The OFFICIAL CHNL BLOG

Whether you are working on group projects where you need a second set of eyes or just for fun - CHNL is a collaborative tool.

For example, Team CHNL has a dedicated private channel for internal communications and digital strategy. When we find information about our industry, news  or even some not so serious things we want the others to know about, we CHNL our finds.  Everyone gets notified via an email immediately or via an email digest at the end of the day, either way we don't have to check it then, its always archived in our CHNL so we are all connected.

Here’s how to do it:

Go to the CHNL you want to edit click on EDIT >

Then click on ADD COLLABORATOR >

Invite collaborators via Facebook or Twitter

OR

Enter email address or CHNL username and an email will be sent directly from CHNL inviting them to collaborate on your CHNL.

OR

Copy and share the custom LINK created and paste into a personal email to invite friends and colleagues to collaborate.

Compared to similar curation services like Pinterest, Scoop.it or Publicate, CHNL offers users both public and private channels to use amongst colleagues and groups who want to share information, build a knowledge base or create an archival solution of all their links and content related to a topic of interest in a beautiful, simple and sexy interface.

It comes down to use cases, while CHNL does offer a discovery engine to find curated topics from its community, we have found a lot of traction in the education and small team spaces where collaboration and visual curation is needed to communicate more efficiently rather than using long email threads to share links and documents.  

Take a peek at these two case studies:

Case Study: Improving Information Sharing and Collaboration in The Classroom. 

Case Study: Small Teams Thrive on Information Sharing & Collaboration.

Have you ever put together a highly informative or classified private channel and now want to share the information without allowing guests to post on the channel? We heard that many of you have and wanted a solution, so we just dropped a new privacy feature called Protected Channels.

Protected Channel allow you and collaborators to add content, but gives read-only access for guests with the pass phase.

Protected Channel feature was highly requested by users who want to share sensitive materials which would require extra security.

Simply go to your CHNL.

Click on EDIT >

Select Protected >

Create a pass phrase >

A shareable link will be automatically created to share.

Click Save and you are done.

The CHNL tool has been a perpetual work in progress. It’s safe to say that it’s been a strong beginning to 2014 here at CHNL. Our team has been working hard, listening to user feedback, testing and implementing. Last week we released customized headers and this week we’re excited to announce the launch of the UPLOADER.  

The Uploader was one of the most requested features as way to share documents, PDFs and images along side videos and article shared in a single channel.  This enabled CHNL to act as a beautiful and simple knowledge sharing platform which can be use for promotional and archival purposes.  

Simply go to your CHNL under the + icon on the top right side of the page, a drop down menu will appear UPLOAD A FILE. Click, choose a file (PDF, JPEG, MP3) and upload. The document will show up in your channel. Uploads are limited to 10MB each but will allow larger sizes and more storage with premium features coming soon.

Watch your email and look out for more new features and announcements coming soon.

We built CHNL for individuals and businesses to collect and organize the important things they find on the web.  Whether small teams want to share knowledge privately or for friends  collaborating and sharing their favorite jams and videos, we have been focusing on three primary functions: simplicity, ease of use, and beauty.

Since the launch, we have tried to stay true to our words and are stoked to share with you the announcement of CUSTOMIZED HEADERS. For those who would like to add a little flavor to your curations or for branding purposes, you can now add your own custom background header.

Simply, go to your channel and EDIT the channel, you’ll see right at the top a place to add your image.  For best result use large images without words, but smaller one will also give interesting result.  The image will cover the entire header background and will automatically adjust to always cover that space.

Your channel will be unique just like you are and can’t wait to see what yours is all about. 

Here are some cool examples:

Forgot about Employee Appreciation day March 7, 2014?

Bet your employees didn’t. Here are a quick few tips to make you look golden and help save the day.

1. A sincere word of thanks costs nothing and is very effective.

2. Post a thank you note on their door in their honor.

3. Throw a pizza party or cake party in their honor.

4. Give a long-lunch, extra break, or comp time.

5. Invite them to a one-on-one lunch.

6. Give them a card with lottery tickets inside.

7. Give them a card with Starbucks gift certificate.

8. An Uber gift card goes a long way.

9. Arrange to have their car washed.

10. Arrange to have their home cleaned.

11. Let them bring their pet to work.

12. Let them dress casual for a day.

With so many choices of communication has the relevance of email gone the way of the typewriter. Well not quite yet. Email is great for some communication. Especially messages that can wait. But not for rapid response, quick fire discussions or spontaneous collaboration or sharing information.

In the '90s, email was a turning point in the workplace. It became the primary communication tool. It’s difficult to remember a time when we did not use email as a way to develop business relationships, have short conversations with teammates or send quick messages to associates. More so than any other tool during that time of tech expansion into the workplace, email changed the way every one of us work. But now, the notion that email is a good tool for information sharing or collaboration is no longer valid.

How many complaints have you heard about the clutter of daily email? Try collaborating with a large group over a long period of time, you’d very soon know what I'm referring to. Cluttered in boxes, lost information, missing documents, out-of-the-office auto responses are real problems which we encounter every day and lead to inefficiencies.

Let’s look at my average day. After coffee, I pick up your phone or crack open my laptop and begin reviewing emails. On an average I have 40 emails to sift through. How many of these are important or relevant to my action points for the morning? It's hard to say at first glance.

