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Managing a blog platform

NOTE: The blogs feature is part of Ektron's marketing suite.

To launch the Blog app, click on the icon and the author page appears.

A blog platform contains a list of blog authors, their blogs pages, and analytics for evaluating blog posts and authors.

NOTE: You can sort the Author, Email, and Type columns by clicking the headings (circled).

Each blog author has links on the Authors page to perform the following actions.

Adding an author

Prerequisite

An administrator must set up email notification in web.config to send a password to the email address.

<add key="ek_SMTPServer" value="server.intra.xxxxxx.com" />
<add key="ek_SMTPPort" value="25" />
<add key="ek_SMTPUser" value="" />
<add key="ek_SMTPPass" value="" />
<add key="ek_SMTP_EnableSsL" value="false" />

On the Authors page, click Add Author. The Author form appears. After you save new author information, the author appears in the author list.


Logging in as an author

The administrator determines whether login links and login screens appear on the website. See Setting up login and logout for information about how the administrator does this.

If you do not have an account, you can sign up.

NOTE: If you want to hear the captcha code, click on the audio icon. The system administrator must set up audio for you to hear it. For information, see Setting up sound for the Captcha control.

The following image shows the author's view of the author's list. Note that author, Arthur Wrytus, can only edit his own profile.

Creating a blog post

  1. In the Author's list, click a blog author's name. The blog author's page appears.
  2. Swipe Switch to Edit and click Content.
  3. Hover over the blog author's name. A List Summary box appears.
  4. Click the menu (). The List Summary action box appears.

  5. Choose Add New Post. An Edit Content screen appears.

  6. Enter a title, content, a summary (that appears with the blog title on the blog page) and other information about the post. When finished, click Publish. The post appears on the blog author's page. The following image shows where the data is displayed.

You also can enhance your blog post with the following actions:

Editing a blog entry that is already posted

  1. On the blog page, click the blog post that you want to edit. The blog post appears.
  2. Swipe Switch to Edit.
  3. Hover over the blog title. A Content Block box appears.
  4. Click the menu (). The Content Block action box appears.
  5. Choose Edit. A list of blog posts and the author profile appears.
  6. Edit the content and metadata (perhaps adding a CTA), and then click Publish.

Adding a call to action to a blog post

  1. Go to your blog post and swipe Switch to Edit.
  2. Choose Content.
  3. Hover over the blog title. A Content Block box appears.
  4. Click the menu (). The Content Block action box appears.
  5. Choose Edit. Your blog appears in an editor.
  6. Click the Metadata tab.
  7. Choose Call to Action and click Edit. A selection window appears

  8. Double click a CTA. The ID appears in the Metadata tab.
  9. Click Publish. The CTA appears on the blog page.

See also: Placing a CTA on a page

Adding tags to a blog post

Tags are keywords that you can assign to users, groups, content, and library items. On a website, tags for a user or group appear in a profile, helping site visitors learn about a user or group. For complete information about tags, see Tagging content, library items, users, and groups with keywords.

  1. Go to your blog post and swipe Switch to Edit.
  2. Choose Content.
  3. Hover over the blog title. A Content Block box appears.
  4. Click the menu (). The Content Block action box appears.
  5. Choose Edit. Your blog appears in an editor.
  6. Click the Metadata tab.
  7. Choose Call to Action > Tags > Add Tag. A window appears.
  8. Enter the name of the tag and click Save. Repeat this until you have specified all the tags you want.

Sharing a blog on social channels

If a blog reader participates in social networks, the reader can click a social channel icon. A form appears from that social channel to let you share the blog link with friends and colleagues. By encouraging social amplification, you can reach many more MQLMarketing Qualified Lead; someone who is more likely to become a customer versus others who are "browsing but not buying." MQLs can be identified through analysis of activity data.s.

NOTE: When a person shares a blog using 1 of the social channels, the count display may not show immediately. Some services take more time than others to reflect a change in the count.

Making comments about a blog

A readers of a blog post can enter comments, as shown in the following image. You can reply to comments, too, by clicking Reply ().

Disabling a blog author's access

  1. In the author's list, click Disable in the Actions column next to the author's name. A confirmation box appears.

  2. Click Disable to confirm.

NOTE: You can restore an author's access by clicking Enable in the Actions column of the author list.

Deleting a blog author and his or her blog posts

  1. In the author's list, click Delete in the Actions column next to the author's name. A confirmation box appears.

    Delete CMS Author

    Delete Guest Author

  2. Click Delete to confirm.

Searching blogs

When you enter search terms in the Search field, a list of blogs appear that contain the search terms you specified. If this list is long, you can sift through the results using the Refinement panels on the side. Refinements include the number of posts that contain the search term for the following categories:

Adding resources to the blog site

You can add resources that do not (necessarily) belong to any of the blog authors or may be outside of the context of a blog post. A resource can be any content. Ektron has several types of resources built in: White Papers, Case Studies, Ebooks, Webinars, Analyst Research, and Press Releases.

