Localist Pre-Onboarding Prep

Are you itching to get a head start on preparing for your Localist implementation? If so, we’ve got you covered! Below we’ve outlined some key pieces of information for you to research, identify who needs to be involved, and actions you can take pre-onboarding. 

Event Hosts

In Localist you’ll have the opportunity to add “Groups, which creates a dedicated landing page on your platform and simplifies the event creation process. You can think of “Groups” as clubs, organizations, departments or even stakeholders in your community who are organizing and hosting events. 

• Research: Is a list of applicable groups available?
• Action: Pull these groups into a CSV. 

Event Locations 

You’ll also have the opportunity to add “Places”, which creates a dedicated landing page on your platform and simplifies the event creation process. 

• Research: Is a list of applicable places available?
• Action: Pull these places into a CSV with their name + address. 

Custom Domain

Your platform’s URL can be its own domain, such as events.com, or it can be a subdomain of your website, such as events.website.com. 

• Research: What domain will you be using? 
• Action: Determine who in your organization is responsible for managing domains and loop them into your onboarding plans.

Single Sign-On

Does your organization use SSO for easy account management? Localist can integrate with CAS, LDAP, Shibboleth/SAML2 and OpenID.

• Research: Will you be using SSO for logins?
• Action: Determine who in your organization is responsible for managing SSO and loop them into your onboarding plans. To get the ball rolling, check out our SSO documentation here: https://support.localist.com/single-sign-on. 

Branding 

You can use an existing header/footer on your Localist platform, or stick with light branding using your logo and color palette.

• Research: What pairing of your header/footer would you like to use? What page of your website includes this pairing?
• Action: Determine 1) who will be responsible for branding and 2) where your branding guidelines are located and 3) whether you’d like to apply a header/footer to the platform. 

Event Content

During onboarding, you can migrate existing event content with feeds or bulk CSV uploads to your Localist platform.

• Research: How can existing content be exported? Are ICS, RSS, or CSV feeds available?
• Action: Gather all applicable feed URLs.

🎯 10 Common Questions: Part 4 🎯

Have you ever wondered what questions other customers are asking? Wonder no more! We’ve rounded up some of the most asked questions below. 

Missed our other Common Questions? You can check out 1, 2, & 3 here!

Q: Are Tags & Keywords case sensitive?

A: Both Tags and Keywords are not case sensitive. So for example, if you use the Tag “Localist” and the Tag “localist” they will be seen as the same regardless of case.

Q: What’s the difference between Bulletin and Digest?

A: Bulletin and Digest allow you to send event newsletters from your Localist platform. Bulletins are sent by Bulletin Admins and have a higher level of layout and content flexibility. 

On the other hand, Digests are a self-serve way for users to send events to themselves based on Groups, Departments, Places, Filters, and Tags/Keywords. 

Q: What does ‘Include Matching Instances’ mean when creating Event Lists in the Chanel/Bulletin Layout Editor?

A: When creating Channel or Bulletin Event Lists, the ‘Include All Matching Instances’ checkbox functions as follows:

• When checked, the list will show all instances of a Recurring Event. 
• When unchecked, only the first instance of a Recurring Event will be displayed, and once that event is in the past, the next instance will hop in its place.

Q: What Metrics are available in Localist?

A: On a platform-wide basis, the following metrics reports available to Platform Admins:

• Approval Response Time
• Attendee Geography
• Events Created
• Trending Events
• Social Activity
• Users Created

On a per-event basis, Event Admins will find these metrics via each event’s edit form:

• Attendees
• Attendee Geography
• Page Views

Q: Will approved events go back to the Pending Queue if a user makes edits?

A: Yep! Once a base-level user edits their event, it will go back into the Pending Queue and become unpublished until an Event Admin reviews it again.

Q: How can I export events from Localist?

A: If you’re able to integrate with a standard ICS or RSS Feed, you can export events from the calendar on the All Events page, Filtered pages, or Event Details pages by selecting either the Apple iCal or RSS icons. 

