5 Reasons to Start Your Year with Inpsherio

It’s the new year, and do you know what that means? Time to set some goals, make resolutions, and dream bigger than you did last year. And what better way to make it all happen than with Inspherio.

Inspherio is an event professional’s dream, helping you manage all aspects of your business from finances to contracts, while also helping you plan events. Sounds unbelievable, right? Well believe it! Check out the five reasons to start your year with Inspherio, and let us know we convinced you by joining our program.

Reason #1: The Dashboard

Wouldn’t it be great not to have to search all over your computer for important documents, finance reports, or contact information? We thought so, which is why we created the dashboard, giving you the power to keep everything organized in one online location. That’s right, everything you will ever need for your business can be found on the dashboard. You can view pending documents, see a snapshot of tasks and your calendar of events, and so much more.

Reason #2: The Cost

We know you don’t do what you do for the money—it’s seeing the look on your client’s face when they see your great work. At Inspherio, it’s not about the money, it’s about helping you plan your success. We’re proud to offer low-cost plans for every type of event professional.

Reason #3: The Features

It wouldn’t be a business management solution without amazing features, am I right? From our information on leads, to the Know Your Event form, Inspherio has all the features you’ll ever need to plan dream events. And when you sign up for a free trial, you’ll have access to all of them. Don’t you want to see what Inspherio can do for you?

Reason #4: Inspiration

Here at Inspherio, we do more than just provide you with features. We also provide you with inspiration and ideas. With our blogs and social media, we’ll share with you all the ideas, trends, and suggestions that are circulating through the event industry. We’ll be your one-stop-shop for all things event.

Reason #5: World-Class Support

How many business management solutions offer 24/7 support? Well, I know of at least one—Inspherio. The Inspherio Crew is in the office Monday through Friday 9am to 6pm, ready to answer any questions you ask, whether it’s via phone, email, or live chat. But we don’t stop there, we always offer 24/7 email support to all of our users. Any problem you have, you just let us know and we’ll help you fix it.

So what are you waiting for? Start your new year off right with Inspherio! It’s free for the first 30 days. We’ll be here ready to help you plan your success.

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A Christmas Story: 4 Ways You Can Write Your Client's Story

It’s that time of year again where we reminisce about the past year. Sometimes people speak about it, others might use music, but when it comes to telling your client’s story, writing truly is the best way. Now, not all of us believe we have what it takes to write a story without overcrowding it with pictures, but I’m here to tell you that you do!

Of course I understand the pressure. When it comes time to recall your client’s big day in words, your memory becomes a jumbled mess. You forget how to describe what you’ve seen, heard, or felt.

Although there might be challenges, telling your client’s story on your business blog or social media accounts is important. Why, you ask? Well, stories have a way of capturing the beauty of the day, but they also show that you care more about your clients and see beyond the contract and paycheck. And that my friend, sends more of a message to potential clients than any other marketing campaign ever could.

So, since this is a gift-giving season, Inspherio is here to help you capture and tell your client’s story without falling flat on the details.

1. Use the Know Your Event Feature from Inspherio

The Know Your Event feature was designed to make consultations go more smoothly. But it can also be used to help you remember the small, but special, details of your client’s big day. The Know Your Event feature allows you to customize questions so that you can ask important ones such as, “How did you get engaged?”, “Please share three things that you love about each other,” etc. Their answers can jumpstart your creativity.

2. Ask Their Friends and Family

Still worried you won’t remember every detail about the big day? Well, ask for help! Ask the bride’s and groom’s friends and family to recall their favorite part of the wedding, describe how the event looked, and how they felt during it. This will be a sweet tribute to your client’s to see all of their friends tell a little something special about their big day. And it gives you an easier way to write their story.

3. Social Media to the Rescue

Social media is a great way to make your clients’ event more than just a wedding. By including personal information about your clients that you find on social media, like when they graduated college, their careers, etc. you help separate them and make their story something more than just a wedding tale.

4. Perfection is Overrated

If grammar and sentence structure are holding you back from writing a story about your clients, I’m here to tell you to move on! Although grammar is important, there is no need to fret about em dashes and placement of commas. What’s more important is that you write a story that is heartfelt, thoughtful, and speaks to your clients. Share what’s meaningful about your clients and the rest will fall into place.

While I hope you find these tips useful for telling your client’s story, I also wanted to wish you a very happy holiday! The Inspherio Crew will be out of the office celebrating the holiday with family today. However, if you need any emergency support with your account, we will be offering 24/7 email support. You can email us at support@inspherio.com. But don’t worry, we’ll be back on Monday, December 28th.

Merry Christmas!

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How Sofia Vergara Breathtakingly Changed the Event Planning Industry

Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello tied the knot Sunday evening, 11/22/15, in the most stunning way possible—and it’s all on Instagram (fan girl scream)! Our hearts are just melting from all of these magical images. Not to sound cliché, but her wedding and Instagram photos were picture perfect. As we were scrolling through her insta-feed though, it dawned on us—more and more people are using social media to plan their wedding. Has this affected the event industry in any way? Our conclusion: it’s changed the game completely. And here’s how. 

