Concise Guide to How to Use Connections Cloud

The Concise Guide
on How to Use IBM Connections Cloud
(to manage your projects, your team and
put Connections Cloud to work for you)
Changing the way to work
to harness collective knowledge,
serve clients with speed, and amplify
impact across the business.
COPYRIGHT 2015 IBM Corporation

Purpose
Help you get started, be more efficient, achieve
greater impact.
Why?
The more we all use Connections Cloud,
the more impact & value we can all drive.

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your team
BEINGOPENOVERVIEWGETSETUPTOOLBOXDAY-to-DAY
Table of Contents
Being Open: What It’s All About ……………..………….............
The Big Picture: Connections Cloud Overview
…….………………...
Start: Setting up Your Social ……..…………….………………...
The Toolbox: The Tools to Accelerate Your Team …..……….
Day-to-Day: How to Manage it All ……….....…………………...
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5

Section 1
Being Open…
What It’s All About

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Being Open: What It’s All About
What is Social Business?
Social business = Open Business
Open interaction that scales through participation and
connectedness
Social business is a way of working
Networked, open collaboration, shareability, member led

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your team
Why is this important?
Creates value… for your company, for clients, for partners
Your value will not be what you know, but what you share *
Social is a market differentiator
Multiplier effect (leveraging your numbers and your size)
It’s not a lift, it’s a complete shift
People driven transformation in new age age of connection
* Ginni Rometty, IBM CEO

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Yesterday
Closed
Scarcity effect
Email (inbox full = mail jail)
Small closed teams
Duplication of work
Reinventing the wheel
Sequential processes
Stuff on your hardrive
Knowledge drain
Computer dies, work lost
Today
Open
Multiplier effect
Connections (+ less Email)
Dialog, sharing, insights
Open & extended teams
Reuse of existing work
Nonlinear processes
Resources in the cloud
Knowledge retain
Computer dies, nothing lost
A shift (not an add) – it’s a change in HOW we work

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This all seems too much for me….
Good advice:
Don’t go into Social, grow into Social
Start small, start simple, and build momentum

Section 2
The Big Picture…
Connections Cloud Overview

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Connections – comprehensive connectedness

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What can you do with your team?
Share and jointly edit files
Manage team projects
Brainstorm with your team
Share useful and important links
Collaborate on documents
Centralize education and training
Share opinions and drive though leadership
Leverage team knowledge across your organization
Re-use what other teams have already created
Achieve alignment and focus around objectives
…all from any internet device (laptop or mobile)
Tip: Start with Activities
to manage projects.

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https://apps.na.collabserv.com
Use the menus to navigate around
How do I get on Connections Cloud?
Tip: Make this link a main
bookmark.

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How do I follow my team?
Following people automatically connects you to
conversations and
content you care
about.
Open any Profile and click Follow.
Tip: Click Follow in
anyone’s profile to start
getting updates

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your team
View updates from people and content you follow. See responses
to you as well.
See who is mentioning your name
View notifications
View items that require your response, like To Do items in Activities.
How do I follow my team?
Then, use the Homepage to view updates from the
people on your team.

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Where do I work ‘social’ with my team?
Community Description – summarize purpose / focus of community
Blog – share opinions, lead with insights, provide guidance
Activities – manage projects
Files – upload, centralize, jointly edit, share assets
Bookmarks – share important links
Wikis – jointly build & edit rich text or HTML pages
Forums – openly engage, discuss and share ideas on topics
Subcommunities – build out sub categories of specialty focus
Use the tools in Communities
Tip: Define clear goals and
focus in Description.

Section 3
Starting Out…
Get Setup

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Starting Out: Get Setup
Where do I start?
STEP 1
 Add your team to your network
 Add your ‘extended’ group to your network
 Follow senior leaders or executives
 Add tags for your expertise
 Add your key links (twitter, blog, team community…)
 Post updates on what you are working on
Setup your Profile

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Starting Out: Get Setup
Then what?
STEP 2
 Go to Communities > All Communities
 Click Start a Community Button
 Select Restricted for working team Communities
 Add your direct team as members
 Add Apps such as Blog, Activities, Bookmarks, Forums
 Start adding content (see Toolbox for app information)
 To add more members, click Members in left column
 Add Tags to make findable
Setup a Community as your team’s social hub
Tip: Follow a Community to
get updates on the homepage

