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Getting started
with
BoomerangCast

Welcome!


Now that your school has been setup with BoomerangCast, here are some quick instructions and resources to get you going!

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REference & Downloads

REFERENCE
  • Quick-Start User Guide - complete user guide for managing polls
  • Mobile Poll Management​ - guide to manage polls from your mobile
  • ​ Signage - Images & logos to help get your audience involved (QR code to download the Boomerangcast voting app, Boomerangcast logos, app store logos, and more!
COMMUNICATION
  • Letter for Parents & Students - announcing Boomerangcast to your students and parents
  • Student Instructions Letter - letting students know how to download the Boomerangcast mobile app and login with their personal accounts

structure of boomerangcast polls

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YOUR POLL
​
​Your polls show up in the BOOMERANGCAST mobile app as you schedule them displaying your school's name, logo, and the name of your poll.
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VOTING SCREEN

​Each poll has 1 or more VOTING SCREENS determined by you.
One question per Vote Screen with multiple options for your audience to choose from.

Quick reference

get your admin account
You will need access to the BoomerangCast Administration website to create and manage your polls.  

Administration website: www.boomerangcastadmin.com
You can always get to this site from our homepage www.boomerangcast.com by clicking on the Partner Login button

Your BoomerangCast Admin account will allow you access to the Administration Site for BoomerangCast to setup and manage your polls.  You will be provided a
  • username (your email address)
  • password
for the www.boomerangcastadmin.com website.  

Contact your BoomerangCast representative or ask your school administrator/teacher to put you in touch with them.  If you need any assistance, contact 
support@boomerangcast.com.
getting the boomerangcast app
  • Where to get the BOOMERANGCAST mobile app to VOTE
  • Informing your Student Body about BoomerangCast​
Let your student body and/or parents know that your school is using "BoomerangCast" for voting at school events.  For them to participate, they will need to download the free "boomerangcast" mobile app.

WHERE TO GET THE BOOMERANGCAST APP
Search the App Store
Search for BOOMERANGCAST (one word) in either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store
App Store Locations:
Apple Store:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/boomerangcast/id987047983?mt=8​

​Google Play Store:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.boomerangcast&hl=en​
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QR Code
Post or send out the BoomerangCast QR code for direct access to the mobile app
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BoomerangCast Homepage
Direct links to the app store are located on our homepage at www.boomerangcast.com

INFORM YOUR STUDENT BODY
Let your student body and/or parents know your school is using BoomerangCast for voting at your school events.  Here are some best practices we have found to be helpful:
  • Let the student body and/or parents know where to get the app (search the app store, direct links to the app store, use the QR code, or tell them to go to www.boomerangcast.com and download it from there.
  • Inform your audience about BoomerangCast via twitter, email, sms, or using newsletters or websites
  • The BoomerangCast mobile app is designed to be a very light-weight app and downloads in seconds.  It will not take up unnecessary space on the mobile phone.
  • Let your audience know NONE of their personal information will EVER be shared by BoomerangCast with anyone as documented in the BoomerangCast Privacy Policy located here: http://www.boomerangcast.com/mobile-privacy-policy-and-terms-of-use.html#privacypolicy
Announcing the vote
For your audience to participate in the vote, they'll need to know:
  1. How to vote 
  2. When to vote
**NEW** - Use social sharing within the BoomerangCast mobile app to broadcast the time to vote and provide a direct link for your audience to download the app!

Here are some tips on informing your audience

HOW AND WHEN TO VOTE​
How to vote
Let your audience know they will be voting with the "boomerangcast" mobile app.  It may help to have them download the app ahead of time.
Your polls will simply show up within the mobile app at the time you scheduled.
When to vote
Announce when it's time to vote either verbally, over video display, or via email/other messaging system
Use Social Media
Use Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to announce the vote using the BoomerangCast mobile app by logging into the app and pressing the "social share" icon on the top right hand corner of the Live Events screen and select the desired social platform to use.
Using Social Sharing will allow you to post an image telling users to vote with the BoomerangCast mobile app.

