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Published on May 19th, 2017

Introducing Photo Grid - A Brand New Social Wall Engagement Feature for ProTool

Our social walls already come jam-packed with features to inspire engagement, excitement, and even offer sponsorship and advertising opportunities for brands and events that work both online and on-site.

But today we are very excited to announce the release of Photo Grid to the range of Engagement and Gamification features included in our ProTool social wall solution.

What is Photo Grid?

In it's simplest form, Photo Grid interrupts the social wall to display a collection of up to 24 photos that attendees or the audience have shared in their social messages.

Photo Grid on Social Wall for Events

You can choose the number of images to display (between 1 and 24) and whether text and/or usernames are included in the display, and you can even choose between 4 transition effects to really grab your audience's attention.

You also decide how much control you want over the images that have been collected from your social wall messages, appearing in your Photo Grid. Choose a set of specific images, or let Photo Grid shuffle and select randomly from all the images pulled into your social wall.

Of course, you also have the option of displaying on demand or using the automatic scheduler, so you can set it and forget it!

Want to see it in action? Why not create a free demo and have a play with Photo Grid today? You'll find it in the Engagement & Gamification tab in your social wall dashboard. 

How can I use the Photo Grid feature to engage my audience?

There is so much more to Photo Grid than meets the eye, we feel that it's likely to become one of the most popular features, aside from Moderation, because it has so much potential.

Here's some ideas on how to use it:

  • schedule Photo Grid to interrupt your social wall at regular intervals showcasing a range of photos that people have shared with their social messages, chosen randomly, to encourage more of your audience to share theirs too
  • create a Photo Grid of previous events (use the Curate feature to pull the social messages into your social wall) and maybe schedule it to appear regularly for the first few hours of your event

    display of images from previous events on the social wall
     
  • create individual Photo Grids for each presenter or VIP that you have speaking at your event and display it as they approach or leave the stage. You could use a single image of the presenter, or a collection of images they've shared on social which are relevant to the subject they are going to speak about.
  • announce competition winners (especially if it's a #selfie contest) or create a Photo Grid for the runners up and then a single image Photo Grid for the winner. 

    announce winners on your social wall with Photo Grid
     
  • display a collection of highlights from images shared to the social wall in the morning, afternoon, or throughout the day 
  • do you have any brand advocates who share multiple images of your event? Create a Photo Grid containing their posts to reward them, and to inspire others to do the same
  • recognise teams or specific groups of attendees by displaying photos of them individually or as a group  
  • if your event is an Awards Ceremony, you could use grids with a focus on; Red Carpet moments, award nominees, announce award winners and special guests. 

    Photo Grid of Red Carpet moments from the Oscars
     
  • acknowledge your team with a grid of photo's you've taken of them
  • promote exhibitors or sponsors (and maybe generate some income) by displaying a Photo Grid of their products or giveaways 

    promote exhibitors or sponsors with Photo Grid on your social wall

Has that list got your mind buzzing with ideas on how you can use Photo Grid at your event? Just remember that Photo Grid can only display photos that have been attached to social messages on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, so text-only messages and profile pictures can't be used on their own.

That said, it's easy to take screen shots of profile pictures, or text-only Tweets which you can then share on social in order to display exactly what you want.

Creating a Photo Grid(s) in a few easy steps

You access the Photo Grid feature in the Engagement & Gamification tab of your Dashboard.

 how to find Photo Grid

Next you decide on a title for your Photo Grid (you can change it later) and whether you want it to use Automatic Mode or Manual Mode:

  • Automatic Mode - in Automatic Mode you can filter using Tags to collect and shuffle through a specific group of images. 
  • Manual Mode - manually select the specified number of images to appear on the display.

create photo grid for social wall

Now click on Create a new grid and a new tab will appear ready for you to launch the Photo Grid or make adjustments to the settings.

photo grid settings for social wall

At the top of the tab you can launch (green play button) your Photo Grid or see when it will next be shown if it's been scheduled (scroll to the bottom of the screen to find the scheduler).

