Connect Community Site

This is TMA Resources’ private online community site.  A place for customers to chat with other customers, find resources about Personify and more.  Log in today to continue those TAUG conversations and find other resources from TAUG.  Here are a few things to take advantage of:

Discussions – Join the groups that fit your needs.  There is a TAUG discussion group but various other groups that might fit your needs based on your job function or location. The local area group discussion board posts when there are local meetings you might want to attend.   Make sure you set up your notifications to fit your needs.

Hand-outs – Under Resources there is a TAUG library which is where you can find handouts to the sessions you attended.  Here’s a shortcut to the library.

Blogs – Also on the Connect site there is a section for blogs.  These blogs are written by TMA Resources staff and customers.  Check them out or even write your own blog to share.  There is a TAUG Blaug which is the perfect place to share anything you learned at the conference this year.

If you went to TAUG you will use the same log-in information you used to register.  Click here if you forget your log-in or need a new password.

Connect Plus

Connect Plus is a short weekly show hosted by resident Personify expert Rob Kaighn.  If you haven’t watched an episode you definitely need to tune in.  Rob shares all sorts of tricks and shortcuts for using Personify.  You can subscribe to receive a notification every time a new episode airs.

Also check out Association Tech News to see what’s trending in technology and how it could impact your association and Best Practices in Association Technology to learn from industry experts how to take advantage of technology for your association.

Other Events

Stay tuned for upcoming summits and solutions workshops for customers.  Summits are one day events that focus on a specific area of expertise, for example accounting or membership and marketing.  The day includes specific training and round table discussions related how Personify meets the needs of those job functions.  Solutions workshops are focused on the solution offerings in Personify including CRM, Analytics, e-Business and Mobile.  The workshops showcase the functionality of the solutions and how you can leverage them in your organization.  If you would like more information about upcoming Summits or Workshops please email Kim Deering at kdeering@tmaresources.com.

Social Media

We also encourage you to engage with us through social media.  We share news articles, pictures, videos, company updates and other fun tidbits through our various social media sites.  Links to the sites we use most frequently are below:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Flickr
• YouTube
• Pinterest

Now you have no excuse for feeling disconnected after TAUG!  Stay connected with your TAUG acquaintances throughout the year so next year at TAUG 2014, in New Orleans, you spend less time catching up and more time having meaningful conversations.

Don’t forget to also share your feedback with us.  The TAUG survey has been mailed so check your inbox!  If you didn’t receive the survey please email Kim Deering kdeering@tmaresources.com.  We appreciate you sharing your experience with us.

Here’s how it works: You handle your registration within Personify. From the regular order screen, open the desired order and choose the task “Print Expo Logic Badge” from the column on the left. (Shown below)

Clicking Print Expo Logic Badge will open a new window, showing the badge you are printing along with the amount of times that badge has been printed, and any tickets attached to that person’s order. (Shown below)

From here, simply click Print, which will then give you a print preview of that badge. (Shown Below)

If all the information looks correct, click Print one final time, and that badge and any tickets will Print out. (Want to skip a step? Clicking “Quick Print Expo Logic badge” will take you directly to the print preview screen.)

How does self check-in work?

Attendees will receive a confirmation email, which includes a QR code. They can print that confirmation email, or render it from a cell phone, and walk up to a self service station and scan it. (There is also a look up option for those who forgot their QR code.)

Once a person scans their QR code or looks up my last name, badge[on]demand does a call to Personify, checks that it is a valid registration record, and Personify returns all the badges and tickets in their order. (You also have the option of including a stub showing which ribbons that attendee gets.)

Sample of self check-in stations on-site are shown below.

The best part?

Badge[on]demand keeps everything in real-time within Personify – any last minute changes or on-site registrations are updated once the change is made.

In addition…

Barcoded badges and tickets at your show create the opportunity for lead retrieval for exhibitors. As attendee stops by a booth, the exhibitor can scan the barcode and get their contact information. Because we are hitting Personify directly and getting the information in real-time, the exhibitor benefits by getting live information. Using this badge[on]demand method, attendee contact information never becomes stale when a change occurs, as it would in other lead retrieval methods using a 2D barcode on the badge with static information.

Stop by the Expo Logic booth at TAUG and say hello to Jeff, Matt and Renee – they will have our badge printing equipment set up to show you how things work in person!

Delivering relevant content to an audience that is on the move has quickly become a top challenge for associations and nonprofits.  Research shows that the majority of today’s subscribers are receiving their communications via social networking or mobile devices ( versus Outlook or desktop browsers).  The change in preferences does require organizations to produce more dynamic content, but it also provides the association/nonprofit with an ability to increase engagement and interaction with members, driving greater results.

