🧰 What You Will Need
An existing Hub (Start Plan or higher)Step 1 - Open your Discussions page
Open your Hub Editor to get started. Using the menu on the left-hand side, open the Pages list (highlighted in the image below) and look for the Discussions page under Default Hub pages.
If your Discussions page is disabled, you can follow the steps in this article to enable your community.
Step 2 - Customize your community sidebar
Your sidebar is a great space to include a welcome message and your community rules.
Open the Sidebar menu when editing your Discussions page to customize the Title, Description and Spaces titles. You can see in the video below that as you make changes they will immediately appear in your community. Be sure to change your changes to lock in your progress. 🔒
Step 3 - Create and customize Spaces
Spaces are virtual rooms for specific topics or interests within your community. If your community is a house, then each space is a room in your house.
Well-organized Spaces improve member engagement, build connections among people with similar interests, and create a structured environment that meets different needs.
We recommend not going overboard with a lot of spaces. If you have a membership community, some common spaces you could create include:
- 🗓️ Updates and Up Next: A space that only you can post in that highlights what live webinars are up next and any updates you want your community to be aware of.
- 🔍 Ask Me Anything: A space where your members can lean into your expertise.
- 🗺️ Meet Ups: A space for members to coordinate different local chapters and local events.
- ✏️ Tips & Tricks: A space for members to share different tips and tricks that have helped them make progress in their own journeys.
- 🛋️ My Workspace: A space that encourages photo only posts from members of their office, or their kitchen, or their studio (depending on what industry you're in).
You can create and re-name your spaces in the Spaces Spaces section of your Discussions page. When you create a Space, you'll also be able to set the posting permissions. Something like an Updates space is a great one to lock down posting permissions so that you're the only person posting updates.
Step 4 - Write your first post ✏️
Your newly created Spaces will not appear unless there is a post in your community. This is a great opportunity to post a template for introductions. Take the opportunity to create a post to share a little bit about who you are. 👋
Step 7 - Link your members to your community 🔗
Once your community is ready for members, we'll need to provide your members with a way to find your community:
- You can link to your community from an email.
- You can add a link to your community inside your Hub's menu.
- You can create a Section to invite your members to access the community.
And that’s it! You’ve just added a new pillar of your membership: Community. Now, your members can engage, discuss, and connect more than ever before. 🎉