Automatic Mode

The following explains the settings available in Automatic Mode. For settings specific to Manual Mode, see below.

Configuration Settings

Here's a list of the settings under Configuration and how they work, always remember to scroll down and click on the blue Save Changes button to apply them:

  • Title - you can edit the title here
  • Tag - this is how you choose which images are pulled in to Photo Grid. All Accepted messages automatically get tagged with Accepted, Rejected with Rejected, and Save for Later are tagged with Postponed. You can also create your own Tags in Moderation and apply them to messages either as you moderate them, or afterwards in Message Review to make it easy for you to create grids with customized content. More than one Tag may be applied at a time.
  • Tags filtering mode - select whether you want Photo Grid to pull in message that Match any of the selected tags, or if messages must Match all selected tags.
  • Shuffle - when set to ON, Photo Grid will shuffle randomly through all images in Moderation>Message Review which are Tagged with the criteria set above. When shuffle is set to OFF only the most recent social messages with the relevant Tags applied will appear.

Display Settings

Here's how the Display settings work:

  • Show Title - select this if you want the Title to show at the top of the Photo Grid display. 
  • Media only - only the attached image will display
  • Media and username - the image will display and the username will show underneath
  • Media, username and text - the image will display then the username and text from the message will show underneath
  • Effect - choose from 4 transition effects. Cards appear as if being dealt from a pack of cards, Slide pulls the images in from right to left with a sliding effect, Flip "flips" the images over as they appear, Bubble makes the images float in like bubbles then they "pop" to reveal the rest of the image.
  • Number of medias displayed in the grid - choose how many images appear on the screen at a time. You can select any number between 1 and 24. If your social wall hasn't received enough images meeting the Tag criteria to display the full amount, it will adjust the layout accordingly.

Current Photos Cloud

This contains a stream of the images displayed on screen.

Scheduling

Set up an automatic schedule for Photo Grid to display at set times or at regular intervals.

Manual Mode

Many of the settings in Manual Mode are the same as Automatic Mode. 

The main difference in Manual Mode is how you select the images to display.

Photo Grid in Manual Mode

The panel under Select your medias helps you to navigate and choose images.

If you click on the blue Filter button without specifying a Keyword, Username or Tag, you will be presented with a stream of all the images that your social wall contains (in Message Review). To drill down and narrow your search for specific images it's easy to Filter using one or more variables in the boxes provided.

As you select images from the box on the left, they fade and then appear in the Current Photos Cloud stream, along with the relevant username and text.

You can easily add, remove and rearrange the order of images by using the red trash icon and blue arrows to the right of each message. Manual Mode enables you to have strict control over what displays and in which order. It isn't possible (at this time) to have the images shuffle, or to select more than the selected amount of images in Manual Mode. though it is possible to achieve the same results using Tags in Automatic mode.

 

Once you're ready to launch your Photo Grid, just click on the green Play button and your social wall will transform and Photo Grid will be revealed to your audience, then click on the red Stop button to go back to the wall. Don't forget that the scheduler is there to help you launch Photo Grid automatically at times and intervals so you can set it and forget it.

So there you have it - our brand new Photo Grid feature is ready for you to play with in our Tool - why not take it for a spin with a free demo and check out all our other useful features at the same time!

We also have a host of helpful articles in our blog to help you get the most out of social media and social walls at your events, or embedded on your website. Here's a few of our most popular blogs that you might enjoy:

Social Media Ideas On The Run Up To Your Event

Most Popular Hashtags in the Event Management Industry

8 Common Mistakes Made by Event Planners Using Social Walls (And How to Avoid Them)

 

See you next time, and don't forget to get in touch if you need any help or have any questions.

The SocialWall Pro Team

Tags: Event ideas | Event strategy | Product Features | Product How to's | Product updates