technology can actually help us. Living a healthier life encompasses mind, body and spirit. So I’m going to share a few tools I think can help you in each area.

Body Fitness with Technology

Let’s start with getting our body fit. Let’s face it, finding the time to exercise is a constant struggle. At least it is for me, so I’d like to share a couple of ideas.

First, I know many of us use Fitbit. I’m a super fan, and there is a specific (non-overwhelming) way I use it. Sure, I try to get in my 10k steps, at least more days than not. But there is a feature called Active Minutes that takes it to the next level.

True to the name, Active Minutes are the number of minutes you’re active during the day; active is defined as more strenuous than casual walking. (There’s a geeky term called METs, or metabolic equivalents that measure activity. A MET of 1 is a body at rest; FitBit counts over 3 METs as “active.”) But here’s the catch. Active Minutes are only awarded after 10 minutes of continuous activity. Buzzing around the office or house generally doesn’t count.

The CDC says we need 150 hours a week (or about 25 minutes per day) of moderate-intensity activity, like brisk walking. So here’s my recommendation: to get your 25 minutes a day, go for a walk. When you’ve gone 13 minutes, start back. Viola! You got your 25 minutes!

But that’s not all. CDC also recommends 2 or more days a week of strength exercises. For this, I love an app called Seven.

The Seven app is based on a study in the American College of Sport’s Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal. It found that people could get health benefits in less time, with no special equipment, by doing interval training in just seven minutes.

For time-constrained event managers, Seven is magic. Because no matter how busy we are, who can honestly say we can’t find seven minutes?

I won’t say these are the most pleasant seven minutes of my day, but I always feel good when I do it, and I even break a little sweat and feel a little (good) sore on occasion.

A Healthier Spirit with Technology

Is it just me, or is there a trend toward talking about mindfulness? Maybe it is me; I’ve been in need of some mindfulness lately. If you look at my phone, I have downloaded eight apps that help to slow down the mind and live in the present moment. Here are several that have been very helpful.

If you are new to meditation, try 10% Happier. This app is awesome to help you get over the hump and figure out where to start.

10% Happier has a seven-day introductory program that does a great job of not only explain HOW to meditate, but the WHY of meditation. You may recognize the name Dan Harris. He is a correspondent for ABC News who had a panic attack on air a few years ago and began meditating.

Harris eventually wrote the book 10% Happier and released a corresponding app to help people get started with a meditation practice. The best thing I can say about it is, Dan Harris is so normal and relatable that it encouraged me to actually do it.

After seven days, it costs $10/month for courses on everything from improving communication to stopping mindless overeating. Although this is a bit expensive for an app, it is worth it to really get the hang of it and keep you on the wagon.

But 10% Happier isn’t the only tool in my mindfulness arsenal. I love the app called Simply Being ($2) for a quick stop in the day (or to put me to sleep). This app is another good place to start a practice, and it offers flexibility for a 5 to 30 minute break. Power Nap is a free app that helps you take a 30-minute nap and wake up refreshed.

For a more varied experience, I love another free app, Insight Timer. The name comes from being a meditation timer, dinging a bell when you are finished. But there are also over a thousand free guided meditations. You can browse or search by particular interest, like sleep or music or anxiety. Then bookmark your favorites to easily find them again.

A Healthier Mind with Technology

Does technology make us smarter? Does it make our lives easier? If you haven’t seen your to-do list dwindling, you’re not alone. But one thing that can help is the ease with which you can find someone to help you with anything. A healthier mind is sometimes as easy as getting things off your plate. And if you’re willing to work virtually, the world truly is your oyster.

One helpful website and app is called Fiverr. Fiverr matches you with people to outsource anything you can imagine. Basic gigs are just $5, although there are many options to spend more on bigger jobs, rush services and more. Fiverr is a great example of the global economy, because you can hire someone from anywhere in the world, including places where $5 has much more value than in the U.S.

My company uses Fiverr most commonly for data entry, online research and work with our CRM (customer relationship management) software. We’ve even used Fiverr to hire a puppet to record
an announcement for a new service, a voice announcer for a podcast and many other tasks! Free your mind from tasks that don’t represent your unique gifts with Fiverr.

If you need project-based freelancers, consider Upwork. You can find designers, writers and more to work for you on an hourly basis. You can hire individuals and even teams on Upwork.

