Grow Your Sports Organization using LeagueApps and your Facebook Feed

Release Notes

The LeagueApps team hit the lab this winter, releasing a host of powerful new features for our league partners. We added a whole new layer to our LeagueApps – Facebook Integration project by allowing your players to publish program registration links to their Facebook feed. Second – we updated the LeagueApps Wall feature to be a major communication tool for admins and players alike.

We built these features to help our partners promote and grow their clubs or leagues and encourage more member engagement.

Facebook Publishing

At LeagueApps, we are firm believers that having a solid referral program is key to growing your club and essential for growth (hey, we took your lead and started our own LeagueApps Referral Program). There’s nothing more productive than utilizing your existing player base as a means to recruit new players. Our new Facebook Publishing feature lets you do just that – it lets players become the driving force behind promoting your club. When players register for your leagues, events, and tournaments, they can now share the registration information on their Facebook page. Their Facebook friends will see the registration link on their Facebook feed. They can then click it to enter your site and register for a program. The more often players share your registration links, the greater your chances are of generating more registrations – and gaining new members! It’s like hiring all of your members as a brand new sales team without spending a dollar!

Aside from the promotional benefits, Facebook Publishing drives home the social element integral to every club. Taking advantage of all of our integrated Facebook features can help you stay ahead of the curve and be that cool organization that attracts the community.

We’re always available if you have any questions, issues, or feedback when using these new features. Feel free to hit up Asaf for a quick demo if you’re interested. You can reach him at 646-660-9430 or at awiner@sportsvite.com.

Introducing the “LeagueApps Wall”

Release Notes

Carrying on the theme of social integration, the LeagueApps team kicks off 2012 with another Facebook-related feature with the release of our very own “LeagueApps Wall”! We developed the Wall to continue to encourage social interaction with and between your members and to keep them excited to be a part off your sports organization.

The wall goes hand in hand with the on-the-field experience by providing players with a digital space to chat, build stronger connections, and be more social. The wall also gives you the ability for league organizers to communicate with your members quickly and effectively, helping your well-oiled sports machine run even more efficiently. Plus, the “wild card element” of the wall is its seamless integration with Facebook. Each time you or your members make an update, it can publish any post through Facebook.

The LeagueApps wall comes in several forms:

Each wall type has its own functions and social benefits. Learn how to post to each wall in our Help article.

Announcement Wire

The Announcement Wire is “home base” for site users. Many of our league partners have created central message-boards on the homepages of their sites, where league organizers manually post updates to their members. So we built the announcement to streamline the process of making site-wide announcements. Now, you can post updates by simply clicking the “Make an Announcement” button in your console, then writing your message. Updates can include game cancellations, changes in registration dates, or game recaps/highlights.

The Announcement Wire allows you to share posts on your Facebook page, so you can update your site AND facebook fan page simultaneously. Sharing posts on Facebook also lets you use Facebook as a promotional tool to attract more site visitors, recruit player signups, and generate buzz for your sports organization.

You have the option to include a wall in each of your member’s dashboard. The content of this wall is identical to the one on your homepage. You can choose to include either a wall on your homepage, member dashboard, or both. It’s completely up to you and where you think your members prefer to view their site announcements and updates.

Program Message Wall

The program wall is a program-wide forum where players across all teams can post comments and voice their opinions. It is found on each of your site’s program pages, labelled “Announcements & Messages“. Players have the option to post general comments, or make comments specifically about the schedule or standings. Some examples for schedule/standings – related comments might be alerts about a schedule conflict, a call for the admin to update the standings, or some good-old fashioned trash talking from one player to another. Players can also share posts on Facebook.

As admin, you have the ability to disallow the Facebook Share option, disable program members from making posts, or disable any program wall altogether. You can also make posts that will appear on the program wall of your choosing. This wall is best used to communicate to team captains. Examples of such comments: rain delay, more females needed in a coed league, announcement of a schedule change, etc.

Team Message Wall

The team message wall is a team’s clubhouse, or locker-room. Appropriately labelled, Team Chatter, this is where teammates interact – they can pump each other up before games, recap their performances, vote for the squad’s mvp, or do whatever else it is that teams do. Team players can really benefit from the social aspect of the wall. It’s a great way to build that camaraderie that every winning team needs!

The team wall is also an informational tool. Team Captains can easily get in touch with their players and use the wall to communicate team-wide messages. For example, they can remind players to pay their fees, give alerts on game delays, or ask for a head count before an important game. Players can stay on top of their team chatter by electing to get email notifications whenever a post is made.

