Episode 671: Inviting Visitors is (Even) Easier

Synopsis

Jeremy Walsh joins Dr. Misner on the podcast this week to discuss new features in BNI Connect that make inviting visitors to your BNI meeting even easier.

There are now four distinct ways to invite visitors using BNI Connect and the BNI Connect Mobile App.

The Existing Ways

By email from the BNI Connect website. BNI Connect creates an email invitation that includes the registration links, the RSVP, and all the information your visitor needs to attend.By email from the BNI Connect mobile app. This works just like the email from the website.

The problem is, everyone is already overwhelmed by emails, and you don't want a possible visitor to ignore your invitation. Make sure you personalize your email invitations.

The New Ways

By SMS from your BNI Connect mobile app. Click the "Visitors" button and choose the SMS option to open your phone's text messaging app and select contacts. BNI Connect will add a registration link to your text messgage.By other messaging apps from the BNI Connect mobile app. Choose the "Share" option under "Visitors" to launch a messenger app like WhatsApp or WeChat. As with the SMS message, BNI Connect will automatically create an invitation with a registration link.

Be sure to personalize your text invitations, too. However you do it, be thoughtful about who you invite and how. Don't select everyone on your contact list at once. Choose people that you really think would be a good fit for the chapter. If you met them recently, remind them where you met.

Complete Transcript of Episode 671

PriscillaHello, everybody, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast. I'm Priscilla Rice and I'm coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California. And I'm joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan, how are you today?

Ivan Yeah, thanks Priscilla, I appreciate it. I'm doing great and I'm actually at my Galveston condo for a couple of weeks to get out of the heat, the crazy heat in Austin.

Priscilla Great. Well, tell us about what we have going for today.

Ivan So today I have somebody who's been on the show, on the podcast, many times, Jeremy Walsh. I consider Jeremy a good friend. He is Mr. BNI Connect. He has done amazing things with BNI Connect. He's the Director of Support for BNI Connect and BNI University. He's been a BNI member since 2002. And a Director since 2004. He's been with BNI Connect since it went live in February of 2011. Oh gosh Jeremy, I remember those days.

Jeremy Almost a decade.

Ivan He manages the Support Team for BNI Connect with team members all over the world, his team is all over the world. And the Support Team is closing in on answering their 200,000th ticket for BNI Connect, which the team still has an average response time of under one hour. Jeremy, welcome to,  welcome back to the BNI Podcast.

Jeremy Dr. Misner, Ivan, it's always a pleasure being here; love sharing, especially new information, with you and all of your listeners out there, and love this format and being here with you. So thank you.

Ivan Well, thank you. And do you remember those early days?

Jeremy It is a whole different ball game now. I mean, I still applaud you on the vision of BNI Connect and, you know, the fact that we, over the past several years, have pulled together, what do we have? How many members now? 200 and...

Ivan About 270,000 members worldwide.

Jeremy All in one system. Could you even imagine that 10 years ago?

Ivan Yeah, I appreciate that. It was, you know, I did have a big vision for this. But I also had a lot of directors who were willing to let go of their own silo, their own database system. And BNI Connect is, I think, a classic example of what can happen with collaboration. And although it was a struggle back in 2011, I cannot imagine running this organization today without it. And you my friend, are a big, big part of that,