A 360Alumni Group can help you provide more personal engagement and a discussion platform with group members who share the same interests. Share news stories, engage in group discussions, view images and videos, and share with other people who may be interested.
To create a group, go to Groups > Create a Group. Admins have the ability to create "Dynamic Groups" which are automatically populated based on the designated primary association. "Regular Groups" are populated by manually adding members. Once the group is created, you cannot change the type.
"Private" groups mean that only group organizers (and administrators) can invite community members to join the group, and the group is not searchable. "Public" groups are searchable, any member can invite others to join, and any users can join without the group organizer's approval.
You can add multiple "Group Organizers" from the community and assign specific tasks to moderate the group. To add an organizer, type their name and click "ADD ORGANIZER".
Data Access is a feature that allows your Group Organizers to edit the profiles of members of their groups. This is helpful if you are delegating data maintenance or charging your organizers with getting all their group members to activate their community profiles.
Choose a "Group Name" that clearly defines the community you are building.
A "Group Type" signifies the content, discussion being shared within the group and is used in the Search/Filter tool.
Add a "Group Description" so that members understand the group's objective.
To help others find your group, add up to 10 relevant "Keywords," and separate each keyword with a comma. These keywords will then be used in the Search/Filter tool.
If you want to create a local group that might get together on occasion, identify the group as "Local", and add an address (even city, state will do). If you want to create a virtual group only, choose "Global".
Click "Create and Continue" to save and publish the group.
You can add images to your Media Carousel, or post them in the discussion board. Media, like images, videos, and websites links, are all supported. It's a good idea to add media that is relevant and eye-catching.
Once a group is created you may need to wait for an admin to approve it for it to be visible. To add to the media carousel, go to the "MANAGE GROUP" menu and select "Manage Media".
"Video/Image" is for remotely hosted media on Youtube, Vimeo, or similar. Simply provide the web address of the media file.
Site Administrators and Group Organizers (with and without data access) may add people to their groups by clicking the "+" at the end of the member avatars on the "View Group" page, and typing in a user name or a list name. When users are added to a group, they will not receive an email notification.
All users may invite others to join the group by clicking the "INVITE OTHERS" button below the group description on the "View Group" page.
For more details see our KB Article, "Adding Members to Groups".
Promote Events: If you’ve created an Event associated with this group, you can promote the event right on the group page. Otherwise, any other active Event will rotate through the event space on your group page. You can promote more than one event by selecting either the "+" or "Promote Event" buttons. A pop-up with all upcoming events will appear - find the event(s) you want to promote and select the "Promote Event" button. That’s it! The selected events will now appear in your group page.
Group Discussions: This will be the heartbeat of your group - where posts, comments, feedback, information sharing and collaboration will take place. So kick this area off with some posts to get the conversation going.
Topic Ideas:
Finally, here's an oldie but goodie video on Creating Groups in 360Alumni:
