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Groups - FAQ


Yoeri
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  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 392 replies

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.

Did you find this topic helpful?

48 replies

Rudi
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 12 replies
  • December 21, 2020

@Kenneth R I'm thinking of testing this feature in 2021, hope we can have a chat about this to bounce off ideas :nerd:


Kenneth R
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  • Gainsight Community Manager
  • 424 replies
  • December 21, 2020

Awesome @Rudi let’s talk about it in our next call.  :grinning:


triskaideka
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 15 replies
  • February 5, 2021

The group admin and any user with Control access (moderator, community manager, admin) can view and configure the group's details.

This implies, unless I’m mistaken, that a “regular” community member can be made admin of a group.  How is this done?

  • How do I assign the group admin?
  • How does that person then view the additional controls available to them?

timcavey
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  • Helper ⭐️⭐️
  • 269 replies
  • February 10, 2021

@Kenneth R can we discuss groups in our next call please? 

 

I’ve set up 2 private categories in the last few weeks, and it sounds like a ‘Group’ function might be better suited…..

 

 


Yoeri
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  • Author
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 392 replies
  • February 12, 2021
triskaideka wrote:

The group admin and any user with Control access (moderator, community manager, admin) can view and configure the group's details.

This implies, unless I’m mistaken, that a “regular” community member can be made admin of a group.  How is this done?

  • How do I assign the group admin?
  • How does that person then view the additional controls available to them?

Hi @triskaideka 

Sorry for the late response, I was off for a couple of days. Regular community members can be a group admin. In order to become a group admin you have to create the Group in the Control environment under your own account. So if ‘John’ logs in to Control, creates a new group there he will be the group admin. 

In order to start groups from control you need to have a user role with access to the groups module in Control (community manager or admin). Users with a moderator role will be able to see the content posted in groups via the content overview.


triskaideka
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 15 replies
  • February 12, 2021

Hi @Yoeri 

So if ‘John’ logs in to Control, creates a new group there he will be the group admin.

Sorry if I’m just being a bit slow...but how does this manifest?  It appears that:

  • In order to create a group, a user needs to be Community Manager or Admin.
  • If a user is a Community Manager or Admin, they can administer all groups.

These two points imply that there is in fact no functional value in a separate role of “Group Admin” - and its lack of apparency would corroborate there being none.

 

This is understandable if so, it’s just that if I’m still missing something there would be value to me in being able to make a member who is not a community manager or admin, an admin/moderator of a private group - they would be able to accept requests to join and possibly help moderate content within the group (but not beyond).

Should I toddle over to ideation and suggest it there? :)


Yoeri
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  • Author
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 392 replies
  • February 12, 2021

I think this idea describes what you are looking for, see the last comment 🙂 Please add your vote and additional insights/feedback there

https://communities.gainsight.com/ideas/group-level-rights-333

 


Hiewwaiy
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 39 replies
  • February 17, 2021

Hi, 

I have 3 questions: 

  • Visibility: is it possible to only show the content of groups to community members that er logged in? 
  • Is it possible to close a group and still show the content of this group? 
  • We want to use the power of groups, but it is still important that we form one large community. Do you recommend a maximum number of groups? 

Yoeri
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  • Author
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 392 replies
  • February 18, 2021

Hey Hiewwaiy 

Visibility: is it possible to only show the content of groups to community members that er logged in? 

Content will always be visible in public groups (like a public community category). Content in private groups will only be visible to group members (= users that are accepted to become a group member)

 

Is it possible to close a group and still show the content of this group?

You can close individual topics posted into a group for comments. There is no restriction/permission to prevent users from starting a new topic in a group.

 

We want to use the power of groups, but it is still important that we form one large community. Do you recommend a maximum number of groups?

This is hard to say, this all depends on the size of your community and your usecases. We have seen that regional groups, industry groups and groups around a particular role are performing very well. As with community categories: don’t overdo this. Users should still be able to easily navigate around and find there way in your platform. It’s better to start small and grow from there based on the feedback and behaviour from your community. e.g. Create regional groups for Regions or Countries first rather than for Cities. 

 


Hiewwaiy
  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 39 replies
  • February 18, 2021

@Yoeri , thanks for your reply. 

Visibility: is it possible to only show the content of groups to community members that er logged in? 

Content will always be visible in public groups (like a public community category). Content in private groups will only be visible to group members (= users that are accepted to become a group member)

 

This is not the answer that I am looking for. We would like to create public groups, so that the content is visible for everyone of our community. However, sometimes we do not want content to be visible for '’the whole world'’. In other words, when users are logged in content of public groups are visible. When they are not logged in, the content is not visible. Is this possible? 

 


Yoeri
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  • Author
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 392 replies
  • February 18, 2021

That is not possible with groups: Content will always be visible in public groups regardless the user is logged in, or logged out. Community categories do allow you to hide content for non-logged in users (and show it for logged in users)


nicksimard
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  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 44 replies
  • May 18, 2021

I had the exact same question as @Hiewwaiy. The use case is to have a group that can be exclusive to members, without it requiring approval (like private groups do). It’s public but much like some forum categories are only available to logged in users, it would be great to make the content in such a members-only group visible only when the person is logged in. 

Groups are a nice way to limit events, for example. But if anyone can see the content of a public group regardless of being logged in, then the event isn’t really available exclusively to members.