Lastly, if project work just isn’t enough to fulfill your need, you can find full-time assistance at VirtualStaffFinder.com. This is a company started by an American in the Philippines, to help match Filipino workers with employers all over the world, in an array of skill sets. If you’re open to having a virtual member of your team, try Virtual Staff Finder.

I hope these tools are helpful (rather than overwhelming!). I think if you can find ways technology can really make your life better, it can lead to peace. If you have ideas for other types of tools and apps for me to feature, I hope you’ll email me!

Peace.

Bio

Kendra Wright started her career managing non-profit fundraising events. Then in an “about face,” she took a job managing global Internet strategies at a Fortune 1000 company in 1995, just as the Internet came to being. She left that company in 1998 to found Wright Strategies, working with clients like KEEN Footwear, Nike, Jeep, Chrysler, Intel and Panasonic. Then in 2009, Kendra launched Saffire to do integrated online marketing and ticketing for hundreds of events, venues and destinations. It’s been a wild ride! Kendra can be reached at kendra@saffire.com, and more information about Saffire can be found at www.saffire.com.

 

Written for IFEA

Getting Healthy With Technology was published in the International Festivals & Events Association’s “i.e.: the business of international events” quarterly magazine. The premiere association supporting and enabling festivals and events worldwide. For more information on the IFEA, go to: www.ifea.com.

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Pokemon Go Proves to be a ‘Catch’ for Marketers

With more than 100 million downloads and 20 million daily active users, Pokémon Go became the biggest craze of the summer. Launching all over the world, Pokémon Go creates a whole new realm of advertising which, by now, should be in your back pocket. Pokémon Go is everywhere and is used by an overwhelming number … Continue reading “Pokemon Go Proves to be a ‘Catch’ for Marketers”

With more than 100 million downloads and 20 million daily active users, Pokémon Go became the biggest craze of the summer. Launching all over the world, Pokémon Go creates a whole new realm of advertising which, by now, should be in your back pocket. Pokémon Go is everywhere and is used by an overwhelming number of people; so initially you might be thinking, how can I use this trend to my benefit?

The gamer’s (typically 21 to 27-year-old men) goal is to catch all of the Pokémon, which are creatures of different sizes and types spread throughout your geographical location and will randomly pop up when the app is open. Users also take advantage of the “PokéStops”, which are points on the game map used to collect “PokéBalls”. You can think of “Pokéballs” as small, ball-shaped cages used to store each Pokémon you collect. Users also travel to Pokémon Gyms, used for battling other Pokémon and trainers. The “PokéStops” and Gyms, are normally located near landmarks, statues, parks, churches, etc. which are strategically place to attract many people. This is where the marketing comes in. PokéStops could also be used as a tool by businesses to turn their location into a huge, profitable ad in the virtual world of Pokémon.

One example of an organization using this app to its advantage is the Brown County Fair, located in Aberdeen, SD. Currently they have 8 PokéStops on their fairgrounds and have decided to put them into their marketing strategy. The stops are located anywhere from the Bunny Barn to the Grandstands, which are an easy way to get traffic to these fairground locations. The fairgoers have the opportunity to see parts of the fair they otherwise might have never experienced!

If your organization doesn’t have a PokéStop, and you want one at that location, you can request one. The request forms are here: http://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com

Additionally, if your organization would like a Pokémon Gym on your location, a suggestion can be submitted at http://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com

 

Tips and Tricks

  • Make sure a few people in your organization have a Pokémon Go account, so they can purchase lures, which will help attract Pokémon to your location
  • Put up signs that warn people to stay out of restricted areas.
  • Get a Pokémon logo at each building or monument that has a PokéStop. Signage is important!
  • If a gym is on your property, give the leader of that particular free tickets or prizes if he or she is a leader at a certain time of the day (Advertise this on Social Media to attract more people to battle in the Gym).
  • This could provide incentive for other players to take over your particular gym. The prize for the winner of a PokéHunt or Gym leader could also be PokéCoins.

Staying up to date with the newest tech fads may seem overwhelming at first, but whether it’s giving an extra jump to a small business’s finances or helping double revenue in big corporations, Pokemon Go is a growing force not to be reckoned with.

Pokémon Go is free and available for download through the Apple App Store for iPhone users and the Google Play store for Android users.

