Community Events

Today I would like to take a few minutes and examine the Community Events feature of HOAInTouch.com.

Community Events was the second feature we implemented in HOAInTouch.com (right after Community News) primarily because we knew how badly our own HOA needed it. Frequently there would be flyers for events posted on mailboxs that would either get:

1. Ripped off by the wind and litter the neighborhood or
2. Rained on, become illegible and look terrible.

Even if someone was able to read the flyer they rarely remembered to write it down once they made it back inside. Bottom line is the flyers weren't an effective tool in informing the neighborhood or getting the community engaged.

With these challenges in mind we went to work creating the Community Events feature. As always, our goal was to create a system that was simple and intuitive enough for anyone to use but useful enough to fulfill the goal of informing the neighborhood and increasing participation.

Viewing an event

When you view the dashboard for your community the next five community events are listed on the right hand side. You can also click the Calendar tab at the top of the page to view your upcoming community events.



From the calendar screen only the name of the event, location and partial description are visible. To view the event details user’s can either click the name of the event or the details link at the bottom.



In the event details page users are able to view all of the event information (event name, start date/time, end date/time, location and description), as well as add a comment (a great way to RSVP) or download the event to their local calendaring application (i.e. Microsoft Outlook) and set a reminder.

Adding an event



Adding an event is super simple and is much like adding an event to Microsoft Outlook or other calendaring application. Simply enter the name of the event, the start date / time, the end date / time, the location of the event and a short description. If it is an all day event (i.e. a holiday, garage sale, trash pickup, etc.) simply check the Add Day Event box.

Editing/Delete an event



If the user is authorized to edit an event, an edit link provided below the event description on the Calendar page.



The edit event page is almost exactly the same as the Add Event page with the exception of a Delete button. To delete the event simply click the Delete button and then click Yes when asked to confirm.

Event Notifications



When a community event is added to the system an email is sent to all users in the neighborhood that are subscribed to receive updates. This is a great feature because it enables users to stay informed without having to constantly remember to check the website. Instead they stay informed simply by checking their email – just like they already do every day.

By making it so easy for residents to stay in touch with the community you can increase community participation dramatically. Really that is what HOAInTouch.com is all about. Leveraging technology to increase communication and build a sense community in your neighborhood.

Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!

New Email Templates

Over the last few weeks you may have noticed a change in the emails recieved from HOAInTouch.com. Earlier this month we made quite a few updates to the templates we were using. The new templates are much, much cleaner and do a better job of drawing the focus where it needs to be - on the information about your community.

With the new templates we also provide more information. For example, the news and events notifications now include links to view the content in your browser or add comments. Also, the event notification now includes the date and location of the event as well as a link to add the event to your calendar.

Finally, we also updated the forgot password template. Previously this email created confusion for some users because the period ending the sentence occurred immediately after the new password. While gramatically correct, this caused some users to be unsure if the period was to be included as a part of the password or not. Now, the password is clearly set apart and should be much easier to use.

We worked hard to improve the usability of the emails and hope you like the new templates. Feel free to drop us a note and let us know what you think. Thanks and we will see you 'round the neighborhood!

New Comment Notifications

Last night we released a new feature for HOAInTouch.com - new comment notifications. Now when a new comment is added to a news post or community event the author and any users that have added comments will receive an email notifying them that a new comment has been added.

Previously users had to remember to continually check the site to see if anyone had added comments which was a royal pain and not really conducive to facilitating communication. Hopefully these changes will provide a better means to engage the community. Let us know what you think!

Thanks and we will see you 'round the neighborhood!

January 2008 Stats

Quick stats update for the month of January 2008.

HOAInTouch.com now has 45 communities in 44 zip codes and 16 states! Angie has been pulling together a spreadsheet containing all of the different cities and states that we have communities in and/or have searched with their zip code. It is really interesting to see where all of the searches are coming from. From Alaska to Texas and Maine to Hawaii, HOAInTouch.com has had a zip code search from 40 different states so far. We will let you know once we have hit them all.