I envision:

Public: Anyone can see the group and its contents and join without requiring approval.
Private: Anyone can see that the group exists and request to join.
Combo: The group is open and anyone who is logged in can join it. No approval required, but must be a logged in member.

Optional: make the group hidden, such that you can only even see that it exists when you’re logged in (or possibly only by using a direct link). Or for certain roles, ranks, badges, etc. It would be a great way to segment members without having a ton of groups that are either totally open or require us to approve requests.

The use case for hidden is that maybe the group is only for certain members or for a limited time event/purpose. If you had a conference, for example, and wanted to offer a space for folks to gather and engage, once that group is created it’s there forever for the world to see and join. And in order to make it most accessible, it would be public (and that can’t be changed after the creation of the group).

This is all to say that Groups are great and have some awesome functionality, but I think there are a few important pieces still missing in terms of access and visibility.


Yoeri
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  • Author
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 392 replies
  • May 19, 2021

Thanks for sharing your insights and feedback on groups Nick! I’m familiar with the hidden groups concept. Also cc’ing my colleague @Marion Frecaut on this as I know she’s interested in groups feedback as well :)


  • Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 732 replies
  • May 19, 2021

Hello @nicksimard , thanks a lot for all this detailed feedback. This is very interesting to understand your use case around "Combo" groups.

To note hidden groups is something that is really on our radar. Ther is the following idea on which you can vote on. 


JKelley
  • Helper ⭐️
  • 42 replies
  • May 24, 2021

Hi @Yoeri - we are wanting to start to use Groups for user groups in our communities.  I need to be able to delegate Group admin capabilities to other employees (or later superusers) who aren’t Community Admins or  Moderators / don’t have direct access to Control.  How can we do that?  cc @Dorothyt  @omika.mali 


Yoeri
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  • Author
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 392 replies
  • May 25, 2021

Hi!

Only group admins can manage groups. To start a group and become a group admin you will need to have access to Control. It’s not possible to delegate group admin capabilities to users without Control access. You might want to submit this as an idea to our product team in our ideation portal.


JKelley
  • Helper ⭐️
  • 42 replies
  • May 26, 2021

Thanks @Yoeri, will do.  I’m looking in Control and I don’t see a role called Group Admin or a way to create a secondary role with any permissions associated with groups.   Where do we find the Group Admin option or role setting?


Yoeri
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  • Author
  • Gainsight Employee ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 392 replies
  • May 27, 2021

Hey,

There is no Group admin primary role, list of roles can be found here:

When you are logged in as community manager or administrator you can create a group. Once you create a group you will be listed as the Group admin (that’s what I meant with becoming a group admin):

Group creators are listed as ‘Admin’ in the group members view in Control

 


  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 101 replies
  • June 23, 2021

Hi @Yoeri any update on when we’ll be able to decide ourselves which groups shall be hidden or visible in the Groups overview? And when the identity of private group members will not show on the group image in the Groups overview? We’re ready to roll out several groups but need these two issues fixed first:)


  • Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 732 replies
  • June 23, 2021
'

Hello @Anitahg  working on groups will be our priority for Q3. For sure we will tackle not showing the icons of members of private groups.

About hidden groups, he have not yet make a final decision between the options discussed in this idea 

But I''m fairly confident we will implement either role based group or invite only groups in the next quarter.

 

 

'

  • Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 732 replies
  • June 23, 2021

I have a follow up question about inviting users to hidden groups

What do you think of having invite links: so basically for each group you can share a link to invite users. When an end user clicks on the link they are added automatically to the group without having to press join.

Pros:

  • Super easy to use, you just have to share a link
  • Anyone including end users can invite someone to join a group.
  • It would be easier allow the most amount of people to join
  • Link can be shared via PMs, emails, external tools

Cons:

  • You can't decide specifically which user can join, so it's less "secure". Anyone with the link and an account could join. We are thinking of offering a way to refresh that link to tackle that however

Curious to hear your thoughts


  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 101 replies
  • June 23, 2021

Hi, just curious to understand why you consider role based hidden groups? There must be many more than us wanting to invite persons to private/hidden groups, across roles? If there is a limitation on role we won’t have any use of private groups in many cases. 

For private groups, it will be very important it is secure who joins. Our users log on to our community using Multi Factor Authentication, and in private groups, we share private content that shall be available only for the members of this private group. it is important that this content does not get in the hands of users other than the users we invite to join the group. It could be company specific roadmaps, success plans, minutes of meetings, etc. Happy to provide more info. 


  • Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 732 replies
  • June 23, 2021

The idea behind role based group is this is to have groups that are free to join only for specific users. Currently the content of public groups  is visible to all visitors, event logged out users. We want to offer groups which content is visible and free to join but only if you are a logged in user for example, or are partner. Also with that solution, you wouldn't need to approve each user.

Invite only groups are indeed more interesting for you use case if you need to invite users across role. This is something we are considering to implement. With those kind of groups, indeed a secure way to invite is really needed. 

 

 


  • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 20 replies
  • September 23, 2021

Hey @Yoeri  this is a helpful article but with the most recent updates (switching private / public & invites) it needs an update. Thanks


  • Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
  • 732 replies
  • September 23, 2021

Hello @Dorothyt thanks for flagging this, I just updated the article :)


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