Eventzi Blog — Use Eventzi for online event registration and management.

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Communicating better

by Scott Purdie on September 14, 2009

Not Good Enough

Last month we got a slap in the face by one of our users and rightly so. It was for a problem with Eventzi and as we went along more problems popped up.

When people tried to buy tickets, certain email addresses would get a message saying, “please enter a valid email address”. It turned out that the issue was due to our team blocking email addresses with full stops in the first part of the email e.g. scott.purdie@purdie.com, because the top email providers dont allow it, however commercial businesses do. The problem affected the hosts ticket sales, which isnt good at all.

After the initial investigation, more problems were hitting this user with buttons disappearing due to upgrades the team made without seeing changes i had made. Then when we had that sorted the credit card option wasn’t appearing and the event host had to change settings on PayPal.

Problem was, we were poor at communicating from start to finish. We didn’t communicate well with the person who initially reported the problem (its should have been acknowledged within an hour, the problem made clear a lot earlier and it shouldn’t have been a problem at all. Superb customer service is a constant target.

Improving

After reviewing what went wrong, we have reworked our internal process for dealing with problems. We will acknowledge the problem asap, then get every single detail possible, then work on it until its fixed with updates each day for the user.

After a fresh slap in the face has done us the world of good, it became clear that the processes we were using were wrong. We should give new users a guide to getting started when they sign up, while setting the right expectations from the start. Problems should be communicated and solved with less pain.

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HOW TO: Creating Header Images For An Event Page

by Scott Purdie on August 10, 2009

Adobe Photoshop is the most powerful editing software for images. It has a lot of great features and can be used by professionals or amateurs. If you need to do something on photoshop, a quick google search will uncover a range of tutorials, the YouTube videos are best.

However, Photoshop is very expensive and not everyone can afford it. However there are free alternatives to Photoshop. If you want to edit images for your event please consider GIMP. Once you get past the name, its all good.

GIMP is the most popular free alternative to Photoshop. It works on Windows, Mac and Linux. You can download it here.

windows_crop

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Make More Sales

by Scott Purdie on July 9, 2009

On our Twitter account we promote Seth Godin’s genius every day, I don’t use genius lightly either, I am serious.

Today he released a hot blog post called the best new way to make an internal sale. You can get your attendees to do the talking, this is brilliant.

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Use Visible Tweets At Your Event

by Scott Purdie on June 24, 2009

If you are keen to show tweets from Twitter at your event, you should check out Visible Tweets!

It lets you display a visualisation of Twitter messages which have been designed to be displayed in public spaces, with elegance. You could use it on display screens to show conversations about a particular topic.

To get started, just type a word into the box and then let the app do its thing. It then shows continuous tweets. This would be a great tool for conferences, concerts or wherever people will gather and write tweets.

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Fast Checklist To Promote Your Event Online

by Scott Purdie on June 16, 2009

Talking about your event in advance
Create an event with Eventzi
Send invites
Set registration questions (You will get this tool in Eventzi V2)
Add event to Facebook, Eventful, Zvents,Upcoming, LinkedIn and Oodle (We will build this in automatically in V2)
Share the build up on Twitter, Facebook, your Blog or Site
Use registration questions to form content for the event
Get everyone you know to share your event on social sites (Click the share this button on your event page
Create a hash tag for your event on Twitter (Get tickets to #yourevent here)
Share all the pictures, videos, stories, etc from the event
Build your list for the next event
Gather feedback to make it better
Give attendees what they want
Keep the conversation going
See Step 1

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How To Use Social Media To Promote Your Event

by Scott Purdie on June 14, 2009

If you aren’t using social media to promote your event, you probably should get started now. Social media and social networks let you tap into niche topics with your attendees. You can see what interests them and what they problems they have. Lets say you run a workshop for start ups you can manipulate your message to tie in with what interests or problems they have and personalise what you are trying to say.