Section 4
Toolbox:
The Tools to Accelerate
Your Team

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Toolbox: The Tools to Accelerate Your Team
How do I create a Community Description?
WHEN TO USE THIS TOOL:
To describe the goals and focus for the community
 Go to your team community
 Click Community Actions > Edit Community
 Click Upload a Community Image to add a community icon
 In the description area, edit/paste content
- Add links
- Add images
- Use Rich Text formatting
- Can paste HTML from another HTML editor
Ideas for Community Description
• Detail community goals
• Describe purpose of community
• Use graphics to create a menu

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How do I create an Activity?
Use an Activity to manage a project with
your team
 In your Community, click Community Actions
 Add the Activity App to your Community
 Click Start an Activity, name it and save
 Click Add Section for parts or steps of the projects
 In each Section, click Add Item (click Add File for assets)
 Click To Do Item to add actions for team members
 Click Notify Other People to alert team to Activity info or To Dos
Examples of Activities
• Manage team meetings
• Track travel requests for your team
• Manage finance submissions
• Plan for an event
Tip: Click and drag Sections
to change their order in Activity

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your team
How do I create a Blog?
Use a Blog to share guidance, commentary,
insights, or lessons learned with your team.
 In your Community, click Community Actions
 Add the Blog App to your Community
 Click New Entry
 Enter title and content (rich text), add relevant tags
 If you know HTML, you can copy and paste into HTML view
 Option: click on a blog post, at bottom, click More Actions, Notify Others
Examples:
Share a How To
Guidance on key initiative
Perspectives on strategy
Sharing a success story
Tip: Highlight your blog post with a
status update. Include link.

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your team
How do I create a Forum?
Use a Forum as an online discussion board or
to ask a question
 In your team community, navigate to Forums
 Click Start a Topic
 Enter Title for discussion
 Add an attachment if appropriate
 Click Reply to this Topic to comment on the topic
 Click Reply under a specific comment, to comment on the comment
Examples:
Team brainstorming
Ask a question
Debate a topic
Share team thoughts on topic
Tip: Use a Forum to pre-discuss a
topic before a team call

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How do I add Bookmarks?
Use Bookmarks to share key web sites with your
team in a community
 Go to your team community
 Navigate to Bookmarks
 Click Add Bookmark
 Enter URL and name
 For persistent links you want to highlight, click Add to Important
Bookmarks
Examples:
Point to key resources
Highlight key training
Tip: Keep Names short to prevent
wrapping in Important list

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How do I create a Wiki?
Use a wiki for team collaboration. Publish best
practices, standards, or methods and procedures.
Create content for in HTML or rich text.
 Go to your team Community
 Click Wiki, then Edit, or create a new page.
 If you see wiki design you like, you can copy and paste
the whole page into a new wiki page.
Examples:
Create repository of collateral
Create table of contents on page one
Create a community newsletter
Tip: Use tables in a wiki to
organize your information

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How do I upload Files?
Use Files to share documents with team without
sending as attachment in email.
Tip: Get the Desktop Plugins so you can Share and
Sync your local files with copies in the cloud.
 Upload files to share with individuals or communities
 Go to Apps > Files to work with your Files
 Click Upload a File
 Add Title and Tags
 Choose to share with no one, specific people,
communities, or everyone
Notes:
Upload from Profile: only you edit
Upload in Community: open edit
Set if others can share file
Upload once, post everywhere
5 GB limit
Use Folders to organize

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More details on Files
FILE MANAGEMENT TIPS:
Main features to manage your files and folders
Pinned Files: Priority files you pin to keep at top of file list so
you can easily find them.
My Files: Files you have uploaded and shared
Shared With Me: Private files shared directly with you
Sync: Offline files on your desktop or mobile device that are
automatically synced with copies in the cloud
Shared By Me: Private files you have shared with
individuals
Community Files: Files in communities of which you are a
member
Tips: Use Tags to make files findable. Use
Folders to organize lots of files.

