The Playback & Timing tab under the green Settings tab contains settings focused on the timing of your Social Wall posts and which Social Wall Layout you wish to use. You can configure these settings to specify how fast your Social Wall cycles through posts and how it displays them.
Playback & Timing section on the Experience Dashboard
Countdown Timer
This setting allows you to set a duration that your Social Wall will count down before actually opening up for post submissions. This is useful if you want to notify your participants when your Social Wall will begin so they can join ahead of time. Participants will see a timer counting down on both the overall Presentation View and their own Participant View on their mobile devices. Your Social Wall will automatically start when the timer finishes counting down.
By default, the Countdown Timer is disabled and is set to zero time. To enable the Countdown Timer, use the dropdown boxes to select how many minutes and seconds you want for your timer and click the green Save button next to them. When set, the green box will show how long the Countdown Timer is set for.
When the Countdown Timer is enabled, the green Play button on the Playback Controls will be replaced with a blue Start Countdown button. When you click it, both the Participant View and the Presentation View will display the Countdown Timer, which will begin counting down. Your wall will start when it reaches zero seconds, or you can click the green Start button to skip the remaining time on the Countdown Timer and immediately start your Social Wall instead.
To disable the Countdown Timer, set the time to zero. Your Social Wall will start immediately upon pressing the green Start button, as displayed below.
Countdowns can help build excitement! If you have Display Posts from X and/or Instagram enabled, this gives your participants a chance to make a few posts on their accounts and fill up your Social Wall nicely and quickly!
Auto-Start When Countdown Ends
With the Auto-Start When Countdown Ends feature, you can set whether you want your Social Wall to automatically start or not when the Countdown Timer ends. By default, this setting is enabled and will automatically begin the Social Wall once the Countdown Timer ends. Disabling this setting is useful if you have a long Countdown Timer for an upcoming event (e.g. several hours or more), but you would like to display or present content before starting the Experience once the Countdown Timer ends.
Social Wall Speed
The Social Wall Speed section controls how fast your Social Wall cycles through posts. By default, it is set to Normal. If you want the posts to cycle through faster, you can set it to Fast or Very Fast. To make them slower, choose Slow or Very Slow.
Social Wall Speed section
The varying playback speeds and their corresponding durations are as follows:
Social Wall Speed | Playback Duration |
Very Slow | 12 seconds |
Slow | 9 seconds |
Normal | 6 seconds |
Fast | 3 seconds |
Very Fast | 1 second |
Which speed should I use? Setting your Social Wall to run through posts quickly will make it hard to read longer posts. If you want to put more emphasis on photos, setting it faster may be a good choice. For high-energy events full of exciting photos, set your Social Wall to Very Fast!
Going slower with your Social Wall will give your audience more time to read through posts. However, it can seem less dynamic and exciting this way. For more somber, subdued events, Slow or Very Slow may be a better fit.
Schedule Start Time
The Schedule Start Time section allows you to schedule your Social Wall to start automatically at a specified point in the future. This is highly useful when you want to begin a Social Wall at a future date and time without having to log back into Crowdpurr to manually start it.
Schedule Start Time section
For more information on this feature, please visit the following page: Schedule Start Time Explained
Schedule End Time
Alternatively, the Schedule End Time section allows you to set a duration for your Social Wall to run before automatically ending. This is highly useful when you want your Social Wall to end automatically without having to log back into Crowdpurr to manually close the live answering.
Schedule End Time section
For more information on this feature, please visit the following page: Schedule End Time Explained
Social Wall Layout
Here's where you set the layout of your Social Wall. You can choose between the following layouts:
4-Column Social Mosaic
2-Column Social Mosaic
Single Column List View
Single Post Spotlight
To select your layout, simply click the icon of the one you want.
4-Column Social Mosaic
4-Column Social Mosaic
This layout puts the most posts on your wall at any time. It's great for very popular tags and when your crowd is posting a lot to your wall! It's great if the tags you set for your social media channels are full of a lot of both text and image posts. Use this with a faster speed setting to power through as many posts as possible, as quickly as possible!
2-Column Social Mosaic
2-Column Social Mosaic
If the tags you use for the social media channels tend to post more images than text, this layout might be a better fit. It automatically spaces out the images in the posts to keep the layout interesting and dynamic. Your crowd will tend to focus more on the images this way.
Single Column List View
Single Column List View
The Single Column List view puts a greater emphasis on shorter text posts on your Social Wall. Images will be placed along the sides of the screen, and the text will be centered and enlarged to make it easier to read. Using this with a slower setting can give each post more impact, without totally focusing on it.
Single Post Spotlight
Single Post Spotlight
To give each post the center of attention, try out the Single Post Spotlight format. In this mode, only one single post will be displayed at a time. If you want to approve posts manually or don't have that many to cycle through, this might be the best fit for you. Try it with a slower speed to let each post sink in.