Quick answers to your questions to get the most out of your membership.
Why Expats in Florence is the perfect place to start your group!
Looking for a more focused and engaging community experience? There are many good reasons to start a group on Expats in Florence.
Groups lets you advance to your special interest and follow discussions that are relevant to you. The groups are well organised with dedicated forums, document repository, Zoom meetings, media storage, instant messaging and more, allowing for deeper connections and more meaningful interactions with actual expats in Florence.
Add-ons
Embed a google calendar for schedules and events, a booking calendar for payed services, payed memberships for your groups. If you have a business, we’ve got you covered. Check out our free and payed add-ons.
Groups designed for Educational purposes
Whether large or small, our tailored Educational groups are designed to simplify coordination, enhance student engagement, and provide valuable resources to support their experience during their stay in Florence. It will save your staff a ton of time and the school money while making the experience for the students more enriching and seamless.
All groups
Features included in all group types
- Privacy settings: Public, private, and hidden groups allow for different levels of visibility and privacy.
- Group Activity Feeds: Members can post updates, media, and links, encouraging interaction within the group.
- Discussion Forums: Integrated forums for group members to have structured discussions.
- Link a business: Sell directly from your group. Learn more.
- Group Messaging: Members can send private messages to each other or in group chats.
- Event management: Schedule and manage group-specific events.
- Media Sharing: Members can upload and share photos, videos, and documents within the group.
- Group Notifications: Notifications for group activities, new posts, replies, and events.
- Group Invitations: Organisers or members can invite others to join, with approval settings.
- Zoom Integration: Direct integration with Zoom for group meetings and virtual events. Free or paid zoom account required.
- Member Directory: A list of all group members, making it easy to connect and interact.
- File Sharing and Document Management: Members can upload, share, and manage files and documents.
Pricing
First year € 40,00
Then € 10,00 /year.
Schools
Features in the School group type
Everything in all groups plus:
- Subgroups: Infinite number of subgroups for Classes, Workshops, faculty staff etc. Google calendar integration to publish schedule, events, lectures and more. View directly in group with subscribe button.
- Class schedule: Add a class schedule to subgroups.
- Bypass C.F.: Invite non-members with enrolment keys to bypass the otherwise necessary Codice Fiscale when registering.***
- Teachers as organisers: Assign teachers as co-organisers of their own classes and workshops to allow for access to student communication, forum moderation, photo, video and document sharing, zoom-meetings, schedule etc, for their student group.
Pricing
€ 200,00 /year.
* Members are notified of new messages instantly on screen. A notification is sent via Email if the message is unread after a certain time.
** Event management can be added at an extra cost.
*** Enrolment keys sold separately.
Group FAQ:s
Creating your own group only takes a minute. Membership is required, but free. Register here.
Yes, check out the add-ons for business groups.
Yes, and you can even charge a fee per booking – hassle free! The calendar is available for Business- and Education groups. Check out the add-ons.
Group Organisers controls the group settings, including managing the group members, promote group members to be moderators, co-group organisers, demote or ban (throw out) individual members.
Each group has a tab “Send Messages” from where you can send a group message or a private message. Private messages can be sent individually, or if you choose more than one recipient, as a thread.
Members that are online are instantly notified on the screen. Offline members are sent a notification via Email and WhatsApp.
Yes, Zoom is fully integrated in all group types making it possible for group organisers to connect their Zoom account (free or payed version). The integration is deep to make the experience better, meaning participants don’t need the zoom app, it works instantly in the browser.
Subgroups can be created by businesses and Education groups.
Each member can create and organise one group.
Yes, the group organiser can promote any group member to become a Co-organiser. If you have a forum you may also want to promote someone to Moderator.
Yes of course.
That will differ between groups and certainly over time. For a new group, finding members and keeping them engaged usually requires effort. It’s a good idea to be at least two to develop ideas together, for emotional support and because collaboration usually is both more fun and rewarding.
There is no upper limit to how many members a group can have.
No, you need to handle your own promotion. However, we will create two QR codes for your group. One will automatically add new members to the group upon registration, while the other will link to your group page. You can request us to advertise your group in one of the paid ad spots (outlined in the picture below) on a pro-bono basis, but it depends on the availability of free spots.
