Groups

[Peta415]

Have you implemented groups yet into your community strategy? How have your users responded to groups? 🤔

[Wendy_S]

Nope. I am anxiously waiting for the new group feature (19.4 release?🤗)

But your question is a little broad. What are you hoping to learn from others who've used groups? 😊

[Toby]

Hi @Peta415 

Groups are outstanding for connecting with customers for focus groups and working on product ideas. Like anything, they need to be promoted well and customers need to invited & white gloved while onboarding.

@Wendy_S love to learn more about the new feature; will it become easier to set up secret Groups? Have been on Lithium for a while and hope the new feature works like Jive-X.

Best,

Toby

[JakeR · Accepted solution]

I will readily admit that I never really 'got' the Groups feature until I had the whole Groups philosophy explained to me a bit more deeply and eloquently by @NickH 

In the old days, we just sort of went with the flow in regards to having a classic 'board' format for the majority of peer-to-peer Community forum-style activity.  When we rolled our Groups 1.0 feature 7 or 8 years ago, I saw the how the features could be helpful, but I generally just thought discussion 'boards' could do the job just as well.

What I have come to realize is that Groups, when done properly, work REALLY REALLY well in a 'collaboration' context.  In a best case-scenario, a properly designed Community Groups feature, assuming it is properly managed, smokes the kind of collaboration that I've seen in Sharepoint, BaseCamp, and lots of other 'collaboration' solutions.  

Currently (and again, admittedly), our Groups feature lags behind in being best-in-class.  I consider it good, but not great.  Fortunately, with our acquisition of the Jive X business from well over a year ago, we got the best and the brightest from that team to bring over their Groups wisdom (Jive always did 'Groups' better than Lithium did), and mingle it with our gamification and metrics (which Lithium always did better than Jive).

I run an internal Group today inside the Khoros Community for employees, and I have found it easy enough to manage, but I sometimes yearn for more.  The good news is that Groups 2.0 is coming and it will be truly best-in-class.  Depending on the sense of urgency for your organization, you could probably do just fine with the Groups feature that we have right now, but in the next 6 months, the feature will get a huge shot in the arm, so the timeline of delivery vs your own sense of urgency may temper any decisions you make.

[Toby]

Really appreciate your answer @JakeR - thank you.
Jive made them very easy to set up and maintain; customers really felt appreciated and enjoyed the collaboration. If you guys are able to make secret groups happen and include the ability to have ideation within them; it will really be a game changer for Lithium / Khoros.
Happy to discuss anytime.
Best,

Toby

[Peta415]

@Wendy_S 

I was really excited when it was first announced, I have this idea, I'm forming into a strategy.

I wanted a general idea how people are using it for their communities. 

@Toby 

From an organic point of view, what sort of promotion have you seen work well for groups?

Or did you get paid social behind it?

@JakeR really appreciated your detailed response, glad to hear groups will be evolving - the six months wait is no big deal, roughly when will we get a teaser about the specs? 🙂

[Toby]

Good day @Peta415 

"From an organic point of view, what sort of promotion have you seen work well for groups? Or did you get paid social behind it?"

How mature is your community? If young, this takes a bit more work, but if mature, relationships have developed and personal communication / invitation is much easier. You may also use community-wide announcements or a pinned post in a particular area explaining a group and ask folks to submit reasons why they want to join. If you are trying seeking a particular skill or knowledge, explain these requirements up front. You may also invite people from within the group.

Before making it public or inviting people to join, ensure you have some content within - you don't want folks landing in an empty room. There must also be an owner(s) who will be stewards of the group. 

Paid or organic social can work too, but I rather work from within the community.

Please let me know if you have other questions.

Best,

Toby

[Rachie1986]

DOES ANYONE HAVE A DATE FOR WHEN THIS WILL BE RELEASED THE 19.4? GROUPS THAT ARE ACTUALLY CLOSED? 

[Chrismcnamara]

Really great to see the energy for groups in this discussion.

My question is how do we construct a group in the Khoros platform with custom content of uploaded files for group members to access?