 

We want to thank Michaela Liebl for being our Guest Blogger! Michaela is currently a student at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She is looking forward to a career in the fair or festival industries and is currently seeking internship opportunities. To contact Michaela about this article or about potential internship opportunities, please email her at michaela.liebl@wolves.northern.edu

 

 

7 Microsoft Word Tricks!

Many of us use Microsoft Word every day, navigating and utilizing the tool in the same way we did in 1999… minus the cute paper clip guy – we sure miss that guy! The Saffire Team has compiled a list of some of the more unique tips and tricks that we have picked up over … Continue reading “7 Microsoft Word Tricks!”

Many of us use Microsoft Word every day, navigating and utilizing the tool in the same way we did in 1999… minus the cute paper clip guy – we sure miss that guy!

The Saffire Team has compiled a list of some of the more unique tips and tricks that we have picked up over the years. We recommend you open up Word when reading through the list in order to try out some of our tricks!

 

1. Configure Paste Options

Need to cut and paste from a bunch of documents? It can become a formatting nightmare! Word “tries” to be helpful when copied text is pasted into a document by automatically retaining the source formatting, while providing the option to change the text to match the formatting of the current document.

To avoid having to choose formatting option every time text is pasted, click File, followed by Options and then click on Advanced. In the ‘Cut, copy and paste’ heading, you can use the first four drop-down menus to set a default setting for format pasting.

While configuring these options in Word, uncheck the box labelled ‘Show Paste Options Buttons’ to prevent the formatting options pop-up window from being displayed in the future.

 

2. Show and Hide the Toolbar:

Have you ever been typing away and all of a sudden a random mouse click hid your entire toolbar? It’s a simple fix, but in the moment it can be really frustrating!

To get the toolbar back, double-click one of the tabs at the top of the ribbon to toggle the toolbar on and off. Also, you can use the keyboard shortcut – by simply pressing [Ctrl]+[F1].

If you want to hide it, click the up arrow icon on the far right side of the toolbar.

 

3. Utilize the Quick Access Toolbar:

An underutilized tool that can save a ton of time! The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is a small, customizable toolbar that exposes a set of commands that are specified by the application or selected by the user.

The following screenshot shows where QAT can be found and edited.

 

You can pick from a list of 20 shortcuts like print, insert hyperlink, add table, etc.

One of the most necessary shortcuts to add is Print. This will immediately send your document to the printer.

 

4. Remove Formatting:

Your document can get really messy when dealing with varying fonts. If text has been formatted and you change your mind about how it should appear, highlight the section of text, and press [Ctrl]+[Space] and it will clear all formatting!

 

5. Adjust Font Spacing in Headings:

A fairly simple, yet forgotten feature is to adjust text spacing. Text space can be used to help ensure that a heading fits on a single line, rather than wrapping onto a second, or can be expanded to reduce the amount of white space in a line.

Highlight a line of text, right click and select ‘Font’ from the context menu. Then click ‘Advanced’ and ‘Spacing’. The ‘Spacing’ section has a drop-down where you will choose if you want to condense or expand the spacing in-between the letters. Use the up and down arrows in the ‘Spacing’ section to expand or compress it.

 

6. Compare Documents

There are various reasons why you might want to compare two documents. Word provides the option to open two files side by side for this very purpose. However, if you’re using a monitor in portrait mode, document comparison is less useful than having one document displayed above the other.

Open the documents you want to compare and click the ‘View’ tab on the toolbar. Click ‘View Side by Side’ button and then click ‘Arrange All’. Press ‘Synchronous Scrolling’ and you can scroll through both of your documents at the same time.

 

 

7. Paste Text with the Spike:

While the Clipboard provides a useful way to copy and move text around a Word document, there’s a little-known feature called “the Spike” that provides an alternative. Text that is added to Spike is cut from the document and there is no limit to the number of entries that can be added, meaning you can jump around the document cutting certain paragraphs, words or sentences and adding them to the Spike. You can then easily paste all of the cut text and easily paste it in the area of preference.

To add text to the Spike, highlight it and press {Ctrl]+[F3] simultaneously – this can be repeated as many times as required. To paste the contents of the Spike back into a document, you just need to press [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[F3].