Private groups are only accessible by members that have been accepted by the organiser or co-organiser. Members of the platform but of the group have access to the group name, banner image and group description. They are also presented with a field to motivate a request for access. Not logged in visitors are redirected to the login page.
If the group privacy is set to Public anyone can see the content, but only the groups members can interact.
Membership keys are sometimes distributed to new members to allow them a free registration without a Codice Fiscale. This is often required by schools for their students. Membership are also used by some business groups to allow short term memberships for tourists. Membership keys have a limited use period and must be upgraded with either a C.F. or to a payed account before they expire.
Add-ons adds features to your group
Beyond the standard features (check them out here), you can add these free and paid features to your group.
Google Calendar
Free for all group types
Keep your group organised and up-to-date by embedding your Google Calendar with ease. This free add-on allows group organisers to manage events, schedules, and reminders effortlessly.
Link Library
10,00 Euro. Available for business- and Education groups
A well managed link library can add tremendous value to your group. With a one-time installation fee, you can easily add a link library to your group. Manage links effortlessly—add, edit, and delete them from a single tab.
For extra clarity, the links site icon is placed next to the links headline. Add description and the sites name. The site link icon is fetched automatically.
Booking Calendar
12,00 Euro/year. Available for business- and Education groups
Upgrade your group with a state-of-the-art booking calendar for just 1 Euro per month. Use it as it is, or add a payment link to your booking confirmations. Payments are deposited directly into your bank account and the commission is only 5%, inclusive of bank fees.
Payed memberships
12,00 Euro/year + 5% commission/purchase. Available for business groups.
Are you offering value from your group that you need to charge your members for? We’ve got you covered! Here is how it works:
- We provide you with a payment link.
- When a user click the link they come to a payment portal where they purchase a membership to your group at the price you set.
- After payment, the user is taken to the registration page, with a registration code prefilled.
- The user registers (if not already member) and joins your group automatically.
- Payments can be made as one time payment or subscriptions.
- Payment minus commission is transferred directly to your bank account.
- Payment links skips the otherwise required codice fiscale entry.
How to start a group
Creating your own group only takes a minute. Membership is required, but free. Register here.
The newly created group
New groups are created in a hidden state, meaning only the person creating the group, the group organiser, has access.
After you created the group, open your group and find the ‘Manage’ tab. There you will see the following new tabs:
Details
Settings
Cover Photo
Members
Forum
Zoom
Delete
These tabs have their own info-text and are self-explanatory. The Settings tab contains the privacy settings. It’s important to choose settings that corresponds to the activities in the group.
Group Privacy
In group privacy settings we recommend to choose ‘This is a Private Group’ for Social Groups and Clubs. This way the group will be listed in the group directory so other members can find it an apply for membership in your group, but the content in the group will remain private for the groups members.
The option ‘This is a Hidden Group’ will hide the group so the only way other members can know about is if they are manually invited by a group member.
The option ‘This is a Public Group’ means that the content will be public for any visitor whether logged in or not. This is probably the best setting for Services and Bureaus. Note that with the public setting, any member can join by the click of a button.
The Group Parent Setting
This setting must only be used by School Organisers to organise sub-groups.
Four important benefits of starting a social group.
1. Networking
Being part of a social group allows you to meet new people, make friends, and expand your professional network. These connections can lead to new opportunities, such as jobs, partnerships, or collaborations, and help you feel more connected to a broader community. This is especially true when you move to a new place.
2. Support
Social groups provide emotional support and a sense of belonging, which is crucial for mental health and well-being. Members can share personal experiences, challenges, and achievements, knowing they have the backing of a supportive community. This support can be particularly valuable in a situation where your previous support may be far away in another country.
3. Sharing and Learning
Groups often consist of individuals with varying levels of experience and know-how. This creates a rich environment for learning and sharing where members benefit from the insights others have done. This is particularly evident for expatriates who constantly face unknown problems or hurdles.
4. Self-esteem
Being part of a social group often has markedly positive effect on self-esteem and confidence, as members achieve a part of their self-worth from group membership. While receiving help can be very helpful and necessary, it is often very satisfying and rewarding for the one giving the help in terms of pride and self-esteem.
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Fast and helpful support when you need it
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