Tutorials for Publishing Article and Creating Events

It is worth taking the time to learn how to use the app and web-app well so that it benefits you and your members.

You may be set as a Group Manager / Admin and/or an Event Publisher within a group(s) depending on your role or activity within the community.

To publish news articles or updates within a group you must be a Group Manager / Admin.

To publish an Event within a group and on the What’s On tab you must be set as an Event Publisher.

Article Tips

Images with Articles

You always need to put a header image with your article - for most articles this is normally the only imagery you need. But if you want to add others, try to keep other images to a maximum of one extra - otherwise you will create bulky articles that take a long time to load.

Be aware of image size - do not load large image files that you have taken from a high resolution phone or camera. Try to only use image files that are less than 1MB otherwise it won’t create a good user experience. By right-clicking on an image or opening it in your phone you can normally select to see information or details to see how big the file size is. Files on your phone that have been downloaded from WhatsApp or Google images are normally small in size, or if you are using a laptop / computer it is easy to reduce image size using a website like this https://compressjpeg.com . Or you can do it on Preview on a Mac by selecting Tools > Adjust Size, then select “Resample image”

Cropping, Rotating or Scaling Images

You can crop, rotate or scale images at the point when you are uploading them to the article. This may be needed if you upload an image that is upside down or 90 degrees out. Although these features are here, it is far better just to select a suitable image before the upload that is small in size and landscape. This way you won’t need to make any changes and it will work well on both phone and web.

Header images

Header images tend to work better on both phone and laptop devices if they are landscape. If you don’t have a header image for your article we have provided a Branch Update image that can be used if needed. Examples here:

Using your Phone to publish an article

Publishing an article from your phone is quick and easy and recommended if the article is small and simple. For example this video shows an article which is sharing a photo and a comment from a walking group event with a breakfast afterwards.

Using the Web-App to publish a more complex article

Here are more things to consider if you are going to publish a more complex article with embedded web links or additional formatting to consider. If you are publishing articles for larger audiences you should definitely take the time at the start to learn how to do this efficiently. Here is a full tutorial video using the web-app that should help you learn all you need to know.

Here is a video explaining how to Create an Event in the App - please take the time to watch this in detail.

When you publish an event advert you will get the option to set visibility. If you are an event publisher in multiple groups, you will be given the option to share your event advert in any of those groups. For larger events you will want to get as much visibility as possible, so this will be helpful.

If you feel that your event should be shared with the Full Fusiliers Connect community in the Fusiliers Connect Primary Group then you should add either Andy Harris or Robin Bourne-Taylor as an Event Organiser and ask them to share your event.

Posting your Event Advert to the ‘What’s On’ Tab

The What’s On tab acts as a type of Events Noticeboard for the community so it is really important to share event adverts here if you want more people to see them. When you select Visibility settings in your event advert, at the bottom, you can set What’s On visibility. For anything public (like a Coffee Club, Veterans’ Hub or Walk+Talk) select ALL here. If the event is just for your regimental community then select the appropriate primary group from the list.

Adding an image to an event advert

Use the same principle for images for an event advert that you would for an article.

1) Small size
2) Landscape image
3) Something that works well for the event

If you don’t save an image then a placeholder will be added, but this won’t help your event get good engagement.

Giving the right information in an event advert

Give as much information as will be helpful to the reader. It should not be pages of text. Remember, if you have more info to share you can always just add an email address as a link in the event details and ask people to contact you if they want more information.

It is a good idea to add a written address for an event in the event details as well as putting the location into the map location. This is because some members may not be familiar with using Google Maps or What3Words.

Always put your event address into the Location Settings in the event advert. This is how the event shows in the correct region in the What’s On section. If you don’t want to put an exact address here, then still put the town or region.

Setting Event Questions an event advert

You can set any number of Event Questions within your event advert and the member will have to answer these questions before they can submit their RSVP if they are coming.

The default question is ‘Are you coming?’ But you can add extra questions if needed by typing in the text and selecting the type of answer.

For example, the question… Are you bringing a plus one?
This may just be a Yes / No answer

For example, the question… What is the best way to contact you (please give email or phone number)? Or Do you have any dietary requirements?
These may be best to have a Paragraph as the type of answer so the member can type their details.

(if you want to have contact details for your RSVPs that you can export outside of the app be sure to add this as an event question)

Viewing Answers in an event advert

As the event organiser you can view all the RSVP details by clicking View Results. You can also send these results to you via email as a CSV file. If you want more than one person to have access to this information then you also need to add them to the event advert as an additional organiser.

When you publish an event advert it will generate a Public Link. You can copy this link in the top right corner of the event advert.

This is a link to a stand-alone webpage that holds the information about your event (without sharing any private app data about members). (for App members) If you click on the link and have the App or Web-App open on the same device it should divert you back to the platform. However, people who are not registered on the platform can also view and RSVP using this link by adding their name and email.

This means you can create your event in the App but are still free to share it on other digital channels like email, WhatsApp or Facebook and it doesn’t need everyone to be on the App to see it.

An iFrame is a way of embedding a YouTube video in a platform that isn’t YouTube. YouTube isn’t always keen for this to be done because it pulls the viewer away from their advertising, so it requires a specific process. Only do this if you are confident with your phone or computer skills.

When creating an article, in the Tool Bar, you will see an HTML icon that looks like this </>. If you click it you will get a window to enter bespoke HTML code (in this case an iFrame). 

To enter a YouTube iFrame you will need to first take the YouTube ID from the video. Please note that you can only embed an iFrame video from YouTube that is set to Public. Private or unlisted videos will not play.

For example for is a YouTube video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10F-6z6OCnM

The video ID is the bit that comes after v= So in this case the ID is 10F-6z6OCnM

Taking the following HTML code: (you will need to copy this code if you want to embed your own video)

<iframe width="400" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ADD ID HERE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You need to insert the video ID. For the above example this is: <iframe width="400" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/10F-6z6OCnM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You then copy this full code and paste it into the Custom HTML box in the article and click save. This will embed the YouTube video within your article.

If, when you click save, a blank YouTube video appears then you have either

1) made an error in pasting the code and ID
2) The video is not public and is being blocked by YouTube