Switchboard

Support

Steward Help Center

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

Exporting member and post data from your Switchboard

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

How to enable and edit the custom sidebar module

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

Changing a Switchboard member's user role

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

How to delete member accounts

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

Display your Switchboard's posts in an RSS Feed

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

Using Design Settings to customize your Switchboard's appearance

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

Using member segments to target subsets of your community

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

Hiding posts

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

Understanding Topics

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

Creating Custom Post Categories

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

Featuring an Ask or Offer

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

How to invite new members and update existing member information

Mass messaging users

What privileges do stewards and moderators have?

What’s the best way to comment on posts?

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

Using Campaigns to communicate with your community

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

Whitelisting email from Switchboard

Technical FAQ

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

Switchboard Basics

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

Goal Setting: Balancing Adoption vs. Activity

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

Marketing and rollout plan for months 1 - 6

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

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

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

Maintaining a balance between Asks and Offers

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

Analyzing and Interpreting Switchboard Data

Helpful examples to inspire your own Switchboard landing page

Promoting Switchboard on your website

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

Setting and Maintaining the Tone of Your Switchboard

Getting Switchboard Started

Strategies to help with recruiting Switchboard early adopters

How to enlist early adopters

Building more momentum once you've seeded your Switchboard

Starting your Switchboard with a soft launch

Strategies for planning and implementing community-wide Switchboard announcements

Gaining traction with a hard launch to your entire community

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

How to drive organic adoption of your Switchboard

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

Annual "Must-Do" Events

Adoption

Fostering better growth and engagement through simple best practices.

Stewardship best practices

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

How to welcome new Switchboard members

Responding to Posts on Switchboard

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

Benchmarking Success on Switchboard

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

Promotional Frequency

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

High-Value vs. Transactional Posting

Worksheet to help organize Switchboard engagement around annual events

Leveraging Annual Events

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

Ways to engage your Alumni Board

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

Leveraging Top Contributors

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

Engaging student and/or alumni moderators

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

Marketing and rollout plans for months 7-12

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

Connecting users through existing posts

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

Using Steward tools to increase connections with users

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

Executing a "War Room" event

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

Making the most of Year 2

Continuing to Engage Alumni and Student Volunteers

Example position description for student/alum moderators

Engagement

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

Switchboard resource library

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

Switchboard Logos and Branding

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

Introducing Switchboard to Stakeholders

Creating a permanent page perpetually promotes your Switchboard

Switchboard Landing Page

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

How to Use Digest Inserts

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

Tabling for Your Switchboard

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

Promoting Switchboard in Your Email Newsletter

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

Promoting Switchboard in Your Alumni Magazine

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

Promoting Switchboard on Facebook

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

Promoting Switchboard on Twitter

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

Promoting Switchboard with Audio and Video

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

Celebrating Switchboard Milestones and Anniversaries

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

Switchboard and Commencement

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

Switchboard and Reunions

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

Switchboard and Holidays

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

Hiring a student to serve as Switchboard ambassador

Switchboard Marketing Kit

Find answers and get help from Intercom Support and Community Experts

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