Players can choose to share their posts on Facebook, or they can make their posts private (only teammates can view). Additionally, admins don’t have the ability to post to team walls. This makes the team wall all the more intimate and personal for only teammates to share (no cameras allowed!).

Let us know how you’re utilizing the LeagueApps Wall feature. We love feedback. We’re available if you have any questions, issues, or suggestions. Hit up Asaf at 646-660-9430 or at awiner@sportsvite.com.

LeagueApps Introduces Facebook Registration and Login

Release Notes

LeagueApps is proud to announce the completion of the next phase of our Facebook integration project by using the Facebook Developers platform to launch Facebook Connect and Registration Login.  The overarching theme of our Facebook projects is to help league partners increase member engagement and create a better experience for the organization, teams, and the players themselves.  The Facebook Registration plugin does that by allowing league members to signup and login to their LeagueApps account using their Facebook credentials.  Thus, members can utilize their Facebook identity on the LeagueApps site and get more social with their teammates and fellow participants.

We are currently looking for initial launch partners for our new Facebook app. Please contact us to learn more and get your LeagueApps account hooked up with Facebook.

Below are some key benefits for integrating Facebook with your LeagueApps account:

Account Convenience

The Facebook registration plugin allows your members to connect their LeagueApps site accounts with Facebook- provided that they have Facebook accounts (hopefully they are among the 800+ million who do!).  Anytime new members register for your LeagueApps site, they can signup and login using Facebook.  The same holds true for any returning members- Facebook registration will let them bypass the login process with one simple click of the ‘Login with Facebook’ button.  This saves them the hassle of having to remember their LeagueApps login credentials. It also simplifies the registration process for all new members leading to more successful completed registrations.

Get Social

Connecting LeagueApps accounts with Facebook can help your members initiate social connections that can go beyond the playing fields. Players can view their teammates’ Facebook profiles who connect their account.  They can then ‘friend’ all of their teammates on Facebook and tighten their rec sports relationships.

Additionally, players using Facebook registration can opt to use their Facebook profile photos for their LeagueApps member profile.  Photos are especially handy on free agent teams where players don’t yet know one another, allowing player to match names with their teammates’ faces.

Member Retention

One of our main goals is to ultimately improve our league partners’ member retention rate each and every season.  From an organizer’s standpoint, more social interaction and camaraderie between players leads to better member retention.  Facebook can help by encouraging members to be social and engaged.  Not to mention that your website’s social features are as good a selling point as any for your organization.  Specifically, Facebook is yet another way to get your players excited about where your organization is going and ensure that they’ll be back next season.

More To Come…

We’ll continue to develop more Facebook features for LeagueApps. Many of these features will leverage your members who connect their account to their Facebook profile. These features include feed publishing, more Facebook Apps and more photo and video modules.

If you are interested in participating in our launch program or have questions about this Facebook project, please reach out to Brian at at brian@sportsvite.com.

LeagueApps Referral Bonus Program- Spread the Word!

Release Notes

Here at LeagueApps, we value the relationships we have with our sports league partners. Without them we’re just lots of lines of code.  In an effort to strengthen these partnerships and expand our network, we will reward our league partners who introduce LeagueApps to other sports organizations.  We are excited to announce LeagueApps Referral Program.

Many of our partners have asked about referral programs in the past and many have already made referrals for us. We’re flattered every time we get recommended from an existing customer.  Starting now, you can earn LeagueApps credit or cash by simply inviting an organization to use LeagueApps – whether it is to power leagues, tournaments, events, or camps.

Our referral program is a win-win.  You earn a bonus when you refer someone and they start to process transactions on LeagueApps.  Your bonus compensation can reach up to $250 per organization, depending on the amount of transactions processed by your referral.  Referrals are powerful because they bring us new league partnerships, which in turn will help us grow our platform and build a better product.

How to Make a Referral

Find your unique Referral Link in your LeagueApps admin console.  Simply click on the Referral Program icon on the right side of your site dashboard (shown below).  You can also reach this page by following these steps in your admin console: “Manage Account > Referral Program”.

Then scroll down to the middle of the page, where you will find your referral link.  You can share the link in the following ways:

1. Copy the link and paste it into an email, blog, social network, etc.
2. Invite Friends from Facebook and Twitter by hitting the Share on Facebook or Share on Twitter buttons.  (NOTE- since Twitter only allows 140 characters, you might want to use bit.ly or another service to shorten your referral link when you tweet.)
3. Invite Friends by Email using the built-in email form.  The email will automatically include a link with your referral code.

If you know of an organization that can benefit from our platform, follow the steps and participate in our referral program.  We only expect you to refer us if you believe in our product.

If you have questions please get in touch with Asaf at awiner@sportsvite.com, or 646-660-9430.

