You can communicate in MyWharton through Chatter announcements, Chatter posts, and Chatter direct messaging.
Introduction to Chatter
Chatter is an enterprise social network – it is a Salesforce real-time collaboration application that helps people share information and collaborate within their organization, and functions similarly to other social media platforms, like Facebook. Chatter is primarily used in MyWharton as a way to share information and engage with students.
Chatter Features
Feeds
A Chatter feed combines a publisher and a feed. There are several different types of chatter feeds in MyWharton, including your Dashboard feed, group feeds, topic feeds, and your profile feed. Each of these feeds is a collection of posts and activities.
The Dashboard Feed is a stream of everything in Chatter that is relevant to you. It contains posts made by people and/or topics you follow, and groups you are a member of. You can control what goes into your Dashboard feed by following important topics and people, and/or joining groups. Group feeds, topics feeds, and profile feeds are detailed below.
Tip: You can adjust the feed to display the Latest Posts in your feed or most Recent Activity.
Dashboard Feed Example | Group Feed Example |
Groups
Groups are the main collaboration space in Chatter where people share information, post updates, and ask questions. Groups are generally thought of as containers of knowledge since they organize content and discussions. Groups reduce email, make collaboration easier, and keep everyone up to date.
You can navigate to any group through the Groups page and check out what’s there (if you have the right permissions).
Group detail pages
Each group has its own group detail page in MyWharton, which aggregates all content related to that group. On the right hand side of a Group page, you can find the following information: Group Details (including description and information), Members, Files, Upcoming Events and Latest News & Notices.
Group feeds
Each group also has its own feed. The group feed provides a central point of communication for all group members. When you join a group, you will see all posts from that group in your Dashboard feed (along with the group feed).
Posts
Posts are the building blocks of feeds and groups. Posts can be made by using the publisher on group detail and topic detail pages, on profile pages, and on individual News & Notice items. You can use the publisher to write a post, comment on a post, attach a file or link to your post, add a poll, or ask a question.
Posts and comments can be up to 10,000 characters long. Questions can be up to 255 characters, though question details can be much longer. Additional functionality includes rich text editing to format your post, adding inline images, hyperlinks, and emojis, @mentioning someone, and attaching a file.
Group admins and Community Managers can also pin posts to the top of a group feed. The post remains at the top of the feed until it is removed by the admin.
To Bookmark a Post, click the arrow to the right of the Post and select Bookmark.
PostsYou can edit your own posts and comments. If you’re a group owner or manager, then you can also edit other people’s posts on the group feed. You can also delete your post from the feed, however you can’t delete other people’s posts or posts about feed tracked changes. | QuestionsIf posting a question, use the Question feature. If your question has been asked previously, the Question feature will allow FAQs to auto populate, and best answers and / or knowledge articles to be shared. |
PollsCreate a poll to get opinions on any topic, at any time. Anyone can post a poll to a group for feedback on a specific subject, or connect with the broader organization to gauge popular sentiment. | AnnouncementsAdditionally, Community Managers and Group Admins can share an Announcement in a group feed. The announcement will appear at the top of the group feed until the expiration date. |
Who Sees Posts?
| If a user posts to... | Who can see it? | Where does it appear? | Why post there? | Notes |
|---|
| Their own profile | Everyone in the community | - The user’s profile
- In the dashboard feed of anyone who follows that user
| - Provide general status updates, thoughts, or ideas, share relevant and interesting articles or links
| Use the profile (personal) feed to share non-critical information. People can choose to follow or unfollow someone on a whim. They don't receive email notifications for profile posts, so there's never a guarantee as to who sees it. |
| Another user's profile | Everyone in the community | - The user’s profile
- The other user's profile
- In the dashboard of anyone who follows either of the users
| - Specifically direct a question to that community member and potentially gain insight from followers
| If the user’s followers may not be interested, the user can post to a coworker’s profile. When users post on a coworker’s profile, the coworker receives an email notification. |
| Private OR Unlisted Chatter group | Group members only | - The feed on the group page
- In the dashboard feed of every group member
| - Ask a question, post a file, or share information relevant to that group
- Get feedback and insight from group members
| Users use groups to ask questions, request feedback, share topical updates, and broadcast important information. |
| A topic page | Everyone in the community | - The feed on the topic page
- In the dashboard feed of anyone who follows that topic
| - Ask a question, post a file, or share information about that topic
- Get feedback and insight from user's following that topic
- @Mention a community member or group for more support (post will also appear on their profile and/or in the group feed)
| Rather than emailing with a question, users can include an @mention on their post in the feed (If the @mentioned user and/or group is set up to be notified, then they get email notifications, too.) |
| A News & Notice item | Group members that have access to that News & Notice item | - In the feed below the News & Notice post
- In the dashboard feed of anyone who is following that specific News & Notice item
|
| There is no email notification sent to users following the News & Notice. |
People and Profiles
Each person in the community has a profile – just like your other social networks . When you follow another person, you will get their posts in your Dashboard feed.
Additionally, everything a person posts goes into their feed on their profile page.
Topics
Topics help organize information. You can follow a topic, and posts tagged with that topic will appear in your Dashboard feed. You can also opt to receive email notifications when posts are tagged with a topic you are following (Note: this only applies to chatter posts, not to events). Users can add topics to their own and other’s posts at any time directly in the feed.
Topics (For more about Following Topics in MyWharton)
Topic detail pages
Each topic has a topic detail page that can be accessed by clicking on a topic tag or through the Support page. Topic detail pages aggregate all content tagged with that topic - including discussions, knowledge articles, news & notices items, and events along with related topics. If you can't find answers to your questions, you can ask a question directly on a topic detail page and get answers from the community.
Note: On a topic detail page, you will only see content that you have access to. Imagine a topic that appears in a private group and you are not a member. You click the topic and see most of the content that’s tagged with that topic. You can’t see any topic content from the private group. If you become a member of the private group, that content becomes available to you.
Tips for Collaborating in Chatter
Mention
When you post an update, you can @mention a person or group name to bring awareness to a post or bring new people into an existing conversation.
When you post an update, you can @mention a person or group name to bring awareness to a post or bring new people into an existing conversation. Mentioning a person is a great way to keep them informed. Enter @ followed by the first few letters of the person or group name and you’ll see people and groups start to appear. Choose the person or group you want, finish your message, and post it.
Note: Posts with @mentions get 3x the responses!
Follow
One of the most useful tools in Chatter is following. You can follow topics, people, and news & notices.
One of the most useful tools in Chatter is following. You can follow topics, people, and news & notices. When you follow people, you see their posts, comments, and likes in your feed on your Dashboard. When you follow topics and/or news & notice item, you will see any chatter posts made to that item on your Dashboard. Click on a member’s name to see their profile, then click the “+ Follow” button to start following them and seeing what they post.
Groups
Groups let you collaborate with a specific group of people.
Groups let you collaborate with a specific group of people. Within groups, group owners and managers can post group announcements to highlight important messages.
Like/Comment
Use ‘Likes’ when you are acknowledging information was received.
Use ‘Likes’ when you are acknowledging information was received. Liking is a easy yet powerful way in which you engage with the content and let others know you are benefiting from the information received. Under each post or comment, you can see who “liked” it. Add a Comment for even more engagement! By liking or commenting on a post, you’re automatically connected to that conversation and receive notifications when someone adds a new comment (depending on your notification settings).
Direct Messages in Chatter
Direct messages allow users to ask a question to another person privately, or communicate with a limited set of people.
Direct messages allow users to ask a question to another person privately, or communicate with a limited set of people. Messaging is useful when a discussion isn't relevant to everyone in a group.
You can send messages to anyone in your organization. It doesn't matter who you follow, who's following you, or what groups you belong to. Conversations can involve up to 10 people total, including yourself. You can't send a message to yourself.
Open direct messages by clicking My Messages from your user profile menu. On the My Messages page, you can:
- See the most recent message in each of your conversations. The most recent message appears at the top of the list. Unread messages will be highlighted in blue.
- Navigate through all direct messages using the left side panel.
- View the full history of messages that were exchanged in a conversation by clicking any message.
- Send a message by clicking New Message (you can also send another user a direct message from their profile page).
In order to receive a notification when someone sends you a direct message, you must update your settings in My Settings to enable email notifications in the community and select to receive email when someone "sends me a direct message."
You can't delete messages or conversations.
Chatter Notifications
All Chatter users can configure their own email notification settings...
All Chatter users can configure their own email notification settings and control the number of notifications they receive.
The Customizing MyWharton article details how to set up your notifications: Managing Notifications in MyWharton.
Community Guidelines
All Chatter users can configure their own email notification settings and control the frequency of emails they receive.
All Chatter users can configure their own email notification settings and control the frequency of emails they receive.
MyWharton provides a trusted environment for bringing MyWharton students, advisors and staff together to connect, engage, and learn from each other.
Community Participation Guidelines have been developed to encourage appropriate behavior so the MyWharton Community remains a trusted environment. Specifically, this information is a guide to what’s in bounds, out of bounds, and who to escalate things to if a situation requires it.
https://mywharton.wharton.upenn.edu/s/article/MyWharton-CPG
Need Help?
Contact: mywharton-support@wharton.upenn.edu