NOTE: An administrator can create additional resource pages. See Creating a new resource page and Removing a resource page.

  1. On a website page, choose Resources > White Papers. (You can choose any of the other resource pages.) The resource page appears.
  2. Swipe Switch to Edit. Editable blocks appear on the page.
  3. Hover over the resource block (for example, White Papers) and click the menu (). The menu appears.
  4. Choose Add Resource. The Edit Content screen appears.

  5. Enter a title and content. You also can specify Summary, Metadata, and Schedule information.

  6. Click Publish. The resource appears on the Web page.
  7. Swipe Switch to View.

Analyzing blog traffic

Authors have access to analytic data only for their own blog posts, if analytics is set up.

Administrators can view analytic data for authors and blog post traffic. You must also have Google Analytics 3.0 with the OAuth2.0 protocol. See Setting Up Google Analytics. See also Setting up the OAuth2.0 authorization protocol for Google Analytics 3.0 if you want to set up OAuth2.0.

PrerequisiteTips

  • Analyze to promote good performers and remove poor performers.
  • Wait for statistical confidence; when it is unlikely that data occurred by chance.
  • Incorporate the search phrases that your visitors used to find your pages into the landing page.

Analyzing blog post traffic (authors)

Authors can analyze activity for each blog post.

  1. On your blog post, swipe Switch to Edit.
  2. Click Content.
  3. Hover over the blog post and click menu (). The Content Block menu appears. If analytics are set up, a View Analytics menu item appears.
  4. Choose Actions > View Analytics. An analytics screen appears.

    • By default the data collection range is 30 days. You can modify this range by clicking in the date field and choosing another date, then clicking Submit to update the data.
    • You can view data captured by the day, week, or month.
    • Hover over a data point to see the number of blog views on that date.
    • Additional data is displayed at the bottom of the window.

Analyzing author and blog post traffic (administrators)

Administrators also can analyze activity for each blog post, or by author.

  1. Swipe Switch to Edit. The editable fields appear in the window.
  2. Click Design. The PageBuilder menu appears.
  3. Choose Page Action > View > Analytics. An analysis page appears.

Important administrator notes

Subscribing or unsubscribing to a blog or blog post

Logged-in site users and Membership users can subscribe to a blog or a blog post.

By subscribing to an author's blog, you are notified whenever posts are added to it.

If you want to stop receiving notices, you can unsubscribe.

To subscribe to a blog or blog post:

  1. Go to the blog on the site.
  2. Click Subscribe via RSS. The Subscribe/Unsubscribe screen appears.
  3. Select a Notification Type.

    NOTE: Each browser may have a different field.

  4. Click Add Subscription.

Performing administrator tasks

Administrators have additional access and control to the blog hub resources. For example, you may want to apply your own cascading style sheet (CSSCascading Style Sheet; sets the look and formatting of a markup language document.) to your site.

Setting up login and logout

If you do not want to show a login screen, a user can login by specifying the following URL:

http://[www.site.com]/login.aspx

See Logging in as an author for information about logging in.

If you want to display login screens, follow these steps.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Folders > Blog Hub > Settings. The View Contents screen appears.
  2. Click Site Configuration.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Scroll down to find LoginMenuID, LogoutMenuId, and ShowLogin configurations.

    The LoginMenuId and LogoutMenuId values come from the ID properties in Workarea > Content > Menus > Authentication. If you create your own, enter the ID property of the menu into the LoginMenuId and LogoutMenuId Value fields.

  5. To remove the Login screens, and the Login link from the website pages, set the ShowLogin key Value to false.
  6. Click Publish.

Setting up sound for the Captcha control

If you want people to have the option to hear the Captcha code (in addition to viewing it):

  1. In Windows Explorer, go to siteroot/WorkArea/FrameworkUI/Templates/EktronUI/Captcha. The soundmanager folder appears.
  2. Right click on the soundmanager folder and choose Properties. The soundmanager Properties screen appears.
  3. Click on the Security tab.
  4. Select SYSTEM from the Group or User Names box, then click Edit.
  5. Enable (check) the Full Control - Allow box, and click OK.

Creating a new resource page

You can create additional resource pages. For example, you may want a page where you can display Essay Submissions. See also Adding resources to the blog site.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Folders > Folders > Blog Hub > Resources.

  2. Choose New > Folder. The Add a Subfolder screen appears.

  3. Enter the name and description and click Add Folder. For example, Essay Submissions. You will be using the exact name that you specify in other steps in this procedure.

  4. Go to the new folder that you just created. (Workarea > Content > Folders > Folders > Blog Hub > Resources > Essay Submissions)
  5. Choose New > Page Layout. The Add New Page wizard appears.