Thanksgiving Weekend Update: Introducing Member Matching

Release Notes

Happy Turkey everyone! Here at LeagueApps, we are thankful to all the league organizers we work with and the great partnerships we have developed. This Thanksgiving we added a Member Matching feature that can help you fill up your rosters during Winter registration.

The Member Matching feature gives team captains the ability to find free agents and add them to their teams on their own. Specifically, captains can now browse the list of free agents in a particular program and invite any player to join their team. Team Captains can view the free agent pool by selecting ‘Players’ on the League Profile page, then sorting by Free Agent role.  Additionally, there is the option to sort by Gender, which can come handy if a team only needs male or female free agents. In addition to inviting free agents, captains can also send a customized message.

Member Matching can be effective in making your registration process faster and more efficient. Previously, some of our league organizers have been spending a lot of time manually adding free agents to teams, or compiling free agent lists for their captains and then coordinating with them on who to invite.  Instead, captains can now be responsible for recruiting players and completing their own rosters- with no help from the admins.  Ultimately, this takes the burden off the admins and frees them up to worry about other important tasks during registration.

We are always thinking about building social features that can further streamline the registration process. If you have any thoughts or feedback, we’d love to hear them.

Connect your Facebook Page to LeagueApps!

Release Notes

The LeagueApps – Facebook integration project is now live! For those who don’t know, integrating Facebook features into the platform is a main product focus at LeagueApps these days. The goal of our Facebook integration project is to help our league partners grow their Facebook fan base and streamline their promotional activities through Facebook. Plus, we want to help get your members more engaged so that they keep coming back to your website (and the playing field!). This release is the first step towards fully incorporating Facebook into your LeagueApps.

An organization can now link their Facebook Page to a LeagueApps account. Facebook Pages are a great place to post fresh content, such as photos, videos, announcements, events and more. Facebook can be a great vehicle for connecting with your existing members, promoting activities and offerings, and ultimately gaining a larger following. Click here for a comprehensive overview of Facebook Pages.

If you don’t have a page set up, you can create a Facebook Page here. By connecting your Facebook page to your LeagueApps account, you will be able to leverage the full scope of integrated Facebook features that we plan to offer in the future.

Get started by following these steps to connect your Facebook Page:

1. Scroll to the Facebook Tools button on the right side of your Site Dashboard.  Click the Setup Now link, which will take you directly to the Facebook Settings page under the “Settings > Social” tab in your admin console.
2. Enter your Facebook Page URL (e.g. http://facebook.com/LeagueApps)
3. Once you have entered your Facebook Page URL, a list of Facebook widgets and buttons are enabled. Simply select which items from the list you would like to be automatically incorporated into your site.

Ex. Prompt your members to ‘Like’ your Facebook page after completing registration.

These widgets and buttons are strategically placed to optimize ‘Likes’ on your Facebook Page. Again, the goal is to ramp up promotion of your Facebook Page and get those ‘Likes’ up! The Like button is important because it lets your members share their content with their Facebook friends. When a user clicks the Like button on your site, a story appears in their friends’ News Feed with a link back to your site.

Below is an example of how your Facebook Likes will appear on your Site Header and Footer:

Here is an example of the overlay that appears after a member completes registration. Your members will be prompted to ‘Like’ your Facebook Page in one final step before leaving the registration page.

Stay tuned for more Facebook updates, including Facebook Connect, Facebook Apps, and much more.

We’re available if you have any questions, issues, or feedback when using these new features. Feel free to contact our Account Manager Asaf, at 646-660-9430 or at awiner@sportsvite.com.

A Small End-of-Summer Release

Release Notes

We pushed out a quick release this week. Here are some hot items that were addressed:

Privacy Settings

We took a step forward to improve privacy on LeagueApps! We tweaked the member information that appears on public-facing sites. Now only the first names of site members are shown on any public site pages (unless, of course, the user is logged in). This will prevent your members’ full names from getting indexed on Google.

We are constantly thinking of ways to further improve privacy. Please share any thoughts and ideas you have.

A Few Administrative Features

• Admins can now control their widget background color (under “Colors” tab in Theme Editor).
• Updated programs drop down list on Member Details page to include season and start date for each program.
• Admins can now decide to include/exclude games of type “Playoff” and “Championship” in standings calculations (Settings > Standings).
• Added new program registration status option for Accepting Team Captains Only.
• Program deletion button added to program dashboard.

That’s it for now. As always, feel free to send any feedback our way!

