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Social Media and your web service

The Social aspect of XPOR is focussed on the NEWS ITEM and its' NEWS CHANNEL object types.  The core object type "News Channel" has an Association Type "Social Profile".

The "Social Profile" object type contains all of the discrete Social Accounts that you are going to associate to individual News Channels.

The discrete Social Account objects are;

  • Email Share Account
  • Facebook Account
  • Google Plus Account
  • Google Account
  • Linked IN Account
  • Twitter Account
  • X4 Connect Account

These profile Object Types hold the access information for the account you wish to attribute to each requisite News Channel.  Each of the Social Account types are explained in separate Help Resources.

Social Accounts

Why would you want a Social Media Account? - because Social Media is a great way of spreading your message to yet more Users.  Your XPOR website will work with any number of Social Media Accounts, though you will probably want to have just one account for your website / organisation.  So the first thing to do is create the relevant social media account, for example a Facebook account, for your organisation.  To do this simply follow the procedures provided by Facebook - and note done your Username / Password combination.

We recommend that you use your Administrator email address for the Username / contact details of your Social Account, ready for it.

Once you have your Facebook account set up;

  1. Create a New XPOR Social Profile object
  2. Connect the Social Profile object to the News Channel you are going to be working with
  3. Create a New Facebook Account object - Connect it to the Facebook account created before you started this
  4. Add a News Item to your News Channel and publish it.

When you next visit your Facebook account you will see the News Item listed on your timeline / wall.  What's more, everybody who is following your Facebook account will also see the News article, together with a Link back to the website.

So, by configuring the website News Channel to work with the Facebook account, you can write a News Article on the website, and share it on your Facebook timeline.  PLUS a whole bunch of other social capabilities!

Managing Social Media accounts

There are drawbacks to incorporating Social Media into your mix of web services!  More work is the first one.  Although we have made it simple to post to the Media provider, you still have the task of managing the activity on the social site.  Many people worry about the impact of Users sharing "bad news / bad reports" about a web service.  You might be opening "Pandora's Box"!?  

The promotion of a service on a Social Platform requires yet more management.

And there is yet more to learn! - the never ending learning process!!

Finally, some may be concerned about the relatively un-controlled impact of posting on a Social site!  In fact some of your valuable knowledge / contact information will become available to the Social Provider - and they will use it! - there's no such thing as a free lunch!

Some social services also allow advertising on the site.  Consequently there is a danger that competitor organisations can "squat" adverts onto your Facebook page!

Administrators should be clear about the methods used to share information on Social Platforms - preferably informed by experience of using them!

The XPOR Social approach

We also include two XPOR focussed sharing tools, both of which will work with the Social Profile object to enable XPOR focussed sharing of your News articles  These systems do not need your users to "leave" your website to be able to share information amongst other users on your website.  The simple "Email Share" will open a small pane to allow the user to type in an email address and short message, which will accompany a link to the News Item, all pasted onto an email which will be sent through your XPOR to the XPOR Sharing information from a web service is provided by XPOR, both through mainstream social platforms AND via XPOR's own social features.

The second Sharing system is the XPOR share.  This allows the XPOR user to share the News item with other users in the XPOR system, whilst also sending them a notification email of the Share.