With the 2016 3-Day season underway, you might be noticing some new elements in the 3-Day’s social media coverage of the events. Here’s what’s exciting, fresh and new for this season!

But First, Let’s Talk About What’s Familiar – Everything you know and love about following the 3-Day on social media is still going strong. We post to Facebook and Twitter every day of the year, and we blog, Pin and Instagram several times a week. We have an ever-growing library of videos on YouTube and of course, the 3-Day website and your Participant Center (though not strictly considered social media) are your go-to 3-Day online headquarters for everything from general event info to your own personal and team fundraising progress.

When one of the 3-Day events is going on, you can count on even more action from the 3-Day social media team! We share photos and videos at the ceremonies, from the route and in camp dozens of times throughout ever 3-Day weekend. So if you and your loved ones aren’t following the 3-Day on social media, get on it! None of you will want to miss what we’re sharing.

Hashtags 2.0 – Hashtags on the 3-Day aren’t exactly new either (we dedicated this whole blog post to them a while back), but we wanted to give you a refresher on those funny looking number signs and words you sometimes see at the end of posts.

Hashtags serve the purpose of sorting and grouping together pieces of content (photos, tweets, status updates) that have something in common. The same way that a fifty-person 3-Day team might all wear matching flamingo socks to help identify them as a group no matter where they all are on the route, hashtags identify similar social media posts (such as fifty different Instagram photos with #flamingosocks), no matter where or when they were posted. The hashtag (#flamingosocks) groups those posts together the same way the actual flamingo socks would group those teammates together. Nifty, huh?

Each 3-Day event has two main hashtags associated with it:

• #The3Day – this identifies a post as being part of ALL of the content having to do with the 3-Day as a whole. We put this hashtag on just about everything we post.
• Event-specific hashtags help group together the posts that have to do with that particular 3-Day city. There’s a different one for each of the 7 events, as you can see here:

And then there are a couple others you’ll probably see popping up, especially during the 3-Day events themselves:

• #WeAreThe3Day – We use this hashtag (and encourage you to use it too) on social media posts that show/tell a little piece of the whole big, beautiful 3-Day story. #WeAreThe3Day posts are usually centered around various individuals (and from time to time, teams) that make up the patchwork quilt of the 3-Day family, and they aim to share a small slice (told in the 3-Dayer’s own words) of what makes those individuals and their experiences unique.
• #The3Day_Selfie – This year, we’ve dubbed Day 2 of every 3-Day event “Selfie Saturday.” 3-Dayers are encouraged to post their best selfies*—whether they’re on a 3-Day event or at home—with this fun new hashtag. (*Safety first! Remember to stop and move to the side of the route if you want to take or post a picture.)

Some of you may be saying, “Okay, the hashtags are on the post. So now what?” When you’re logged in to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, type a hashtag into the Search box and it will show you the various tweets, pictures or posts that have that hashtag on it. But not ALL of them…keep in mind that that some posts may not show up in the search results, even if they included the hashtag. This is most likely due to privacy settings on the different social media sites. If you’re not friends/followers with someone who has posted with the hashtag you’re searching, you probably won’t be able to see those posts (and they won’t be able to see yours).

Facebook LIVE! – Last year, we live-streamed from the 3-Day a handful of times, but with the new Facebook Live video feature that came out this spring, we’re going to be bringing you more live video broadcasts from the 2016 3-Day events. In addition to streaming the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, morning walk-outs and the arrival of the last walkers each day, we’re hoping to also bring you those fun and memorable “only on the 3-Day” moments from the route and camp.

Facebook sends out alerts when we begin a live broadcast, so to make sure you don’t miss any of the action, be sure to follow the 3-Day (and if you miss a live stream, don’t worry, the videos will be posted to the 3-Day’s Facebook page after we’ve called “Cut!”).

Snapchat – It’s not just for teenagers anymore (heck, even the White House is on Snapchat now)! Starting in Seattle this week, the 3-Day will be snapping throughout the event weekend. If you use Snapchat, add us so you can follow our Story on each event! You can add us by username (The3Day), OR use our Snapcode:

To add The 3-Day to your Snapchat Friends, open Snapchat, point your camera to this image, touch it on your screen and hold!

When you’re out at the 3-Day, be sure to snap using our customized 3-Day geofilters! You can add them to your pictures or video when you’re at Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and when you’re at camp.

Tell us the ways you enjoy following the 3-Day on social media!