SocialGO Blog http://www.socialgo.com/blog Latest news from the SocialGO team Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:30:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Two delicious updates and free Google Credit http://www.socialgo.com/blog/two-delicious-updates http://www.socialgo.com/blog/two-delicious-updates#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:18:46 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=916 Continue reading →]]> We’re really hungry today. Can someone bake us some tasty snacks in return for these updates and amazing food puns? Thanks.

Member activity emails

So what’s on the menu today? We’ve cooked up thousands of social websites here at SocialGO – and we know one of the most important ingredients for any community is this:

To keep your community moving, members need to be reminded of what’s happening, and have a constant taste of the action.

That’s why the newest 300 members to your network will now receive email notifications about the latest member activity on your community.

You don’t want people signing up, taking a look around and then never returning – so this is a great way to get them coming back for seconds.

You can turn this off in the ‘advanced settings’ section of your admin center if you really want to – and there’s an unsubscribe link in all emails sent out.

Admin approval on member signup

Site Admins can now select a ‘require administrator approval’ setting baked into the ‘Advanced Settings’ section of their admin centre. When activated, members have to wait for you to approve them (in the ‘Member Manager’ section) before they can start contributing to your network.

This is useful if you want to maintain a fancy, exclusive member base – or if you just want to ensure you keep the bad apples out of your site.

Free Google credit for all!

Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch! We’ve partnered with Google to give all of our paying customers FREE credit for Google’s advertising system.

· Advertise locally: Your ad can be shown to customers searching in your area for what you offer.
· Easy start-up and management: AdWords Express relies on powerful technology and advertising data to set up and automatically manage your ad.
· Pay only for success: You only pay when potential customers actually click on your ads. And, you can change your budget or cancel at any time.

Those on the Premium plan get $50 and our lovely friends on the Concierge plan get $100. Please note this deal is available to paying customers – so not if you’re in your free trial!

To claim your coupon or learn more, please send us a ticket through our help portal – http://help.socialgo.com – and tell us something like “Give me my free google coupon right now”.

]]> http://www.socialgo.com/blog/two-delicious-updates/feed 0 SocialGO Spotlight: Lis Photography http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-spotlight-lis-photography http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-spotlight-lis-photography#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:57:32 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=902 Continue reading →]]>

Lis Figueiredo is a professional photographer who uses SocialGO to manage the online presence of her company – Lis Photography

What is it?

The site is a great way for Lis to promote her services to a wide audience – she’s got galleries of previous work, information about her products and an email form so you can book your own appointment.

How do they use SocialGO?

Liz has worked hard on her custom design using our ‘Canvas’ theme designer and has customized the site to match her existing branding. She’s also got what every great site needs – interesting content that’s regularly updated.


]]> http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-spotlight-lis-photography/feed 0 Time for some more updates! http://www.socialgo.com/blog/time-for-some-more-updates http://www.socialgo.com/blog/time-for-some-more-updates#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:08:14 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=884 Continue reading →]]> New ‘Socializer’ Theme

We’re excited to announce our newest series of ‘Socializer’ themes – available for all sites now. They sport a sleek Facebook-styled design and are formatted to look amazing on mobile phones and tablets.

Private Events

We launched ‘Events’ just before christmas, and now we’re including a much-requested addon for them. You now have the choice to make each event private. When this is selected, attendees can only join the event if they’re invited by the event owner.  

SEO Title

Everyone knows how important it is to get your site on Google – and although this little option won’t get you to the top, it’ll help you make sure your listing displays properly. Click on ‘Page Settings’ for any page to set the ‘SEO Title’. This is what will display in the title bar on browsers, and in the title section of search results.

New Featured Site

Work At Home Mums is an online community and support network for women working from home. What a great idea and, my, what a pretty design!

]]> http://www.socialgo.com/blog/time-for-some-more-updates/feed 0 New features update http://www.socialgo.com/blog/new-features-update http://www.socialgo.com/blog/new-features-update#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:32:13 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=869 Continue reading →]]> The SocialGO elves have been working hard to bring you some sparkling new features before the holiday season. We’ve had loads of requests for Photo Galleries, Private Messaging and Events – so, that’s what you’ve got. Read below to learn more, and happy holidays from SocialGO!