If neither of the above work or you prefer to work in JSON, then you would use the API. The only caveat here is that this will only return raw data as per usual with APIs.

Q: Can I include HTML in the description of a CSV upload?

A: Yup, sure can! The following HTML tags are supported when included in an event’s description in CSV/ICS/RSS Feeds and CSV bulk uploads: 

• strong, em, b, i, p, code, pre, tt, samp, kbd, var, sub, sup, dfn, cite, big, small, address, hr, br, div, span, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, ul, ol, li, dl, dt, dd, abbr, acronym, a, img, blockquote, del, ins, iframe, u

Q: How can I communicate to users that certain events have been recently added to the calendar?

A: For events that have been approved within the last 30 days, a “NEW” label will automatically display on the event card. This label will be automatically removed once the event has been live on your calendar for 31 days.

Just as a heads up, this feature is exclusive to our new theme Emphasis. If you’re interested in adopting the new theme on your calendar, check out our Emphasis documentation to get the ball rolling!

Q: Do you have an integration with Zoom?

A: When creating Virtual or Hybrid events, you can now connect to your Zoom account to generate meeting details without leaving the Localist event form. If you’re using Localist Register for private Hybrid/Virtual events, the registration confirmation email will contain a unique Zoom access link for attendance tracking in Zoom.

Q: Can we add personal payout accounts with Localist Register?

A: Yes! When using Localist Register, Event Admins can now add their own personal  Payout Account in lieu of funds going to a global account and then redistributing.

Support Bold: Progression Calls

Progression calls are check-in calls scheduled at strategic intervals dependending on your team’s implementation status and timeline.

Call Topics

Required: Call 1

All Support Bold customers will kickoff their progression call series with a Classification review that will be scheduled once your team has completed a preliminary Filter list and sent it to your Onboarding Specialist. During this time your Onboarding Specialist will provide tailored recommendations based on best practices and customer success.

Sample Agendas

Once you have completed your Classification review, you will work with your Onboarding Specialist to determine how to best use the 5 remaining calls. Here’s how other customers have successfully used their call time:

Call 2

Wrap up any loose ends with Classification after your team has made necessary edits based on call #1. Typically this call will address how to start adding events through feeds, bulk-uploads, etc. This is also an ideal time to further discuss Admin Permissions.

Call 3

Once your team has started adding events to the platform, your Onboarding Specialist will guide you through how you can prepare to promote events through Channels and Widgets.

Call 4

At this time you will be wrapping up implementation action items, so this time is optimal for discussing how you will be rolling out your Localist platform to your community.

Call Preparation

To ensure that your time with your Onboarding Specialist is productive, we kindly request the following:

• Send specific questions and topics you’d like to review to your Onboarding Specialist ahead of the call.
• Only include team members who are 100% up to speed on your implementation process and the platform.
• If a decision is not applicable to your Onboarding Specialist, please hold these discussions until after the call.

Onboarding FAQ

What is Localist?

Localist is a SaaS product that functions as an events calendar. This tool balances the needs of the event manager, with the ideal audience experience making publishing, managing, and promoting your communities events simple.

Where can I find user training materials?

The Localist Knowledge Base includes guides to all features and functionalities! Localist also provides monthly articles centered around specific features and provides workflows for common event management needs. LocaLists answer general questions about how Admins can best manage events on their Platform.

If you’re looking for custom guidelines specific to your organization’s workflows, start by consulting your internal team with any resources they’ve created.

Who is responsible for managing and making changes to the platform?

Your organization will have a team of Platform Admins that will be responsible for overseeing content and customizations. This includes adding Feeds, app integrations, branding customizations, notification settings and adding photos to the Photo Library.

The Localist Team does not manage platforms on behalf of organizations, so if you need assistance, you will need to get in touch with your internal Calendar Team.

What kinds of events can be added?

Any event that is tied to a date such as webinars, concerts, holidays or deadlines. They can be in-person, virtual, or a hybrid of the two.