Responsive Design is one of the newest ways to design content and provide an optimal viewing experience across a wide range of devices including most mobile and desktop applications.  This solution delivers an easy to read communication that renders properly (no broken templates, no resizing, no scrolling…) and greatly helps in targeting your audience and readership.  This means more content and images for larger desktop screens and less for tablets and phones.

Does that mean you will have to build two or more versions of every email your organization sends? No. And this is where the responsive design approach comes into your e-marketing strategy.

For the last few years, marketplace trends show email views on mobile devices have rapidly increased to become the second-most used tools behind Microsoft Outlook.  Mobile-device email views will likely eclipse web and desktop views in the next few years.

Recent data shows 85 percent of mobile email views are on iOS devices. Couple that with the feedback from polled email recipients who were asked what they do when they get a broken/mal-formatted email on their mobile device: 70 percent delete it, and 18 percent unsubscribe. So it’s crucial to consider how your emails look on all mobile devices.

With email, responsive design begins with your email templates. From that base, all your emails will automatically translate and look great on desktop and mobile views.Responsive email design is platform agnostic. Regardless of the email service you use, responsive design elements can be incorporated on your template.

How does this actually work? The foundation of all websites and emails is made up of HTML (the content) and CSS (which styles the content controlling color, fonts, spacing, and so forth.) coding. We are presently on CSS3, which has given us the @media query rule, making responsive design possible. However, it’s relatively new and, though it’s supported on most iOS and Android devices, this is not the case across the board.

To view examples of media query coding and find resources on responsive email design, watch the recent January 2013 ASAE Business Services’ webinar, “Mobile

Email 101,” at www.asaecenter.org/emarketing.

It’s TAUG Time and the 14th TMA Resources Annual Users Group (TAUG) meeting is right around the corner! Something that makes the conference far from ordinary is TMA Resources tradition of giving back to the local community in honor of TAUG attendees.  This year, TMA Resources is donating to the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy on the behalf of TAUG attendees.

We share TMA Resources commitment to the community and Informz is quite active in giving back to many causes around our corporate headquarters of Saratoga Springs, NY. Each year Informz employees select the organizations to focus our corporate giving and volunteer work to. Last year we participated in with our local Rebuilding Saratoga to work on building houses for families in need, donated presents and a financial donation to adopted families via the Franklin Community Center and prepared and served  meals to migrant workers as part of the Saratoga Racetrack Backstretch program.

Moreover, many of our customers support various causes and events and often email is the driving force behind getting folks engaged with these programs. With over 50% of the US population using a smart phone it should come as no surprise that our recent study concluded that last year mobile email readership surpassed desktop and web-based usage. 40% of emails were found to be read on a mobile device, while desktop email programs were used 35% of the time and web-based email clients 17%. How is your organization accommodating for this rise in mobile readership? Will people miss out on your important messaging due to a lack of optimization for the mobile device from your organization?

We have found that the behaviors of mobile email readers differ greatly than traditional desktop or web-based email users. Therefore, in order to keep members engaged, emails must be optimized for mobile readership. For example, in a past study it was found that mobile readers click 20% less than desktop email readers. A primary reason for that may be that emails designed to render optimally on a desktop computer, may not be as user friendly when viewing on a mobile device.

Informz is able to determine the email client or program used to view any email that is recorded as being opened by Informz and the relationship between desktop software, web-based) and mobile email clients. In addition, Informz provides template consultation and optimization to our clients to get you ready to take on your mobile readership without a lapse in open and click through rates. We make it easy for you so you don’t have to think about it.

Visit the Megs at TAUG this year. We will probably be wearing a bright scarf of some kind so it will be easy to spot us!  We would welcome the opportunity to talk with you about how to extend the value of Personify to easily send targeted and personalized email communications. Set up an appointment and let’s discuss how Informz can help you optimize your emails for mobile devices.

Don’t wait until the last minute to find out what you need to know, before you go to TAUG this year.  Our platinum and gold sponsors have taken the time to share with you quick things you should know about TAUG this year.  Learn ways you can take full advantage of the conference, including things you can do before you get there and things to do when you are there.  Their friendly TAUG public service announcements include talking about:

• The shorter break-out sessions
• Developer Day
• Consulting labs
• Extra activities, including a new workshop
• What’s new with Driving Your Future with Personify

And more!

These short videos will save you time from having to do the research yourself! So the first thing to do after you register is to watch the before you go videos.

http://www.tmaresources.com/taug-beforeyougo/