Activity (the feed on the left side of News) is a great communication tool. But for it to be a success within your organization, you need to remember one key thing: Activity is meant to be a place to keep people informed at an organization-wide level of the latest happenings, accomplishments and updates that involve everyone. It’s not a place for one-on-one chats or extended conversations.

And the larger the organization, the more considerate one must be about posting in Activity. Once an organization reaches about 100 employees, info clutter can easily build up in the feed and quickly bury important bits of information if you’re not careful.

So, with that in mind, if you’re part of an organization with a head-count in the triple digits (or higher!) here are some simple Do’s and Don’ts that you can follow to help ensure your Activity feed stays useful and on-topic instead of becoming an uncontrollable update monster.

Birthdays and Anniversaries

If enabled, birthdays and work anniversaries will automatically be recognized in the Activity feed.

DO show your acknowledgement and appreciation by clicking on the Birthday post’s “like” heart icon (doing so also adds your avatar image to the heart popover).

DON’T post an additional “Happy Birthday” of your own in Activity, because it will spur others to do the same, and then that will spur the recipient to reply in kind. The next thing you know, someone will go to look for an Update on quarterly sales that she noticed earlier in the feed but all she’ll see as she scroll through will be: “Happy Birthday @Judy!” “Thanks @Sharon!” “Happy Birthday @Judy!” “Thanks @Devin!” “Hope you have an amazing birthday @Judy!” “Aw, thanks @Carmela!!”.

And soon that person scrolling through the feed will be so lost in the deluge of well-wishes and gratitude, she may never, ever find that one lonely sales Update again. Or worse yet, she may have missed another important Update completely because it got pushed down the feed so far so fast, her scrolling finger gave out before she could get caught up.

DO take your urge to post a personal, heartfelt wish of birthday happiness and send it privately (a quick and easy way to do this is to go to Discussions and send it via a Direct Message).

Note: the above guidelines also apply to Shout-Outs. If someone gets recognized for their efforts in a Shout-Out post, show your support with a "like" rather than creating a post of your own that just repeats the sentiments from the Shout-Out.  

@mentions

When you @mention someone in an Update, they’ll be notified about it. So it’s important to be aware of when it should be done.

DO @mention others when there’s a specific need to call them out. Examples include: when recognizing someone’s accomplishments, when posting about one of their projects, or when indicating their involvement in an upcoming event.

See @Kelly before Friday to register to for the bike club!

Congrats to @Jamal for closing the Berkman deal!

DON’T @mention others when it’s about an issue that doesn’t need to be brought to their attention, nor would their inclusion have any bearing on the meaning of your message.

Me and @Mike, @David, @Shiri all noticed there’s no more coffee in the kitchen.

Replying

Sometimes an open question will be asked in Activity, or you may need to follow up a previous post with some additional information. In these cases:

DO use the reply arrow (lower right corner). This will connect your post to the original post.

DON’T post your reply as a new Update.

DO use the View all replies link when it appears at the top of a posted reply to view the original post and all the previous replies to it.

DON’T repeat a point already mentioned or ask a question already answered.

Duplicate/Error Posts

It happens to everyone at some point; you forgot to mention a key piece of information, you accidentally clicked “Post” too soon, or you automatically tapped “Enter” while typing in the text field. For whatever reason, you’ve posted an incomplete Update and need to post the proper version right away.

DO click the “X” in the upper right corner to delete your original Update before you start your second attempt.

DON’T keep posting one error-filled update after another until you finally get it right (and certainly don’t leave them all up, for all to see the tragic path you took to get there).

So, encourage yourself and others to keep these simple tips in mind the next time you’re in Activity and your organization will be well on its way to building and maintaining an effective, informative, and clutter-free Activity feed for all!