Need to import these events in bulk? Platform Admins can bulk import events using the Bulk Add feature for a one-time bulk upload, or by setting up a Feed for continuous importing.

How can I share event content outside of Localist?

Widgets, API, Bulletin, Promotion Emails and Social Sharing all allow for sharing event content outside of Localist.

I’m not able to log in, who should I contact for assistance?

If you’re logging in with an SSO account (ex: yourname@yourorganization.com), your organization’s IT department will need to assist with resetting the account password.

If logging in with Social Accounts ( Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google), the password will need to be changed at the source.

If you’re logging in using a Local account, contact support with the following information for assistance:

• Email Address
• Timestamp of most recent log-in attempt
• If applicable, any error codes or messages that display

How can I contact Localist support and what can I expect ?

Users and Event Admins are encouraged to refer to their internal calendar team for assistance on managing events.

Platform Admins can contact Localist Support directly by filling out the Support contact form:

Contact Support

The Localist Support team can assist with the following:

• General questions related to using the platform and features ( Event Submissions, Widgets, Register, Bulletin, Department/Group pages, Photos, Feeds etc.)
• Suggestions for Admin workflows
• Troubleshooting technical issues related to the software ( bugs, calendar is down, etc)
• Branding
• Single Sign On set up
• SSL/Domain set up
• User Account help

I have an idea for a new Localist feature or improvement. Where can I submit a suggestion?

Suggestions and ideas submitted using Localist’s Suggestion Box are sent to Localist’s Product team directly for consideration.

Suggestion Box

Beta: Event Reviews

About this feature

Our new Event Reviews feature includes both an update to our existing review email notification and an all-new feedback form. To use this functionality with an event requires that you are either:

1. Allowing users to express interest in the event
2. Using Localist Register to formally collect attendees.

Try it out

1. Request access

Once you’re ready for this feature to be available on your platform, please let our team know so that we can turn it on.

2. Turn on the Event Review feature for your event

After the Localist Team has turned this feature on, navigate to a new or existing event’s edit page in the Admin Dash.

You will now see an Event Goals & Feedback section in the second half of the form. Select the checkbox for Request post event feedback from attendees. 

This will turn on the four default questions that gauge the following:

1. Retention: How likely are you to attend another event in this community?
2. Connection: Did you connect with someone at this event that you didn’t know before?
3. Growth: How likely are you to recommend this community to a friend or colleague?
4. Information: How informative was this event?

While individual default questions can be unchecked, we encourage you to not do this during the beta testing period. That said, we understand that these questions (or reviews in general) are not appropriate for deadlines/holidays or events like a memorial service

3.  UPDATE: Post-event email

This step mimics the already existing email notification workflow your audience is already familiar with. With this feature turned on, anyone who has registered via Localist Register or expressed interest in the event will receive an email within 2 hours of the event’s end time, asking to give it a star rating on a scale of 1-5 and/or leave a review. 

Existing email being updated

5. NEW: Post-event page

If a user opts to select a star rating or “leave review,” they will be taken to the event page on your platform:

From here, the user’s star rating has been captured, but they will have the opportunity to provide additional feedback by selecting “Sure!”:

These questions are all optional and can be answered at a later time by selecting “Maybe later.” When selected, the user will see the following prompt if they navigate back to the event page in the future:

Implementation Feedback

Congratulations on your Localist launch! While we are looking forward to following your platform’s growth in the coming months, we would like to offer you an opportunity to reflect on your implementation experience. We are grateful for this opportunity to hear your candid thoughts so we can continue to build a better Localist experience together as a community.

Emily Haigis

Director, Customer Experience

Beta Program

Here at Localist we are always striving to improve your communities and events. If you’d like to test drive features and help us shape the future releases of Localist, please sign up below. As a member of the Localist beta program, we’ll reach out to you from time to time as we are developing latest improvements. When we have a feature we’d like to test, you’ll get an email from our team with details about the feature and how to use it. You can always opt-out of any test or feature.

Count me in!

🏆 12 Things to Remember When Adding Events 🏆

When creating and managing events, considering the following rules of thumb will help ensure your content starts off on the right foot.