More Registration Enhancements! Plus Updated UIs

Release Notes

We pushed out a release this week to improve the registration system! Here’s what was included:

New Console Page Layouts

The User Interfaces (UIs) of two of the most important pages in the console have been completely overhauled. These changes were designed to make it easier for you to access the most frequently needed information. Each page is reviewed next.

Programs Listing Page

The programs listing page now looks like this:

This new layout displays each program’s key information in a more detailed manner, making it easier for you to gauge how registration is going.

Here are the details of what’s in this new layout:

• A new Timeline display shows key dates, allowing you to track your registration lifecycle better.
• A more-detailed summary of Payment Activity shows how much money is paid, invoiced, committed, and expected (based on your maximum capacity settings).
• Registration counts for free-agents and teams are displayed in a simple to read format.
• An ‘indicator’ icon clearly shows you if a program is ‘Live’ and accepting registrations or not.
• A quick-edit control for the Registration Status allows you to easily change this label right from this page.
• Short-cuts to each program’s sub-option menu bar (Dashboard, Edit Details, Registration Settings etc.). Simply move your cursor over the bottom portion of a program to access this menu bar.

Program Dashboard Page

The program dashboard was updated to include a lot of the same displays that were added to the programs listing page (and then some). Here’s what the new program dashboard looks like:

Similar to the above preview of the programs listing page, the new program dashboard contains the most useful information for tracking registration progress. Additionally, the Registration Activity section now contains registration counts by gender, broken down by player status.

Registration Improvements

To go along with the above UI updates, we also made some significant improvements and fixes to the way the underlying registration system works. Here is a summary of these updates:

Team Registration Status
We introduced the concept of each team having a registration status. A team can be either Incomplete or Complete. You decide (in registration settings) the criteria for a team becoming complete. You can choose to enforce that (a) team roster capacity requirements have been met and/or (b) team payments have been half or fully paid. The system will promote a team to complete status only when the team has met the specified criteria. This will help you track how many legit teams you have registered so far.

Capacity Rules
We made sure the capacity rules were working properly as they relate to wait-list, team gender requirements, and to teams’ registration status. We also added capacity settings to enable gender-requirements within teams.

Registration Form Fields
We made a few improvements to the way registration form fields are handled:

• Required (not optional) registration properties are now editable right when captain is manually adding players to the team.
• Team Captain can edit a player’s registration properties, even for pending/invited players who have not yet finished their registration.
• Lastly, we verified that registration form fields stay with players when players and/or teams are moved from one program to another

Hope these updates help! Please send us your feedback.

Registration Enhancements – Invoice Updates!

Release Notes

We pushed out a release in late June. Here’s what was included:

Invoice Reminders

LeagueApps was built to allow the admin to collect money from members in an efficient manner, and save time and headaches while doing so. With these improvements, you now have more ways to ensure that you reach 100% payment collection for all your programs. We added the ability to send out reminders to members with outstanding balances, so you can prompt these members to pay their invoices on time.

In the Invoice reports page, you’ll notice a new Send Payment Reminders to All button, as well as a new Deadline column that indicates which members have outstanding balances. Use these tools to send reminders to individuals, or to groups of members. You’ll be able to track when you sent your reminders, and how many have been sent. You can also now export the invoices information to a spreadsheet using the new CSV export feature we added.

You can set your program’s payment deadline to be strictly enforced or not. Thus, a program will only have payment deadline information shown in its invoice listing page if the default “Not Strictly Enforced” is NOT selected.

We also added the ability to set Automatic Reminders for any of your programs. Additionally, you can set follow up reminders to be sent every few days until the members have paid. This is a great way to guarantee that everyone pays and no one slips through the cracks!

Manage this setting at the program-level under “Settings > Registration Options”.

For more on Payment Deadlines, scroll to the bottom section of this Help Doc article.

More Invoice Improvements

Updated the invoice report to include new filter/sort options, including:

• Payment Deadline Status
• Payment Deadline Date
• Last Reminder Sent Date
• Sent Reminder Count
• Number Reminders Sent

Click here to learn more about Managing Payment Invoices.

Bug Fixes and New Sports Added

We made a number of small tweaks and bug fixes, including:

• Adjusted the sort order for registration listings (site and widget) to be: 1) Sport, then 2) Name (alphabetical).
• Fixed issue reported in which team players did not have access to team messaging tool.
• Adjusted rules for auto-updating programs to “completed” status.

We also added a bunch of cool new sports: Volleyball (Sand), Volleyball (Grass), Dodgeball (Indoor), Dodgeball (Sand), Tennis (Beach), Backyard Games, Bar Games

That’s it for now. Hope you find these updates helpful!

Team Captain Settings, Copy Programs, and More Great Updates

Release Notes

We pushed out another release this week! Here’s the rundown: