Welcome back! If you haven't seen Part 2 yet, please do so before you continue with Part 3.
This tutorial will cover the basics of the Sharing and Printing options available to you and your guests in your event.
- Sharing
The Sharing section lists all of the sharing options a guest can use to share their media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Email, and Text Messages are available for your guests. Smugmug is a third party online gallery service that you can use to upload all your media to. Unique URL is a customizable microsite that can host a guests media when they share. (example: http://laphotoparty.com/events/1615/64wjrf/) Unique URL is available as an option for all sharing platforms except Instagram and Smugmug.
Note: Email and Text Messages are the most common, for ease of use. Social Media sharing (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) will require users to log into their social media account(s) from the booth or kiosk app. While this works functionally, most people do not know their social media logins. This can add delays for guests getting through the line while they try to figure out their login information, so use accordingly as you see fit.
When navigating the page, a darker blue color indicates that a given method is currently enabled, underlined text indicates the tab you are currently viewing.
1. Facebook
Check Enable Facebook and you'll see a yellow box appear to the right.
Facebook posts appear as a Unique URL link on a guests page. You'll learn how to customize Unique URL in step 7 of this tutorial.
2. Twitter
Checking Enable Twitter in the Twitter tab will make a default message field visible.
Text in this field will automatically appear when a guest shares via Twitter. Twitter will automatically create a twitpic link to the shared media, and this link does not count towards the 140 character limit. If a guest shares multiple photos via Twitter, they will be shared in multiple posts along with a number corresponding to its order.
The generate Twitter unique url option changes how media posts to Twitter. Instead of the automatic twitpic link, Twitter will now link to a unique, customizable microsite. To learn more about unique url microsites, read the Unique URL section below. The link to this microsite adds to the Twitter character limit. If a guest shares multiple photos to Twitter using unique url, a thumbnail of the first photo will also be saved to Twitter as a twitpic link.
3. Instagram
Check Enable Instagram and you will be able to enter a default message.
Instagram is not able to post animated GIFs or links. A guest can only share static images or videos to Instagram.
Note: Any hashtags entered in the default message field will not be indexed or searchable in Instagram. A guest would have to input a hashtag themselves while sharing for it to be indexed.
4. Email
Email is the most popular sharing method at events. Check Enable Email and you will see many options to customize your email.
You can click Inline to have your media appear within the email, Attachment to have the media available as a download attachment on the email, or generate e-mail unique url to send a link to your microsite through email. The email will have thumbnails of the shared media, and when clicked, the microsite will open in a browser. You can use these sharing options independently from one another or all together.
Add share links to the footer of email will place small social media links in the email that makes the microsite a little easier to share.
The most important things in your email are the From address, Display Name, and Subject.
- From address is the email address you will be sending emails from. When a guest receives and email, it will come from the address you enter here (Technically it'll be as an alias, but we'll cover that later). Most real email addresses work but some do not. Some examples of emails that don't work are @yahoo.com, @aol.com, and sometimes @gmail.com. We strongly suggest you use an email from a domain that you control. Always test your email settings before your event!
- Display Name is exactly that: The name that will be displayed as the sender when your guest receives their email.
- Subject is simply the subject of your emails.
Below those three fields, you'll three identical editors. These will allow you to customize the Header, Image text, and Footer of your emails.
These editors will let you add type, pictures, colors, links, etc., to your emails.
- Header will affect anything in the email above your media.
- Image text will add text, pictures, etc., underneath each image/video/GIF. If you have multiple items in an email, anything in Image text will appear multiple times.
- Footer will affect anything below your media. Most people put links and contact info to their business in this section.
Note: When adding images to your email, the images must be hosted online. You cannot upload directly from your computer to the editor. When you click the Insert/Add image button:
A pop-up will ask for the source. Input a link to the image online. It must be a link to the image itself and not a webpage with the image in it.
Example: This image link will not work because it is a link to a page that has the image in it: http://imgur.com/gallery/4clqUdj
This one will work because it is a link to the image itself: http://i.imgur.com/4clqUdj.jpg Notice how it ends in .jpg? That's a link to the image itself.
At the bottom of the Email tab, you'll see a section named Custom Mail Server:
If you have your own email server, you can input your email SMTP credentials here. Your emails will then send from your email server instead of ours, which can improve reliability. This usually only works if you own the email domain or are given access by your client. You can also use a 3rd party service like Sendgrid. Be sure to test before your event!
If you don't have your own email server, no problem! Leave that area blank and all your emails will be handled by us.
5. Text Message
The second most common sharing method is Text Messaging. Check Enable Texting to see your available options.
You have the ability to send a link to your Unique URL microsite with SMS, or send an image or GIF directly through MMS.
You will need to create an account with Twilio to be able to send text messages through PPU. After you create an account, make sure you purchase a phone number and add some funds to your Twilio wallet. $10 or so should last you quite a long time. US users should buy a toll-free number (click Advanced in the number search to see the toll-free check box), and the register the number with Twilio. If the number is not registered, you may have text messages denied by carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.). Please go through the registration tutorial here to learn how to register the number:
Once you've set up your Twilio account, click the red Connect button. In the pop up window, login using your Twilio account credentials. All the fields (Name, Account Sid, etc.) should then fill in automatically. Sometimes you have to input the Auth Token, but you can easily find that in your Twilio account Dashboard.
The Country you've selected for your event (in Event Details) impacts the country code that is automatically added to any text messages that are shared from your event. To override this, guests entering their number need only add + and then their country code.
6. Smugmug
Smugmug is a 3rd party service/website, that allows you to automatically upload your event media to an online gallery. Smugmug accounts are free, though each item sent to Smugmug will be counted as a share in PPU. If you're using Smugmug, we recommend you use one of our Unlimited sharing packages.
To use Smugmug in your event, Check the box labeled Upload to Smugmug gallery.
Start uploading automatically will begin sending media to your Smugmug gallery without you having to press the Start button in the Helper (more on that later).
Click the link labeled Click to login to SmugMug and give permissions to upload to gallery and login to your Smugmug account in the pop-up window. You'll then be able to select a gallery you already created in Smugmug or create a new gallery.
7. Unique URL
If you activated Unique URL in any of the sharing platforms (Texting with SMS will activate Unique URL), you'll be able to customize it here.
Customizing your Unique URL is very similar to customizing Emails with a few notable differences:
- Images still have to be hosted online, except for the Header image and Background image. Those can be uploaded directly from your computer.
- There are sections for Header, and Footer, but no Image text.
- You can change the Theme from White to Black and vice versa, which will change the background color accordingly.
There are a lot of other ways to enhance your Unique URL microsite, and we have tutorials for all of them, but this is enough to get you started.
- Printing
The Printing section will allow you to enable three different kinds of printing in your event: Printing, Hashtag Printing, and Flipbook Printing.
The first can be enabled by simple checking the box labeled Enable Print:
That's it! Your guests will now have the option to print their media.
We cover the other two options extensively in other tutorials, so we won't bother with them right now.
That's it for Sharing and Printing! Whew! You made it! Feel free to take a break and Part 4 will be waiting for you when you get back.
Don't worry, Options, Extras, and Overlays have important stuff in them, but they're not nearly as complicated as Sharing. Almost done!