Congratulations, everyone: We launched i'll go! today with almost 200 events from 35 organizations.
(If you haven't signed up yet, you should! If you have signed up but haven't entered events, you should!)
Here's the main application page on Facebook. Click on the button in the upper right corner to add the app and start finding events.
Organizations, it's time to start promoting this to your patrons! I'll be writing a post with some suggestions for how to do this... stay tuned.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Offering Restricted Discounts (to students, or by age)
BIG IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you're offering a discount on i'll go!, you should offer that discount to ALL i'll go! users.
To list your discounts on i'll go! you shouldn't require that people be students or seniors or anything else besides just a Facebook user. The price you offer can be the same, the method of purchase can be the same, but you should include a discount code and it should be available to everyone.
Part of the reason we created i'll go! was because there are lots of young people who aren't students anymore but still live on a limited budget, here in NYC -- and not every organization offers an under-30 discount program.
If you're asking for a student ID because you're concerned about the discount code getting passed around outside of Facebook, why not require people to show up at the box office with a printout of their Facebook profile instead, to "prove" that they got the code through i'll go!?
If you're offering a discount on i'll go!, you should offer that discount to ALL i'll go! users.
To list your discounts on i'll go! you shouldn't require that people be students or seniors or anything else besides just a Facebook user. The price you offer can be the same, the method of purchase can be the same, but you should include a discount code and it should be available to everyone.
Part of the reason we created i'll go! was because there are lots of young people who aren't students anymore but still live on a limited budget, here in NYC -- and not every organization offers an under-30 discount program.
If you're asking for a student ID because you're concerned about the discount code getting passed around outside of Facebook, why not require people to show up at the box office with a printout of their Facebook profile instead, to "prove" that they got the code through i'll go!?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Offering Multiple Price Levels
Question:
"We’d like to post a discount code for three different seating sections (and three different price levels) at our next performance. i'll go! only allows us to put in one price level…which is a little misleading. Is there a way to post all three prices and three discounts?"
Good question! This first version of the system isn’t set up to deal with multiple pricing levels for one event, though it's absolutely on our suggestion list for version 2.0.
So until then, here's what to do:
In order to offer three different pricing levels, you'll have to enter them as three separate events.
So you would enter the first event, and click submit – then go to “Clone Events” and choose that event from the dropdown – all the fields will pre-populate – then just change the pricing info for the new event and click submit. You can either use the same event title for all of them, or you could do something to distinguish them like “[Event Name] – Price Level One” if you’d prefer.
Then, if you want to make sure that people know about all three options, you can include a sentence about it in the description field. Some options might be “There are other seating options for this event. To see all available choices, search for [Event Name] on the ‘find events’ page.” Or “To see all available seating/pricing options, click on the ‘[Organization Name]’ link above” (which will take them to your main presenter page and a list of all your events.)
After we launch and we have some stats about how successful various offers are, I'll be back with another post about price levels. Are i'll go! users more interested in super-low prices on already low-priced sections, or very high-percentage discounts on premium seats? We'll find out!
"We’d like to post a discount code for three different seating sections (and three different price levels) at our next performance. i'll go! only allows us to put in one price level…which is a little misleading. Is there a way to post all three prices and three discounts?"
Good question! This first version of the system isn’t set up to deal with multiple pricing levels for one event, though it's absolutely on our suggestion list for version 2.0.
So until then, here's what to do:
In order to offer three different pricing levels, you'll have to enter them as three separate events.
So you would enter the first event, and click submit – then go to “Clone Events” and choose that event from the dropdown – all the fields will pre-populate – then just change the pricing info for the new event and click submit. You can either use the same event title for all of them, or you could do something to distinguish them like “[Event Name] – Price Level One” if you’d prefer.
Then, if you want to make sure that people know about all three options, you can include a sentence about it in the description field. Some options might be “There are other seating options for this event. To see all available choices, search for [Event Name] on the ‘find events’ page.” Or “To see all available seating/pricing options, click on the ‘[Organization Name]’ link above” (which will take them to your main presenter page and a list of all your events.)
After we launch and we have some stats about how successful various offers are, I'll be back with another post about price levels. Are i'll go! users more interested in super-low prices on already low-priced sections, or very high-percentage discounts on premium seats? We'll find out!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Using "i'll go!" for Offline Ticket Sales
One question I've heard from a few organizations so far:
"What do we do if we can't sell discount tickets online? Can we ask people to order tickets by phone or in person?"
The buy tickets field in i'll go! is set up so that it MUST be a URL for a Web page - but it's up to you what that Web page is. For member organizations who don't sell tickets online, we recommend that you create a page on your site that lists all the methods of ticket purchase for the particular event you're offering.
For example, if you were offering an i'll go! discount to a particular performance, I'd suggest you set up a page that says something like,
"To buy tickets for this event using your i'll go! discount code, call THIS number [or e-mail THIS address or go to THIS location]"
...that is, do everything you can to make it as easy and intuitive as possible for people to make their purchase for the event they want.
(Relatedly, here's a bit of a plug: Patron Technology now offers a simple online ticket reservation system, PatronManager. Click here if you're interested in learning more.)
"What do we do if we can't sell discount tickets online? Can we ask people to order tickets by phone or in person?"
The buy tickets field in i'll go! is set up so that it MUST be a URL for a Web page - but it's up to you what that Web page is. For member organizations who don't sell tickets online, we recommend that you create a page on your site that lists all the methods of ticket purchase for the particular event you're offering.
For example, if you were offering an i'll go! discount to a particular performance, I'd suggest you set up a page that says something like,
"To buy tickets for this event using your i'll go! discount code, call THIS number [or e-mail THIS address or go to THIS location]"
...that is, do everything you can to make it as easy and intuitive as possible for people to make their purchase for the event they want.
(Relatedly, here's a bit of a plug: Patron Technology now offers a simple online ticket reservation system, PatronManager. Click here if you're interested in learning more.)
Monday, November 3, 2008
Blogging from 38,000 feet
Hi everyone -- I'm Michelle, the project manager for i'll go!.
I'm taking a break from singing along with in the inflight movie, Mamma Mia, to write you an update about our i'll go! "deadline".
First: barely a week after announcing the application, already over 30 organizations have signed up as i'll go! members! (If you're reading this and haven't signed up yet, now would be a great time to get started....)
If you have signed up: thank you! Have you started entering your events yet?
Our planned launch date (when the Facebook-using masses will be able to access the application) is Monday, November 17. That's why we've set the “deadline” for Wednesday the 12th -- we want to make sure there's an impressive amount of great offers in the system so that anyone searching is sure to find something that interests them.
(Of course, you’ll be able to continue to add events at any time after we launch, too.)
So take this as a little nudge from me to get started -- and of course, contact me if you ever need anything. I'll be back later this week to answer some questions.
I'm taking a break from singing along with in the inflight movie, Mamma Mia, to write you an update about our i'll go! "deadline".
First: barely a week after announcing the application, already over 30 organizations have signed up as i'll go! members! (If you're reading this and haven't signed up yet, now would be a great time to get started....)
If you have signed up: thank you! Have you started entering your events yet?
Our planned launch date (when the Facebook-using masses will be able to access the application) is Monday, November 17. That's why we've set the “deadline” for Wednesday the 12th -- we want to make sure there's an impressive amount of great offers in the system so that anyone searching is sure to find something that interests them.
(Of course, you’ll be able to continue to add events at any time after we launch, too.)
So take this as a little nudge from me to get started -- and of course, contact me if you ever need anything. I'll be back later this week to answer some questions.
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