Here are the 11 best ways to tap into all that News offers…

1. Don’t archive content

With traditional intranets, it's important to delete, delete, and delete content to deal with the relentless clutter each announcement creates. Not Jostle.

With Jostle, older News items naturally move out of view, making it easy to avoid clutter and confusion. This allows News to be an important historical record of the evolution of your company and its culture.

Archived items cannot be searched and are only viewable by Editors and the Author. If needed, an Archived item can be deleted. 

Archive should only be used for items with no future value (such as your daily post of the cafeteria menu) or that are confusing (such as an initiative that was launched and then canceled).

2. Use Notify wisely

When something new arrives in Jostle, red dots drive users right to it, without any “notification noise.”

Users who want notifications can set them up in My Preferences. However, when something important happens (a product recall, for example), you need to make sure everyone learns of it as soon as possible. That’s what Notify is for. This sends immediate email and phone notifications that users can’t opt out of.

Together, red dots plus Notify give you the best of both worlds—people see routine updates with zero noise and learn of critical events quickly via email and phone notifications.

Tip: It’s important to respect your colleagues' inboxes and use Notify sparingly so that people don't view the notification as noise when you have something important to share.

3. Target to keep things relevant

When users see content that is not relevant to them, they disengage. That’s why you should consider your ‘Visible To’ audience each time you publish in News. If what you’re sharing is only relevant to people at a particular location or for a particular team, don’t publish it to everyone.

If you need help setting up publishing groups (like locations, departments, or employee types), contact us at success@jostle.me. We can also help you set up a sync with your other systems (like your HRIS) so these groups are auto-updated.

4. Make use of our most engaging Blocks

Include videos

Videos are not only engaging, but they can also be easy to produce. Share an update from the construction project or interview a noteworthy employee. Don’t worry about it being polished or having Oscar-worthy edits. Your employees will love a chance to connect on a personal level.

Harness Polls

There is nothing more interactive than a Poll. You can use them to gather meaningful input (such as what to do for your next company event) or just have fun.

Embed a form

With the Embed block, you can deliver an interactive form or survey in your News item. Here’s how:

1. Create your form or survey in a tool like Microsoft Forms, Google Forms, or SurveyMonkey.
2. Grab the embed code from the form settings.
3. Paste this into the Embed block.

The form will appear in the News item, and users can fill it out there. The data they provide is collected by the form tool you used. What an engaging way to get input from employee groups!

5. Up your publishing cadence with Reporter Groups

Publishing often across a good mix creates a more engaging News view. Recruit some allies to publish on specific topics. Use Reporter Groups to help govern their participation.

6. Share industry content with a Web Article

Web Articles make sharing content from a public website easy with just a few clicks, all while attributing the original content source. You can use them to share industry news, “food for thought” articles, or your organization’s press releases, to name a few.

Note: The website you’re sharing needs to support iFraming. If they don’t, you’ll see an alert saying, “Looks like we couldn’t retrieve any content from the web address provided.” In this case, use the Link block to share the item.

Social Sharing

If you’re trying to amplify your organization’s brand with the help of your employees’ social networks, use the Web Article feature to share your public-facing blog article and turn on Social Sharing. Employees can easily share your post on LinkedIn or Facebook, helping you extend your reach. You can also export metrics on who shared the article and show them some appreciation for their help. 

7. Feature in banner 

Feature promotes a News item for a set duration in a carousel banner that stretches across the top of the News view. When selecting to Feature an item, you’ll be prompted to set a date and time to end the promotion. When that time has passed, the item will move to its normal position in the News timeline.

Tip: Don't overdo the duration. There should rarely be a need for an article to be Featured for over a week.

8. Pin with purpose

Pinning places an item at the top of the News view for each user until they read it. This allows you to select specific evergreen items, such as “Welcome to the company,” to appear at the top for new employees.

Tip: Remember, a new user will see all your pinned items upon their first login, so if you have more than 2-3 items, your new content will be buried. See the section at the bottom of this article to learn how to bulk unpin items.

9. Utilize Sign Off

Sign Off actions everyone to confirm they have “read and understood” a News item. And it compiles an easy-to-audit record of who has signed off and who has not.

Tip: News is for content of interest in the moment; Library is for evergreen content, such as policies and procedures. If you have a new policy:

1. Give the policy a permanent home in Library
2. Turn on Sign Off for that item in Library
3. Copy the link to view that item in Library (‘Copy Link to Item’)
4. Create a News item that promotes the arrival of this new Policy 
5. Include the link to route users to Library to read the full policy

10. Optimize your News Categories

News Categories help keep News organized and easy to navigate. Categories help users grasp the kinds of content they are seeing and allow them to filter a particular family of content into view.

Editors can do this by selecting “Manage Categories” in the main News action menu (three dots, top right). Note that you can:

• Add a new Category
• Rename an existing Category (this will also rename that Category for previously published Items)
• Optimize the order Categories appear in the News Filter

Tip: For most organizations, 10 is a sensible number of Categories. If you end up with 30, it will be challenging to sustain publishing to them all, and the filter will become hard to use.

Note: If you delete a Category, any items published to it will end up in an “Uncategorized” Category. To recategorize them, you will need to edit each affected item one by one.

11. News and Library make a great team

While News is all about staying plugged into what’s going on in your organization, Library is about finding key information you need. This means Users will often come to Jostle looking for something in Library, but when they arrive, they’ll spot the red dot from the item you just published in News and read it. A healthy Library gives rise to a healthy News view.

How to unpin in bulk

Best practice is to have only a few Pinned items (2-3 per group), or you will clog the top of News for new users.

Here's how you can remove pins in bulk:

1. Go to News > Action Menu (three dots) > View Published

2. On the Published screen, click on the filter icon in the top right corner.

3. Go to the Pin Settings field and select Pinned.

4. Check off the boxes next to all pinned items you wish to Unpin.

5. Open the action menu for any highlighted item and select Unpin.