Table of Contents
- What is Membee?
- Can Members and Anonymous Site Visitors Use Membee?
- How to Get Membee Features on Your Client's Site
- What Membee Features Are Common on a Client Organization's Website?
- Can I Secure Other Content & Features on My Site Using Membee-Managed Usernames and Passwords?
- Commonly Asked Questions
What is Membee?
Membee is a web-based membership management system designed to permit client organizations to manage their membership base in a professional and efficient manner.
Can Members and Anonymous Site Visitors Use Membee's Features?
Yes, Membee's widgets are almost always embedded and placed on public pages. When a "members only" feature such as member event pricing or the member's Profile is accessed, Membee will prompt the site visitor to login. This allows powerful flexibility in that information in the Widgets can be visible to anonymous site visitors such as the event's description while access to members-only features can be restricted.
How to Get Membee Features on Your Client's Site
Membee uses a "Widget" driven model. Membee's Widgets are iFrames that provide all our advanced functionality in a simple copy and paste format. In general, the widget is configured in Membee and will generate a script that you use to display the widget on a webpage.
All you need to do is copy the script from Membee and paste it onto a page on your site - Membee does the rest.
Minimum Content Area Width
You should allow for a displayable content area width of 630 pixels in the template for a page where you plan to embed a Membee feature. Once the widget is embedded, the feature can be revised in Membee without the need to re-embed the widget in the site. For example, a decision to allow a member to update a new field in their member profile is a simple process of exposing that field to the member by changing a setting in Membee.
Override Membee's Default CSS to Match Your Site
We also expose the CSS in each widget so you can customize them to match your client's website. Once your client has subscribed to Membee, they'll be able to give you login credentials so that you can view our help document on how to customize customize the styles.
What Membee Features Are Common on a Client Organization's Website?
There are five major Membee features commonly used on an organization's website:
- Events
- Member Directories
- New Member Signup
- Member Profile
- Online Payment Processing For Renewals & Event Invoices
These features are embedded onto your website, allowing the visitor to use these features for a streamlined workflow for the organization.
**Important Note: Tutorial links are protected by a Membee login. In order to access the information, you will need to have been granted access to Membee by your client.
Events
Overview
Membee's Events functionality is designed to make event registration really easy for both members and non-members.
The event widget is embedded onto specific pages on your website. Each event created in Membee can be set to display using a specific event widget, which would ensure that the visitor lands on the same page where the event widget appears. (i.e. store-related events go to the store page, not the event page)
Events, Online Store, & Donations
Using Membee's event widget, users can set up and manage events, allowing event registrations to be completed on the website.
Membee users often use the event widget as an option to gather donations or open an online store that will allow members or non-members to make donations or purchase merchandise, publications, etc, in the store.
- Setup the event calendar to display on your website
- Step by Step Tutorial For Events
- Step by Step Tutorial For an Online Store
- Step by Step Tutorial For Donations
Event Feeds
The Events feature also gives users the option to dynamically display feeds on their site or Facebook page (Note: Facebook only allows this feature if you have over 2000 page likes).
Events created in Membee can automatically be listed on the website with a link to full event details and registration, using Membee's event feeds. See examples of event feeds on a website below.
- Step by Step Tutorial For Event Feeds
- Example 1
- Example 2
- Example 1
Mobile Integration
In order for Membee's event widget to responsive, the website must be responsive first. The event widget by default is mobile responsive so that the content fits the device that it's being viewed in.
Member Directories
Overview
You can create unlimited searchable member directories in Membee and within any directory, a member can have multiple listings. Directories are displayed on the website to promote the members publicly or allow members to search for and contact other members in a private directory. Membee's directories are SEO-friendly.
Public or Private “Members Only” Directories
If your organization has the mandate to promote its membership, then you are going to want to make your member directory(s) public so they are easy to get to.
With a simple checkbox, you can make a directory require member login before it can be accessed, allowing it to truly be a "members only" benefit.
Tight integration with Google Maps allows the directory to instantly generate a map listing all members returned in search results.
- Add the directory widget to display on your website
- Create a person directory
- Create an organization/club/family directory
- Create a directory for both people and organizations/clubs/families
An example of a public directory
An example of a private directory (when a non-member attempts to view the directory)
Mobile Integration
In order for Membee's directory widget to responsive, the website must be responsive first. The directory widget by default is mobile responsive so that the content fits the device that it's being viewed in.
Feeds
Membee offers the ability to highlight specific members in a feed that can be embedded onto your website. Feeds can include special offers, sponsored listings, featured listings, and new member feeds.
- Special offer Feed(s) - members can provide special offers as a component of their listings in Membee's member directories. This feed pulls all of those special offers into a concise rotating list of special offers that can be placed anywhere in the client organization's site - typically in sidebars. A click on the special offer takes the site visitor to the member's directory listing and the full details of the special offer. A member "referral" stat is automatically trapped by Membee.
