Overview
Part of building your community is setting up an application to recruit members.
Please Note: The Community Manager feature is available to brand users who have signed up for Community Manager. To gain access, reach out to your Account Executive or contact us for more information.
Build your application
- Start by clicking the name of the community you are setting up
- Using the assistant*, click the drop-down to the right of Qualify Applicants
- Click Build a questionnaire
- Add a question and enter your question and answer options as applicable
- If adding a multiple-choice question, you must delete unused rows
- Make the question required or not. The default is required
- Continue adding questions until you have added all the questions you plan to ask on the application
- Use the preview on the right as you enter your questions to see what the application will look like
- Use the six dot button on the left of each question to reorder questions
- Click Save & Continue
*The assistant is designed to help you through the process of building your community, setting up the application, setting up engagement opportunities, and launching your community. You can navigate back to any section in the assistant at any time by using the menu bar.
Tip: Applications with less than 15 questions have a significantly higher response rate than those with more questions. Design your application as short and to the point as possible. Keep in mind that you’ll see experts’ responses as well as their entire profile so you’ll have plenty of information available when it comes time to accept members.
Tip: You can edit questions and add new ones to an application after it launches, but do not change the order of questions. Just add the new questions last, below the existing questions. You cannot delete questions. Build the application out in a document first just to lay it all out, then add it to the community manager application builder. Making changes should be a last resort so it’s critical to review your application with all stakeholders and ensure everyone is happy with it before it launches.
Configure automatic replies
- Customize your brand Thank You message
- Customize your brand Approval message
- Customize your brand Denial message
- Save & Continue
Tip: The ExpertVoice platform automatically sends emails on your behalf as applications get submitted and you approve or deny applicants. However, you can and should where possible add a custom message to provide further clarification, encourage future application submissions or add your unique brand voice and personality.
Prepare to launch your application
- Customize your invitation to apply
- The customized message will be available to copy and paste to easily share.
- When you go to the Community Details page and click to Share, you will see the option to Copy Invitation and use your customized message.
- Decide who can apply to your community
- Promote on your brand page (recommended) to make experts more aware of your community
- Set your control on who can apply:
- Anyone (default)
- Invite only (applicants will be auto-approved)
Activate your community application
- Community activation: Activate your community by toggling the status under Community Settings to active. As noted in the tool, this action cannot be undone once activated. (This will add a link to your community on your brand page. Anyone who visits your brand page will be able to review the community guidelines, requirements, and benefits, but your community will only be promoted to the select audience you determine within ExpertVoice.)
- Discoverability: We recommend that you make your community discoverable on your brand page for anyone that visits your brand page; this is the default setting
- Let your Community Strategist at ExpertVoice know you’re ready to publish your community and application
- Click the blue Publish button in the upper right corner once you are ready
- Application activation: Once you have activated your community, you can start your application under Applications so that you can recruit candidates externally through your community page link, or it can be targeted to the select audiences that you identify on ExpertVoice. When your community is active, you can turn your application on or off as needed. Overwhelmed by applications? Take a break and turn it off for a bit. Need to add a few more experts? Turn it back on and continue your search. It’s all up to you.
Note: If you turn your application off, you MUST tell your ExpertVoice Community Strategist or your Customer Success partner so that your application is no longer promoted on ExpertVoice.
Note: Ensure your community is active first before you activate the application.
Next, learn about processing applications for your community.
Questions? Find answers to FAQs.