For when you are adding a new event…

1. Add events at least 7 days before the start date,

DON’T wait to add them until the last minute.

2. Put additional event info in the description,

DON’T use a flyer or text heavy photo.

3. Select a Filter from each dropdown when applicable,

DON’T leave the Classification section empty.

4. Use Recurring when there’s more than one instance of an event,

DON’T create multiple submissions.

5. Use Localist Register to send a private zoom link in the ticket confirmation email,

DON’T post your link publicly.

6. Append “Canceled”, “Postponed”, or “Sold Out” to an event’s title,

DON’T delete it if the status changes.

For when you are managing events…

7. Keep it relevant when training new new admins how to manage events,

DON’T overwhelm them with too much information.

8. Approve events within 2 days of submission,

DON’T keep users waiting.

9. Use the Rejection Reason box when rejecting events,

DON’T leave submitters without an explanation or constructive feedback.

10. Fortify your Photo Fallback Chain and Photo Library,

DON’T fret if there’s not a unique photo assigned to every event.

11. Keep Filters concise and audience centric,

DON’T overcrowd your lists and run the risk of users not being able to find events.

12. Keep past events visible for reference and SEO,

DON’T delete them once they’ve passed.

Onboarding Feedback

Here at Localist we are always looking for ways to make our onboarding experience as intuitive as possible for new customers. The below survey is intended to capture your first impressions thus far, which includes our Customer Onboarding Guide prep and Platform Tour. We are grateful for this opportunity to hear your candid thoughts so we can continue to build a better Localist experience together as a community.

Emily Haigis

Director, Customer Experience

🏷️ 7 Guidelines for Tags & Keywords 🏷️

Tags & Keywords are a simple way for grouping and directing your audience to short-term or ultra-specifically categorized events. Below, we’ve rounded up our best guidelines for keeping your Tags & Keywords list manageable and effective. 

Tags

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1. Do not append organizational words

Since Tags are unique to each Localist platform, there’s no need to append organizational words to them. For example, keep it simple and use “Spelling Bee” rather than ”Localist Spelling Bee”.

2. Consider what is expected by your community

Since Tags are visible on the front-end, always use language that is expected and used by the majority of your community. This is especially true if a matching “tag” has been established elsewhere in your communications or resources. For example, if an annual Spelling Bee competition is nicknamed “Bee-Day,” we would recommend using a Tag that does not require being “in the know.”

3. Use Tags as “Sub-Filters”

Since your Filters are an evergreen list, Tags are a perfect way to compliment these types and categories. Instead of using “Child” Filters, which tend to clutter your lists, you can use supplemental Tags. For example, if you have a “Volunteering” Filter, you can consider Tagging events with “Fundraising”, “Tutoring”, “Mentoring”, etc. These kinds of Tags provide additional context for users, without having to sacrifice concise and easy Filter navigation.

4. Keep your list of Tags manageable 

While Tags are meant to bring granularity, as a rule of thumb, they should always match several events so your platform can maintain consistency and reduce clutter. For instance, “Free Food” is a popular Tag as this could apply to a large subset of events. On the flip side, we’d recommend avoiding “Free Pizza” or “Free Cookies.”

5. Avoid echoing other Classification

However, this does not mean that Tags should be parroting other Classifications. For instance, if you have “Arts & Culture” as a Filter, we’d caution using Tags such as “Arts” or “Culture.” 

Keywords

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6. Focus on internal curation

While Keywords are almost identical to Tags, they provide the added benefit of not being visible on the front-end. As such, they do not have to be recognizable or familiar to your community.  This is when your team can confidently use shorthand or acronyms. 

7. Don’t forget about common misspellings 

Keywords may be limited to admin curation, but they can also be useful for users on the front-end. Here’s how: Imagine you’re hosting a book signing with Colleen McKnight — you could add different spelling potentials, such as “Coleen” or “MacKnight”,  as Keywords to catch users who may not know how to spell the author’s name when relying on search.