- Sponsored Listing Feed(s) - A keyword can be assigned to each member listing. This marks the listing as being a "Sponsored" listing. For example, if you assigned the keyword "Bank" to a listing that listing is now a sponsored listed. The sponsored listing feed includes all listings that have been assigned a specific keyword.
- Featured Listing Feed(s) - any member directory listing can be designated as "featured" often to further reward a member for other contributions such as financial sponsorship. Such listings are emphasized whenever they are returned in search results. This feed allows a client to place a list of featured listings anywhere on their site to further promote such members.
- New Member Feed(s) - when a new member is created in Membee' this feed automatically displays a rotating list of new members. Settings in the feed determine how long a new member is listed.
Example of the new member feed
Sign-Up Forms
Sign-up forms allow new members or subscribers to sign up right from our site and would create a record for them in the database.
Each form can be embedded onto separate pages on your website, allowing the new person or organization to sign up to become a member or subscribe to your newsletters, etc.
Not all forms in Membee need to be embedded onto a page, some forms exist for internal usage. Only forms that you wish to show publicly on your website to allow visitors to sign up would need to be embedded.
- Setup the Forms to Display on Your Website
- Step by Step Tutorial to Setup Person Forms
- Set by Step Tutorial to Setup Organization/Club/Family Forms
Example of a new person sign up form
Member Profile
Membee offers login capabilities for members, giving the member the option to view and manage their own profile information right from your website
With field-by-field control, literally every field in Membee can be available on the member profile so that the member can update their information. Membee’s Card Vault feature makes it easy for you to permit members to store and reuse their credit card.
Example of a member logged in
Online Payment Processing For Renewals and Event Invoices
Membee can collect membership renewals and event registration payments by embedding the eBilling widget onto your website.
When an invoice is sent to a member or purchaser, they view the single invoice on your website without logging in (unless set to required) - it's also called an "online bill".
If the member visits the page directly, they will be required to log in and they can see a full list of any outstanding invoices.
Example of an outstanding invoice
Can I Secure Other Content & Features on My Site Using Membee-Managed Usernames and Passwords?
Yes. In fact, this is the preferred methodology since it provides the best experience to the member in the form of a true "single-sign-on" regardless of what secured feature the member accesses first on the site. This approach also provides the essential capability for membership-based organizations to grant and remove access based on the state of the member's membership. Membee provides you with a couple of options:
WordPress Plugin
The plugin's purpose is remove the hassle and additional work related with managing member access (activating/deactivating login access, controlling which members see what content). Once you have the plugin working, you're done and from there, you manage your members in Membee knowing that the member's access to content is managed via the plugin WITHOUT additional effort on your part. While the plugin synchronizes a member's access to your WordPress site content, it does not provide the ability for you to designate on a page-by-page basis which members can see which pages. Thankfully, there is a plugin for that! :-) You can find the information on how this is implemented by clicking here.
Other CMS Systems
Membee's Member Single-Sign On (MSSO) service is a free service, is cross-platform compatible, and is standards driven. A developer with exposure to either Oauth 2.0 (Facebook uses this) or OpenID (Google, Yahoo, etc.) will be able to implement Membee's method on their site regardless of programming language or Content Management System (CMS) used. Detailed supporting documentation for the web service is available by clicking here.
Can I Secure Content for Viewing By a Specific Subset of Members?
Yes. Inside Membee, the client organization can define an "Access Role" and assign that role to a group or committee. In turn, the people in that group inherit the "role" and we make that role information available via the Member Single Sign-On Service described above. As a result, a content page(s) can be made visible only to a specific list of members. A common example would describe the creation of a "Board of Directors" page on the new site where the contents of the page are visible only to the client organization's Board members.
Can I Support Social Network Login for Use By Members?
Yes. Membee's features and its Member Single Sign-On Service allow the client organization, at their option, to permit their members to access secured features and content by using the member's Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, or LinkedIn usernames and passwords. The member's preferred social network username and password are associated with their record in Membee allowing the client organization to maintain control over granting and removing member access while allowing the member to enjoy a hassle-free login experience. The social network credentials are included in the Member Single Sign-On Service stream allowing you to extend the member's use of their social network credentials to secure content areas of the new site.
Commonly Asked Questions
Can I Use Wix as my CMS?
No. To the best of our knowledge, Wix is the only CMS on the planet that does not support the industry-standard methodology used by Membee's Widgets. Unfortunately, this requires a Wix-based website to be migrated to any other CMS before utilizing Membee's Widgets.
Got a question?
We're here to help. Just drop us a note with your contact info and the organization you're working with to support@membee.com and we'll get right back to you.