Netvibes A field guide for missions, posts and IRCs 7/2/2012 U.S. Department of State International Information Programs Office of Innovative Engagement
Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Setting up your Netvibes Dashboard... 3 Customizing Your Dashboard... 4 Adding a Web Search to Your Dashboard... 5 Adding a Blog to your Dashboard... 6 Adding Twitter to your Dashboard... 8 Understanding the Netvibes Twitter Widget Interface...10 Twitter Search App... 11 Adding Flickr Photostreams to your Dashboard... 12 Adding Facebook to your Dashboard... 14 Managing Your Dashboard... 16 Private vs. Public dashboards... 17 Dashboard Style... 17 2
Before using any new social media tools for official State Department purposes, it is important that you are familiar with State Department Policy on Social Media: 5 FAM 790. You should also review the Managing Your Social Media field guide. This guide is very important to helping you plan, create and execute a successful social media campaign. If you have any questions about this guide, please contact OIESupport@state.gov. Introduction There is no doubt that social media can be extremely overwhelming and time consuming. As social networks become a regular part of engaging with our audiences monitoring blogs, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and videos can be a real challenge. In order to keep up with a constant feed of news and information, OIE recommends you use a listening dashboard to create a landing page or portal for all of your social media connections. A listening dashboard allows you to read blogs, post Twitter updates, respond to Facebook posts, and watch videos without having to navigate to each website individually! For a general idea of how a dashboard can work, check out the IIP Digital Netvibes dashboard here: http://www.netvibes.com/iip-oie You may even decide to use a dashboard as an outward facing public aggregator of content your post generates across the web. Consider adding an Ambassador s blog, IRC information, general contact information and Facebook page content so people can get a look at your embassy s information simply from visiting one screen. There are a variety of different social media aggregators or listening dashboards online. OIE has had success with the free web service www.netvibes.com because of its rich feature selection and flexibility with different social networking platforms. Note: A Netvibes dashboard is made up of a variety of different applications (or apps). These were previously named widgets. Some screenshots may reflect the old name. Setting up your Netvibes Dashboard 1. Go to www.netvibes.com 2. Click on the Get started button. 3. Select Go basic. 3
4. Click on the Default icon. This will create a standard dashboard prepopulated with content. You will have the chance to create a dashboard to your own specifications later in this guide. 5. Congrats, you ve created your first dashboard! Take a look around to see the kind of information you can pull into Netvibes. 6. Netvibes will offer you a short interactive tour to familiarize you with different features available on Netvibes. Select Next to proceed through the tour. 7. Click sign up in the top right corner. You will need an account to access your dashboard later. 8. Fill out the form, making sure to click that you agree to the Terms of Service. You can also click on the Facebook Connect button to sign up using your Facebook account. Netvibes will send you a confirmation email. Click on confirm my email address in the email to activate your account. Customizing Your Dashboard One of the many great features about a listening dashboard is the ability to funnel content from multiple sources into one place. Your listening dashboard can show you content from a variety of different social networking sites, blogs and other online publications. Ultimately it is your decision what to add to your dashboard. Netvibes offers a huge database of applications you can 4
add to your dashboard. If you need help adding an app that is not listed in this guide, contact OIESupport@state.gov In this section, we will walk you through how to add some popular apps to your dashboard. Adding a Web Search to Your Dashboard 1. At the top right of your new dashboard, click on New Tab. 2. Click or create an empty tab. This will create a blank dashboard, which you can populate with your choice of content. Give your new tab a title. You can create as many tabs as you would like. 3. Click Add content on the upper left hand corner to add apps to your dashboard. 4. Click Essential widgets. And then click Web search to the right. 5
