Groups - FAQ

A curated list of frequently asked questions (and answers)

Table of contents

What are groups

Groups is a brand new feature built for communities with a larger member base. Groups empower your users to engage around a specific;

• Interest (I like flying drones, who else..)

• Role (I’m a Customer Success Manager, how can I best..)

• Industry (I’m in Healthcare, how do you deal with..) 

• Region (I’m in Amsterdam, who is near me that I can relate to..)

• Product (I’m using product X with version Y, how can I get the most out of it..)

• etc.

This feature allows you to create public and private groups from Control, and to organize the content around a common interest or theme. 

Community members can browse, view and join groups. Once member of a group they can ask questions and start discussions - Ultimately Groups allows members to more easily engage with the content they find most valuable.

Which functionalities are available for groups?

The following features and functionalities have been developed for Groups

Groups module: A new section in Control where community managers and moderators can create and manage groups.

Public group: A type of group where all visitors can see the content and group members.

Private group: A type of group where content and group members are hidden for non-group members.

Hidden groups: A type of group where content and group members can only be seen by invited members.

Join group: Option for users to join a public, or request to join a private group to become a member. Once a member of a group they can ask questions and start discussions.

Member management: See who is a member of a group, remove unwanted members from a group and approve or deny new users that requested to join a group.

Export members: Export a list of group members as .CSV file. 

Group overview page: A new overview page in the community where community members can explore all public- and private groups in a community.

Notifications: Receive email notifications on new topics and events posted in groups. Users will receive an email notification when they are accepted within a group.

Private events: Publish events to private groups

Invite members: Invited users can join the group without the need for any further approval.

What is the difference between categories and groups?

Groups and categories have a lot in common, they both serve as a bucket that contains content around a common theme. Groups, however, tend to focus on a more specific interest that only applies to a small segment of users within the community. Groups typically consist of a few dozens of members.

Where categories are completely anonymous (you don’t know who is interested and subscribed to a category) groups thrive on the social aspect of group members (knowing which other community members share the same interest and passion as you.) When you become a member of a group you will appear in a group member list. Unlike categories, community managers and moderators can export a list of group members.

We often see and hear companies hosting offline events and meetups for a specific group of users. Within groups it is possible to create and highlight events – Groups and Events combined provide a powerful set of features to let community members engage with each other online and in the real world. 

Community categories can be made available for specific user roles only. Via SSO authentication you can automatically assign a custom role to a user and therefore grant them access to a community category (e.g. give premium customers access to a premium only category). To join a group a community member needs to perform a specific join action, either he needs to manually join the group or accept an invitation to join the group, it is not possible to automatically add users to a group.

When should I use a community category and when should I use a group?

It's better to create a community category when you:

• Want to provide self-service support to the majority of your community

• Want to make the content in the category available to a specific user role

It's better to create a group when you:

• Want to facilitate discussion around a specific interest

• Want to host events for a particular set of community members

• Want to regulate which members have access to the content in the group

What is the difference between public and private groups?

In public groups topics, replies and the list of members are always visible and will appear in the public search and pages like recently active and help others. Any registered user can instantly join a public group.
In private groups topics, replies and the list of members are not visible. You have to become a member of a group in order to see this. Any registered user can request to join a private group, but you have to be approved by the group admin to become a member.

Can I move topics from community- and knowledge base categories to a group and the other way around?

Yes. Open a topic in Control and under Forum move it to another category or group. This also works for moving topics from a private group to any public community or knowledge base category.

Who can configure a group and moderate the content within groups?

Community managers and admins can view and configure the group's details. Moderators, community managers and admins can also view and moderate topics like any other topic posted on the platform. Even if these users are not members of a private group they can moderate its contents.

How are Groups sorted in the Group overview page?

Groups are sorted by their creation date, where the newest group is shown first.

How can I add members to a group?

You can invite members to join a group. You can invite users by their username or by sharing an invite link with them.

Which group notifications are available?

• User approved to join a group: We sent an email notification to a community member when his request to join a private group is accepted. This email notification is customizable in the Control Environment.
• New topic posted in group: We sent an email notification to all group members when there is a new topic posted in a group he subscribed to. Subscribing to a group happens automatically when a user joins a group. This email notification is the same as the notification for new topics in categories and is customizable in the Control Environment.
• New event in a private group: We sent an email notification to group members of a private group when there is an event posted in the group. This email notification is the same as the notification for new topics in categories and is customizable in the Control Environment.
• Invited to join a group: we sent an email notification to a community member when he is invited to join a group

How can I suggest a group?

In the Groups homepage widget, you can manually pick which groups you want to suggest/highlight on your homepage. In the groups' overview page groups are sorted by creation date, suggestions are not possible here.

Can I see which of my community users are not part of a group?

Within a group, you can see the list of group members. It is not possible to see which community users did not join a group.

Can I make a public group private (and a private group public)?

You can edit a group for any type to any type:

• From public to private 
• From public to hidden
• From private to public
• From private to hidden
• From hidden to public
• From hidden to private

How are (public) groups set up in Insided for internal search results and indexing?

Topics in public groups show up in in the search results. Topics in private and hidden groups show up l search results only for members of those groups.