Now on to the stats.

• Number of users: 127 (+35%)
• Number of contacts: 177 (+42%)
• Number of groups: 23 (No change)
• Number of news posts: 90 (+50%)
• Number of community events: 106 (+125%)
• Number of documents: 176 (+107%)

And from Google Analytics

• Visits: 489 (-38%)
• Unique Visitors: 333 (-42%)
• Page Views: 3,181 (-33%)
• Pages/Visit: 6.51 (+8.92%)
• Time on Site: 4:19 (+30%)

First the good news. Community Events and the Document Library are taking off in a big way with both experiencing over 100% month over month growth. WOW! This is really exciting to see and hopefully it continues. Also of note, the average time on site increased by 30% which is also encouraging.

Visits and page views, on the other hand, went entirely in the wrong direction. However, it isn’t really as bad as it seems and was entirely expected. For one week in December we tried advertising on StumbleUpon and, while it certainly generated the traffic we expected, that traffic didn’t translate into new communities so we have pulled it – for now anyway.

Thanks to everyone for all of their interest and support. We finished 2007 building some great momentum and I am really looking forward to what 2008 will bring us!

See you ‘round the neighborhood!

More For Less

When we launched HOAInTouch.com a little over two months ago we started with an admittedly limited scope of understanding in terms of the varying sizes and types of homeowners associations. HOAInTouch.com really grew out of the recognition of problems our HOA - and similar HOAs in our area - were experiencing coupled with the lack of a viable solution in the market. We knew that if HOAs in our area were experiencing these issues then maybe we had an opportunity to help others around the country.

Two months later and nearly 50 communities strong we have come to recognize that, while there are literally tens of thousands of associations actively looking for a solution to these shared issues, unfortunately our pricing structure put help out of reach for a number of these communities.

Several of the associations we have talked to have expressed that they absolutely love the product and believe it could be of great benefit to their community but that it was either too expense or the limitations too constraining (i.e. not enough users without upgrading to the Unlimited plan) to be a viable option.

After careful consideration we are extremely pleased and excited to announce that starting today HOAInTouch.com will provide much more for much, much less. Below are our new pricing plans and as you can see we have drastically reduced the monthly subscription rates while increasing the number of users and contacts. Please visit our pricing page for more information on each of these plans.

Free – Yep, still free.
· 25 Users
· 25 Contacts
· 1 Group/Committee
· 50 MB Document Storage

Basic - $19.99/month
· 50 Users
· 60 Contacts
· 3 Group/Committee
· 250 MB Document Storage

Standard - $29.99/month
· 100 Users
· 120 Contacts
· 5 Group/Committee
· 250 MB Document Storage

Premium - $39.99/month
· 200 Users
· 250 Contacts
· 10 Group/Committee
· 1 GB Document Storage

Unlimited - $49.99/month
· Unlimited Users
· Unlimited Contacts
· Unlimited Group/Committee
· 2 GB Document Storage

Our hope is that these changes will make HOAInTouch.com even more accessible to the communities that need it most. Of course, all of our existing communities will be migrated to the new pricing structure and will see the reduced rates on next month’s statement.

We sincerely appreciate your support and welcome your feedback. Feel free to let us know what you think of the new plans or what you think of HOAInTouch.com in general. We value your thoughts and enjoy getting the opportunity to know our users a bit better..

Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!

Small Release

We had a small release tonight that included a number of minor changes.

One of the more noticeable changes was a redesign of the tour page. Previously the tour page was just a long list of features with a short description for each one with some of the key features (i.e. Community News) including a short video. It wasn’t horrible but there were a number of things we didn’t like about this page and wanted to remedy.

• For one, it contained so much stuff it was a bit intimidating. There was way to much information competing for the users attention.
  
• Also, since we crammed all of the features on to one page we didn’t have much room to elaborate. This resulted in many of the feature descriptions not really being all that descriptive.
• Some of our newest features, like the Groups & Committees and Document Library, were absent from the list.
• Frankly, it was a tad boring. Don’t get me wrong, it accomplished what it needed to but just barely.