Photo Galleries

 

All site owners can now add photo galleries to their site. Just head to the ‘Build‘ section in your Admin panel, and click ‘Add a Page‘. You have the option of creating a Standalone Gallery, where you can organize photos into albums, or a Community Gallery, which automatically displays all member photos uploaded to your activity streams.


Private Messaging

All members in your community now have their own personal inbox – where they can receive private messages from other members. When a new message is received, a notification pops up and the recipient can carry on the conversation in the message window. Easy!


Events

The Events feature lets you and your members organize meetups, conferences, parties – or any other events related to your community! Once an event has been created and shared, people can mark their attendance as ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or ‘Maybe’ and interact with the other attendees.


Loads of New Themes

Feel like giving your site a fresh look? Check out our latest batch of new themes in the ‘Design’ section of your Admin Panel.
]]> http://www.socialgo.com/blog/new-features-update/feed 5 SocialGO welcomes Kasabian http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-welcomes-kasabian http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-welcomes-kasabian#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:57:23 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=805 Continue reading →]]>
SocialGO is thrilled to announce our partnership with the popular rock band Kasabian. Their new fan community website – KasabianLive.com – is fully powered by SocialGO, and allows Kasabian fans from all over the world to come together, stay in touch with the latest news, interact with the band and connect with other fans.

What’s on the site?

The band uses the blog to keep their fans up to date, which includes video diaries from their tour, competitions and general updates from the band.

When members log-in, they can create their own profile and connect with other fans through IM chat, the forums and ‘The Wall‘. Members can register instantly with their Twitter or Facebook accounts.

The chaps in the band even have their own ‘Test-Transmission’ blog for off-topic posts and funny things they want to share with their fans. Great idea!

Kasabian and SocialGO

KasabianLive.com is an example of how a social website can be a fantastic way to complement a band’s existing social media strategy.

Facebook pages are becoming an essential way for bands to post basic updates and news. But when it comes to really connecting and sharing with fans, the feature-rich community environment of a social website can give a band far more control and insight into their online fanbase.

]]> http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-welcomes-kasabian/feed 5 SocialGO Spotlight: Charleston Restaurant Buzz http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-spotlight-charlestonrestaurantbuzz-com http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-spotlight-charlestonrestaurantbuzz-com#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:28:08 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=764 Continue reading →]]>

Like food? Live in Charleston, South Carolina? Oh. Well even if you don’t, take a look at our new featured site – Charleston Restaurant Buzz.com

What is it?

Robert Harleston build the site with a vision to be the local resource for food lovers in the city of Charleston, South Carolina. It acts as a catalogue of the best places to eat in the area, as well as a social platform where locals can write reviews, chat and share food tips. Tasty.

How do they use SocialGO?

Robert has worked hard to provide as much quality content as possible. Restaurants are categorized into the 5 areas of the city – and each has its own custom page with all the information hungry food-hunters will need.

Robert chose to display his own branding, and used the SocialGO Canvas theme designer to create a great looking custom design. The Canvas theme allows you to customize pretty much everything about your site design – without having to go near a line of HTML or CSS code. Learn more about it here.

If CRB’s growing member base is anything to go by – it looks like it’s shaping up to be a splendid resource for those living in Charleston. Nice work!

]]> http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-spotlight-charlestonrestaurantbuzz-com/feed 0 Let us build your site for FREE! http://www.socialgo.com/blog/let-us-build-your-site-for-free http://www.socialgo.com/blog/let-us-build-your-site-for-free#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:21:57 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=730 Continue reading →]]>
For a limited time only, SocialGO is offering to build you a custom social networking website for free.

If you like what we create for you, then all you pay is hosting and support at $99 per month, minimum contract of 12 months. If you don’t like it, you don’t pay anything and the site simply gets switched off.

Included in the offer is….

