SocialGO Owners

We have set a fairly ambitious release roadmap for November and December and here is a sneak peak of 6 of the great new features and updates coming to SocialGO. 

GOCart is here! It's an easy way to embed a powerful BuyItSellIt.com shopping cart into your social network under it's own tab.

BuyItSellIt.com is a great online shop builder that allows you to list and market your products. It supports multiple currencies, payment methods and shipping options and allows you to also upload your own HTML and files. This widget takes all the hassle out of setting up and integrating your BISI Shop with your SocialGO Network.

Setup is easy:

• Firstly, head over to the widget storage to purchase the widget.
• Second, set-up an account directly with BuyitSellit.com by clicking here.  (Note: you have the choice to take a free account or a premium account depending upon your needs)
• Then, email support@socialgo.com with your SocialGO network URL and your login details to your BuyItSellIt.com account.

Within 2 working days we will setup your store for you under a tab on your network. In the meantime you can begin to preview your content.

Expansion packs will also be available to purchase on a regular basis to increase your game arcade selection.

 

Twitter Connect is an easily installed widget that allows a user to login to a SocialGO network using their Twitter  account! The user's profile picture will be pulled right from their Twitter account, and they can directly update their Twitter status straight from your SocialGO network.

Want to get started? Here's how:

1) Log in to your admin centre (http://my.socialgo.com) and head over to the Widget Store to grab Twitter Connect.

2) Move on over to the Layout Manager and find the newly installed widget in the 'purchased' section. Drag it over to the main admin column on the left. Once it's there, double click it to open the popup window and leave it open.

3) Now you need to register your network URL with Twitter as an application.  Don't worry! It's easier than it looks. Go to Twitter.com and log in to your account. Then visit the following link and click 'Register a New Application':

http://twitter.com/oauth

4) Fill out the form, guided by the information provided on the widget popup window from your Layout manager. Remember to double check everything when you've finished!

 

5) Once you have completed the twitter.com Application registration process, twitter will show you a number of keys. The only keys we're interested in are the "Consumer Key" and the "Consumer Secret". Paste both of these into the widget popup window.

Click "Save" and... that's it! A button will appear under the Login area of your network that looks like this:

Using this button, your users will be asked to confirm the connection, and will then be able to Login to your network using their Twitter accounts! Amazing!

 

Good day, SocialGO Networkers!

We’re ecstatic to announce that you have more ways than ever to handle your subscriptions with the new Member Billing 2.0! Combined with using your Member Levels, you now have the ability to charge people to access premium areas of your site, like your Videos tab. This is a superb way to generate serious revenue and to up sell your members from a Free plan to a paid one. Amazingly, the new system supports free trials, so you can easily offer motivation for people to ‘try it before they buy it’, and it also supports multiple billing providers and accepts more forms of currency than ever before.

First, if you haven’t defined your member levels already, you will need to go to the Member Manager section and do this. You are free to create an unlimited number of levels and to name them whatever you wish. In this example, we’ve used 2 levels - ‘Free’ and ‘Paid’. For instructions on how to create your member levels, please click here.

If you already have Member Billing, you will need to click the 'Upgrade' button in your 'Membership Billing' area.

Now choose the payment details for the 'Paid' level of membership - in this example, we've created a $10.00 monthly fee and added a 30 day free trial. If you were to choose 'Private' for any level, this will ensure the level/plan is unavailable during sign-up and can only be offered and assigned by the network owner manually.

Now you should assign the member levels to the tabs and pages of your network. In this example, we've restricted the access of the Photos tab to 'Paid' members only. You can allow any number of levels to access a tab.

You will see below the results of what is seen during the sign-up process.
Note the paid subscription has '(30 days trial)' beside it to reflect the trial period. We will soon update the text to '30 Days Free Trial' to avoid any confusion.

Videos tab - currently, the system will limit access to the tab but not to the actual video. You will need to disable the Members tab to prevent the viewing of videos to levels that should not have access to them. This is a temporary measure as it will be possible to limit the Video tab's content, without sacrificing another tab, in approximately 2 weeks.

If you have any questions or feedback, as always, let us know by emailing support@socialgo.com.



We are currently working on GOCart, a new shopping cart integration with BuyItSellIt.com. If you are interested in trying it out and setting up a full eCommerce shop on your network, send us a message via Twitter.

The team has been super busy working on backend upgrades and modifications including implementing Zuora to manage the business side of the SocialGO platform. Now that this is complete, the development team can swing onto making great features for your networks. This week is the first of many new-feature releases which we will be bringing you over the next 2 months.

FEATURED GROUPS

So perhaps you have 200 groups on your network but you want to give some of them the spotlight? Well now you can with Featured Groups. Simply head over to a groups profile (as an administrator) and hit the new Feature Group button.

Then simply go and drag the featured groups widget to the top of the groups list and your done!

VIDEOS IN GROUPS

A long-time requested feature is the ability to add videos to your groups. Again, you will need to drag the widget into your Group Profiles, but once that is done, your member will be able to upload videos galore to your group profiles. Simple!

MEMBER LEVELS + NEW MEMBER MANAGER

The Member Manager has been updated to allow sorting by column headings, better searching and easier navigation. In addition you will also find a new sub-tab called Member Levels.

