MySites

MySites is a new feature for SharePoint 2013 and adds the social element of everything that you are doing. Many of us have gotten used to the feeling of social networking on Facebook or LinkedIn and what MySites  does is bring in that feeling that the user is actually a part of the social collaboration of sites. Though at first glance MySites offer little benefit to the user experience, what I am to detail is the advantages of integrating MySites into your SharePoint platform.

One of the most annoying features when you are first getting acquainted with MySites is the idea of "Sites I'm Following", but not having any of the sites that you are working on showing up on the site. One of the ways of leveraging this option is understanding the sites that you are working with, or sites that are relevant to you.

Since I'm working at a University, many of the people that will be on the platform are department or college members who do not need to know what other departments are doing. This means that they can easily identify all of the sites that are available to them as they choose to follow different sites. Next to the "Site I'm Following" section, you have the suggested sites list. This will update periodically as you increase the influence of the sites that you are using. It is important to remember that sub-sites are unique sites from their parents, even if the URL is similar. This means that when you are deciding which sites to follow, you can choose both parent and child sites and limit the navigation which you will have to perform in getting from one to the other.

Site Contents

Using the site contents link, you are directed to a page where you are able to modify your MySite based on your preferences. The site contents page will look similar to a regular SharePoint page when you are adding an app, but with some different effects. The social icon indicates that you have items in that list, but really those include the items that you are suggested to follow. This brings up the point that you are able to follow a document, which includes the ability to track when anything has happened to a document.

Newsfeed

One of the nice features which is included in the "Newsfeed" is the ability to keep track of information which is relevant to you. Whenever someone uses information relating to you, such as your name or your title, you're informed of this and it provides a link to the page in which the action occurred.

If you're having problems with your Newsfeed, one of the solutions is to make sure that your farm administrator has the proper access to get the information that it needs. In other words, if you've seen "It's a little quiet here..." then your farm admin probably doesn't have the correct rights.

About Me

The "About me" section is where the social aspect meets SharePoint. You're able to add information which you want available to others. When you click on edit profile, you are met with different categories. The first category, basic information, allows you to edit the basics.

Blog

The blog is an interesting feature that allows you to keep your own blog apart from site collections. It relieves the servers from having to deal with a blog in two location and means that you don't have to keep information on a different site. You can have people simply come to your MySite to gain all of the necessary information.