If you’d like to inform your members about something, adding an announcement to the Latest Activity feed is a great way to get your information across. You can add facts about your Ning Network or post your own customized announcements.
While a broadcast message is a great way to spread important news, adding your own message to the Latest Activity feed is like leaving a short, quick reminder or announcement for all members to see. Also, as not everyone opts in to receive email notifications or reads message broadcasts, the Latest Activity feed is something they’re bound to see when they sign in to your network.
You can add an announcement to the Latest Activity feed a couple of ways. To share a quick note or highlight an event coming up, click on the Status Update box on your main page and share your message there. Pasting a link into the Status Update box will cause a message to pop up, prompting you to shorten your URL to something like http://ning.it/xlYtz.
If you see negative red numbers beneath your status update, that means you have entered more characters than are allowed. Using the URL shortener gives you more room to work with, and creates a nicer link.
Another way to add an announcement to your Latest Activity feed is by going to your My Network tab and clicking on “Activity Feed Message” link from the Content section. Select the first radio button next to the “Add facts about this Ning Network” drop-down menu to choose from various facts about your network, or select the second radio button to write your own message.
Selecting the first radio button will allow you to choose from automatically-generated facts about your network to highlight particular features, items or members. Posting a fact, such as there are 11 videos on your Ning Network, will create a link to the Videos feature within your message when it displays in the Latest Activity feed. Posting a fact that a particular member has posted the most photos will create a link to that member’s Profile Page.
Selecting the second radio button will allow you to create your own message. Your announcement can be up to 140 characters long, and can even include HTML. To find out which HTML tags you can use, see: HTML Allowed Tags.
The numbers just above the “Add Message” button let you know how many characters you have available to enter in the space provided. If you see the numbers turn red with a minus sign before them, that means you’ve gone over the maximum limit and will not be able to post your message.
Click the “Add Message” button when you’re done. Here’s what the finished product looks like:
Your new announcement will display immediately in the Latest Activity feed on your network’s main page for all to see.
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