In here you will be able to define sub-sets of members who have access to specific tabs, specific content and certain features.

When you edit a Tab's settings you will now be able to choose which member Levels can access it. If you leave them all unticked, anyone will have access.

We will soon be hooking this into our MEMBER BILLING system so that you can charge people to access premium areas of your site. This will be a fantastic way of generating serious revenue from your network by upselling your members from a free account to a paid account. We will also be introducing support for ClickAndBuy.com and revamping our PayPal support to give all network owners the opportunity to build profitable networks on SocialGO.

And finally.....

SocialGO is also working on some in-house widgets including an integration pack for BuyItSellIt.com, probably one of the best shopping carts around and a range of other heavily requested features which we will be getting out the door in the coming weeks.

The Lab is also producing new and exciting widgets and we have 30+ new and improved themes coming to the Theme store.

I am excited and i hope you are too! As always we are here to help at support@socialgo.com. We will be doing a Workshop today on these new features if you want to come and take a look or if you have any questions.

Cheers!

Hi Networkers,

We hope everyone has made great use of the Free Bandwidth and Storage offer for those that joined us in February March and April to help build and grow your networks.  But alas we can no longer keep the accountants at bay and from the start of your May billing cycle we will begin charging for any overages in bandwidth and storage. 

If you have any overages you will be charged at the end of your next billing date for the preceding monthly billing cycle.  For example, you will be charged at the end of your May billing cycle for what you used in May. 

For most of you bandwidth & storage overages wont be a problem as only the very largest networks exceed the limits.  If you are likely to exceed your limit we have sent an email to you so that you are aware.

If you want to keep track of your bandwidth and storage consumption each month, and if necessary take action, please go to your Admin Centre http://my.socialgo.com.  On the “Overview” tab (bottom right) we have displayed your current bandwidth and storage consumption since the start of your billing current billing cycle.  You will continue to accumulate bandwidth and storage until the end of your monthly billing cycle.  At the bottom of the display it tells you how many additional blocks you have already consumed this billing cycle.  This will give you an idea how much you can expect to consume for the full monthly billing cycle.

Please note that at the end of your monthly billing cycle your bandwidth is reset to zero, but your storage continues to accumulate unless you delete content. 

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact our support team on support@socialgo.com.

SocialGO Launches Layout Manager

SocialGO would like to announce the launch of the 'Layout Manager', giving anyone and everyone developer-like customization opportunities without writing a single line of code!

 
 

SocialGO.com has now launched it's eagerly awaited 'Layout Manager'. This powerful new feature combines infinite customization possibilities with drag and drop simplicity. It also eliminates the need for any special programming skills, allowing virtually anyone to build an advanced and unique social network with no prior experience. 

SocialGO founder Alex Halliday said, “Social Networking has become a part of most people’s daily lives. This has created an ever-increasing interest in hosted solutions by groups who wish to operate their own dedicated network, rather than being part of one of the larger general networks.

Since every niche wants a unique look and feel, features and rules, our Layout Manager allows for infinite customization, without the need to hire an expensive developer or designer. This is a tremendous advantage over other hosted solutions, most of which simply provide a ‘one look fits all’ template, rather than delivering power and control into the hands of the network creator.”

How Layout Manager Works

The Layout Manager (see below) using simple "point & click" allows you to break every page in your site down into nine distinct "Zones" that can be moved, deleted, modified or added to. Each Zone can be broken down into one column, two column or three column and you can vary the width of each column. 

Each Zone can be broken down into one column, two column or three column and you can vary the width of each column.

Within each Zone, you can drag and drop various modules, including HTML, CSS, Javascript, I-Frame, Feature Elements, and 3rd Party Widgets.

Layout Manager allows you to create an unlimited number of additional custom pages within your SocialGO network site, plus unlimited sub-pages. Each of these pages can be set to varying degrees of visibility between the public, logged-in members, paid subscribers, or moderators. And finally every page and sub-page can be renamed and re-ordered as you wish.

 

Layout Manager is available on SocialGO Premium and Concierge Plans. 
You'll find the Layout Manager in your Admin Centre at http://my.socialgo.com by simply clicking on the 'Layout Manager' block. 

If you are on the SocialGO FREE or Starter Packages and would like to use the Layout Manager, simply go to your admin Centre at http://my.socialgo.com and click the 'Change My Plan' option, from where you'll be able to upgrade to the Premium Plan from just $24.99 per month.

Courtesy of the EvilGenius over at WidgetLaboratory, we present you with a comprehensive video explaining the functionality of the new Admin Toolbar. In the video, Spence will illustrate its ease of use and how to stylize the toolbar to blend nicely with your page.

It's going to be a busy holiday weekend here at SocialGO and the WidgetLaboratory, and we appreciate the time you will take to try out this feature - feel free to provide us with your valued feedback!

Have a safe holiday, everyone, and here's to the success of your networks and future launches!

Note - To change the color of Background, Underline, and Text of your Admin Toolbar, use the following (change colors to suit your taste):

ul#admin-bar-navigation {
background-color:#FFFFFF !important;
border-bottom:2px solid #222222 !important;
}
ul#admin-bar-navigation li a {
color:#222222 !important;
}