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Customer Support -

Announcements, Bug Fixes, FAQ’s, Etc.

Tutorial – Creating a Post in the New Relaborate

We’ll continually post articles that help you get the most out of Relaborate.  Here’s our first look at the features and buttons inside our updated “Create New Post” Area. Click any image to expand it to full size.

Getting Started With Relaborate

LEFT SIDE NAV (TOP TO BOTTOM)

Dashboard: The Dashboard is your “Home Screen” for Relaborate activity. Its main purpose is to help manage your obligations in the content creation process and oversee all the posts in progress. From your dashboard you can see who started a piece of content, who has been asked to collaborate and the due date.  By clicking on the title of any post you will be able to jump into the latest version of that content.

New Post: When you are ready to begin a new piece of content click on the plus sign. A new blank content collection will be created. Make sure to title the post so that you can find it later in you dashboard.

Question Templates: One of the best way to extract information from the thought leaders in your brand is through the time tested Questions and Answer process. We have identified about 50 types of content and deconstructed them to find the basic questions that authors ask themselves when writing an article. We realize that each piece of content is a new journey and specific questions might not apply, which is why we have created the ability to delete, add and alter the guide questions to fit specific blog topics.

Calendar: In order to stay organized and avoid large (and embarrassing) gaps between publish dates on your company blog or social channels we have built in an editorial calendar. By clicking on the calendar button you will be taken to your personal calendar where all you can view all of the pieces of content your are involved with that have been assigned due dates. Feel free to set reminders to your team involved with the post.  By toggling to the company calendar you can view all of the company wide content being created.

Reporting: Click on this button to see how many posts have been created, how many have been exported and how many users are on your company account. The reporting for our app is quite elementary at the moment, but expanding our reporting functionality is on the product road map.

Settings: By clicking on the gear button you will be taken to your account settings page. On this page you can change your credentials, avatar, skill set, etc. You can also click on your avatar in the top right corner of the application and a drop down menu will appear. If you are with an agency, this is where you switch between accounts. You can also manage your team, and access your account settings.

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TOP BAR (Left to right)

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  • Post Title:  Give your content a title so that it can be found again in your Relaborate dashboard.  -You can always change your title in the future.
  • Editor size:  Your content collections are split into two main fields. The left hand side is dedicated to collecting resources (answers, article links, twitter handles, etc.) to use in your content. The right side of the page is your editor where you can compile and format your information into polished pieces of content.  Your screen may default to only show your editor.  Click the buttons  above the editor to open or close the research area.
  • Details:  The “Details” section is the yellow retractable notepad located above the texteditor and accessible from the button in the top right .  Use the deatils area to layout the goals, directions, links, and structure of the post for the rest of your team to follow.

Add Team Members: From inside the Details section, you can add new members to the post. Relaborate’s core focus is building valuable content through the art of collaboration (or Relaboration). You can add members of your team and assign them tasks at any point in the creation process. Start typing a team members name into the text box and select the team members you would like to add to the post. Once a team member has been added to the post you can click on their name and assign them a task along with specific instructions. This message will be sent via email.

Set Due Date/Alerts: To set a due date for your blog post once inside the post editor, expand the “Post Details” tab. Click on the “Set Due Date” button and select a date. To send an email reminder of the upcoming due date click on the “Set Alert” drop down menu and select the appropriate reminder time.

  • Export: When you are done with your post, this button  will take you to the export screen where you have multiple options.
  • Group Name: If you are part of multiple groups, you will see the group you are currently in next to the arrow.
  • Your Name: Clicking on your name opens a number of options, including upgrading your account, adding members to your group, toggling between groups, and accessing other settings.

Q&A Tab

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Relaborate believes in a social culture, and that work on content can be shared.  When you click on the Ask Question tab, you can choose from Asking a Question of another person, or using our Templates with pre-populated questions already written.