1. The Wedding Website

Wedding websites are everywhere, and they’re certainly the coolest thing we’ve seen so far! On sites like The Knot or Wedding Window, your clients can create free wedding websites to give their event that special touch. On these sites they can:

• Tell the story of how they met each other, the proposal, and the planning process. 
• Snap and share their photos. These sites are a great place for couples to post pictures of their love. 
• Save time when it comes to RSVP’ing! You can get an immediate response from the guests instead of waiting for a paper reply by adding an RSVP section to the website. 

Changing the Industry: Good Rating! 

We’re big fans of the wedding website! This makes RSVP’ing a breeze for you, and it gives the couple a venue to show their love off. We say, “spread the wedding website news.”

2. Pinterest

We love Pinterest. Now we know we might get some backlash for that but we think it’s an excellent avenue for you and your clients to swap ideas for design, decor, and food. Pinterest is not a planner, you’re still a vital part in planning events—don’t feel in competition with the site. With Pinterest you can:

• Share ideas and inspiration for an event.
• Promote your services, showing pictures of your designs or types of events your hosted and planned. 

Changing the Industry: Great Rating! 

Pinterest is a planner’s best friend, remember that! The pins and boards you like and follow can help you better communicate a design or an idea to your clients. You can also create private boards that only you and your client can see, where you can pin ideas to it to help with the planning process.

3. Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

It seems like everyone has a wedding hashtag! Twitter is one of the quickest ways for you, your clients, and their guests to share messages, posts, and photos of the event in one place. And for the folks who couldn’t make it to the event, it gives them a live update on what’s happening. Find the perfect hashtag for your clients with the Wedding Hashtag Wall.

Changing the Industry: Drastically for the better! 

Whether it’s during an event or for future events, Twitter is a great way to show your potential clients your work. And besides, it’s a fun way to remember the night.

4. Instagram

You were probably wondering when we were going to get back to talking about Sofia Vergara and her handsome new husband, Joe Manganiello, right? Well, we’ve made it! Sofia Vergara gave her fans the best present of the year by posting all of her wedding pictures on Instagram. It gave us instant access to her special day! Which is why we love Instagram for weddings and events. Here’s what else it can do: 

• Like Twitter, it captures all of the event pictures in one location.
• It connects and shares pictures to all of your other social media pages.
• It’s fast and trendy, making it a great place for people to comment or love your work.

Changing the Industry: Kudos! 

Try Instagram! It can help you promote your business, get your designs out there, and guide more potential clients to your site. It’s a win-win-win situation if you ask us.

Social media is changing the event industry, are you on board? Let us know in the comment section below or on Facebook or Twitter! And if you’re not already a part of the Inspherio Crew, be sure to sign up for a free 30-day trial!

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Top 5 Ways To Use Pinterest For Your Event Business

1 | Plan for Pinning Success 

• Put in the time to set up your account properly. Jot down what you think you will be using your account for to act a guide. Make sure to include keywords in your description. Don’t forget to set up the links to your website and social media channels on your profile so viewers can move seamlessly between platforms.
• Integrate all your social media platforms. You can easily add Pinterest sharing buttons and apps to other social media platforms, such as Facebook. Call-to-action words are great to add to your Google+, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn to gain more followers on your Pinterest page! 
• When setting up your initial boards, choose topics or categories that reflect your business values, culture, interests, products and services.

2 | Check the Source Before You Pin

• Be Copyright Smart. Read the fine print first. It might take an extra few seconds, but it adds a degree of credibility to your page.Always double check the source of the Pin. This is very important. When re-pinning, click before you repin to see if pins are sourced from a legitimate website. If content has been “re-sourced” with a false URL to another site, you shouldn’t repin it.
  

 3 | Pin Strategically

• Pin across a range of boards. Add pins gradually, and create new boards as you feel necessary. Be creative with your board names, captions and pins.
• Follow, Follow, Follow. Start following users and/or individual boards that are of interest to you. By following and engaging with users and repinning their content, you will begin to build your own community of followers.
• Space your pins. Don’t do a pin dump! Pinterest is unlike Facebook and Twitter where the feed-time is limited. Pins will remain in view for days or weeks due to the cyclical nature of their exposure. Pinning for a few minutes a couple of times per day is enough to get you started.
• Time your pins. Take note of the times when your fans are pinning - be flexible, and if all else fails, 2:00-4:00 PM and at night are popular for pinning according to Pinterest.

4 | Be Social

• Comment and Like. Just like you would socialize on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Google+, be sure to comment on, and Like, the pins of other users and businesses.
• Use Names and Tags to make your page more personable. Use @tags to notify the user you are engaging with. Hashtags (#) are used to highlight keywords that will lead viewers to your page when searched. By using names and tags, you can stand out among the large majority of Pinterest users and create engaging boards.
• Remember to Say Thank You. This is a forgotten art on Pinterest and other social media channels. Regularly check your Re-pins and visit the boards of people who have repinned your content and make the effort to thank them for repinning. Just like RTs on Twitter, or Shares on Facebook, the Re-pin is a valuable thing.

5 | Produce Visual Content

• Choose great images for your boards. Having interesting, engaging, quality images will most likely get your content repinned. Include photos, infographics, videos and text. Don’t forget that text is important to accompany your pins.
• Make pinners want to click on your pin by making them simple, visual, and clear. Experiment with size by mixing in taller pins to give your board a visually appealing look.

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