Please look through the following list of help items first. If your problem cannot be solved here, please email us at usersupport (at) bigtreetop (dot) com. We will answer your email within 1 business day (probably sooner!)
Frequently Asked Questions
What web browser should I use to view BigTreetop?
Though we are actively working to ensure that older web browsers are supported, we strongly suggest that you download and install Firefox 2(www.firefox.com) or Internet Explorer 7 (download it here).
How do customers find out about my Treetop?
Word of Mouth - Every time a person posts a piece of content in BigTreetop.com, they have the option of sending that piece of content to any of their friends within the network, or 5 friends outside of it.
Partner Advertising - Every Organizational Treetop has the option of partnering with other organizations, to show their own ads on each other's Treetops.
In-store promotions - If you have a physical location, let your customers know about your Treetop! Your web address will be customized to your name, and therefore easy to find.
Kiosk - BigTreetop.com is working on a kiosk solution that will allow you to push any ideas, experiences or goals from your Treetop to the in-store device. It is a fantastic way to bridge the in-store/internet gap.
Community Buzz Board - All of the ideas and experiences on your Treetop are also available on the community buzz board. The more your employees and customers are active in your Treetop, the better your visibility to the entire community.
Community Search - Anyone can search the BigTreetop.com community to find organizations, people, ideas, goals and experiences by keyword. The more your Treetop community is active, the better your chances are of being found in a search.
Website Widget - if you already have an existing website, with one line of code you can add a BigTreetop widget to it which will show the most recent experiences and ideas from your website, and allow users to click over to your Treetop to participate.
Who can see the content on my Treetop?
Everyone can see the content on every personal Treetop and every Organizational Treetop. BigTreetop is all about open dialog in communities.
Who can post content on my Treetop?
Before posting content on your Organizational Treetop, a person must click the button to become your "friend."
Before posting content on your Personal Treetop, a person must click the button to become your "friend." You must then accept the person's request to be your friend.
Who can vote on ideas and rate goals?
Only friends of a Treetop.
What if someone posts a really nasty experience, idea or comment on my Treetop?
First of all, shame on them. If they do, it can be dealt with easily enough. Though the BigTreetop site is designed for open dialog, it is not a slander free-for-all. We've built in some powerful democratic mechanisms for preventing bad will.
Snipping - Snipping is a democratic process for removing any piece of content from public view. It takes 9 snip votes to remove content. Snips from the administrators of a Treetop are worth 9 (if they vote to snip something, it's gone immediately). Snips from the team members of a Treetop are worth 3 (it takes 3 votes from these folks to snip something). Snips from friends of a Treetop are worth 1 (it takes 9 votes from these people to snip content).
Karma - Every person has a "Karma Score" which follows them around the entire system. On a scale of 1-4, it is an indicator of how positive (4) or negative (1) a person tends to be in their posting of experiences. This score can be viewed by simply mousing over anyone's photo. If someone posts a really negative experience or comment, for instance, a quick look at their overall Karma Score will help other people to "consider the source."
Blocking - Only people who are "friends" of a Treetop can post content there. Admins of a Treetop can permanently block any person from posting if necessary.
No Anonymous Posting - There is no such thing as anonymous posting in BigTreetop. Every post is linked to a real person with a real Personal Treetop!
Is there any way i can have private content?
Nope. Everything is everyone's business at this point. We may add this feature in the future if enough folks in our community feel it's a good idea.
What if a business competitor is trolling my TreeTop to find out my goals?
First of all your competitors probably know most of your goals without doing too much spying. For the goals that are really top-secret, though, you probably won't want to put them on BigTreetop.com. With this in mind, the goals that you share on BigTreetop.com should be:
Non-secretive
Interesting enough for customers and employees to rate
Likely to get your customers involved in giving ideas
Is joining BigTreetop.com going to get me on some spam list?
Absolutely not. First of all BigTreetop.com will never sell your email to anyone else. That's just bad business. Secondly, the organizations or people who use BigTreetop.com don't actually have access to your email address through BigTreetop.com. Any messages to you through the system are handled by BigTreetop directly.
Why isn't BigTreetop.com free for my business?
