This document provides a sample 5-week communications plan to foster adoption of IBM Lotus Connections. Each week focuses on different tasks for both student pilots (users) and flight instructors (administrators) to help users learn the system. Week 1 focuses on onboarding and profiles. Week 2 focuses on blogging and the homepage. Week 3 focuses on communities, search, and dashboards. Week 4 focuses on plugins and integration. Week 5 focuses on graduation. The plan provides detailed instructions for tasks, meetings, and communications each week.
2. About
Based on a series of successful rollout plans,
this is a sample Communications Plan for
fostering the adoption of Lotus Connections
The plan is broken down into a five-week flight
school
Each week contains:
Activities and tasks for the Student Pilots
Weekly Student Pilot expectations/tasks to be
completed
Activities and tasks for the Flight Trainers (ie, YOU)
4. Goals by Week
Week 1: On-board Systems Check
Matriculate each student pilot into Flight school, and get them started with
Lotus Connections
Week 2: Taxing down the Runway
Student pilots have a general sense on how to organize their work and
colleagues, so its time to get them Blogging & managing their social
network with the Homepage
Week 3: Taking Flight
Once in the air, the student pilots will have a 10,000 ft perspective of the
their communities and effectively leverage their social networks
Week 4: Connecting Flights
Using & configuring plugins; ideas on how to use Lotus Connections in the
real world
Week 5: Cleared for Takeoff
Graduation & where to find help
6. Week 1
Pre Mission Briefing
Email & Blog Post
Welcome and overall plans and goals for the training program
Include a link to the Flight Training Community
List overall program expectations; student pilots will need to
Carry out a small list of assignments each week
Attend a weekly call/web conference for five weeks
Post questions in the Flight Training Forum
Learn who their community advocate is & solicit their assistance as needed
Check the Flight Training Blog daily for news, updates, and tips
Include time & date of the Week 1 Mission Briefing
7. Week 1
Student Pilot Assignments
Before Week 2s Mission Briefing, each student pilot
should:
Create an Activity
Dogear up to 10 web pages
Complete their profile
8. Week 1
Mission Briefing
Outline the overall program and restate weekly expectations
Demo this week's assignments
Demo the Activity you set up for them and show them how to create
their own
Demo how to Dogear, and how to get find their own bookmarks
Demo how to edit a their Profile, and how to search
Show where to find the Flight Training Community, Blog and Forum
Describe mentor relationships
Remind them the time & location of week 2s Mission Briefing
9. Week 1
Post Briefing
Email & Blog Post
List what the student pilot needs to do before
Week 2s Mission Briefing
Create an Activity
Create up to 10 bookmarks
Update their profile
Include time & location for Week 2s Mission
Briefing
10. Week 2
Student Pilot Assignments
Communicate and share with Blogs
Create a personal or team blog
Create at least one blog entry (What I think the value of Social Networking can be for us)
Make a commitment to blog at least once a week at a certain time
Read other blogs
Connect to your social network by customizing your Homepage
Configure the Profiles Widget to show your colleagues
Configure the Blog Widget
Configure the Activities Widget to show My Activities
Configure the Dogear Widget to show My Bookmarks
Configure the Community Widget to show My Communities
Set your Lotus Connections Homepage as your browser default or put a short-cut on your
desktop
11. Week 2
Flight Instructor Activities
Create a blog entry that outlines this week's assignments
Create a blog entry that outlines last week's accomplishments
Create blog entries about tips and short-cuts
How to get the most out of blogging
How to setup the Bookmark This browser plugin
How to setup the Activities plugin for Lotus Notes 8/Microsoft Outlook
How to setup and use the Lotus Connections plugin for Lotus
Notes/Microsoft Outlook
12. Week 2
Pre Mission Briefing
Email & Blog Post
List this weeks assignments
Create at least one blog entry per week for the next four
weeks
Read & comment on other blogs
Setup and use your Lotus Connections Homepage
Set your Lotus Connections Homepage as your browser
default during the Pilot or put a short-cut on your desktop
Please ask (or answer) at least one question in the
Forum
Include the time & location of week 2s Mission
Briefing
13. Week 2
Mission Briefing
Demo this week's assignments
Demo how to create a new blog, create and tag a blog post
Tell them what their first blog entry should be about
Demo how to navigate other blogs and the blog homepage
Demo how to login to the Lotus Connections Homepage
Demo how to configure each widget per the above
Mention time & date of week 3s Mission Briefing
14. Week 2
Post Briefing
Blog post and email
Document week 2s progress and plug anyone who has created
something interesting compelling blog post, new activity, etc.