  6. Choose the UI/ResourceLayout.aspx layout and click Next.

  7. Enter the exact name of the folder that you created in the Title field. For example, Essay Submissions. The Alias field is automatically filled in.
  8. Choose the slash (/) from the drop-down menu next to the Alias field and click Next.

  9. Optionally enter additional information and click Finish. A confirmation screen appears to redirect you to the page so that you can edit it.
  10. Go to Workarea > Content > Menus > Main Navigation > Resources. The View Menu "Resources" screen appears.

  11. Click Add Items. The Add New item screen appears.
  12. Click Sub Menu and click Next.

  13. Enter the exact name of the folder that you created in the Title field. For example, Case Studies.
  14. Click the URL Link hyperlink icon ().

  15. Go to the folder you created and enable the radio button to fill in the URL Link field, and click Save.

  16. Optionally specify the other fields, and click Save. The new menu appears in the menu tree and on the Web site when you refresh the page.

    NOTE: You can sort the order of Resource menu items by clicking Reorder () on the View Menu screen at Workarea > Content > Menus > Menus > Main Navigation > Resources.

Removing a resource page

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Folders > Folders > Blog Hub > Resources.
  2. Right click on the resource folder you want to remove and click Delete <foldername>. The resource page is removed.
  3. Go to Workarea > Content > Menus > Menus > Main Navigation > Resources.
  4. Right click on the resource menu you want to remove and click Delete <foldername>. The menu item is removed from the Resource Menu.

Creating a blog post from the Workarea

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Folders > Blog Hub > Blogs > <blog author>. The View Contents window appears in the right panel.
  2. Choose New > HTML Content.
  3. Enter a title, content, and other information (such as a call to action on the Metadata tab).

    NOTE: If you select a CTA, but it does not show up on the blog post, check to see if the CTA was published because only published CTAs appear.

  4. When finished, click Publish. The blog entry is added to the author's page.

Setting up approvals for publishing blog posts

This section shows you how to set up a process for approving blog posts for publication. By setting the permissions on the folder, any content created by the folder's author must be reviewed before publication is granted or denied.

NOTE: For complete information about setting up a workflow for an approval process, see Approving content for publication.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Folders > Blog Hub > Blogs > <author folder>.
  2. Choose View > Properties. The View Properties screen appears.
  3. Click View Permissions () because workflow initially matches the parent folder's workflow.

    If you want this folder to have different permissions from its parent folder, uncheck Allow this object to inherit permissions. A confirmation box appears. Click OK, then click Back ().

    IMPORTANT: By enabling permissions for another author’s folder, a CMS author can post a blog in the other author’s name.

  4. Click Manage Approvals (). A screen prompts you to assign a basic or advanced workflow.
  5. Click Use Advanced Workflow if no workflow is assigned to the folder. The Manage Approvals screen appears.

    If any content in the folder is already in Submitted status, a message appears: 

    The workflow for this folder cannot be changed because 
some content is currently in an approval process.

    If you still want to edit the workflow, your options are as follows:

    • Cancel the approval process all content in Submitted status.
    • Force publish content in Submitted status.
    • Get approvers to approve Submitted content, so its status changes to Published.
  6. From the Select Workflow Type drop-down, select a 2-, 3-, or 4-step approval.
  7. Assign a user or group to each approver. (Available users or groups have read-only or greater permissions for the folder.)

    Best Practice 

    If you assign a group, any group member can approve or decline the content. Assign user groups (not individual users) to a workflow. In this way, if someone is out of the office, any other group member can approve content.
  8. For each approver, you can assign an escalation time period and user or group in the Escalation column. For example, after 1 day, if an approver has not acted on the approval request, it is assigned to an administrator.

  9. Click Save.

Applying a cascading style sheet

Applying a system-wide CSS

Ektron provides several system-wide CSSCascading Style Sheet; sets the look and formatting of a markup language document. options from which you can choose.

  1. Login to your Ektron website.
  2. Go to Workarea > Content > Folders > Blog Hub > Settings. The View Content screen appears in the right panel.
  3. Click Site Configuration in the right panel. The View Content "Site Configuration" screen appears in the right panel.
  4. Click Edit.
  5. In the Content tab, find the Theme drop down and select 1 of the themes (Default, Amelia, Cyborg, Flatly, Journal, United, or Custom). If you choose Custom, place your CSS file in d:\Sites\<YourSite>\content\bootstrap\Custom.
  6. Click Publish.
  7. Reload your website.