  • If you “Ask a Question”, a couple of boxes will open giving you the chance to form your own question and choose who to email it to. If they are already in your group, just click on their icon or photo.  If they are not in your group, type their name or email address in the box.  Your question will be delivered to them via email and their response will be delivered right here.  You will not have to copy and paste answers from emails into your research area.
  • You can “Use Templates” to get started with an article and decide that you’d like some guidance or direction. Click the Templates tab and we’ll give you the chance to choose some pre-conceived questions and add them to your research area.  These are sorted by Narratives and by Job function, and are meant to be a way to get ideas rolling.

Discovery Tab

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Relaborate will scan your content as you work, identifying topics and names to search on. Once our tool quickly identifies the main topics you are covering it will then search for images, articles and influencers that are highly relevant to the topics identified in the topic bank. In the research area you can browse through the resources we have pulled and post them in your content. If the results are not to your liking, feel free to exit out of topics that are off topic and add some new specific topics of your own in.

  • Click the  button to expand the Discovery section and see the terms Relaborate has found and is searching on.  You can delete any of them, or click on one to make it the primary term. You can then look for Images, Articles and People associated with those terms.
  • You can also select your own terms by entering them on this box.  

Editor

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The editor is on the right hand side of the our app.  In this area you create and assemble the finished piece of content. Leveraging the answers your received from teammates and the resources you have collected and pinned you can quickly create a rich, intelligent piece of content as well as apply formatting and finishing touches.

If you have any questions, please email Andy@relaborate.com or Kirk@relaborate.com.

Support Note: Accessing the Private Beta

April 30, 2013 | By | No Comments">No Comments

Here’s a quick customer support note for those of you testing out the private beta of the new version of Relaborate.

The newer iteraton of the Relaborate beta is accessible through this url: https://beta.relaborate.net.

Some companies are still using the original version of Relaborate, which is still accessed via the home page of Relaborate.com. If you had trouble logging in to the beta, it is likely that you were attempting to log in to the older application from this page.

Apologies for any confusion on this. Thanks for your continued support.

Adding New Members to Your Relaborate Group

September 20, 2012 | By | No Comments">No Comments

It’s been a big week here at Relaborate as we’ve been rolling out access codes to more beta testers. One question keeps rising to the top, and it’s a question we love hearing.

“So, how do I add more team members? I want to get more people involved.”

The easiest way to add members is to click on your name in the upper right corner.  There, you have a couple of ways to add people to the group.  Clicking on the sub category of “Manage (Your Group)” will get you into the screen below, and provide you all sorts of administrative options.

Now, if you are already writing a post, and want to add someone without leaving your editor, you can do that as well.  In this case, look on the right side of the screen and find the box entitled “Post Details.” Click on the arrow to open up this box.

When that box has been opened, you can add new people in right away.  Simply type in their email address, and a dialog box will ask for more information.  Your new group member will receive an email so that they can set up their account and join your post.

As always, contact us with questions.  Thanks for testing the Relaborate beta.

Blogging Syndication – Why Hitting ‘Publish’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Done’

May 31, 2012 | By | No Comments">No Comments

You’ve carefully researched your blog post.  You’ve spent the time writing it.  You’ve edited and revised the post.  Finally!  You have a thorough, informative, and thought-provoking post live on your blog… Now what?

After a blog has been published, it’s important not to stop there – the marketing promotion and social syndication of your post is of the utmost importance.  Marketing your post after publishing can increase your reach, disseminate your message across digital channels, and build your brand as a thought leader within your industry.

How Can A Blog Post Be Marketed? 

Social Sharing
There are many platforms a company may choose to utilize in their digital marketing efforts.  From Facebook to Twitter, the web is filled with social networks to help you spread your message and blog post.  Some of the most popular social media platforms are:

Posting links to your blog posts on your company’s social media channels can be a great way to increase engagement and sharing.  While most businesses have already adapted platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it’s also important to consider niche social media sites that are relevant to your industry.  Perhaps your business focuses on an audience of food critics.  Syndicating this post on a visual platform like Pinterest can spread the message through users “re-pinning” your post’s images.

