Product updates: Events, Twitter, Newsletters

I am in my 4th week at XING now, getting into the subjects and enjoying the spirit here. I am Senior Product Manager and will take care of some features and functions at XING now – like the exciting enhancement of the events feature.

A bit on my background: I studied in Lüneburg, Aix-en-Provence and Istanbul. First, I worked for a PR agency for the Official Cultural Program to the Football World Cup, then I changed to Eventim (European market leader in ticketing) where I occupied several positions during the last years, at last Head of product management web shop.

Bulk uploads for Events

Being able to organize more than one event at once can make life much easier – particularly if you’re involved in arranging lots of events, perhaps as a seminar or trade fair organizer. It saves you from repeating the same work steps hundreds of times over whenever you want to create an event.

Here’s how the bulk upload works:

1. Click the “Bulk Upload” option on the Events start page.
   

   You will find the link on the right of the simple event creation form.

2. Create an XML file and enter the data for your events. We’ve provided a template here for you to refer to and a user’s guide to the creation of the files.
   

   This is where you can upload gazillions of events with ease.

3. Select and upload the XML file.
4. You’ll then see an overview of all the contained events.

These features are available to both Premium and Basic Members. If you have questions or suggestions about this new feature, you can either post your feedback in the XING Group or leave a comment for this blog post.

Announcements via Twitter and “News from your network”

From Wednesday onwards, you’ll also be able to announce any events you’re organizing or attending on your Twitter account, exported directly from XING. All you have to do is click on the respective link in the overview.

The link to twitter is right underneath the event's title.

You’ll then be directed straight to the text entry field on Twitter, which includes a message and a link to the event.

The standard text on twitter, including the title and link to the event.

You can alter this message on Twitter too, of course. This week onwards you can also see exactly which public events your contacts are attending in the “What’s news in my network” ticker.

Newsletters now with direct reply option

It is now possible as standard to reply to newsletters in the newsletter forum of every group. This makes it much easier to give direct feedback on any particular newsletter – which we’re sure will prove just as valuable for moderators as for group members.