Yammer now called Viva Engage is a group communication tool from Microsoft that one can use to set up a social network for any company. In this guide, I will share some beginner tips to guide you to set up and then using Viva Engage.
How to use Viva Engage effectively
We will cover the following sections of Viva Engage on this topic.
- Where to signup
- Getting Started
- Essential Features
- Groups & Messages
- Following & Attachments
- Search and Profile Setup
1] Where to Sign-up for Viva Engage
Viva Engage is free to use, and all you need is a domain email id. While anyone can signup, I would suggest you ask someone on the admin level to create a company profile by visiting yammer.com.
2] Getting Started with Viva Engage
The first thing you need to do is create a relevant group as per the company’s plan to use Viva Engage. Once that is done, you can start inviting company employees to Viva Engage to their respective groups. Post this; you will need to train everyone on how to use Viva Engage, which should be straightforward. Now let’s talk about some of the basic features of Viva Engage everyone should know.
3] Essential Features in Viva Engage everyone should know
Once you are done with basic sign-up, have a look at the following topics to learn the basics of Viva Engage.
- Groups
- Messages
- Following
- Attachments
- Search
- Profile Setup.
For more read our post on Viva Engage Features.
1] Viva Engage Groups
It is best to create the required groups and add people to it. That will help everyone to discover conversations categorically.
- To create a group, click on Create a Grop link on the left.
- You can choose to create an Internal Group or External Group
- Then add people, and decide if it is accessible to all members of the company or only to people in the group.
When you create an external group, it means members from other companies can also collaborate here.
2] Messages
- To post a message, type your message, then click “Post.”
- Any message which is not restricted to a group or set of users will be visible to all the followers.
- If you want to send a message to a person, there are two ways.
- @address the person. However, this is still public, and anybody on the network will be able to see it.
- Direct Message the person. It will always be private.
While @ mentions can be posted anywhere, to send a private message, you need to find the person using search and then click on Send message button to send a message. You can also add more people to the private message conversation.
Read: Where are Viva Engage files stored?
3] Following
There are two things you can follow. People and Hast Tags.
- Find the person in the member directory, and click on the follow button.
- When you find a tag, click on it, and it will list all the conversations with that tag. Then click on the follow button.
4] Attachments
To attach a file to your message, click the Viva Engage icon underneath your message box and select the file you want to attach.
If you want to keep all your files in a central place, click on the configuration icon at the top left and then click on Files. Here, you can click on the Upload File button to upload supported files.
5] Search
Using Viva Engage’s search, you can find messages, people, groups, and tags. The search results page also features an advanced search function. You can choose to search for within a group and between date ranges.
6] Profile Setup
Make sure to suggest everyone set up their profile and add a picture to it. You can add your department, email id, location, expertise, contact number, messenger details, Facebook, Linked In profile, and more. The same page allows you to change passwords, all your activities, connected applications, and notifications.
Notifications are essential. If you receive too many emails and notifications for everything, you can go to notifications and untick whatever is not required.
Read next: Viva Engage Tips and Tricks.
These pointers should be enough for you to get started with Viva Engage. If you still have any questions, let us know in the comments.