5. Enter a search term in the search box on the left. Once you re satisfied, click Add to my page. 6. Your app will appear on your dashboard below. 7. To edit the app, put your mouse over the title of the app. This will be the same for any app you add to your dashboard. 6 a. Clicking on the down arrow allows you to duplicate the app, change the color of the title of the app, and to move the position of the app on the page. b. The intertwining arrows allow you to refresh the app c. The right arrow allows you to share the widget with others d. The gear icon allows you to change the settings for the app. This will differ for each app you add. e. Clicking on the x will delete the app. Adding a Blog to your Dashboard Are there websites you want to follow but don t want to visit every day to check for updates? An RSS feed allows you to retrieve the latest content from the sites you are interested in. Keep an eye out for the orange icon or a link to RSS when reading Web sites. Simply click on the RSS icon (see right) or link and you'll be instructed how to add it to your reader. Some Good Places to Find Useful RSS Feeds There are a few sites that list RSS feeds so that you don't have to spend a lot of time looking for them. Here are a few of our favorites:
New York Times RSS Feeds The New York Times has dozens of RSS feeds on different sections of the newspaper. For example, you want to receive all the articles on topics related to the Internet, you could choose the Technology category and then click on Internet. Some of the feeds here make it easy for you to choose Netvibes, and others require you to copy the URL to input into Netvibes. See below for details! U.S. Government RSS Library This site has hundreds of RSS feeds categorized by topic, all produced by the U.S. government. Let's say you're interested in new resources on HIV/AIDS prevention from the Centers for Disease Control. Simply go to the Health RSS Feeds category and click on the HIV/AIDS Prevention link. This will open a page filled with XML code. What you'll need to do is copy (Ctrl-C) the hyperlink (in this case, the URL is http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/rss/hiv.xml). In this activity we will walk through adding an RSS feed from IIP Digital 1. Visit IIP Digital s full listing of RSS feeds. 2. Have your dashboard open in a separate tab of your browser. 3. Copy the URL for the RSS feed you want to include in your listening dashboard. 4. Return to your dashboard and click the green Add Content button located on the top left hand of the screen. 5. On the left side, select Add a Feed. Paste in the link you copied from IIP Digital into the text box and click the Add Feed button to the right. 7
6. A small box will appear below. Click on it. 7. Click Add to my page. 8. Your RSS feed will appear on your dashboard. 9. Repeat these steps for other websites. Remember, you can find an RSS feed for most websites on the internet. If at a loss, try Googling the name of the website and the word RSS! Adding Twitter to your Dashboard Netvibes allows you to include a Twitter app on your dashboard. The app allows you to Tweet information you find elsewhere on your dashboard and post it to your Twitter account! In the next steps we will add a Twitter widget to our dashboard and customize it for your own account. 1. Click the green Add Content button located on the top left side of the screen. 8
2. In the drop down menu, click on Essential Widgets link 3. Click on the Twitter icon to add Twitter to your dashboard. 4. Click Add to my page. 5. The Twitter app will appear in your dashboard below. 6. Click on Connect to connect to your Twitter account. 7. A pop-up window should appear asking you to enter in your Twitter account credentials. Authorize the application by entering in the Username and password for the Twitter account you want accessible in your Netvibes dashboard. 8. After successfully entering in your login information to Twitter, click the blue Authorize app button. This step allows Netvibes to access your Twitter account. Note: you will only have to authorize Netvibes to access Twitter once. The next time you login to Netvibes, your Twitter account will load automatically. 9
Understanding the Netvibes Twitter Widget Interface Edit Settings or close the Twitter widget Twitter Text box: compose tweets here. Twitter Stream: Latest tweets from people you follow See the next latest tweets in your Twitter stream Click to see more tweets The navigation bar (above) from left to right: 1. Home: Displays the latest tweets from the people you follow on Twitter 2. Twitter Lists: Displays tweets from specific Twitter lists you follow 3. Replies: Displays @reply mentions to you 4. Direct Messages: Displays direct message to you 5. Twitter Profile: Displays your latest tweets 6. Favorited Tweets: Displays any tweets you have favorited 7. Twitter Followers: Displays avatars of the people you follow Note: You can perform a lot of Twitter actions such as @replying, sending a DM or retweeting by hovering your mouse over a user s Twitter profile picture. 10
