Enhance Your App's Events with Things To Know

Every day, new audiences attend performing arts events.  And many of them open their programs only to find program notes written for patrons with a much deeper understanding of the art form, the work, its context, etc.

If you knew that a new patron was attending your event, what would you tell them to guide them toward a positive experience? 

This is the thought that prompted us to develop Things To Know - a new feature in the At The Event module for the mobile suite.

What Is It?

Things to Know is a list of short, interesting, and useful facts related to the event.  These can range from trivia about the programming or people involved with the production to parking information to social media campaigns.  Perhaps you want to let patrons know about near by food options or pre-concert activities? Things to Know can be used for anything that improves your audience's experience.

How Are Arts Organizations Using It?

How Does It Work? 

Step 1: Once you've created an At The Event instance, you will be greeted with a checklist showing you what features are available to you.  Click on "Things to know" to get started adding your first item.

Step 2: The next screen will eventually show you a list of all Things to Know added for the ATE, but to get started, click on "Create your first Thing to Know."

Step 3: Here is where you add the important details. Be sure to include....

• A Name to help you identify it later (this will not be shown to the public)
• A relevant image
• 500px wide by 250px tall is recommended
• Do not number the images, InstantEncore will do that for you
•  The text information (HTML is allowed in case you wish to link out to more details)

Once you have everything filled out, click "Add" and your first Thing to Know is done!  You will be able to repeat steps 2 and 3 using the "Add Thing to Know" link until you have added everything you wish to include.

You can manage your existing Things to Know by clicking the Name and making any needed edits.  Re-ordering them can be done using a simple drag-and-drop method. To remove one completely, just click on the trashcan icon to the right.

Home, Sweet Home Screens - Three Options for Your App

As with all of our updates and development, we wanted version 2.0 of the mobile suite to address requests from our partners.  One such request has been for InstantEncore to provide different options for the Home screen, which is the first content area encountered when the app or mobile website launches.  In response to this request, InstantEncore now offers three Home screen options for your mobile app and website.

Icons ex: Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Icons

The Icons option provides a 3 x 3 table of graphics representing tabs or content areas within the app.  

• This table of icons provides one-touch access to nine tabs in your app.  
• If you have more than nine tabs, the bottom-right position will contain an ellipsis with the word "More" underneath.  (See example on right.) When you tap the ellipsis icon, you will see a page listing all of the remaining tabs in your app.
• You may choose your icons from our library of graphics, or you may upload your own.  Custom icons should be sized to 60p X 60p and uploaded as PNG files with a transparent background.
• In addition to providing navigation at-a-glance, the Icons option gives the greatest visibility to your custom background image.
  

Slideshow ex: Chattanooga
Symphony & Opera

Slideshow

For those who prefer a more graphically-focused Home screen, the Slideshow option allows you to create a series of full-screen slides connected to content within your app.

• Each slide contains an uploaded image with descriptive text overlaid in the upper left corner and a call-to-action overlaid in the lower right corner.
• We recommend uploading a 1024p X 768p image so that it appears vibrantly on tablets as well as smartphones.
• You may use HTML markup tags to modify the descriptive and call-to-action text.
• The call-to-action text may be linked directly to content within the app.
• Slides may be added or deleted at any time.  Also, their order may be changed at will.
• Slides may be loaded and scheduled in advance for seamless transitions throughout your season.
  

What's New ex: The Royal Conservatory

What's New

If you prefer an update-focused Home screen or you simply like the look and features of our original Home screen, then the What's New option is for you.

• This option features a "welcome message" area at the top with a thumbnail image and 90 characters of text that can be linked directly to content within your app.
• The second area features an upcoming event.  This may default to the next immediate event on our calendar, or you may decide to feature a particular event or no event at all.
• The third area highlights the most recent content from the Buzz, Music and Video areas of the control panel.  As new content is added to these areas, that content will automatically appear in the What's New feed on the Home screen.
  

Don't Want to Choose Just One?  You Don't Have To!

Remember, the Home screen is just the first content screen that your visitors see when they open the mobile app or website.  If you like more than one of these options, you can choose one for the first position and use either or both of the others as tabs within your app.

For a step-by-step look at how to set up your Home screen, check out this tutorial video.

