If you’ve ever visited knowledge bases, wikis, or other online community features, then you know that sometimes the most frustrating task is trying to find information within an online social site.
One of the reasons Intellicore Design is so yippee ki yi yea about GroupSwim solutions is because of tagging functionality built into the product platforms. Their tagging functionality is key to enhancing auto-tagging abilities, enabling semantic search, and auto-suggesting alternative search terms.
Preferred tags
GroupSwim will automatically suggest tags to users as they post content using preferred tags using the solution’s semantic tagging engine.
Preferred tags influences the tag distribution across your site or group. These tags will rank above others, and the GroupSwim solutions will be more likely to suggested these to users as they post, or applied to posts via the auto-tagging system.
Using preferred tags will help remove some of the…er…member creativity that can go into tag naming. That is, using preferred tags means that your members will more likely show some conformity in their tag assignments to content, which will, in turn, help in folks in future searches. At the same time, though, members are still given the flexibility to suggest alternative tags.
You can set preferred tags site-wide or solely within a group.
The screenshot below shows you preferred tags that I’ve defined for our Intellicore Design site to date.
Preferred tag screenshot. Click to enlarge image
Tag definitions
The tag definition feature allows you set definitions for:
- Synonyms,
- Abbreviations, and
- Denote that a tag is a “type of” something.
Think of tag definitions as fine-tuning to your preferred tags. What makes this spiffy for your community members is that it helps take some of the guess work out of tags. Additionally, tag definitions allow you to provide a wider selection of search option suggestions to your members, helping to take some of the guess work out of how content may have been tagged by members.
For example, if you look at the screenshot immediately below, you’ll see that I’ve identified a number of Saleforce synonyms and “type of” definitions.
Tag definition screenshot. Click to enlarge image.
To help enhance the list, I’d recommend periodically visiting your friendly, neighborhood marketeer to find out what keywords and phrases your website visitors are using to find your website. These words and phrases may give you insights for additional tag definitions.
The screenshot below shows you an example of a search for “groupswim” among our Discussions. You can see several other terms that came up as related searches.
Search results. Click to enlarge image.
Summary
GroupSwim tagging functionality is mucho cool, yes? The preferred tags and tag definitions work in tandem together to both create expansive but targeted searches. They both help minimize the guess work of tagging and introduce conformity to help with future searches. At the same time, GroupSwim still allows members to have the ability to set new tags, outside of the conformable boundaries, as needed. Conformity with flexibility. It's a beautiful thing.