BigTreetop.com is building our own real business to serve your real business. Many companies who give their services away for free quickly run out of resources and go into the drink while waiting to be purchased by another company. This is not our business model.
How does voting work?
Every person has only one vote per idea.
What is the difference between the user levels in my Organizational Treetop?
What are Participoints?
Participoints are points gained for participation. Points can be earned for each individual Treetop, and those points are then added up to the Total Participoints score. These counts can be seen by mousing over any person's profile picture, and include only points for the last 90 days.
How Do I:
Get my employees onto BigTreetop?
Have them visit your unique url (for example, www.bigtreetop.com/myRestaurant), and click below your logo to become a "friend."
Then go to manage/people and change their access level. Admins can do everything the Treetop owner can do except access the billing information. Team members cannot access the "manage" part of your Treetop, but content they post within your Organizational Treetop will be marked as "Team Member" to let customers know that members of your organization are participating!
Form a partnership?
Simple! Go to manage/partners/find a partner and type the name of a business into the search box. Clicking on "Ask to Partner" will send an immediate invitation to the account owner for that Treetop, requesting a partnership. You will then receive an email when the partnership is approved. Your advertisement will immediately begin to appear on your new partner's website and theirs will begin to appear on yours.
Change my advertising blurb that shows up on my partner Treetops?
Go to manage/partners/setting and change the text there. Your changes will occur instantly on partner sites.
Dissolve a partnership?
Go to manage/partners/current partners and click "dissolve partnership." We would highly recommend that you first send a quick email to the account owner using the email link to the right.
Get rid of mean-spirited content?
Log in to your Treetop
Click "vote to snip" for any content. Administrators can immediately snip any content, while it takes either 3 team members or 9 friends to snip it.
Once content is snipped, it is visible only to administrators, and is also removed from the Community Buzz Board and Community Search as well.
Find out who has participated the most on my Treetop?
From any Treetop, go to "Community" and click on "Sort by Participation"
Change the Account Owner of my Treetop?
Please contact us for assistance with this
Block someone from posting stuff on my Treetop?
Though you should only use this as a last resort, you can do this simply by going to manage/people and clicking on "block" next to any user. This will remove the person from your friend list and disallow them from becoming a friend in the future.
Get more people to visit my Treetop?
Within the BigTreetop online system, there are many ways to maximize your visibility
Partner with other active businesses within BigTreetop. If another business is active and your ads show up on their site, you've got a good chance of increased traffic to yours
Get activity going on your Treetop! The more quality activity you get going on your Treetop, the more frequently your business will show up on the Community Buzzboard! Some ways to do this include:
Run frequent Think-ups to get your community involved in coming up with new business ideas
Create stumps and goals that customers and employees will be interested in talking about
Be active in posting a short experience every day if possible, with photos wherever you can. Did you hire a new staff person? Post a short blurb about them. Did you have a great talk with a customer? Write another blurb about that. This should only take a minute or two, and is a great way to keep your business on the community buzz board!
Be active on other the Treetops of other organizations! If you are active in posting ideas in the Treetops of other organizations, people will also want to head over and see what you have to say on your own.
Outside of the BigTreetop online system, there are many other ways
Use a kiosk to get customer and employee feedback in your physical location
Promote your Treetop in your place of business - on menus, boards, etc.
Put the BigTreetop widget on your regular web site
Think about Stumps?
Stumps are nothing more than areas of your organization or your life that you'd like to discuss. Some organizations may have very practical, tangible stumps like "Our Cookware" or "The Menu." Others may have more conceptual stumps like "Sustainable Business" or "Our Community." Try to choose stumps that are important to you and that are likely to get your community talking.
Think about my goals?
Goals are very important in BigTreetop (and for your business in-general). Try to set goals that are specific, measurable, time-limited and interesting. For example, instead of having a goal of "make people happy," you might rephrase your goal to say "make every customer feel at home." Remember that everyone in your community will be able to rate your progress against the goal as "needs work", "doing okay", "almost there" or "doing great!"
Goals also give you a chance to tell people what your organization is about. They will help to guide the conversations that occur in your Treetop. People can also find you in the Community Search by what you put in your goals! For example, if you have a goal to "Be %100 eco-friendly by January of 2009", anyone searching for "eco-friendly" will find you.