List what the student pilot needs to do before Week 3s Mission
Briefing
Post and tag in your Blog
Make a commitment to blog at least once a week
Read other blogs
Customize your Homepage and configure the Profiles, Blog, Activities, Dogear,
and Community widgets
Remind them to ask questions in the Forum
Include time & location for Week 3s Mission Briefing
15. Week 3
Student Pilot Assignments
Create/Join a Community
Discuss the kind of Community to create with like-minded, potential community organizers or create one based on an
event, area of expertise, or topic youre associated with
Invite everyone who might want to participate
Add initial bookmarks, feeds (such as blog entries), Wikis, and/or Quickr Places
Join other Communities
Using search to get answers, find information, discover experts
Search Dogear for bookmarks that interest you
Search the homepage for the same term
Dashboards
Open My Bookmarks, review Actions and click show details
Open My Profile and review all widgets
Open My Communities and filter using the tag cloud
Use Activities
Mark an Activity Complete; change the Priority on an Activity; set an Activity as tuned out; Filter Activities by a Person
and by a tag
Open your To-do List and mark an item as complete
16. Week 3
Flight Instructor Activities
Finish off instruction on the key Lotus Connections
features
Create a blog entry that outlines this week's activities
Create a blog entry that outlines last week's
accomplishments
Create blog entries about tips and short-cuts
Effective searching, using AND, using tagclouds, search within
Blog/email meeting invite reminder
Answer any questions posted in the Forum
17. Week 3
Pre Mission Briefing
Email & Blog Post
Continue blogging, tagging profiles and bookmarks, and
commenting
What will we be covering this week?
Using Communities
Search, Dashboards, Activities
Include time & location of Week 3 Mission Briefing
18. Week 3
Mission Briefing
Demo how to create a Community and add each feature
Demo adding a bookmark to a community
Show how to join a community and add it to your
homepage
Demo how to search from the Homepage, and search
within each Dogear and Profiles
Remind student pilots of when Week 4s call/briefing will
be
19. Week 3
Post briefing blog post/email
Document week 3s progress and plug anyone who has created
something interesting compelling blog post, new activity, etc.
List what the student pilot needs to do before Week 4s Mission
Briefing
Create and join a Community; invite members
Add initial bookmarks, feeds, Wikis, and/or Lotus Quickr places
Practice with search
Search Dogear, and on the home page
Practice with Dashboards
Bookmarks, My Profile, My Communities, and My Activities
Remind them to ask questions in the Flight Training Forum
Include time & location for Week 4s Mission Briefing
21. Week 4
Flight Instructor Activities
Complete details on how to setup the Plugins your
student pilots will have. Include screenshots!
During the weekly meeting, demo the setup and config to
enable Lotus Connections integration
Answer Forum Questions
Email/blog post about Week 5s Mission Briefing
22. Week 4
Pre Mission Briefing
Email & Blog Post
Setup desktop and web integration
Continue blogging, tagging profiles and bookmarks, and
commenting
Continue searching from the Homepage (or Firefox
plugin)
Look for ways to use Lotus Connections in your daily
activities
Include time & place of Mission Briefing
23. Week 4
Mission Briefing
Demo how your organization can use the Lotus or Microsoft Plugins
Discuss working with Teams
Show how to create a team blog; how to use Activities for subteams or individual work efforts
Demo searching Profiles to locate expertise and identify potential team members, search Dogear to help
team find information
Discuss using Lotus Connections for event planning
Event Planning with Activities; communicating about the Event with an Event Blog or Wiki
Create an Event Community, tagging people associated with the event
Discuss using Lotus Connections to plan and communicate about a topic or community of
practice
Create a Community for the Topic; tag people related to the topic
Bloggers tag entries specific to the Topic
Add bookmarks to the Community and to Dogear
Discuss using Lotus Connections to manage people
Show how to create an Activity for each employee, or creating blog to share info with your staff
Remind student pilots of when Week 5s call/briefing will be
24. Week 4
Post Briefing
Blog post/Email
Highlight top blogs (most starred, most commented on,
most interesting)
Highlight/feature top or most active Communities
Outline benefits Lotus Connections could have for
building teams, managing events, communicating, and
managing people
Highlight key stats numbers of bookmarks, blog
entries, communities, activities
25. Week 5
Student Pilot Assignments
Getting Help
Click Help from any Lotus Connections page and review the contextual topics
Using additional features
Watchlists
Watch the bookmarks of a specific people or bookmarks that are tagged with specific keywords
From All Bookmarks filter on a tag or a person (or both) and add them to your watchlist
Monitor/review your watchlist from My Updates or the Homepage
Notification
Notify others of bookmarks you think theyd find interesting
Notify others about Activities items you post
Notify others about blog entries
Flagging
Flag a bookmark as a broken URL
Flag blog as inappropriate
26. Week 5
Flight Instructor Activities
Send invite for last weekly call
Highlight top blogs (most starred, most commented
on, most interesting)
Highlight/feature top Communities
Highlight key stats numbers of bookmarks, blog
entries, communities, etc
Inform the users on how to get on-going support
Answer Forum Questions
27. Week 5
Pre Mission
Briefing Email & Blog Post
Include reminder of week 5s Mission Briefing time &
location
28. Week 5
Mission Briefing
Highlight top blogs (most starred, most
commented on, most interesting)
Highlight/feature top Communities
Highlight key stats numbers of bookmarks,
blog entries, communities, etc
Demo each Help page
Demo the Dogear watchlist
Demo Notification and Flagging features
Feature guest speakers (to show the work
they've done using Lotus Connections)
29. Week 5
Post Briefing email/blog post
Inform the users on how to get on-going support
Highlight top blogs (most starred, most
commented on, most interesting)
Highlight/feature top or most active communities
Highlight key stats numbers of bookmarks,
blog entries, communities, etc