Introduction
The Articles Tool is enables users to share content across your program population such as online articles, videos, websites and books. The Articles Tool is similar to a blog, but can be contributed to not only by administrators, but also by mentors and mentees.
Why it matters: This tool allows you and your users to share useful information across the mentoring community. This will attract members to frequently access the program to learn and gain knowledge as well as give them a sense of connection with participants and leaders across your program.
Admin Navigation: Manage > Engagement > Articles
End User Experience
End User Navigation: Community > Advice > Articles
All Articles will be listed with a snippet of each article and the contributor’s name. To view the complete article, click Read full article or the article heading. You can view the comments from other members below the article and you can comment on the article using the text area provided.
Any user (including administrators!) can give the article a thumbs up by clicking the Like button (
) to let other members know that the article was helpful.
Labels - To filter the list of articles based on the various topics, click the label name to view the list of articles under that particular category from the right side of the page.
Adding New Content
To write a new Article, click the Write New Article button (
) in the upper right corner of the page and pick an article type to publish.
General Article - To write free form text content, click “General Article”
Enter the Article Title and input the article using the provided text editor.
Type in the Article Labels for members to identify or associate the article with the topic.
Click “Publish” to publish article or click “Save as draft” to save and edit at a later time.
Media Content - To share interesting Videos, Slideshows, etc., click “Media Content”.
Enter the Article Title and the Description
Copy the provided EMBED code for the video (Example: EMBED code for the video on YouTube can be found by clicking the “EMBED” button on the video page) and paste it in the provided text area “Paste the EMBED CODE below”.
Type in the Article Labels for members to identify or associate the article with the topic.
Click “Publish” to publish article or click “Save as draft” to save and edit at a later time.
Share Books and Websites - To share lists of interesting books and websites, click “Share Books and Websites”
Enter the List Title
To add a book, click “Add a Book”, enter the Book Title and enter your comments.
To add a website, click Add a website and enter the website URL.
Type in the Article Labels for members to identify or associate the article with the topic.
Click “Publish” to publish article or click “Save as draft” to save and edit at a later time.
Upload Article - To upload a document from your computer, click "Upload Article"
Enter the Article Title
Choose the file from your computer and attach the file using "Choose File"
Provide the article description.
Type in the Article Labels for members to identify or associate the article with the topic.
Click “Publish” to publish article or click “Save as draft” to save and edit at a later time.
Best Practices
We highly recommend that admins seed the Articles tool with interesting, useful content to give the area life and draw users back to the tool. It's best to seed the content initially prior to launch and also establish a regular rhythm to add new content. This means ongoing effort, but there's good news: our marketing team has done some of the footwork for you. Check out the content provided in our Resource Library for a great place to start.
We also highly recommend that administrators provide comments and additional material at least once a month, if you plan to use this tool in your program—not doing this can actually result in the presence of the tool creating a negative outlook towards the program by appearing inactive and forgotten due to lack of participation and conversation.
If you or another designated administrator will not be able to maintain this schedule, we suggest disabling this tool under the Features tab of Program Settings, which can be found on under the Program Configuration card on the Manage page.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Can I limit which roles can post content to the Articles tool?
Once the tool is enabled, you can prevent Mentees from posting in the tool. Under the Permissions tab in Program Settings, simply untick the checkbox next to "Mentees can publish articles" and click Save at the bottom to prevent them from making posts in the tool.
Note that this feature can only apply to Mentees.
How do I enable the Articles tool for my program?
Before enabling the tool for your program, we highly recommend discussing why you want to use the tool in your program and your plan for keeping content fresh with a Customer Success team member to ensure it falls in line with our best practices.
After having that discussion, feel free to enable the tool by clicking the Program Configuration card, then clicking Program Settings, clicking the Features tab, checking the box next to Articles, then clicking Save to commit the change.