Getting the best out of the home feed

In addition to the information provided in the Setting up the Home screen article, here we will provide some insight into how you can get the best out of its two main components: the Home feed and the quick links.

The Home feed provides an enhanced experience for app users, with increased opportunities for engagement in a format that nurtures relationships.

Pairing the feed with other content in the app, including quick links, will create even more opportunities for users to connect with each other as well as with event stakeholders like speakers, sponsors, and managers.

First though, it's important to plan how your Home feed will be populated before, during, and after the event. The best way to accomplish this is to have a feed content calendar.

Feed content calendar

A content calendar is a schedule of what you’ll post and when in your feed. It helps you plan your communications and ensure a regular appearance of content for your users.

This can include all the necessary information for the post, such as the date/time of the post, the author, the message body, any image/video/attachment(s), any tagged persons, as well as any preconfigured post reactions from app users (likes and comments).

Below is a basic example of what could be posted on the Home feed before, during, and after the event:

1 week before	Post news from your industry or the topic relating to the event.
3 days before	Post teasers to promote your keynote speakers/sessions. “3 days until” countdown post with a picture of the venue or the team.
2 days before	Feature a speaker: share their photo, biography or a video from them. Feature a session: share a glimpse of session content, or a video of the session speaker. Send reminders to sign up for sessions.
1 day before	A build-up post with a "see you tomorrow!" message. Instructions on how to get to the venue or a city guide.
Day 1	Welcome post from influencer/leadership. Follow-up on welcome post with a hot topic to be discussed that day, to drive engagement. Recaps of the day's sessions, posted by speakers, with videos/resources. Post surveys to collect feedback on the day's sessions.
Daily during the event	Post on a topic that will be discussed that day to drive discussion on the feed. Recaps of the day's sessions, posted by speakers, with videos/resources. Post surveys to collect feedback on the day's sessions.
After the event	Invitations to take part in surveys. Invitations to sign up for newsletters or information on upcoming events.

Home feed best practices

Below are a few examples of how you can really get the best of of the Home feed, using different types of posts.

Home feed + Welcome note: Opening the Home feed

Use the feed to send a welcome post to all the app users right at the start of the event.

How?
You can post on behalf of a key speaker or leader. You could also add an image or a professionally recorded video.

	CEO or a high-profile figure
Welcome to the EVENT NAME! We are delighted and honored that you can join us in CITY. At this EVENT NAME, we are looking to review the latest advancements in TOPIC and share our best-practices.
Welcome letter Keynote session

Pro tip: To draw more attention to the feed, you can like the post from other organization staff accounts in advance, or even schedule replies and comments to start and/or steer the conversation.

Home feed + Speakers: Highlighting your speakers

Speakers are the mini-celebrities of your workspace. Borrow their star power to boost engagement with app users.

How? 
Post teasers to promote your keynote speakers to get users excited about attending. During the event, speakers can create short behind-the-scenes videos, share their impressions of the event, or tease their topics to promote their talks.

	Speaker name
Excited about speaking today on TOPIC and answering your questions! Here's a sneak peak of what's to come.
Session Ask me anything

Pro tip: Be sure someone is capturing videos of each speaker’s presentation, so you can share highlights throughout the event and afterwards. You could also post on the feed to ask for videos from the crowd (this also works with sessions).

Home feed + Sponsors: Promoting your sponsors

Use the Home feed as a place where your conference or trade show sponsors can not only promote their brand, but also connect with app users directly.

How?
Create sponsored posts from Backstage with eye-catching banners and links to their profiles. By interacting with app users via the feed, sponsors will be able to develop relationships and elicit authentic reactions from their potential leads. 

	Representative's name or sponsor's name
Did you know that XX% of YY result in ZZ? Learn more about SPONSOR's newest product PRODUCT NAME and learn how to improve your AA. Visit us at booth BOOTH NUMBER.
Sponsor profile Product brochure

Pro tip: Work with sponsors to pre-populate the feed with key content prior to the event. That way, the sponsor’s message will be top-of-mind going into the event.

Home feed + Q&A: Boosting your Q&A

You can use the feed to easily collect and answer questions from the app users live.

How? 
Encourage app users to post their questions on the feed, and provide real-time answers.
For questions that did not get airtime, you can use the feed to share video answers from your panelists after the official Q&A ends.

	Workspace name
Don't forget to submit your questions for today's Q&A session with our executive team!
Q&A

Pro tip: Did your Q&A yield a particularly lively discussion? Keep the conversation going by posting summaries of the discussions in the app and sharing highlights.

	Panelist's name
What would you do if project XX does not go as planned? #NoQuestionsLeftBehind

Pro tip: Did you miss some key questions in the Q&A? Have speakers post quick video replies after the official Q&A is over.

Home feed + informal survey: Take the temperature of your audience

The feed can be used as a simple surveying tool, through the likes and comments from app users.

How?
Post a question, and ask users to "like if you agree" or "leave a comment with preferred choice", then track the results. You can also link a form in the post to promote it via the feed. Collecting data from these surveys can help generate content and discussion opportunities both during and after the event.

	Workspace name
Would you like to see more sessions on TOPIC? Like or leave us a comment below if there are other topics you want to discuss.

Pro tip: Post a session's polling results as a screenshot and use it as a conversation starter. This drives further engagement and allows app users who did not attend the session to provide their input.

Home feed + Forms: Promote your survey

The feed can be also used as a convenient way to get higher response rates to your surveys.

How?
Share the link to a survey in a post. For example after key sessions or towards the end of the event, before the keynote.

	Workspace name
Thank you for attending EVENT. We hope you have enjoyed the conference and you will be taking back some new learnings with you. Let us know how we can improve our next meetings.
Feedback

Pro tip: On the last day pin the post on the Home feed.

Quick links best practices

Use the quick links to give app users easy access to specific resources directly from the Home screen. This could point to a page, a feed, a form, or any other type of content you wish to make easily accessible to app users.

The links can easily be updated whenever necessary, to make only the relevant information accessible at a certain time. For example, you may wish to change the quick links as the event progresses.

Below is an example of how this could evolve, and the quick links that could be added as the event progresses:

Before	Travel information • FAQ page • Check-in badge • QR scanner
During	Bookmarks • Notes • Venue map • Contacts • Check-in badge • QR scanner
After	Notes • Bookmarks • Contacts

Quick links are also a good way to unload a heavy app menu. We recommend that you add up to five quick items for ease of use. Remember that the quick links carousel will also include, by default, a live session link.

Quick links + Feeds: Easy access to specific feeds

If you have multiple feeds aggregated in the Home feed, and would like to give app users quick access to one or more specific feeds, you can do so using quick links.

This could for example be used to access a separate FAQ feed, or an internal staff feed, or any feed for a specific group of targeted app users.

Quick links + Pages: Easy access to relevant information

As mentioned above, quick links can be updated based on what your app users need to have easy access to throughout the event.

You can include links to relevant pages or documents, including updated event schedules, directions to the venue, wifi info, PDFs of menus and maps, FAQs, and more.

Quick links + Contacts and networking

Facilitate networking on your event by adding links to functionalities such as the QR scanner, contacts, or a specific badge page containing the user's check-in badge with QR code.

Quick links + in-app tools and resources

Add links to in-app tools and resources, such as pages bookmarked by the app users, or notes where the user can take and later review their notes.