SharePoint 2013 New Feature Name: Tagging Content
Category: Social
Category: Social
Overview: Tags:
SharePoint 2013 introduces #tags. The purpose of this post is to explore the different ways of tagging content as I am quite curious about the new #tags feature and how it is positioned against the existing Tags and Notes feature that was available in SharePoint 2010. As we explore the different tagging options I hope to highlight the advantages and disadvantages along the way. At the end of this post, you will also find a what’s in it for me section.
Different ways to tag in SharePoint 2013:
There are several different ways to tag content in SharePoint 2013. Let’s explore some of these in more detail.
1. Tags & Notes
Tags & Notes is the original tagging feature that was introduced in SharePoint 2010 through the Tags & Notes board.
The idea being that any content (documents, list items, document libraries, lists, sites) can be tagged by selecting the content you want to tag, then clicking Tags & Notesicon on the ribbon.
In the Tags & Notes board, when you start typing , you will see a list of keywords available to select. This list is populated from the contributions of other users and also pre-populated keywords. What’s even more impressive, and a little know fact, is that you can also use Keywords from #tags.
2. Newsfeed
The Newsfeed is another important addition to the social feature set of SharePoint 2013. It’s the user’s “dashboard” into what’s relevant to them, what’s happening for everyone, and how to get to most other contextually-relevant content. If you read most of the marketing talk on the SharePoint 2013 social features, one of the biggest considerations was how to surface content that’s not just useful, but contextually relevant.
From the newsfeed, you can quickly share status updates with everyone, your team, or other audiences of the sites you are following. You can mention other users by using an @ symbol in front of their name and also have multiple #tags in a single post. At a glance, you also see information about the sites, documents, people, and tags that you are following, making it easy to get around to find items that are most relevant to you. Searching for content is ubiquitous – you can pretty much search for content from anywhere in SharePoint.
3. Communities
Communities are the next biggest value-add to social adoption in SharePoint 2013. Communities replace forums and Q&A boards. Users can start threads in different categories of conversation and have rich discussion. #tags are ubiquitous, and can be added to questions and replies. There are many other great features of communities (that I will cover in a future post), but I can easily add #tags to any of my interactions and they surface within searches and the newsfeed just like #tags used in my microblogs.
4. Hashtags (#tags)
#tags is the latest addition to the social tagging strategy in SharePoint 2013. #tags, like enterprise keywords and social tags, are a broadly defined concept meant to be leveraged in a wide capacity. Much like in social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, the use of tags are to categorize a post, making it easier for individuals to search and identify related contents. All one has to do is add a hash (#) in front of any word and SharePoint will convert that to a hashtag (#tag). When viewing the comment with a hashtag (#tag), SharePoint automatically renders it as a bold hyperlink to help make navigating and finding related content easier.
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