Why use social media

Social media is free, which I can promise is cheaper than anything in the world

Its more effective than most types of advertising because with advertising, converting sales based on the advert relies on guesswork at some stage. Direct mail is still powerful but being in a conversation is the most powerful. The reason its so powerful is that you can understand what people like and don’t like, quickly! If they like you and what you do then there’s a greater chance of them becoming customers. If they don’t like you or what you do then you have a chance to learn, convince them and improve.

Personalise the message

With social networking you can personalise each message you send and get creative. Try different things and see what works. You can be a lot more real in a conversation than you can with standard promotions. You will have noticed we have a feedback button on our site. This helps us to get into conversations with our users whether they are happy or not. For us, its an ongoing conversation and you can do this as well with your event. Feedback is so powerful and you can learn all about attendees and alter your messages to suit their preferences. On social networks you can add humour, emotion, entertainment and value from topics outwith your business to add an edge to the conversation.

Share things with value

Share and provide value before you expect to get benefits. Based on their interests you can send them to some cool blogs that has great ideas like Seth Godins or an expert in the field, for start ups this could be Mixergy. You can also send them them to online tools they might find useful, especially if they compliment your event. This develops more trust than a typical advert where there is little meaning behind the promotion.

Connecting with people

The problem with any new business or event is that getting access to the people making the business decisions is tough, but very do-able. Get involved with the people lower down the scale and ask for an introduction, you might even meet more useful people along the way, we have. You have to benefit them before you can expect to benefit.

Worldwide microphone

The reach online is huge. Social media has provided the ability to communicate with thousands of people, really easily and for free. You just cant achieve this with magazines or newspapers. You can share a wide variety of media to an audience of millions. There are search engines to find results, news, photos, videos and audio. The more value you pump into your videos on Youtube, images on Flickr, songs on Itunes or blog posts on Wordpress, the more chance the top blogs will see you and can write about you.

Top social media sites

Credit to Spencer E Holtaway for the awesome graphic.

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What Is Twitter?

by Scott Purdie on June 4, 2009

I still speak to a lot of people who don’t know what Twitter is, so I have included the best Twitter explanation video ever!

Once you understand how it works, you should check out our post on how to promote your event with twitter.

There are also some cracking tools to use with Twitter.

Twitter Search

Twitter search is super powerful for your event. You can search for the name of your events and see what people are saying about you event on twitter. This is great for finding people you didn’t already know and interacting with them. They might be promoting your event, praising or complaining, either way, you can get into the conversation to say thanks or help out with any problems.

Tweetdeck / Seesmic Desktop

Just now I prefer Tweetdeck but they are pretty similar. They sit on your desktop and help you manage Twitter.

Which ever one you choose, it is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening about your event now, in real-time, connecting you with people across Twitter and more. They show you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organised and up to date.

Hootsuite

HootSuite is the ultimate Twitter toolbox, you can manage multiple Twitter profiles, add multiple editors, pre-schedule tweets, and measure your success. HootSuite lets you manage your entire Twitter experience from one easy-to-use interface. I use this more than Tweetdeck and it is absolutely sensational. I manage everything I use Twitter for on it, its brilliant.

Let me know what you think in the comments, I really hope you use this to kick ass!

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How To Promote Your Event With Facebook

by Scott Purdie on June 1, 2009

Facebook is becoming more like everyone’s online personal identity every day. This is important because a lot of people want to do everything on Facebook and never have to leave. I’m sure you have noticed that events are a huge part of Facebook.

Here are some tactics to using Facebook to promote your event.

We recommend that you promote your event on loads of sites. At the very least, you give a potential attendee a way to a way to find your event.

Facebook has some cool features for events. You should start by creating an event page on Facebook for your event. You can see our business page here. Remember to add a link back to your Eventzi event page in the space provided for the URL. You can then invite people to become fans of your event.

Ok for the kick ass tactics.

