Steward Help Center

Exporting member and post data from your Switchboard

How to export data from your Switchboard to use in your CRM or email marketing platform

Written by Support
Updated over a week ago

How to enable and edit the custom sidebar module

The sidebar module lets you link out to other resources you want members of your community to know about.

Written by Support
Updated over a week ago

Changing a Switchboard member's user role

How to promote a user to steward, demote a steward to user, ban a user, and more

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

How to delete member accounts

There are many reasons you may want to delete member accounts from your Switchboard. Here's how

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Display your Switchboard's posts in an RSS Feed

Public Switchboards' posts feeds can be rendered as an RSS feed

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Using Design Settings to customize your Switchboard's appearance

You can customize your Switchboard's logo, footer, and sign up page in Admin > Settings > Design.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Using member segments to target subsets of your community

Member segments allow you to message, make announcements to, and analyze the activity of specific subsets of your Switchboard.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Hiding posts

Remove a post from the post feed without alerting the poster. Sort of like a "shadowban."

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Understanding Topics

Official topics vs. unofficial topics, and everything else you need to know about the feature

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Creating Custom Post Categories

Custom post categories let your members add an additional layer of data to their Asks and Offers

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Featuring an Ask or Offer

How to set a post to feature at the top of the Switchboard feed

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

How to invite new members and update existing member information

You can upload a .csv (spreadsheet) to send invitation emails and to update existing member information en masse

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Mass messaging users

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

What privileges do stewards and moderators have?

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

What’s the best way to comment on posts?

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Using Campaigns to communicate with your community

How to make banner announcements to specific segments of your Switchboard using the Campaigns feature

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Whitelisting email from Switchboard

How to prevent email from Switchboard from getting caught in your organization's spam

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Switchboard Basics

Switchboard basics to help you wrap your head around Switchboard and getting it started.

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Goal Setting: Balancing Adoption vs. Activity

How to find the right mix of engagement and adoption to avoid just inviting people to join Switchboard

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Marketing and rollout plan for months 1 - 6

Key strategies and focuses to efficiently and effectively rollout your Switchboard in the first 6 months

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

How to keep Switchboard top-of-mind in your community

Tips and tricks to help ensure Switchboard receives proper attention and energy

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Maintaining a balance between Asks and Offers

Strategies outlining the importance of posting balance and tips to foster a healthy balance of asks and offers

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Analyzing and Interpreting Switchboard Data

Ins and outs of using Switchboard data to foster growth and engagement

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Promoting Switchboard on your website

Helpful examples to inspire your own Switchboard landing page

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Setting and Maintaining the Tone of Your Switchboard

How to create a tone that clearly projects purpose of your Switchboard and fosters future engagement

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

How to enlist early adopters

Strategies to help with recruiting Switchboard early adopters

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Starting your Switchboard with a soft launch

Building more momentum once you've seeded your Switchboard

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Gaining traction with a hard launch to your entire community

Strategies for planning and implementing community-wide Switchboard announcements

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

How to drive organic adoption of your Switchboard

Ideas and strategies for building conduits to your Switchboard that support sustained adoption and engagement

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Annual "Must-Do" Events

Tips and strategies for leveraging annual events for adopting new folks into Switchboard

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Stewardship best practices

Fostering better growth and engagement through simple best practices.

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

How to welcome new Switchboard members

Techniques around welcoming new members to foster appreciation for Switchboard and meaningful engagement

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Responding to Posts on Switchboard

How to increase member engagement

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Benchmarking Success on Switchboard

Tips and strategies for understanding and impacting the success of your Switchboard

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Promotional Frequency

Tips and strategies around how often to promote your Switchboard to foster healthy growth and engagement

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

High-Value vs. Transactional Posting

Understanding the differences between the two types of posts to ensure the fostering of meaningful posting to the community

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Leveraging Annual Events

Worksheet to help organize Switchboard engagement around annual events

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Ways to engage your Alumni Board

Work with alumni to increase engagement and expand your community on Switchboard.

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Leveraging Top Contributors

Strategies for inspiring your super users to further engage with the community

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Engaging student and/or alumni moderators

Strategies to engage volunteers/interns/student workers to help manage your Switchboard as Ambassadors

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Marketing and rollout plans for months 7-12

Key strategies and focuses to efficiently and effectively continue the rollout your Switchboard in the last 6 months of your first year

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Connecting users through existing posts

Using the search tool to model and inspire further engagement on your Switchboard

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Using Steward tools to increase connections with users

2 easy ways to facilitate connections for further, sustained engagement on your Switchboard

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Executing a "War Room" event

Tips for stakeholders on efficiently and effectively interacting with posts during a War Room

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Making the most of Year 2

Strategies and tips for generating continued growth and activity in Year 2 of your Switchboard

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Continuing to Engage Alumni and Student Volunteers

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Example position description for student/alum moderators

Written by Tina Hart
Updated over a week ago

Switchboard resource library

A collection of example posts, promotions, social media posts, emails etc.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Switchboard Logos and Branding

Switchboard logos, fonts, visual elements, design guidelines in vector and .png formats

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Introducing Switchboard to Stakeholders

Presenting and explaining Switchboard and how it works to staff, faculty, alumni, and other stakeholders.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Switchboard Landing Page

Creating a permanent page perpetually promotes your Switchboard

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

How to Use Digest Inserts

How to use customizable inserts in the digest emails your community members receive weekly

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Tabling for Your Switchboard

Tabling for your Switchboard is the quintessential way to grow your community and stay in tune with student and alumni needs

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Promoting Switchboard in Your Email Newsletter

You should include Switchboard in your email newsletter regularly. Featuring success stories is an organic way to do that.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Promoting Switchboard in Your Alumni Magazine

Your alumni magazine might be the one surefire way to reach older alumni. Here's how other partners are making the most of theirs.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Promoting Switchboard on Facebook

Sharing Switchboard in Facebook posts and ads—from official pages and your own accounts—is an important way to reach alumni where they are.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Promoting Switchboard on Twitter

Twitter isn't as powerful a medium as some other channels, but tweeting is easy.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Promoting Switchboard with Audio and Video

Audio and video are high-production value, but persistent, ways to promote Switchboard

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Celebrating Switchboard Milestones and Anniversaries

It's important to celebrate your progress with your team and your community. Here's how some other partners have done so.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Switchboard and Commencement

Graduation is one of the best times to introduce seniors to Switchboard, and the last chance you have to do so on campus.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Switchboard and Reunions

Reunions are the physical manifestation of Switchboard and the perfect time to introduce the platform to your community.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Switchboard and Holidays

Holidays like Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day are opportunities to spread the gratitude and love that Switchboard brings to your community.

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago

Hiring a student to serve as Switchboard ambassador

Students serving as ambassadors can help you get your Switchboard started by getting other students to post

Written by Kieran
Updated over a week ago