Create your community, channels and first posts

Set up a warm, organized community space with channels, a resource shelf and the first few posts, so it never feels empty.

Your community lives inside your client portal. Clients post, comment and react, and you guide the conversation.

Before you start

• Turn on community in your portal: Learning > Manage > Portal > Features > Community Features on, then Save Portal Settings.
• Decide your community's purpose in one sentence, and 3 to 6 topics (these become channels). Fewer is better at the start. See Plan your community before you build it.

Step 1: Create the community

1. Go to Learning > Communities and click Create Community.
2. Give it a Name (what clients will call it, like "The Maple & Main Circle") and a one- or two-sentence Description. Clients see the description, so write it to them.
3. Save. Click the community to open it.

Step 2: Set it up

Open the community's Settings tab.

1. Visibility: Public (meant for anyone in your portal) or Private. Members still need to join a plan that includes the community.
2. Allow Posts: on, so members can start conversations. Turn it off if you want only yourself to post.
3. Gamification: XP, levels and a leaderboard. Optional. Some communities love it, others find it noisy.

4. Channels: add your topics. Good starters for a coaching practice:

   • Start Here (welcome and introductions)
   • General
   • Wins (celebrate progress)
   • Announcements (news from you)
   • A channel per program or course

   To add one, type it in the Channel name box under the list, pick a type (General, Questions, Announcements, Wins or Office Hours), and click +. The bin icon on a row removes a channel. 5. Resource Pages: click + Add to put worksheets, guides and links on the shelf your clients see under Resources in the portal. Fill in Title, URL, an optional Description, a Category and an Icon (emoji), then click Add Resource. - Open Mode: Embed in Portal shows it inside the portal. For PDFs, choose Open in New Tab: PDFs show as a blank box when embedded in the portal right now. - Each resource has an on/off switch, a pencil to edit and a bin to remove. 6. There's no separate save button on this tab. Your changes show right away; click Preview in Portal to check.

Step 3: Seed it before anyone arrives

An empty room feels awkward. Before you invite anyone, post four or five things:

• A welcome post in Start Here: who it's for, how to use it, and an invitation to introduce themselves.
• A simple question in General that anyone can answer.
• A pinned resource post pointing to your most useful worksheet.
• An announcement about your next live session or office hours.
• A poll (posts can include one) to get the first click from new members.

Check it worked

• Click Preview in Portal at the top of the community to see it as a member would.

If something's off

• The community doesn't show in the portal menu: turn on Community Features in Learning > Manage > Portal and save.
• You need to remove someone else's post: you can delete members' posts in your own community. If it's blocked, you'll see an error message.
• "Too many requests" while posting several things: wait a minute between posts.