TIPS:
  • A direct link to the BoomerangCast mobile app will be saved in your phone's clipboard. Simply double-tap the message area in the sharing application and press PASTE to broadcast the link to your followers and friends
  • Log into the BoomerangCast mobile app with your school's Twitter or Facebook account to post the image and link (using the instructions above) to all your students and followers or send it to the school Twitter handle
create polls and manage them online
Create polls from you computer or laptop in minutes! 
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​Follow the instructions below OR download the BoomerangCast Quick Start Guide to get started.
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BoomerangCast Quick Start Guide

Go through these simple steps to start creating and managing your polls:
  1. Login to the BoomerangCastAdmin website - www.boomerangcastadmin.com
  2. Go to the POLLING EVENTS tab
  3. Create the Polling Event
  4. Enter the Question(s) and Response Options for your audience to choose from (1 question per voting page)
  5. Optional - select any sponsors to be added to the voting screens
  6. Save your polls and vote!
  7. View voting results

Login to the Admin System
login to the admin screens with your username (email) and pwd located at www.boomerangcastadmin.com. 
If you forget the admin website, use the Partner Login button at www.boomerangcast.com
Create a New Polling Event
Once you login to www.boomerangcastadmin.com, make sure you are on the POLLING EVENTS tab to start creating polls.
  1. Enter the name of the poll which will appear in the mobile app for your voters to participate.
  2. Enter the type of event you are conducting.
  3. Use your organization's default address to broadcast the poll to or enter a different address.
  4. Broadcast Range - select how close voters should be to your even address in order to participate in your poll.
  5. Schedule the desired start/end date and time for the poll to appear in the mobile app.
  6. Determine if you want your audience to be able to see live results from the poll in the mobile app or not.
  7. Determine if you would like voters to be able to choose to post their participation to social media.  This is only available for Facebook or G+ logins.
  8. Determine which type of login you would like voters to use when logging into the boomerangcast mobile app to be able to participate in your poll.  If you are creating a poll purely for students, it might make sense to only allow students to login with a single type of account (use only boomerangcast accounts if your students have been setup with boomerangcast student accounts).
  9. SAVE & CREATE Voting screens for the poll.  Each Polling Event will have ONE or MORE voting screens within it with a SINGLE QUESTION per VOTING SCREEN.
Voting Questions/Screens
Remember: each voting screen will have a SINGLE question on it.  For polls with multiple questions, create additional voting screens.
  1. Enter the question you would like your audience to vote on
  2. Enter the list of response options you would like your audience to select from when voting.  Use the + button to add additional response options.
Sponsors (Optional)
If you would like to use BoomerangCast as a fundraiser for your school, you will need to 'sell' advertisement spaces to your sponsors on the Sponsors Tab before you create your polls.  You may sell multiple 'ad spots' to your sponsors and insert them individually for multiple school events.  For more information on sponsors, see the user guide section for sponsors located ​here.
Voting Results
You can view live results from your polls through the boomerangcastadmin website.
Currently Running Polls - while polls are open, the poll name will appear in the CURRENTLY RUNNING POLLS section of the Polling Events tab.  Click on the Name of the Poll to see live results.

Closed/Previous Polls - Once polls have closed, the poll will move to the PREVIOUS POLLS section of the Polling Events tab.  Click on the Name of the Poll to view results.
Editing a Poll
Before your poll has gone live, you may EDIT parts of the poll.  To EDIT the poll, go to the UPCOMING POLLS section on the Polling Events tab and click on the Name of the Poll to see which options are EDITABLE.
managing polls on your PHONE'S BROWSER
Not only can you view polling results from your phone's browser, you can start & stop your polls, on-demand, from a mobile phone browser too!  Just make sure to schedule your polls to start AFTER your scheduled event. 

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Download the Quick Start Guide for On-Demand polls from your mobile phone browser 

Voting Results from a phone
To view voting results from your phone, you will use your phone's INTERNET BROWSER.  Login to the BoomerangCast admin site with your phone's internet browser (safari, explorer, chrome, etc) at ​​www.boomerangcastadmin.com.
To view results from any poll, press the name of the poll.  You can view results from polls that are Currently Running and for Previous Polls (polls that have already started and ended)
Scheduling On-Demand Polls
  1. Create your polls online with a laptop or computer
  2. Schedule the poll you would like to manage with your mobile phone to start AFTER your scheduled event ends.  (for example, if your event will go from 2-4pm, schedule your on-demand poll to start at 6pm and end at 7pm.  That way during your event, your poll will reside in the "Upcoming Polls" section of the boomerangcastadmin site within the "Polling Events" tab.)
Starting Polls On-Demand
If your polls appear in the "Upcoming Polls" section of the boomerangcast admin site, you will simply need to press the button labeled "Start Poll" to launch the poll and have it available for your audience in the BoomerangCast mobile app. 
Ending Polls On-Demand
Live polls will show up in the "Currently Running Polls" section within the boomerangcast admin site.  To stop a currently running poll, simply press the "End Poll" button next to the poll and it will disappear from the boomerangcast mobile app ending the poll.  
​Once your poll has ended, you can view voting results in the "Previous Polls" section of the admin site by pressing the name of the poll.

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