A common theme among Groupsites with the highest levels of group member engagement is an effective Welcome Module on the SUMMARY page.
A strong Welcome Module should accomplish 3 things:
- State the purpose of the group
- Highlight the most important information
- Help users get to that information
The basic building blocks for a strong welcome message are:
- Text
- Pictures
- Graphics
- Video
- Hyperlinks
Let's take a look at each.
TEXT
Every Groupsite begins with a standard Welcome Module which reads:
This is not a bad start, but it is easy to customize this to have more of the feel of your particular group. It is important to use this space as a way to set the tone for the group and state its purpose. Here is an example from one of the groups I belong to:
Editing your Welcome Module is easy. Simply click the "Edit" link at the top right of the module which will take you straight to our WYSIWYG editor where you can make your edits. When done, just hit "Update".
PICTURES
To have an even stronger visual impact, you may want to add a picture to your Welcome Module. Here's an example:
Don't know how? Click here to watch a quick video, "How to Embed a Picture Into Your Welcome Module."
GRAPHICS
In addition to pictures, if you have the design skills, you may want to add custom graphics to enhance your Welcome Module. The following example also "hyperlinked" the button graphics to specific areas of the Groupsite - which I will show you how to do in just a bit. Embed graphics the same way you embed pictures (as shown in the video link above).
VIDEO
Another way to get your point across is to embed a video in your Welcome Module. Click here for a quick video that shows you how.
Below is an example of a Welcome Module with an embedded video. Also, notice the "linked" words? The Groupsite manager has "hyperlinked" the gray words, right in the middle of the module, to take users directly to the important sections of the Groupsite (more on how to do that, next).
HYPERLINKS
This is probably the most important thing you can do to help your Welcome Module have a positive impact on your group engagement.
Any element you add to your Welcome Module can be "hyperlinked" to any other section of your Groupsite -- including specific member profiles, discussion topics, photo galleries, new pages etc.
Click here to see a quick video that shows you how.
The Welcome Module for our Users Group (champions.collectivex.com) is a simple example of combining a graphic (with text and pictures) and a single hyperlink that links to our discussion forums:
Take the time to craft a meaningful Welcome Module. You may want to update it on a regular basis to keep things fresh. It will make a difference.