There are thousands of niche sites found all around the web.  From communities that target different countries, to communities built around a particular interest, syndication through social media is one of the best ways to increase exposure for your blog.  Creating a cohesive marketing plan that encompasses relevant social channels can increase your traffic substantially.  Here is an example of how many additional re-shares GeekWire received for a recent post simply by posting it on their Twitter account.

Public Outreach
Public relations is a marketing facet that is oftentimes overlooked by many companies.  PR should be an ongoing effort to establish your blog as a leader within the industry.  Upon completion of your post, asking the question “Who Could Benefit From This?” is a great place to start.  Just wrote a post about “100 Ways to Save Money On A New Home”?  Sending this post out to industry leaders and media outlets within the real estate industry with a quick note about why the post is of interest gives your post the opportunity to increase its traffic tenfold.  Getting your post shared by an industry expert can instantly give your brand credibility and exposure.

Question & Answer Sites

Over the past few years, Q&A sites like Avvo and Quora have been gaining momentum, as these platforms offer their users the opportunity to get their questions answered by an industry expert.  By participating on question threads, you can link back to relevant content that can aid in answering a user’s question.  Here is a great example of how SEOmoz promotes their blog in a tactful and value added manner.

Forum Posting & Chat Rooms
Not only are question and answer social networks a great way to promote your blog, but so are forums and chat rooms. The rule of thumb to remember before posting a link is “Will this link add value to the conversation?”  If the answer is yes, post your blog link with a few sentences about why you believe it to be of interest.  If the answer is no, you’re likely to come off as spamming with unwanted content.  Posting a link in a relevant forum thread or chat room can be another great way to increase traffic to your blog if done correctly.

Follow Up:

  • Which channels are you using to get your message out?  We’d love to hear about your blogging syndication in the comments below.
  • Think this post could benefit someone in your network?  Click to share on any of your social channels below.

Get to the Point: 7 Thoughts About Getting Your Strongest Blog Points Up Front

May 13, 2012 | By | No Comments">No Comments

Get to the pointOnce upon a time, educated people enjoyed reading.  They would stretch out on the couch or at a cafe, pick up a newspaper or magazine, and lose themselves for 15 minutes at a time in a single article.

But today we live in an ADD society, and no medium caters to our affliction quite like blogs and social media.  It’s not just the kids who have been affected; reading has changed, and writing has to adjust with it.  Readers are now seeing your first paragraph in their RSS feeds, readers or search results, and deciding whether to open the link.  By the second paragraph, readers have already decided whether to continue.  Is the article something they can learn from, forward or argue with?  Or is it a waste of their time?  The days of readers always consuming longer articles are over, so here are some ways and reasons to get that main point to the top.

Start off strong:

  1. Remember your competition is everyone.
    Maybe some of you have the kind of loyal following where readers show up every day.  But most of you are competing with the entire internet for eyeballs.  Your blog post is a single cow in a giant farm of other cows.  How can you make your post more purple than the others?
  2. Get a catchy or controversial term up front.
    Pick something that will stand out as people are scanning through their readers.
  3. Cater to the link publishers.
    A good percentage of the Twittersphere will forward your article without even reading the whole piece.  They want to look like they’ve read every relevant article in existence, so they’ll get what they can from the opening two paragraphs and move on to the next article.  Make it easy for them to do so.
  4. There’s another article they want to read.
    You are one of about 100 articles that your reader hopes to get to.  Even if they love your points, they may only personally budget 30 seconds per article.
  5. Write bullets or lists early.
    Paragraphs are hard for uber-scanners to digest.  Get the message into bite-sized chunks that they can read quickly and forward on to others.
  6. People are doing research for their own blogs.  
    Content authors and bloggers look more authoritative when quoting researched data.  Make it easy for them to find your data up front, and they can use it in their own piece, with a link back to you (inbound links are great for your SEO).
  7. The pop-up window is not your friend.
    Even if you can get the reader into a long form article, you’re battling variables outside of your control.  Pop-up windows are abundant – the Outlook window signifying a new email, the IM window asking for a chat, the Tweet Deck window with more updates about who just ate a ham sandwich.  These are all tempting your reader away from your article.