So we decided to completely redesign it and I am really please with the way it turned out.

The tour page now presents each feature one at a time. This allows the potential customer to focus and really absorb the information instead of all of the features screaming for attention. This new design also provided us with a bit more room to describe the features in better detail and the page loads faster since we don’t have to present all the information at the same time. Plus the animation of the descriptions sliding in as you click on each feature is just plain sexy.

We have also been getting a LOT of feedback from our neighbors on how much they love the site. We didn’t want to keep all the kind words to ourselves so we rolled out a new Buzz page for some of the testimonials. We are always humbled to receive these compliments and it is really rewarding to hear how useful people are finding the site. Keep ‘em coming and we will continue too add them to our Buzz page.

Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!

Why Does My HOA Need A Website?

When talking to prospective communities during the sales cycle we sometimes get the question “Why does my HOA need a website?”.

The first couple times I fielded this question I was taken aback a bit because, to me, it just seemed so glaringly self evident that a community website was the solution to so many problems associations often encounter.

In my attempt to answer, I stumbled around a bit talking about all the great features in HOAInTouch.com and all of the specific issues it is meant to resolve. While all true and somewhat helpful to the conversation, after fielding this question a few times I came to the realization that speaking to specific features and issues really just clouds the discussion.

The reality is the essence of nearly any issue your HOA faces boils down to communication. The truth is your HOA doesn’t need a website. It needs a better way to communicate - a better way to bring people and information together.

Today's communities really need a better way to connect with neighbors and disseminate information. We think HOAInTouch.com is simply the best means to that end. Try us out and we think you will agree.

Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!

First Month Stats

On Friday we hit our first month live. Has it really been a month already? It seems like it was just last week that I locked myself in my office and started coding HOAInTouch.com. When we hit the one week mark we provided some statistics and said we would do it again after the first month. Here we go..

We now have 28 communities in 24 zip codes! We are very pleased and excited with this progress. Some of the other key statistics are provided below.

• Number of users: 94
• Number of contacts: 124
• Number of groups: 23
• Number of news posts: 60
• Number of events: 47
• Number of documents: 85

And from Google Analytics…

• Visits: 757
• Unique Visitors: 582
• Page Views: 3,964
• Pages/Visit: 5.24
• Time of Site: 2:55

At this point these are interesting but not really useful as a measurement of growth as we only have the one week stats for comparison. However, one item that really jumps out at me is the number of documents. We only released this feature two weeks ago and we already have more documents than news posts! Based on the data and feedback we have received from users, it would appear the Document Library has been a big hit!

Moving forward, I intend to publish these same stats each month so we will be able to measure growth and usage over time. As new features are released they will be added to the statistics. Should be interesting.

Thanks for such a great first month and I am really excited for 2008! We will see you ‘round the neighborhood!

Mail Client Integration

Tonight we released several enhancements that we are really excited about. Nothing earth-shattering from a technology perspective but features that allow HOAInTouch.com to compliment your existing tools and further incorporate our services into your regular, daily routine.

First, you can now download contacts to your desktop mail client. This feature should be compatible with most modern mail clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Live Mail Desktop, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.

This makes the contact information you use the most even easier to get to. No longer are you forced to login to HOAInTouch.com just to find the phone number or email address for Mike down the street. Instead, simply compose your email, grab the address from your email address book and send it on its way.

Second, we also added mail client integration for calendar events. Now you can download your neighborhood events from HOAInTouch.com and save them to your local calendar. One of the greatest aspects of this integration is the reminder feature of most desktop calendars.

See an event scheduled for a few months out but worried you will forget it? Don’t be. Just click the Download Event link and set the reminder. Your email client will remind you at the specified time and you will be ready to go.

These are two examples of how we are striving to augment and enhance the existing tools you already use in an effort to enable effortless communication with your neighbors. It isn't that we don't want you to stop by and visit HOAInTouch.com - quite the contrary actually, feel free to stop by any time - but we don't think you should HAVE to come to the site. It is your information and you should be able to access and utilize it in the most efficient means possible.