My inbox quickly feels like quicksand. Some things are going to get glanced over. Some things are going to disappear. There are a few emails requiring a response or action, lots of spammy promotions, some emails containing links to blogs or articles which I'd like to read later. But now I have run out of time before I've waded through all the junk time. And that important reference article shared by a teammate will have to wait until tomorrow. Which really means that it just got buried. Alive.

Here are some tips in coping with email and avoiding the quicksand.

Keep in mind:

• 50% can be deleted or filed

• 30% can be delegated or completed in less than two minutes

• 20% can be deferred to your Task List or Calendar to complete later

And tell your boss, emails should never be used for multi-person information sharing or collaboration.

The BPM Network is a startup with a small team some of whom work in a common office space and others who work remotely.  BPM is building an entertainment network for fans of electronic dance music. Daily they identify news and trends and they need to regularly circulate info internally. 

Several team members work in different time zones which had been a challenge for collaboration. The team has a heavy flow of relevant items including articles and links which they had been sharing via email.  They found email was not providing easy archiving and overall important items were being overlooked.

The team chose to demo CHNL when they were seeking a better solution for sharing the media they discover on the web.

Steve Levy, CEO of the BPM Network, states, “I immediately found CHNL to be a great system for our team to share information we were discovering online. Setting up our own private CHNL was easy as was inviting the collaborators. Now whenever one of us pins relevant content to our CHNL we all are notified. The CHNL format allows for easy consumption, search and archiving. Its a great tool.”

CHNL provides a solution for organizing articles and shared links. It’s easy to setup a dedicated channel for multi person use. The content is appropriately tagged for easy discovery.  Team mates are invited to collaborate. All emails with links are visually displayed on an organized landing page. Now when collaborating, there is no longer a need to use email.

Just a helpful tip, after you've added some content to your channel, you can easily share it directly from your CHNL to your social networks. It’s not automatic, so you can customize and compose your post depending on the network. When you share via CHNL, your friends will be directed right back to your channel where they can continue to explore your curations. Sharing is caring, enjoy.

Just like Twitter, you can “Follow’ on CHNL. But instead of following people, you follow curated topical channels you are the most interested in. When you follow a channel all the juicy content added will show up in your ‘FEED’ in chronological order. Click on the content in your FEED and you'll be directed to the channel to explore and engage with the topic further.

Hey CHNL'er,

We want to feature YOUR channel. Yes, your amazing curated topical channel that only you could have put together. Featured channels are picked by our team and showcased on the Top Channel page. There are so many interests to choose from, but there are some main guidelines you should follow to increase your chances of being Featured.

Here are some guidelines:

1. Your channel should be in in English and containing no profanity.

2. Your channel should be as unique as you are.

3. Your channel should have a minimum of 50 posts.

4. Your channel should have good looking posts. Just like you.

5. Your channel should keep readers updated on current news, trends tips etc.

6. Your channel should be dealing with a well-defined subject.

So, you have found a great piece of content whether is be a video, song, article or photo and you want to share it with your colleagues at work or your friends. You could just email the link or post it to your social network to never been seen or heard of again. Instead you can become a aficionado curator of content. And here is how:

1. Create a channel of a topic you are passionate about.

2. Be specific with your topic choice.

3. Add your personal description to the channel..

4. Install and Use +CHNL.it Bookmarklet so you can post articles to your channel as you stumble upon them while surfing the web.

5. Share your posts on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin so that everyone you know discovers your skills as a curator.

6. Invite collaborators to help contribute and grow your channel.

7. Check out other topics of other CHNL users. Follow the ones you like and get inspired by the way they curate.

8. Interact with CHNL community by commenting and liking other posts.

The Big Apple has be blanketed with snow for the past three days and according to the five day forecast more snow is expected. So, if you are heading out to attend Social Media Week New York, we've got some tips to help you on your way to have a successful and productive week.

Check the five day weather forecast so you will be prepared for anything mother nature throws your way. 

The schedule is packed with tons of speakers, featured events and more. Always stay connected by downloading the app. 

If you're like us and unable to attend (BOO HOO) follow the conversation on Twitter #SMW14. Tweet @CHNLapp to share your experiences from the week.

Collecting loads of information with links to juicy content and more - CHNL.it.

Feeling a little sluggish lately? Winter blues got you down? What about your computer? Is it taking forever for it to start-up or shut down? Or an eternity to load? Or do you have too many windows constantly open trying to save a link for later. Well, today is your lucky day! It’s Clean Out Your Computer Day (February 10, 2014). Yup, that’s right you heard me correctly, on the second Monday in February is International Clean Up Your computer day.

You have been putting it off long enough. It’s time to get organized.  Let’s start with your email. Clean up and clear out that junk mail. Organize your contacts/address lists.How about those downloaded files? Put them into designated files.Clean out your cache. What about that desktop?

And of course your browser! That precious webpage you have had open for who knows how long. Save it by creating an account a CHNL account, installing the bookmarklet to your browser and adding that link to a channel. Now, you will always be able to find that link.

CHNL just opened up the rest of its universe for your exploring pleasure. We just added Search, so you can quickly find the things you or others have posted by keyword, #hashtag or username.

You can also use the Explore tab to browse Categories featuring the latest content from the CHNL community.  

If you want to get more eyeballs on your own personal curations, make sure you go to your channel, press INVITE COLLABORATORS/EDIT and select a Category that best describes what your channel is about.  Any new public posts show, and don’t worry if you’ve set up your Channel to be private, it is still hidden from everyone but you and your collaborators.