How to Set Up New-Member Onboarding in BuddyNext

How to set up new-member onboarding in BuddyNext, step by step. A new member is taken to a short welcome wizard on their first visit: set up a profile, pick interests, join suggested spaces, follow suggested members and choose notification channels. The wizard is on by default under BuddyNext, then Platform, then Features, then Member onboarding flow. Choose where members land afterwards under BuddyNext, then Members, then Registration & Login, then After onboarding. A member can run it again from Settings, then Account, then Profile setup.

Transcript

In this tutorial you will set up new-member onboarding in BuddyNext. It is a short welcome wizard that each new member walks through once. You need BuddyNext, the free plugin. The wizard is on from the start. It takes about three minutes. There are six steps. Find the onboarding switch. See the profile step. Pick interests, spaces and people. Choose notification channels. Choose where members land. Then run the setup again. Step one. Find the onboarding switch. In your WordPress admin, open BuddyNext, then Platform, then Features, and find Member onboarding flow. It is on by default. While it is on, a new member is taken to the wizard on their first visit. Members who joined before it was switched on are never sent to it. Step two. See the profile step. This is what a new member sees. The wizard opens on Set up your profile, with a photo, a display name and a username. The username becomes their handle, the name in their profile address. It needs at least three characters. A bio is optional. As they type, the preview on the right shows how other members will see them. Continue moves to the next step. Skip for now moves past a step without filling it in. Step three. Pick interests, spaces and people. The second step is What are you into. Its choices are your space categories, so it only shows when you have some. Next is Join some spaces. It suggests up to six open spaces, your featured spaces first. Each Join button works at once. Then Follow some members, with up to five suggestions. A member who follows a few people here starts with a feed worth reading. Step four. Choose notification channels. The step named How should we ping you has a switch for each channel. Email and In-app start on. Sound starts off. Members can change these later in their notification settings. On a site with paid plans, BuddyNext Pro adds one more step, a membership offer. This is that Pro step. After the last step, the member lands in the community. Step five. Choose where members land. In the admin, open Members, then Registration and Login, and find After onboarding. Leave it empty, and members go to the activity feed. Type a page of your site, or a full address, to send them elsewhere. As the note says, a member who signed up from a page of your site goes back to that page instead. A member who never finishes gets two reminder emails, one day and three days after they register. Step six. Run the setup again. A member who wants a second pass opens Settings. On the Account tab, Profile setup has a link, Run setup again. It reopens the same wizard, with what they already entered filled in. That is all six. The switch found, the profile step seen, interests, spaces and people picked, channels chosen, the landing page set, and the setup run again. Your new members now arrive with a profile, a few spaces and people to read. Next in this series: Manage your account settings.