Publish to Multiple Programs with Cross Program Content Management

Note: Cross Program Content Management is a premium feature or service. This article only applies to your program if your Firstup contract includes this premium functionality. Please contact your Customer Success Manager with any questions about feature availability for your program.

Overview

For organizations with multiple programs, managing content that should appear in multiple programs is simple with our enterprise connection Cross Program Content Management. With Cross Program Content Management, instantly replicate all content types across multiple programs upon Save or Publish of a piece of content.

• Reduced workload: a piece of content can be created and updated in a single source program, and those changes are replicated in one or more target programs as defined in a "workflow".
• Full content type support: Properly support all content types available to communicators (including video and notes). In comparison, Program Content RSS Feeds cannot pass video posts from one program to another.
• Real-time replication: Copy content between programs immediately, instead of having to wait up to an hour for an RSS feed to synchronize.
• Maintain content layout and appearance: Content will look the same in the target program(s) as it does in the source.
• Single source of truth: Content in the target program(s) can stay synchronized to the source program (or not - your choice!). Any updates including edits to the image/video, title, description, body, and publishing settings (shareable, featured, etc.) can be replicated upon Save/Publish of the changes.

If you are interested in implementing Cross Program Content Management for your organization, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager to discuss further.

Workflow Definitions

In essence, you define a source program and topic(s) for Firstup to "listen" to and define how that content is replicated to a target program. All workflows define a source program/topic and a target program/topic, and the content only flows from the source to the target.

Collaborate with your Customer Success Manager to define the desired workflows. The workflows cannot be edited or modified for specific pieces of content - once configured, they apply to all content as defined in the workflow.

Required For All Workflows

• Workflow Mode - choose one
• Content Sync - the card in the source program is the single source of truth and content in the target(s) will stay in sync with the source. Updates to any source content attributes or metadata will be replicated. This is true regardless of publication state or of changes on the target. The card in the source program is always the source of truth.
• Content Broadcast - when a card is Published on the source program, it is copied as-is to the target program and never updated again. Unlike Content Sync, the card on the target is not kept up to date with changes on the source card when this option is used.
• Source Program
• Source Topic(s) - at least one topic per source program required
• Target Program
• Target Topic(s) - at least one topic per target program required
  

Optional Settings for Workflows

• Ignore Drafts - if the card on the source program is a Draft, ignore the card in the target program (only applicable with Content Sync).
• Review First - if the card on the source program is Published, put the card on the target program as Needs Review.
• Source Content Featured Only - only look at source content that is Featured.
• Source Content Keywords - only look at source content with certain Keywords.
• Target Template Fixed - the default is to match the template of the source content, optionally configure to always use a specific template from the target program.
• Target Content Featured Always/Never - the default is to match the source content, optionally configure for target content to always (or never) be Featured.
• Target Content Shareable Always/Never -the default is to match the source content, optionally configure for target content to always (or never) be Shareable (if available for the content type).

Examples

Minimalist Workflow (Required Settings Only)

Based on the COMMunity -> Nextup workflow above, any content saved or published to COMMunity's topic "Known Product Issues" would be replicated to Nextup's topic "COMMunity Product Issues" the moment the content is saved or published - new content should appear nearly instantly. As this configuration is fairly simple, the replication will simply copy all metadata (including the publishing settings, template, etc.). With Content Sync, any edits that are resaved/republished will be updated in the replicated card almost instantly as well.

Advanced Workflow (Required and Optional Settings)

Based on the advanced workflow above, any content published to COMMunity's topic "Updates and New Functionality" will appear in Nextup's as needing review. This gives a Program Manager in Nextup the chance to review the content before it is published (perhaps to schedule a push notification to go out with the card). The content will always come through with Shareable set to OFF, the Program Manager can edit this to ON.

Mode Details

With all configurations, the workflow will only replicate the card when it meets all "source program" definitions including topic(s).

Content Sync

The card source program and target program are synchronized at all stages of draft, scheduling, and publishing.

Workflow:

Content Sync with Review First ON

Adding Review First ON to Content Sync affects how a post behaves when it is published. Saving as a draft or scheduling is unaffected.

Workflow:

Content Sync with Ignore Drafts ON

Adding Ignore Drafts ON to Content Sync affects how a post behaves when it is saved as a draft. Scheduling, publishing, and archiving is unaffected.

Workflow:

Content Broadcast

The post in the target program is created when the source post is published. The post in the target program is not updated with subsequent saves or publishing.

Workflow:

Content Broadcast with Review First ON

The post in the target program is created as needs review when the source post is published. The post in the target program is not updated with subsequent saves or publishing.

Workflow:

Other Functionality Notes

Cross Program Content Management does not impact topic configurations in any way. Topic settings such as name, description, image, targeted users, hidden/visible are not connected across Program A and Program B. You must manage the Source Topic settings in Program A while signed into Program A. And you must manage your Target Topic settings in Program B while signed into Program B. 

For example, the topic setting "auto-publish" only applies to content submitted by users to that topic. This setting has no impact on Cross Program Content Management (CPCM). If you would like the CPCM content to be set to need review in the target program, please define that requirement in the CPCM workflow using the setting "Review First".

Note, Cross Program Content Management is compatible with Hidden topics. You can configure the workflow to pull from a Hidden topic in Program A and publish that content in a Visible topic in Program B.