New Series of Tutorial Videos for Making the Most of Your Mobile App

With the release of version 2.0 of the InstantEncore mobile suite, we have created a series of short, tutorial videos to guide you through particular tasks and content areas in the control panel.  You may view all of the videos as a YouTube playlist or individually, as follows:

The Basics

• Navigating Your Control Panel
• Adding Your Basic App Settings, App Icon and Loading Screen
• Setting Your Highlight Color and Background Image

Managing Events

• Adding a New Event
• Editing an Existing Event

Video Content

• Syncing Your App with Your YouTube Channel
• Adding Videos to Your App From YouTube or Vimeo
• Managing Your Videos
• Streaming Live Video Through Your App

Buzz Items

• Syncing Your App With Your Blog or Podcast
• Syncing Your Facebook and Social Media Posts With Your App
• Adding Individual Articles to Your Buzz Feed
• Activating the Web Crawler to Add Content to Your App
• Managing Your Mobile App's Buzz Items

Photos

• Adding New Photos
• Managing Your Photos

Music Content

• Adding Music to Your Mobile App
• Uploading a MP3 to an Album in Your Mobile App
• Managing Your Music

Organizing Your Content

• Navigating and Managing Your Tabs
• Selecting and Managing Your Home Tab
• Choosing Which Events Tab to Use
• Editing the About Tab
• Connecting App Users to Your Social Media Accounts
• Adding Artist Bios to Your App
• Creating Your Own Custom Tabs

Final Steps & After the Launch

• Adding Google Analytics to Your App
• Connecting Your Mobile App to Your Website
• Submitting Your App for Publication
• Engaging App Users With Push Notifications

Rejuvenate Your App This Spring with Version 2.0

Spring is here!  Throughout the winter, the InstantEncore team has been working intently on the next generation of our mobile suite.  And now, we are excited to spring forward with Version 2.0!

Here is a quick glimpse at some of the changes we've made:

Version 2.0 displays a uniform
presentation across all platforms

Fresh, Consistent Look
Version 2.0 has a new look that appears uniformly across all three platforms:  mobile website, Android app, and iOS app.  No matter which mobile platform they are using, your app users will have a consistent aesthetic experience.

New Home Screen Options
Version 2.0 has three options for your app's home screen:  Icons, Slideshow, and What's New.

• The Icons screen displays a 3 x 3 grid of icons connecting to various tabs in the app, which provides clear and concise navigation for app users.  If you have 10 or more tabs in your app, the last icon in the grid will be an ellipsis (...) with the word "More" underneath.  The More icon leads to a list of the remaining tabs.
• The Slideshow screen displays a series of full-screen images with a title/description in the upper left corner and a call-to-action area in the bottom right.  The user taps the call-to-action area to go to the content in the app and swipes horizontally to move from one slide to the next.
• The What's New screen is the same great home screen option from version 1.0 with a welcome message, featured event, and dynamic content stream drawn from the Music, Videos and Buzz areas of the control panel.

Can't choose? No problem.  You can select one to be the home screen and use the others as the 2nd and 3rd tabs in your app.  Use as many as you like in whatever order you prefer.  It's all about what works best for you and your audience.

Productions Tab

Productions Tab
In the previous version of the app, each individual event was displayed in chronological order on the Events tab.  With version 2.0, you also have the option to use the Productions tab, which groups multi-day events together in the app's list of events.  When a user taps on the production, they then have the ability to select a specific date for further information, links to online ticketing, etc.  The Productions tab allows theatres, opera companies, presenters, and other performing arts organizations to display their seasons in a manner that is more easily scanned by their app users.

Tablet Version
Your mobile apps look better than ever on iPads and Android tablets.  Version 2.0's apps scale to fit tablet screens while retaining crystal clear picture quality.

App users can share your content on Facebook

Facebook Integration
Version 2.0 makes it easy for your app users to share content from your app will their Facebook friends.  With a tap of the finger, they can post events, videos, music, news items, and more directly to their Facebook profiles.

Support for Vimeo
That's right.  With version 2.0, you can import videos into your app from Vimeo by using embed codes.

Live Video Tab

Expanded Support for Live Video Platforms

We have expanded the Live Video feature to work with Ustream and YouTube Live accounts as well as Livestream.

New Live Video Tab

Now, when you connect your mobile app with a live video broadcast, a special tab will be the first tab that users see while the event is airing.  The tab contains your description of the live video event as well as a video icon, which takes the mobile user to the broadcast when tapped.

Upgraded Google Analytics
With version 2.0, you are able to track the usage traffic for your mobile website separately from your Apple and Android apps using Google Analytics.  In doing so, you are able to determine which content areas have higher usage rates and if there is a difference between usage patterns for those who visit the mobile website versus those who download the app to their mobile devices.

Over the next few weeks, we will explore particular features in greater depth with an eye toward how to maximize them to provide your audience with the most engaging mobile experience.

If you can't wait and would like to learn more now, visit the Mobile Suite Tutorial playlist on YouTube for step-by-step instructions on how to work with these new features and more.

Social Media and Your Mobile App, Pt 2 - Custom Tabs and a Centralizing Submenu

While syncing your social media feeds with the Buzz area of your mobile suite will centralize your dynamic content into a single area for your mobile audience, you also want to provide your fans with the ability to like your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter, etc.  The video below shows you two simple ways to add this feature to your app.



