This how to guide will walk you through the necessary steps to create your first digital community.
Want to create a digital community that nurtures your warmest leads to enrolment and beyond? Read on to find out how to create your first space on The Ambassador Platform!
1. Who is your audience?
The first thing to consider when getting started is who your audience is going to be. Will you be inviting all your international offer holders to a Community space, or do you want to create a community that serves Postgraduate students only? Perhaps you want to use the feature to forge stronger relationships between current students and create a peer mentoring programme? Think about the audience, the themes that they will want to chat about, and what their reasons for joining a digital community might be (this will inform the way you set up and promote the space).
2. Create your Community Groups
The Community feature allows you to facilitate group conversations as well as 121 chats between your prospects and ambassadors. Head into the admin dashboard and click on the 'Community' icon in the left hand menu to get your first groups set up!
The Community Groups will be the first thing a student sees when they join the Buzz space, so it's important that you're covering topics that matter most to your audience.
Consider having a mix of Community Groups within Buzz to stimulate conversation on topics such as courses, student life, accommodation, and the cost of living. Make it easy for your prospects to "find their people" within your digital community.
2. Invite Buzz Ambassadors
Invite Ambassadors to join your group conversations in just a few clicks...
Once you've created a Community Group, click on the hamburger menu in the top right corner, and then select 'Manage Ambassadors'. Remember that if you wish to have certain Ambassadors activated to support with Buzz chats only (i.e. you don't want them displaying on your TAP Feed), you can switch them on for 'Chat' only in the Ambassador List section of the dashboard.
3. Promote Buzz to your prospective students
Your prospects can now be invited to join the community. You will find a link to your community space when you click on the 'Get Invitation Link' button...
To get them excited to join Buzz, share a screenshot or overview of some of the topics covered in your community group chats. You could also introduce the ambassadors that will be monitoring the Buzz chats by sharing their bios in your email invite. It's also important to state the unique opportunity your Members will have to interact not only with current students but with fellow applicants by joining your digital community.
4. Track the engagement
You can track your Buzz stats and keep tabs on how many invited members join your community space over time. It's really easy to see at a glance just how active your digital community is from your launch date onwards.
As with all reporting on The Ambassador Platform, you can filter the results for any time period by selecting exact dates in the top right corner.
5. Keep promoting your community
Making sure that your prospective students are continuously active and coming back to the community space time and time again is the secret to your ongoing success with this feature. Read our top tips on how to keep Buzz buzzing!
If you have any questions about how to create your first Buzz space or need any further guidance with this feature, please don't hesitate in contacting your Dedicated Customer Success Manager or reach out to us at support@theambassadorplatform.com.