A community can support a variety of business goals, from growing your member base, increasing brand loyalty, keeping members engaged throughout your annual event cycle, and gathering feedback and use cases. Creating a Community in the Socio Platform is very similar to creating an event. Let's dive in!
Socio Communities have the same great features as Socio Event Apps with unique abilities supporting year-round usage by members across the globe.
This article shows how to build a Community in the Socio Platform and offers tips on configuring it to work with the other products. You'll be amazed at how quickly and easily your community takes shape! 👍
⭐️ Keep in mind, because Event Apps and Communities are so similar, most of our help content references "Event App" and "event". The content applies to Communities, too, unless otherwise specified.
Video Guide
The video below walks through the technical steps of creating a Community in the Socio Platform.
Create a Community
From any page in the Socio Platform, click the Communities button. The Communities page lists all the Communities you've created, if any. To create a new one, click Create Communities.
The first step in creating a Community is the Basics page.
Basics
Consider the what, where, when, and how of your community. Don't worry — you can come back and edit things later as needed. The Basics page has 2 steps. 👇
Community Details
Community Name - Enter the name of your Community. We recommend that this follow the same naming convention that you've used in other materials, such as your website. Make sure members know what the community is. 🧠
Community Description - Describe what your community is all about! This could be copied and pasted from your website if applicable. A few important things to consider when creating the description are:
Does your community have a theme?
Who joins this community?
Do you want to highlight any sponsorships here?
⭐️ Keep in mind, when adding images to the Description, always do so with the image tool, which is the icon at the far right.
Best Email Address to Reach You - This field is internal-only, and will serve as the main point of contact for the Socio Platform. The email address should belong to someone who has access to the Socio Platform.
How many community members are you expecting? - This field is internal-only and helps us measure adoption of your Community. Enter the number of members that you're anticipating.
When you're done with the Basics, click Next.
Privacy Settings
Your Privacy Settings selection controls how app users get access to community content. The Mobile App is available for anyone to download, but you can make sure only the right people can join your community and get access to the content.
There are three options to choose from — Public, Community Code, and Invite Only. Deciding which one is right for you can depend on several factors. For a complete look at each setting and a helpful decision flowchart, check this out!
When you've selected a Privacy Setting, click Save & Continue. This takes you to the Features page.
At this point, the information you've entered for your Community so far is saved, and you can come back later to edit it if you need to.
Features
Features are what your members interact with in your Community. With 21 (and counting) features to choose from, you may be wondering which ones you need. For a quick overview of each feature, check this out. We also have complete guides to adding, editing, and managing every single feature. 📚
Every Community starts with three basic features — Overview, Users, and Announcements.
Add a feature
Click the Add Features button, and in the modal that appears, click Add under each feature you want. Click the X in the top right corner of the modal when you're done.
⭐ Keep in mind, you can add most features more than once. This can be useful for having multiple types of Video Rooms, VIP-only features using Groups, or different tiers of Sponsors, for example.
Managing features
Added features appear in the Selected panel. Click and drag features to swap their positions. Use the arrow icons at the bottom of the Selected panel to see more features.
The Preview to the right of the selected features shows you how the Mobile App looks. To try out the Web App version, publish the Community first.
Hover over any feature in the Selected list to reveal a Settings (⚙️) icon, an Edit button, and a Delete button.
Settings - In this modal, you can rename the feature and assign a custom Icon. To lock content to certain Groups of members, such as VIPs, use the Visible To setting. We always recommend choosing or uploading a custom icon to make your brand shine — especially if you're using a Branded App.
Edit - For list-based features such as the Agenda, Web List, or Sponsors features, the Edit button takes you to a separate page where you'll add items to the list. For single item or static features, such as the Web Link, Overview, or Live Stream features, a simple configuration modal appears. Refer to the feature guide for each feature to see the exact behavior.
Delete - You can delete any feature except Announcements.
⚠️ Caution! When you delete a feature, any information you added to it and any attendee metrics associated with the feature will be gone.
When you're done adding features, click Next. You don't have to completely fill out and customize every single feature before you publish your Community. We recommend simply adding most of the features you'll be using and customizing the icon for each.
Appearance
The Appearance page is where you upload your Community's logo and cover image, and choose the layout for your Community's home page. To make sure graphical elements will wow your members, check out our Look Book for inspiration, and take our Socio Academy course on Designing a Beautiful Event. 😍 🎓
Images
Before you publish your Community, you must upload a Logo and Cover Image. These appear to members on both the Mobile App and Web App.
⭐ Keep in mind, adding these images is crucial to submitting a Branded App.
Logo - The Logo appears on your Community's login page and is overlaid on the Cover Image on the Mobile App's home page, as shown below. Accepted icon formats and dimensions are:
JPEG or PNG
Minimum: 100px by 100px
Recommended: 500px by 500px
Maximum: 1000px by 1000px
Cover Image - The cover image appears behind your Community's name on the Mobile App and Web App and in the Overview feature, as shown below. Accepted image formats and dimensions are:
JPEG or PNG
Minimum: 200px wide by 100px tall
Recommended: 1000px wide by 500px tall
Maximum: 2000px wide by 1000px tall
⭐️ Keep in mind, the Cover image is cropped depending on a user's device and its location within the app. We don't recommend including text or important information on the Cover Image.
Layout
The layout you choose mainly affects the mobile version of your Community. However, Banners appear on the Web App, too! Not sure which one is right for your Community? Check this out!
Click Save when you're done uploading images and selecting your Layout.
Publish the Community
Publishing your Community is necessary to link it to Socio Registration or a Branded App, or activate Lead Retrieval. However, publishing isn't always the last step of building your Community. Members won't know how to find and access the Community until you tell them, so you can publish and then keep working on getting your Community filled in and ready to go! 👍
To publish, go to the Appearance tab and click the Publish Community button in the top-right corner. In the modal that appears, choose which app the Community will be published to.
If you're using a Branded App, select your app, and click Next. Haven't started making your Branded App? Don't publish just yet! Click the Create App option, then check this out for instructions.
If you're not using a Branded App, select Socio Event App, and click Next.
Now, select the Team that's linked to your Socio Community credits, and click Publish Community. If you don't have any credits, you'll be prompted to contact our support team to arrange a purchase.
Congratulations — you've just published your Community! 🎉
Next steps
Use the links in each section below for specific instructions. 📚
Community - You can keep adding features and filling in information at any time after your Community and app are both published! Any changes you make to your Community will be reflected in the Web App and Mobile App within a matter of seconds.
Registration - If you published your Community so you could configure Groups for registration, you're ready to start creating your Registration Event and making Checkout Forms.
Branded App - If you're using a Branded Mobile App, make sure you've added the following items in your Community:
Icon (this and the Cover Image are added during event/community creation)
Cover Image
Banner images (if you're using the Banners layout)
Live Display - Choose what you want to show on your Live Display, and then configure the corresponding Community features.
Lead Retrieval - You can now activate Lead Retrieval and start adding Exhibitors.
Test! - It's very important to test your community to make sure everything looks and behaves how you want it to. Hold off on testing until the Community is ready for members to join. You don't want to overlook problems arising from edits made after testing.
Announcing - When you're ready to welcome members into the Community, spread the word using our handy App Access Templates!
Questions? Chat Us or Email support@socio.events