Connect With People

You'll see lots of great, useful content pop up. But have you ever noticed that you keep using content from the same set of people? You can build your own network and never lose touch with the people whose stuff matters the most. The best way to get primed for connecting with people is to get lots of information into your profile. Using your profile and other people's, you can make one-to-one connections to keep up with individuals. And when you share an interest with others, you can join or create a social group to talk about it.

Create a profile. Your profile is a quick way for other members of your team to find out more about you. It can be bare bones or more thorough. If you fill in the optional fields, you can give others a sense of who you are and what you know. It can be very useful in a team to know who to go to when you've got a question or suggestion in mind.

1. Click Your Stuff > Profile to view your profile.
2. On your profile page, notice that the Actions list lists a few things you can do. On the preferences page you can adjust your notification and subscription settings.
3. Click Edit Profile.
   
   
4. Fill in as much profile information as makes sense. Keep in mind that your profile will be found when people search, so if you have professional (or personal) roles or interests that would be useful for others to know, be sure to include them.
   
   
   Note: If your community is connected to a system that stores people's names and contact information, you might not be able to edit all of the information here.

Find people and make connections. You can build your own personal network by using the connection feature. Making connections is a little like adding people to a list of favorites. When you're connected, you can more easily keep track of what they're up to, what they're saying in discussions and blogs, and more.

1. Click Browse > People, then find someone you want to connect with — someone whose activity might be interesting to you.
2. Hover your mouse over someone's name to see more information about them, including content they're recently worked on. (You can click their "follow" link in the popup here, but you might want to take a look at their profile to see more about them.)
   
   
3. When you find someone, view their profile by clicking their name.
4. In the Actions list, click the Follow... link. This will add the person to the connections you're following. If you have labels defined, you'll be prompted to assign one or more to this connection. If not, don't worry -- you can define labels later in this tour.
   
   
5. Click Your Stuff > Connections to view the list of people you're following. The person you added is listed there, along with links to things they've done in the community recently. This page also includes a link through which you can see a list of the people who are following you.
   
   
6. In the Filter by Label list, click Add/edit labels to add a label that will help you manage your list of connections as it grows. Click Create new label, then enter the label's name and select a color for it by clicking the little box to its left. Click Save.

   

7. After you've created labels, click the Labels link above a person's recent activity list to apply the label to that person.
   
   
8. Notice that the labels you've applied to a person you're following show up beneath their Recent Activity list. What's more, as your list of connections gets longer, you can filter it according to the labels you've applied.

Join a group. They're out there, you know — your people, that is. Find them and reunite in a social group.

1. Click Browse > Groups to look through the group directory. At the top of the directory page you'll find a cloud of tags that are assigned to groups. Below the cloud is a list of groups (if there are lots of groups, the list will be only partial).
2. Find a tag that interests you and click it. The list of groups beneath the cloud will shorten to include only those that have the tag you clicked assigned to them. You can shorten the list further by clicking other tags in the cloud.
   
   
3. When you find a group that interests you, click its name to take a closer look. Keep in mind that there are four kinds of groups:
   • With open groups you can read or post content any time, without being a member.
   • With members only groups, you can read content without joining, but you have to join in order to create new content there.
   • With private groups, you'll need to join before you can read or create content.
   • With secret groups... well, they're a secret. You won't even see secret groups in the list. You can only join a secret group by being invited by someone who manages the group. (Of course, you can create your own, too.)
   
   
   

Start your own group. Can't find a group for your favorite subject? Make your own. You can invite anyone you like — even make it super-secret.

1. Click New > Group to start creating a new social group.
2. In the Create a new group page, fill in your group's details. If there are lots of groups already, click Check Availability to make sure your group name isn't already taken. (And be sure to add tags so people can find you!)
   
   
3. At the bottom of the page, say what type of group it will be and which features it will include.
   
   
4. On the Group Created page, click the homepage link to go to your group's main screen.
5. You can customize the overview page (in the same way you personalized your home page) and start adding content. (The Edit group detail link will take you back to that page with the group settings if you want to change them later.)
   
   
6. To get your group rolling, click Invite people to join this group to get some like-minded people involved.