In a nutshell, if you want an article to be read, get the main points up top.  In some cases, the only people who read to the bottom of the article are looking for the comments section.

Sources:

Image credit – http://ninaturns40.blogs.com

Thought Leadership Through Blogging

April 19, 2012 | By | No Comments">No Comments

In Maria Pergolino’s article on Marketo.com, titled “Why Thought Leadership Rules the B2B World,” she explains that the adoption and proliferation of Social Media, combined with the continued dominance in Search, allows buyers of business products and services to become the hunters, as opposed to being the hunted.  These buyers now possess the power to easily gain insights on their potential purchases, which heavily influences their decisions.  Thus, developing Thought Leadership through meaningful and active social media participation is a must for B2B companies and their executives, as it helps build “awareness, loyalty and equity” among potential buyers, which, in turn, helps lead to new customers and clients.

The Content Marketing Shift:

This article highlights the changing nature in B2B marketing.  Instead of B2B companies hunting for their next customers, the exact opposite is happening: buyers are actively researching the potential B2B products and services, and differentiating them based on aspects of their thought leadership qualities.  In fact, “64% of senior executives are clicking ‘search’ more than six times a day seeking business information,” and “69% of B2B buyers are using social networks.”  This is partly why “56% of B2B marketing executives stated ‘positioning our company as a thought leader’ as their top objective in a recent Economics Intelligence Unit study.”  As Pergolino explains,

Today, however, customers want to attach a personality to a company and, more importantly, they want to know how companies differ.  Thought leadership enables customers to separate companies into the who’s who of the industry.  They’re better able to understand a company’s personality and ultimately understand how processes and strategies work.

In effect, it points out that personalities, processes, and strategies within a company help to develop and drive Thought Leadership across Social Media.  Everyone plays a part, as everyone is involved in building your business and creating your brand persona.  Buyers don’t want to hear from a wooden, inhuman brand.  They want to connect to a real person, with insight, reactions, interests and insider knowledge.

Hurdles with Business Blogging:

With 60%-80% of blogs being abandoned within 1 month of starting, the question arises how to source and create a cadence of relevant and meaningful blog content.  Not every company can hire a dedicated content writer or blogger who possesses the necessary industry insight, knowledge and experience, to carry the internal voice of the brand.  It’s clearly a difficult task that’s becoming increasingly important to solve.

Extension of Marketing Efforts:

Developing Thought Leadership within your industry and among your peers is very important, but it shouldn’t be seen as the only path to take.  This needs to be in concert with your other Marketing, Sales, Product, PR, HR and team building exercises.  In gaining credibility, you need to show a human side.  Your best assets are your fellow employees, and each work to help build your company and establish your brand.

Solution:

For these reasons, we’ve created Relaborate to help companies collaboratively blog, allowing internal experts within your company to help fill the content void and quickly contribute their knowledge to blog post creation.  It’s the first step to extending your brand and establishing your Thought Leadership.

-This article was written using Relaborate.

Sources:

Image credit – Google, Talen Gene

It Begins with Post Alley

February 25, 2012 | By | No Comments">No Comments

The Post Alley Blog by Relaborate is now up and running!

Why Post Alley?

We’re based in Seattle, and if you’ve lived here or visited, you’re probably familiar with Pike Place Market, the public market on the waterfront.  Yes, the same market where they show the guys throwing fish anytime there is a nationally broadcast event taking place in Seattle.

Post Alley is the alley that runs just east and crosses underneath Pike Place Market.  It’s home to several restaurants, bars and, of course, the infamous and sticky gum wall.  Oh, and it’s about a 10-15 minute walk from our office, and members of our team have been known to grab a beer at Kell’s Irish Pub on occasion.

Post Alley, Seattle

So with that, and the obvious little play on words – Blog “Posts” – eh emm, here we are.

By the way, we won’t really be kicking the blog into full gear for another month or so.  If you somehow stumbled across this, just stay tuned, we’re busy building and testing product!