On Facebook you can ask people who cant come to say they are attending. Get people from everywhere, people if they will do it as a favour, it wont cost anything even if they say no. The best people to target are the ones with large networks or one with a focus on your event’s ideal attendee location e.g. New York.

So, who is friends with the people I’d like to have attend? If they say they are attending, all their friends can see your event! (free promotion) This can can have a huge viral kick on. Wooop!

Another tactic you can use that is similar to a tactic I used when I was young, and wanted people to do what I was doing. “Wanna play football? Ross, Grant and Mark are playing too!” (before i had asked Ross, Grant or Mark) If it appears that they could be missing out or not joining in, theres a far greater chance they will come along.

You can ask a few people who all share a lot of common friends to accept an invite at the same time. It looks like your event will be packed and “I should get my ass moving to buy a ticket, sharpish!” If you add this tactic with the friends who cant come but say they are, you are onto a winner baby!

If there are any other tips or tricks you have, drop them into the comments below!

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How To Promote Your Event With Twitter

by Scott Purdie on May 4, 2009

I am constantly telling everyone to use Twitter for their business this includes using it to promote your events online.

Here are some tactics to using Twitter to promote your event.

Some of the big events who don’t miss a trick have dedicated Twitter pages for their events. Checkout Loic + Geraldine Le Meur’s “Le Web” twitter page. Its really clever, because the event has its own voice away from anything else.

You can do this as well and it takes a few seconds to set up. On the Le Web Twitter page you can see how they chat to attendees and release cool news and updates about it. Its a real time conversation. Don’t spam out the same information again and again, offer up some value within each tweet.

To start off, just follow people that are interested in what your event provides. This is the only way to get people to follow you back unless you are a celebrity. Drop them a message saying hey and bingo, you are on your way. Each person you follow is an instant, non intrusive advert to people who may be interested in your event.

Post relevant updates about your event the closer it get by announcing speakers and engaging with other Twitterers on topics of relevance to your event.

This is also a great way of expanding your visibility beyond your immediate network, by using Twitter Search on your profile page or Hootsuite (which is what we use) to find other people who are talking about relevant topics to your event. For example, if your event is about indie music, you could find other people who are Twittering on the subject of indie music, grab their attention, engage with them via replies or direct messages they will end up following you. As a bonus you also gain the attention of all the people following them as well.

Get your mates who use Twitter to send out tweets about your event. Remember, that recommendations from person to person are how things are built and developed, especially online. What i am seeing more of now is that people who attending the event are tweeting that they are going to attend. This is the best bit of free promotion ever, ever ever.

Once your event has finished keep the conversation kicking by chatting about the next event. Post links, share valuable information, get feedback and tweet about ideas you have. With these tactics, you will have an audience of potential attendees waiting on your tweets.

Follow Eventzi on Twitter here.

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Eventzi Just Got Better: New Lower Fees

by Scott Purdie on April 14, 2009

So I was talking to a lot of users and potential users this week. I took away some great feedback from what our users had to say about Eventzi. The main thread was that our $1 fee was preventing events with low ticket prices to get started with us. On the other hand, users who were using us didn’t realise how much we packed in for the price.

We have done something pretty remarkable i think, we have set the Eventzi fees at $0.20 or £0.10 per ticket sold. This will help low priced ticketed events to use our service, while large high priced ticketed events save even more. If you were paying roughly $1.50 or £1 in total you are now paying around $0.50 or £0.30 in total per ticket sold.

We set fees at a reasonable price but when starting the business i wanted any individual or small business to see Eventzi and jump on board. I dont think the recession is helping because everyone is looking at fees and prices as an expense. I think this will help every event host out there in these times and look upon our service as an investment for themselves and their attendees. We are now 5 times less expensive than any online competitor.

I really want event hosts to rock and i think this might encourage you to stay lean and to keep entertaining, teaching and having fun!

PS: I’m the customer service guy as well. I love getting your feedback and hearing about your events. Drop me an email at scott@eventzi, use our Feedback tab over there on the right or send a tweet to us on Twitter.

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