What is Carousel Daily?

Carousel Daily is a simple and effective way of increasing your organizations reach to a much wider, more targeted audience than just those within your physical facility.

A Carousel Content Creator in your organization can put together groups of specialized content for specific audiences. One example of such audiences could be students, faculty, or a specific school in your district. Another example could be corporate headquarters, employees at a specific location, or even your customers.

Each one of those audiences is going to be interested in different information. Now, you can generate different Carousel Daily Feeds that your audiences can subscribe to in order to see content relevant to them.

Anyone with MacOS, Windows, iOS, or Android devices can install the Carousel Daily application from the Apple App Store (or MDM) or Google Play Store and subscribe to your organization's Carousel Daily Feeds using either a URL link or a QR code generated within Carousel which you distribute to your desired audiences by whatever means you choose. The Carousel Daily application can be used either as an on-demand application or configured as a widget on devices. This gives subscribers the ability to see what’s new when they choose, or at a glance.

Carousel Content creators also have the ability to add external links to Carousel Daily Feed content. This gives you the ability to direct app users to other websites and applications your organization's uses, right from the Carousel Daily application. One example could be that you have an event coming up for your organization. There are a lot of details for the event on your website that attendees should know and you would like to direct as many people as possible there. You can simply make a bulletin for the event and add it to the relevant Carousel Daily feed with the external URL to your website. Now, subscribers can click the link in the Carousel Daily application and your website will open in a browser on their device.

Carousel administrators will also have the ability to view Carousel Daily Feed subscription and content engagement statistics within Carousel. This gives you insight into both how many devices are subscribed to your Daily Feeds, as well as external URL interaction metrics to give visibility into subscriber engagement.

**Please note, Carousel Daily is only available for customers who have purchased a 2024 subscription plan**

How it works

*Please note that the following steps must be performed by a Carousel Site Admin. Once feeds have been created, zone access can be configured as desired.

Create a Carousel Daily Feed Zone in Carousel.

Log in to your Carousel Cloud account and select the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen, then select Configure.

From the configuration menu select Zones then New Zone.

Fill in the desired information for the new zone and select Save.

Create a Carousel Daily Feed with the Zone

Next, return to the Configuration menu, then select Players, then Daily App Feeds.

Here you will find:

• A list of all individual Daily Feeds and their respective zones.

• Individual subscriber and bulletin interaction metric information.

• Per-feed options to Preview, Share, View Metrics, Edit, or Delete your Feeds.

Select Create a New Daily Feed and Enter the desired name of the feed. Please note that this will be what the subscribers will see on their devices in their feed list so name it appropriately. Then simply select the Zone you just created from the drop-down list, then select Submit to create the feed.

Sharing Carousel Daily Feeds

To share your Feeds, simply select the How To Share Button in the feed options on the right side of the Carousel Daily Feeds page. You will then be presented with both a Share URL and a Share QR Code. Use either of these in your normal communication channels to share feeds with all of the different groups of people you’d like to communicate with.

JAMF Pro Configuration

Please see the example below for JAMF Pro App configuration:

Viewing Carousel Daily Metrics

There are a few different areas within Carousel to view Carousel Daily metrics. The Player Dashboard on the Player Configuration page gives you a birds eye view of the total number of feeds, subscribers, and interactions across your whole organization.

You can also look at the same metrics per-feed. The main Carousel Daily Feeds page will show you how many subscribers and interactions you have per-feed at a glance. You can also click on the View Metrics button in the feed options to see subscriptions/interactions for a rolling 30 days per feed.

Using External Links

Carousel Content Creators now have the option to add external links to Bulletins for Carousel Daily use. This can be useful for distributing 3rd party information right from the App. Simply create/edit a supported bulletin type. In the content section under Carousel Daily Feeds simply enter in the destination URL, the text that you want subscribers to see in the feed, and publish. Now subscribers have a clickable link directly in their feed. To add a clickable telephone number, use tel://1225551212 for the URL input format. This can also be used to open other MacOS, Windows, iOS, or Android apps that provide URL’s for cases like this.

You can create a Carousel Daily widget on your MacOS, Windows, iOS, or Android devices. Please take care when adding a widget on MacOS to select ‘On This Mac’, as opposed to ‘From iPhone’:

Carousel Daily Content

The following bulletin/content types are supported for the Daily App.

• Uploaded Image

• Templated (no video blocks)

• RSS*

• Event Schedule Bulletins*

• Web (snapshot only)

• PowerBi (snapshot only)

_{*Click into the bulletins detail view to scroll through multi-page dynamic bulletins. The Carousel Daily widget will only display the first of a multiple page bulletin.}

Best Practices

• Content Amount

  • Crafting effective small message bulletins, employing larger headers, color coding for specific departments, and incorporating icons for visual reference play pivotal roles in enhancing communication clarity and engagement.

    • Larger headers serve as attention-grabbing focal points, instantly drawing the reader's eye to the main message.

    • Color coding provides a quick and intuitive way to associate information with specific departments or categories, facilitating efficient comprehension even at a glance.

    • Additionally, incorporating icons offers visual cues that aid in message recognition and retention, particularly in instances where space is limited.

  • Together, these design elements not only enhance the visual appeal of bulletins but also streamline information delivery, ensuring that key messages are both noticed and comprehended effectively.

• Links in Content

  • External Link URL: Allows you to bring people to an external link

    • The link gets embedded into the external link text. This text will live just below your bulletin title in your feed.

  • Adding a link to your content not only creates an interactive experience for your viewers by providing additional information but also simplifies certain processes. For instance, when sharing a holiday calendar bulletin, including a link grants users access to the full calendar and enables them to add all events to their personal calendar with a single click.

• Naming Bulletins 

  • Naming your bulletins is of utmost importance as it serves as the primary identifier for users navigating through The Daily feed. (Much different than in a regular Carousel channel where most people never see the bulletin name) When naming a bulletin, careful consideration should be given to how it will appear in the feed, as this is the main reference point for users seeking information. The name should succinctly and accurately convey the content or purpose of the bulletin, making it easy for users to locate relevant information quickly. A well-chosen bulletin name maximizes the usability and impact of this communication platform.

  • (Your bulletin name and the External link text show up next to each other so be sure these “titles” are different)

• Zone Size

  • Create at a larger size so when content is viewed on iPad screens it looks good (2160x2160)

• Breathing Room

  • Make sure content has enough breathing room or padding, and try not to use a design element like a thin border or something around the edges. When used correctly, white space brings balance to a layout. It allows the eye to flow through the information listed which creates a better user experience. Allowing your content to breathe means people can focus on a section of the screen, absorb the content, retain the content and then move on to the next section of the screen which results in successful digital signage.

IDEAS

• Spanish Feed (If you have a company that speaks many languages, you could split feeds up by language)

• Link in bulletin allows you to “add all holidays” to your calendar