 

 

 

Stay Organized with Trello

  Are you having trouble staying organized? Is your wall calendar just not keeping up in the digital world? Here at Saffire, we’ve started using Trello to stay organized! Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and … Continue reading “Stay Organized with Trello”

 

Are you having trouble staying organized? Is your wall calendar just not keeping up in the digital world? Here at Saffire, we’ve started using Trello to stay organized! Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in the process.

Trello uses “cards” which contain each of your tasks or ideas. In each card, you can add members, labels, checklists, any attachments and even a due date. Each card is filed under a list and can be easily moved from list to list. For example, you can have a “to do” list, “overdue” list and a “completed list” and easily move the cards to their appropriate list. Cards and lists are then housed under boards in order to stay organized and keep your projects separate. You can also add an unlimited number of members to a Trello board in order for multiple people to collaborate.

Trello boards can be extremely effective as both a meeting agenda and task tool. We use trello boards to list out our agenda in cards. Then, we take notes under each agenda item, assign a task to someone and put a due date on that action item.

 

 

Another great way to utilize Trello is to place your marketing editorial calendar into a board. You can switch to a calendar view and anyone on your team can see what posts, emails or content is scheduled to be published so your team can plan accordingly, whether that means graphic design or preparing copy for social media.

 

 

For our event planners, this can be an extremely powerful tool to help keep your event prep work organized. Tasks can easily be seen by your team such as when tickets go on sale or entertainment announcements are made. As we all know, plans can drastically change and Trello makes changes easy! Simply drag & drop a card onto a new date on the calendar and the due date will update automatically.

 

 

There are endless uses for this powerful tool! Let us know if you use Trello and how you use it!

 

 

 

 

 

Using the Facebook Events Feature

As we all know, Facebook is the biggest social networking platform in the world with over a billion users. Since its launch, Facebook has evolved and brought new features for users as well as businesses. One of their most improved features are Events, which give an opportunity to individuals as well as organizations to promote … Continue reading “Using the Facebook Events Feature”

As we all know, Facebook is the biggest social networking platform in the world with over a billion users. Since its launch, Facebook has evolved and brought new features for users as well as businesses. One of their most improved features are Events, which give an opportunity to individuals as well as organizations to promote their events on Facebook. Before this change, the Events
feature didn’t work very well for organizations and was a much better tool to invite friends to events such as your backyard barbecue.

After years of research and design, Facebook has improved upon their Events feature and made it a great tool for marketers. Today, over 500 million people search Facebook Events each month to find local events to attend, making the Events feature an important marketing tool to increase attendees.

During a recent presentation by the Facebook Events team, Facebook talked about the new success of the Events Feature with a case study on the event “Water Fight New York NYC.” In 2014, before Facebook started focusing on Events, the Water Fight NYC only had 1,400 attendees showing on their Facebook Event. Then, in 2015, after more features were put in place, the event skyrocketed to 64,000 attendees.


How to Market your Event

For a more guerrilla marketing approach, you can invite your friends list and ask your friends, relatives and event staff to invite their friends and share the event on their personal pages.  You are also able to use the Facebook ads to target your desired audience. When someone says they’re “Going” to your event, it creates a story that may appear in other’s News Feed so that their friends and followers can see they’re going and then decide to attend too.

To grow your attendee list using ads, you’re able to specifically advertise your event. This has a different mission than normal facebook ads, which is to get more attendees and ticket sales.

Event promoters often get better results when they:

  •         Set up a lookalike audience to show ads to people similar to your followers
  •         Use a CPM bidding strategy to get more people to respond to your event and buy tickets
  •         Create a conversion pixel to see which ads worked well and they can also measure performance
  •         Create an ad with using the “Ticket Link” which will allow you to create ads that are optimized to drive ticket sales

What do I do after my event?

So you just finished your event and can finally relax, right? Not exactly. People have connected because they truly care about your event and what you share about it. Facebook’s research has shown that event attendees are wanting the following:

  •         Professional pictures of the event action
  •         Final scores for competitions
  •         To be thanked for attending
  •         To know about future events from your organization

We hope that this has inspired you to add Facebook Events into your marketing efforts. You can also explore some great Facebook resources by reading through Facebook’s Guide to Getting the Most Out of Facebook Events.

Events are about community, culture, experiences and fun and Facebook is the avenue most people choose to share this experience. One inspiring statistic is that within one week of the event, each event attendee, on average, befriends another event attendee on Facebook. Events bring people together!