In the video, we talk about using the mobile-friendly URLs for your social media accounts. Here are the standard mobile-friendly formats for some of the more popular social networks:

• Facebook -- http://m.facebook.com/YourFacebookPage 
• Flickr --  http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/YourFlickrAccount
• Google+ -- https://m.google.com/app/contacts/mp/220#:v=pc&g=-YourGooglePlusIDNumber
• Find your Google+ ID number by going to your Google+ profile page. The number is located in the URL address between 0/ and /posts. For example: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117336246664676002690/posts
• MySpace -- Unfortunately, you cannot take them directly to your mobile page.  They will need to go to http://m.myspace.com, then login and search for you.
• Pinterest -- http://m.pinterest.com/YourPinterestAccount
• Tumblr -- These blogs are already mobile optimized, so you can use your standard blog address.
• Twitter -- http://mobile.twitter.com/YourTwitterAccount
• YouTube -- http://m.youtube.com/user/YourYouTubeChannel

Social Media and Your Mobile App, Pt 1 - Feeding Content into Your Buzz

The Buzz area of the InstantEncore control panel provides dynamic content for your mobile app - in the What's New section of the home page as well as its own separate Buzz tab.  Many artists and arts organizations publish fresh content online through social media platforms and social networks.  So how can you bring this fresh content into your app's Buzz area?

The Buzz area automatically brings your content into the mobile suite by synchronizing with your content's RSS and Atom feeds.  The best way to automatically pull your social media and social networking content into your mobile app is to identify the RSS feed for your account and add it to the Buzz area.

Finding your content's RSS or Atom feed 

• Blog or Podcast - Most blog and podcast platforms provide you with an RSS address so that your followers can subscribe to your content.  If you are not sure what your feed address is for your blog or podcast, conduct a search within the platform's FAQs or in its forum area.
• Facebook - UPDATE: As of June 2015, Facebook no longer provides RSS or XML feeds for sharing content with web services. Click here for information on how to add Facebook content to your app.
• Twitter - UPDATE: As of June 2013, Twitter no longer provides RSS or XML feeds for sharing content with web services.  Click here for information on how to add Twitter content to your app.
• MySpace - MySpace provides you with the ability to grab the RSS feed for your MySpace blog.
• On your profile page, click on "View All Blog Entries." 
• In the top right-hand area of the next page, there are a few text links, one of them says "rss". 
• Click on that link and the RSS feed address for your MySpace blog will appear in the web address bar.
• Google+ - Here is the workaround for Google+.
• Find your Google+ ID number by going to your Google+ profile page.  The number is located in the URL address between 0/ and /posts.  For example:
  https://plus.google.com/u/0/117336246664676002690/posts
• Copy your ID number
• Add it to the end of this sequence:
  http://plu.sr/feed.php?plusr=YourGoogle+IDHere
• Tumblr - Tumblr definitely has the easiest RSS feeds to find.  Use http://YourTumblrBlog.tumblr.com/rss
• Flickr - This one is pretty easy, too.  
• Go to your Flickr photostream page and scroll to the bottom.
• Where it says "Subscribe to YOUR photostream," click on the link next to it labeled "Latest"
• The RSS feed address for your photostream will appear in the web address bar.
• Pinterest - For Pinterest, the RSS feed will depend on whether you want the feed for your account or for a particular pinboard.
• The RSS feed for your account will be http://pinterest.com/YourScreenName/feed.rss
• The RSS feed for a particular pinboard will be http://pinterest.com/YourScreenName/YourBoardName.rss

Adding a feed to your Buzz

1. Once you have located the feed for content, go the Buzz area of the control panel.
2. Select Feeds in the submenu.
3. Enter the RSS or Atom feed address in the empty text field.
4. Select if the feed falls into the Blog, Podcast, or News category.
5. Click on Add Feed.
6. Once you have added your feed, be sure to click on Edit Image and upload a 75px X 75px graphic to  associate with the feed.  (We recommend PNG or GIF image files.)  Whenever content from the feed appears in your Buzz tab or on your Home tab, this graphic will appear in the list as a visual indicator of the source.

And you're done!  Now, you have dynamic content automatically feeding into the Buzz tab and the What's New area of the Home tab of your mobile app from your social media account.

Something to Consider 

Take a moment to think about your social media behavior.  If you frequently repost items from one social media source to another, then you may not want to add both feeds to your Buzz.  This would create redundant content entries.

So, if you automatically pull your Twitter posts into your Facebook wall posts, then perhaps you just want to select one of those social media accounts to feed into the Buzz area.

In our next post, we will look at two other ways of bringing your social media content into your mobile app.

Connecting QR Codes to Tabs in Your Mobile App

QR codes are two-dimensional images that can be linked to online content. The image is scanned using a smartphone's camera, and the mobile user is taken directly to the content.

In this video, we walk through the process for connecting content from your InstantEncore mobile app with QR codes. The codes can be included in a variety of print publications: season brochures, postcards, posters, print ads, business cards, and more.


Expand the video to full screen for optimal viewing.

For tips on ways to use QR codes, check out these resources:

• The Arts Administrator’s Guide To Becoming A QR Code Superhero 
• 5 Ways QR Codes Can Transform Posters for the Arts