Tips & Tricks

                                                                                                   Hello. I wanted to write a little bit about using the new "Custom Terminology" tool that we added to GroupSwim last week. First off, I want to point out that this feature is available to Site Owners Only....

                   Hello,Here are a couple of pointers to help with the GroupSwim invitation process:Scenario 1 - Inviting members to the community1. Click on the "Invite members" link on the main page, from groups, or from manage members. It...

In site and group settings, you can set announcements as often as you like. When users either come into the site or group, they will see the announcement but can then hide it. This is great for highlighting upcoming events, linking to...

Hello,We just added (as of 2/11/08) tag training to GroupSwim. This gives community and group owners and managers the ability to add preferred tags at a site level and a group level. It also allows you to add definitions to tags. For...

                                       Hello,For those of you with communities that have email-in enabled, you need to follow the following process to set it up. First off, we need to turn it on for your site so please contact us to enable it.Next, you (the site...

                                       Hello,When we move to the next version of GroupSwim on 11/15/07 at 4am PST, you will be able to turn your GroupSwim community into a public site. In order to do this, please follow the steps below:1. Click on "Site...

                                                           Hi. Designerman Luke here. (image) One of the cooler things you can do with our newest release (3.4) is really get fancy with customizing your group site's branding. There are two ways you can do it, and I'll outline them...

                                       Hello,When we move to the next version of GroupSwim on 11/15/07 at 4am PST, you will be able to turn your GroupSwim community into a public site. In order to do this, please follow the steps below:1. Click on "Site...

                   Hello,When we move to the next version of GroupSwim on 11/15/07 at 4am PST, your main group will become a group like the other groups in your community. In order to check or change the settings, please follow the following steps:1....

Here is an exchange I had with a customer on how to tune email settings: If one of your goals is to reduce emails, make sure you and your community members tune your email settings. My recommendation is to have the daily digest turned on...

Here is an clip of an emai exchange I had with someone on whether to use public or private sub-groupsGenerally speaking, I would always advise having sub-groups open versus private. It tends to make the community more accessible and...

Here is a blog I wrote on finding leaders using an online community. If you want to check out past blogs, our site is here . Most organizations, especially commercial businesses, require strong leadership to be successful. I'm hard pressed...

This video was created by an anthropology professor on the use of categories and tags. It is about 5 mintues. Hope you enjoy it.(media)

If you want to set your subgroups to show in an order other than alphabetical, you can put numbers in front of the group name. For example:01 Group 102 Group 2

The sub-group permissioning is really powerful. The 4 types of sub groups are:Private - this is an invite only option where you want to have discussions in private and members need to be invited/approved to join. Public - this is an open...

If you see a post you really like, there are 2 good reasons to vote thumbs up. First, you give the author some credit and build up her reputation which is great. A community thrives with experts and the best way to determine who they are...

If you see your community starting to stagnate a bit, make sure to post thought provoking posts to get people talking. They should be relevant to the community but hit a chord that makes people want to talk.

Unless you have lots and lots of sub-groups on your site, use the auto-join option instead of public group so all your community members automatically see the groups. If you have too many, use public groups but remind people to make sure...

Studies have shown that if a new member receives a welcome email from a community owner/manager, there is a much better chance that person will stay involved with the community. Make sure you do everything you welcome new members.

                   Last Friday (October 5th) we posted a new release of GroupSwim. This release included a new feature, that many people have been asking for, move discussions between subgroups. If you are a manager or owner of a group you can move any...