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More details on Files
INSIGHTS ON THE FILE VIEW:
Understanding the details of the
file view
TIPS: Tag it to make findable. Like
it to share with your network.
Download: Put file on your hard drive.
Upload New Version: Update with new version (previous versions are retained)
Share: Control private (share with specific people) or public
Add to Folder: Organize into a specific folder
More Actions > Edit Properties: Give file a new name
More Actions > Lock File: Prevent further edits/changes to the file or to avoid editing conflicts.
Add Comment: Add remarks or guidance on file for viewers
About this File: See how many and who has downloaded the file
Versions: See the version history (you can open any version)

Section 5
Day-to-Day:
How to Manage it All

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Day-to-Day: How To Manage It All
This all seems like more work….
Remember, it’s a shift… a change in how we work
Email less, use Connections Cloud more.
If you are not used to it… stick with it – it’s actually pretty easy
If you try it… you will start to have ah ha moments on value.
Start with small steps and build momentum.

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your team
How to get started
Steps to success in working social with your team:
1. Setup your Profile
2. Add your team to your Network
3. Keep building your Network
4. Share updates on what you and your team are working on
5. Create a team Community
6. Start with Activities, Files, Bookmarks
7. Then add Blogs and Forums
8. Engage with others through Connections Cloud
9. Grow your momentum, be creative, experiment
10. Follow the 5 Tips to success

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your team
Tip #1 - Follow a Community
Stay connected to interesting projects, announcements, and
discussions
For Communities you belong to, go to
the Community and click Follow this
Community to get updates from the
community in two places:
Daily Email Newsletter
Updates on the homepage

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your team
Tip #2 - Setup your daily email summary
Get a daily briefing on responses to your content and updates from
people and content you follow
Go to Notification Preferences
Set how often you
want to be notified
1
2

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Tip #3 – Take time to glance at your home page
See real time updates from people and content you follow
View updates from people and content you follow
See who is mentioning your name
View notifications
View items that require your response,
such as To Do items in Activities

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your team
Tip #4 – How to Search Connections Cloud
Go to Advanced Search Use tags, keywords, and names to find content1 2

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Tip #5 - Go Mobile with Connections
Engage with your team on the go….
Download the Connections Cloud mobile apps
for Email, Connections Social, Meetings, and
Chat.

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your team
Summarizing the toolbox for Managers
Is collaboration critical to your team’s success? How do you foster the kind of open
communication on your team that encourages information sharing, learning, partnering
on projects, breakthrough thinking?
Communities
Do you ever need to find experts outside of your team to be successful on a project or
with a client?
Profiles
Do you look for places where your team’s critical skills can be put to use? Is
networking with other teams important to your personal success? Do you want a better
way to stay current on what’s happening in your network?
Homepage
Activity Stream
updates
Do you want a way to manage projects, assign tasks and due dates and get an overall
view of the project’s status – in real-time?
Activities
Do you need to more easily communicate your strategy and priorities with your team in
an open space where they can respond and communicate with one another as well?
Blogs
Has your email inbox become a productivity drain filled with an unmanageable number
of notes and large attachments? Have you been in email jail in the last 6 months?
Files
Do you want to foster creativity, collaboration, and best practice sharing on your team? Forums
Do you need to co-create web documents or curate online material? Wikis
Do you want to share valuable web links for others to use? Bookmarks
Do you struggle to share information and stay current when you are traveling or can’t
be attached to the network?
Mobile
Connections
File Sync

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Additional Resources
Getting Started with Connections Cloud – interactive first steps to guide you
Social Business Insights Blog – insights on Social Business in the enterprise
@IBMSocialBiz – feed for info, updates, resources, studies on Social Business
Executive Social Academy – helping managers magnify impact & grow into social
AskJim Podcast – answering user questions on IBM Connections, 5 days a week
Where to go for help – user help, administrator help, and mobile help

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your team
Build Your Knowledge – 5min a Day
The AskJim Podcast
Answering your questions about IBM Connections, 5 days a week
www.executivesocialacademy.com/askjim
Subscribe via Soundcloud
Embed the Player in your Community
Ask a question
New 5min episodes 5 days a week
Jim Claussen
Strategy Manager Social Business Category
IBM
www.jimclaussen.com
www.executivesocialacademy.com/askjim

Concise Guide to How to Use Connections Cloud

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