Custom design and logo Extensive social media connectivity
Unlimited social pages/functions Facebook Page created/connected
Unlimited members Embedded Facebook Fan Box
Unlimited storage Embedded Twitter feed
Unlimited bandwidth SEO optimisation
Password protected pages Search engine submission
Custom welcome page 2 x 30 min planning consultations
Fully hosted & supported 30 day delivery guarantee
Ongoing updates included Rapid response support

Click here to learn more

]]> http://www.socialgo.com/blog/let-us-build-your-site-for-free/feed 4 SocialGO Spotlight: Haynet http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-spotlight-haynet http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-spotlight-haynet#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:36:43 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=676 Continue reading →]]>

What is it?

Haynet is a social blogging platform for the equine & country life world – it has a strong community of over 300 bloggers that use the site to find and share the latest news and opinions in the horse world.

What do they use?

Haynet’s owner Samantha Hobden wanted to create a collaborative blogging space – where her visitors could not only read her blogs and post on the message boards, but also contribute their own blogs and join the discussion.

SocialGO’s sitebuilder allows site owners to create multiple blogs and publish links to their Twitter and Facebook profiles. Click here to learn more.

With multiple active blogs, a thriving message board, tonnes of user groups and an archive of external blogs – it looks like Haynet’s going to be trotting along for a while! (Sorry.) Keep it up, guys.

]]> http://www.socialgo.com/blog/socialgo-spotlight-haynet/feed 0 ‘Followed member’ activity streams http://www.socialgo.com/blog/follower-only-activity-streams http://www.socialgo.com/blog/follower-only-activity-streams#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:17:32 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=640 Continue reading →]]> Hello Folks! As some of you will already know, we rolled out our new ‘member following’ functionality recently. There’s now a ‘follow’ button on each member profile, and your users can choose who they want to make a connection with.

As a site owner you can now decide whether an activity stream will show all member activity on your site, or only the activity of followed members.

Here’s how…

Head to your site, login via the top black bar and click on ‘Site Builder’.

On the left of the page, click ‘Add a page’ and select ‘Activity Stream’.
When it’s added – click on ‘page settings’.

At the bottom of the settings page, you’ll see these three options for your
activity stream. Remember, members will also receive notifications and see activity from the groups they’ve joined. Select the middle option.

That’s it! Now when someone looks at that activity stream, they’ll only see the activity of the people they’re following.

Learn more about activity streams here.

]]> http://www.socialgo.com/blog/follower-only-activity-streams/feed 1 New features and updates http://www.socialgo.com/blog/new-features-and-updates http://www.socialgo.com/blog/new-features-and-updates#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:30:07 +0000 Henry http://www.socialgo.com/blog/?p=594 Continue reading →]]> We’re excited to announce some brilliant new features for your sites, along with some information about our development roadmap that’s hot off the press! Keep reading to learn more…

Member Following

All members on your site now have a ‘follow’ button on their profile – and everyone in your community can choose who they want to follow. As a site owner, you can select whether an activity stream shows ‘public activity’ or ‘follower and group activity only’. Excellent! We’ll be adding lots of new following-based features in the coming weeks.

New Themes

We add new themes all the time – and here are some shiny new ones just released. We’ve added 4 fresh variations in our ‘Pro‘ theme family. Try them out on your site now!

New Social Icons

The ‘Social Icons’ widget is available in your Site Builder, and allows you to link to all of your external social media pages. Why not try these new designs out on your site?

The future is bright…

Since we launched the new platform, we’ve been collecting ‘Feature Requests’ over at help.socialgo.com. We’ve had some great suggestions and discussions about what should be next for the new SocialGO. You talked, and we’ve listened.

Check out what’s next:

 

  • Events. Allow your users to attend events created by other users. Simple really.
  • Galleries. Create a gallery page to showcase pictures you add – or even ones shared by members.
  • Private Messaging. Offer a way for users to have 1-2-1 messaging.
  • Link sharing in streams. Give a full preview of the links you’re sharing in streams – just like Facebook.
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