Twitter Search App There are two methods to create a separate app on your dashboard to track hashtags or searches. Method One: You can click on any hashtag from your previously created Twitter module and drag it to the gray space on your dashboard. 1. Step one: click on the hashtag you d like to follow 2. Step two: drag to the right of the app Confused? This video can help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqcntlv-yr8 3. Your newly created module will show up to the right Method Two: 1. As we did with adding a blog, click the green Add Content button located on the top left of Netvibes. 11
2. In the drop down menu, click on Essential Widgets and select Twitter Search 3. Enter the hashtag you d like to follow in the search bar and click Search. 4. Click Add to my page to add to your dashboard Adding Flickr Photostreams to your Dashboard 1. Click on Add Content on the top left hand corner of Netvibes. 12
2. Click on Essential Widgets and click on the second page. Click on the Flickr icon. 3. Enter your Flickr account information. You can either simply enter in your username or a specific tag you would like to track. You can track any Flickr account, even if it is not your own. Click Go. 4. Click Add to my page 5. To edit the settings of the app, click the gears icon on the upper right hand corner of the app. You can change the Flickr account associated with the app, the layout, and the number of pictures displayed. 13
Adding Facebook to your Dashboard Netvibes Facebook app allows you to see all the content you can access through your Facebook News Feed on your dashboard. If you like, you can also create a separate app to track developments on a Facebook page. 1. Click the green Add Content button located on the top left of Netvibes. 2. Click on Essential Widgets. Click on the Facebook icon to add Facebook to your dashboard. 3. Click on the Connect button to connect to your Facebook account. Click on Log In with Facebook. If you are not already signed into Facebook, you will be prompted to log in. 4. Allow Netvibes permission to post on your behalf, access posts in your news feed and access your data. Netvibes needs these permissions to display Facebook information properly. 14
5. Click Add to my page. 6. Your app will appear on your dashboard. 7. If you would like to create a separate module on your app for a specific Facebook page, simply click on the Facebook Page s profile picture and drag it to an empty area on your dashboard. 15
8. You now have a separate app to track the developments of a single Facebook page. Managing Your Dashboard You can manage your dashboard by clicking on Dashboards in the top navigation bar. If you decide to set up multiple dashboards, this is where you can choose between them. Click on Manage to manage your dashboards. At the top of the screen, you can create a new dashboard either from scratch or with the dashboard wizard. Reorder list: allows you to change the order of your dashboards. 16
Rearrange tabs: allows you to rearrange the tabs inside your dashboards. If you wish to copy a tab (instead of moving it), hold down the ALT key while dragging & dropping. If you wish to delete a specific Dashboard, simply click on the Delete button on the right. On this page, you can also enable or disable your public page, choose your account type (between personal or on behalf of a brand or organization), fill in a short description, pick a category that suits your page and enter up to six keywords. Private vs. Public dashboards A Public Dashboard is viewable to the world at large. The first dashboard you create will be private. Your Public Dashboard is deactivated by default. You can only have one public dashboard for your account. To activate your public dashboard, 1. Click on the Dashboard menu on the top right of the screen. Select Activate my Public Dashboard. 2. You can also click on the Manage menu. Select enable. If you would like to turn a private dashboard into a public one, you have to duplicate and transfer its content. 1. Click on 'Dashboards' 2. Select 'Manage ' 3. Click on the red link 'Rearrange tabs' 4. Drag & drop tabs to move them from one Dashboard to another 5. If you would instead like to copy the tab to another Dashboard (without removing it from the original dashboard), hold the ALT key while dragging to copy a tab. 6. Click I m done to complete the process. Dashboard Style Click the icon on the top right of your dashboard to the left of Dashboards 17
General Settings Adjust general settings such display and search options, change language Theme Gallery Choose from a variety of different themes to give your dashboard a different look and feel Theme Preview Click on any of the themes from the gallery to preview the theme on your own To close this box without changing your settings, click Discard Changes. To accept the changes you have made click Done This is the end of this guide. Want to talk more about using Netvibes? Have questions or ideas? Have success stories? Have some preferred apps to share? Let s talk about it in the Social Media Hub's forum! And as always, OIESupport@state.gov is available to help you. 18