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How to Create & Edit Live Displays
How to Create & Edit Live Displays

Live Displays help you track live events, share performance information with your team, and track your beat in real time.

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Written by Tess
Updated over a week ago

This is the primary Live Display overview article.  If you need help troubleshooting, check out the Live Display FAQ article here.

 Update July 2023:

  • Twitter announced the deprecation of their API to certain access tiers, which resulted in CrowdTangle losing access and the ability to serve Twitter data. You can find more information here.

  • Reddit announced changes to their API, which resulted in CrowdTangle losing access and the ability to serve Reddit data. You can find more information here and here.


What Are Live Displays?

Live Displays are visually appealing, real-time views of select post streams, Leaderboards, and trending topics pulled from any of your dashboards across all three platforms.  These views can be loaded up on a personal computer or a shared with your team by loading them up on a monitor/TV screen.

 

*Note: CrowdTangle no longer surfaces Twitter data.

Why Would I Use Live Displays?

  • Tracking Live Events like awards shows, sporting events, or elections

  • Tracking your local beat in real-time

  • Loading up your affiliate or competitive Leaderboards and trending posts on a big screen in your office.  Learn how Cultura Colectiva is doing this.

 

Recent Updates

Check our Release Notes regularly- as new public Live Displays are made available we will add them to the list.
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4/3/2018- Live Displays can now be accessed using the navigation menu at the top of your screen in CrowdTangle

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How Do I Use Live Displays?

Step 1: Create the Live Display
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Click on the "Live Displays" tab at the top of your screen and select "Create New Live Display".
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You will then be prompted to name your Live Display- make sure it's something you and the rest of your team will be able to easily find later!  
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Step 2: Create Your Live Display's Columns

Your Live Display sorts information in columns.  There is no limit to the number of columns you can create, but if you are going to display this on a TV you should be able to comfortably fit at least 4 columns.  
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For each column, click on "Create New".  From there, you can choose from four options: Posts, Leaderboards, Trending Topics, and One Year Ago.
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Posts:  
This option will pull in a post stream from any List or Saved Search in any of your dashboards.  Once you select your List or Saved Search, you can click on the gear icon of the column to customize the stream.

 
Leaderboards:
This option will add any Leaderboard you choose from any of your dashboards.  Partners often choose an affiliate Leaderboard or a competitive Leaderboard.  If you click on the gear icon you can customize the timeframe of the Leaderboard, the type of posts you would like to see, whether or not you want to see a graph, and- for Facebook Leaderboards- you can opt to see video views.
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Trending Topics: You may select either Facebook or Google as your source of trending topics.  Once you have selected one, you can then tell the Live Display to focus on a particular vertical by clicking on the gear icon.

 
One Year Ago:
This option is similar to the Post option, but it will specifically display posts from one year prior.  Partners often use this to compare the news cycle and to study any changes in their posting strategy over the previous year.
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Step 3: Customize the Live Display

To further customize your Live Display, click on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner of your screen.
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You'll be presented with several options:
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Live Display Name/URL:
 Customizing the Live Display name also customizes its URL.  The URL for your Live Display will end in the Live Display's name (without any spaces).  So if the name of the Live Display is "Event Live Display", the URL will end with /eventlivedisplay.  Clicking on "Save and Redirect"  will save any changes to your Live Display's name and will reload the Live Display in your browser with its new URL.
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Public Live Display:  If this option is selected (blue), then any CrowdTangle user with the Live Display URL can access the Live Display.  If not, it will only be accessible from within CrowdTangle.
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Touch Screen:  If this is selected (blue), then your Live Display will be compatible with touch screen devices.
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Dark Interface:  Live Displays default to a white interface, but a dark interface may also be used.  Many partners prefer this interface.  Below is a side-by-side comparison of the two:

 
Open TV Version (16:9):  
Clicking on this link will open the Live Display with a 16:9 aspect ratio.  This is deal if you are planning on loading the Live Display on a public TV or monitor.  
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 Frequently Asked Questions


Q:  How do I delete a Live Display?

A:  Account Owners can delete Live Displays.

Q: How do I make the Live Display columns thinner?
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A: There are two ways to do this.  First, zoom out in your browser.  That will fit more columns on the page.  You can also go into TV mode by clicking on the gear icon for the Live Display (upper right hand corner) and clicking on "Open TV Version (16:9)"

Q: What does "Hot" mean in the Post Stream settings?

A:  If you select "Hot" for the settings in a Post stream column, CrowdTangle will prioritize posts that have begun to overperform most recently.  That's in contrast to selecting "Overperforming" which prioritizes the posts that have overperformed the most.

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