We also added a feature some of the more internet savvy users will appreciate. Tonight we released integration with digg.com. To digg a news post simply click the “digg it” button at the bottom of the news post. For the uninitiated, digg.com is a social bookmarking site that allows users to share links to news stories they think are cool or important.

We also released several “fit and finish” enhancements and a few bug fixes this evening as well. I have attempted to enumerate them below.

Community News

• The news post email notification, RSS feed and comments now retain paragraph formatting. Previously it was stripped and thus looked like one paragraph.

Community Events

• Community event email notification and comments also now retain paragraph formatting.


• Fixed a bug where the start time for an event was not defaulted in correctly in some instances when editing an existing event.

Community Directory

• We now allow spaces in first and last names of users and contacts.


• Shortened the horizontal rule next to each last name initial on the directory homepage. Very wide characters, such as W, caused the horizontal rule to wrap to a new line.


• Fixed a bug where last names entered in lower case would cause the last name initial to be repeated on the directory homepage (i.e. r and R would both be display).


• Fixed a display issue on the contact page where a contact name could wrap if it was too long.

Document Library

• Resolved an issue preventing documents from being uploaded in rare cases.


• Improved the messages presented after added, editing or deleting a document.


• Improved the presentation of the document library grid. Previously long file names would cause the grid to wrap and not be aligned properly.

Quite a bit of good stuff released tonight. We are pretty excited about it and hope you are too. As always, let us know what you think!

Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!

New Pricing Structure

When we launched HOAInTouch.com about three weeks ago our goal was to make the service as simple as possible in every aspect – including pricing. For the most part this has paid off as users have found the service to be very intuitive and easy to use and our support levels have been negligible.

With that said, we have received a surprising amount of feedback that you want more options when it comes to pricing. We heard you and tonight we rolled out a new pricing structure for the HOAInTouch.com service. Under the new pricing structure we have five subscription plans ranging from our Free plan to our Unlimited Plan. I would like to take just a few minutes and detail the specifics of each plan.

First though, let me emphasis that we still have our Free plan and I intend to keep this around indefinitely. There really isn’t a better way for users to try our service and see how effortless HOAInTouch.com makes communication with their neighbors. We did, however, reduce the number of users, contacts, groups and document storage available under this plan to allow for more flexible pricing options. If you feel your community was adversely affected by this change please contact us for a free upgrade to the Premium plan. Above everything else, we want our service to be useful to your community and to keep our customers happy.

With that out of the way, on to the new plans! At $149.99 / month the Unlimited plan is the best value. With unlimited users, contacts, groups and a whopping 2 GB of document storage there isn’t a community this plan can’t support - although we would love to see you try. :)

Our $99.99 / month Premium plan is perfect for active communities. It supports up to 100 users, 125 contacts, 10 groups and 1 GB of document storage. If you are a larger community or are active and have many committees/groups this is the plan for you!

The Standard plan runs $49.99 / month and is a very cost-effective way to get your HOA online. Standard plan communities can have up to 75 users, 90 contacts, 5 groups and 500 MB of document storage.

Our Basic plan is extremely affordable and is perfect for smaller communities or those communities that are primarily looking for a website for news and events. $29.99 / month provides a plan that includes 50 users, 60 contacts, 3 groups and 150 MB of document storage.

As always, our Free plan still includes all the same features as the other plans but without the cost! If you have a very small community or just want to try HOAInTouch.com out this is the way to go. You can be up and running in no time with up to 25 users, 25 contacts, 1 group and 50 MB of document storage.

The new subscription plans really let you target your specific needs and provide much more flexibility than before. If you aren’t sure which plan to go with, don’t worry about it! Pick any of them and you can always change your plan at anytime from the Administration section of your community. We really think you will like the changes but please let us know either way.

Thanks and we will see you ‘round the neighborhood!