Applying a local CSS to your blog hub

You can apply a local CSSCascading Style Sheet; sets the look and formatting of a markup language document. to your site pages, overriding the system-wide CSS. If you have a specific CSS that you want to use, upload it to d:/Sites/<your_site>/<local_folder>. For example:

d:/Sites/YourSite/MyThankYou/
  MyThankYou.aspx
  MyThankYou.css
  MyThankYou.js
  MyThankYou.jps

Changing the default logo

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Folders > Blog Hub > Settings. The View Contents screen appears.
  2. Click on Site Configuration.
  3. Click Edit.
  4. Click Image () in the Home Logo field. The Image Properties window appears.
  5. Click Browse (...) next to the Image Src field. The CMS400 Library window appears.
  6. Select an image from the library. The image appears as the Home Logo.

    You can also upload an image from the file system to the library and select it.

    1. Click Add Library. The upload screen appears.
    2. Enter a Title.
    3. Click Choose File and select a file from the file system.
    4. Enter a description for the new image.
    5. Click Add Library. The Image Properties window reappears.
    6. Click OK. The image appears as the Home logo.
  7. Click Publish.

Setting Up Google Analytics

Google Analytics lets an administrator analyze activity for each blog post, or by author using either Classic Google Analytics (GA.js) or Universal Google Analytics (Analytics.js).

IMPORTANT: Google is promoting Analytics.js for upgrading classic Google analytics "Standard" accounts to "Universal Analytics" accounts in 4 phases. "Premium" account holders cannot do this until Phase 3. If you have not upgraded to Google Universal Analytics, you cannot use Analytics.js. For information about upgrading to Universal Analytics and using Analytics.js, see the Google website at the Universal Analytics Upgrade Center.

Also, before you upgrade to Universal Analytics, check How can I tell if I have Universal Analytics or classic Google Analytics.

To implement Google Analytics tracking, you need to enable GA.js or Analytics.js in web.config with the following keys. You can enable both to use them concurrently and send the data to separate properties to avoid merging or transferring data.

GA.JS

<add name="GoogleV3.0-LocalOnTrek" 
  type="Ektron.Cms.Analytics.Providers.GoogleAnalyticsProviderv3, 
    Ektron.Cms.BusinessObjects" 
  EmailAddress=" " KeyFilePassword="notasecret" KeyFilePath=" " 
  Username="" Password="" ProfileId="" SiteURL=" " UserAccount=" " 
  Endpoint="https://www.googleapis.com/analytics/v3/data/" 
  ApiKey="" CacheInterval="0" 
  GoogleAnalyticsTrackingCodePath=
    "Analytics\template\googletrackingcode.ascx"
  Version="3.0" />

Analytics.JS

<add name="GoogleV3.0-LocalOnTrek" 
  type="Ektron.Cms.Analytics.Providers.GoogleAnalyticsProviderv3, 
    Ektron.Cms.BusinessObjects" 
  EmailAddress=" " KeyFilePassword="notasecret" KeyFilePath=" " 
  Username="" Password="" ProfileId="" SiteURL=" " UserAccount=" " 
  Endpoint="https://www.googleapis.com/analytics/v3/data/" 
  ApiKey="" CacheInterval="0" 
  GoogleAnalyticsTrackingCodePath=
    "Analytics\template\googletrackingcodewithanalyticsjs.ascx"
  Version="3.0" />

If you choose to use Analytics.js, you also need to perform the following procedure.

  1. Log into your Google Analytics account as the administrator of the account.
  2. Choose the account and property that was created (or upgraded) for Universal analytics.
  3. In the Property column, click Custom Definitions > Custom Dimensions. The Property screen appears.
  4. Click New Custom Deminsion and enter the following values:
    • Name: Member
    • Scope: Session
    • Enable the Active check box.
  5. Click Save.

Setting up multiple languages for your blog hub

You can set up the blog hub with multi-language support by adding available languages to the Settings, Layouts, and Menus folders, as described in the following procedure. If you set up a language that is not supported by the website, the default language is displayed.

  1. Go to Workarea > Content > Folders > Blog Hub > Settings and click on Site Configuration in the right panel. The View Content screen appears.
  2. In the menu bar, open the Add drop-down and select a language. The Edit Content screen appears.
  3. Change the Title and click Publish. The View Content screen reappears.
  4. In the menu bar, open the Language drop-down and select the language you just added. The View Content screen reappears in the selected language.

    \

    The View Contents of Folder screen also reflects the selected language.

  5. Go to each of the following content items and repeat steps 2 through 4 for each item:
    • Workarea > Content > Folders > Blog Hub > Layouts >
      • 404
      • 500
      • Blog Author Page
      • Blog Post Details Page
      • Blog Post Listing Home Page
      • Resource Page
      • Search
    • Workarea > Content > Menus >
      • Footer Menu (folder)
      • Footer Menu > Home
      • Main Navigation (folder)
      • Main Navigation > Home
      • Main Navigation > Resources
      • Main Navigation > Login
      • Utility Navigation (folder)
      • Utility Navigation > Community
      • Utility Navigation > Support

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