Best Practices: Community Experience Surveys in Aurora
Community Experience Surveys provide community managers with a way to identify issues and optimize the community. Does this replace my existing survey tool? No. The Community Experience Survey complements any existing survey tool you may have. However, the Community Experience Survey provides more granular member details, such as node- and rank-specific data, that other tools can’t provide out of the box. Where should I deploy the survey? Where you deploy the survey depends on what questions you want to answer. For example, if there are certain boards you want to focus on, then deploy the survey there. However, you can also deploy surveys in the entire community first to get a sense of the baseline response and response in each place since you can always filter at the board level in the CSV Export for survey responses. When should the survey fire? We recommend not firing the survey immediately when a visitor lands on the page as it is disruptive to the user experience. (Remember, your visitors are there for a specific reason, and you don’t want to get in the way of that goal.) However, at the same time, you don’t want to wait too long to fire the survey as the browser session may expire. We recommend something in between. One approach is to see what your average Member Time on site is from Community Analytics and reduce that value by 20% to get close to the time when a user is nearly complete with their task/session. How long should I run the survey for? How do I know I’ve collected enough data? We recommend running the survey continuously so that you have a larger set of data to analyze. Visitors will receive the survey once within a 90-day period (by default, but this setting is configurable). However, if you plan to turn the survey off at some point, we recommend keeping the survey running for as long as it takes for the mean/average of the results to stabilize and not change much with additional samples. What’s a good response rate? For web-based surveys, 5-15% is a good response rate. For mobile-based surveys, 10-20% is a good response rate. Since the majority of community traffic is still web based, you should hope to see about a 10% response rate.Pull different Aurora community content into an RSS feed using URLs
You can pull different community content from different levels in the community in an RSS feed using URLs. To pull the most recent RSS results for the entire community, use: https://yourdomain.com/t5/s/[CommunityID]/rss/Community For example, for Atlas, you'd use: https://community.khoros.com/t5/s/lithosphere/rss/Community To pull content over the RSS for a category, use: https://yourdomain.com/t5/s/[CommunityID]/rss/Category?category.id=[CategoryID] For example, if Atlas had a category with the ID of "Social," you'd use: https://community.khoros.com/t5/s/lithosphere/rss/Category?category.id=Social Note: Category IDs are case sensitive. To pull content over the RSS for a KB, use: https://yourdomain.com/t5/s/[CommunityID]/rss/Community?interaction.style=tkb For example, for Atlas you'd use: https://community.khoros.com/t5/s/lithosphere/rss/Community?interaction.style=tkbAurora: Guides widget configuration
The Guides widget appears on the Knowledge Base Dashboard page template in communities that use the KB Guides feature. The KB Guides feature also enables you to turn on or off guide navigation (table of contents) on the Knowledge Base Article template. To learn more about KB Guides, refer to About KB Guides. Type The KB Guides feature enables you to organize your content either by Guides or by Manually-sorted Articles. Guides: Create a hierarchical structure for listing and ordering articles into Guides and Chapters to enhance organization, improve navigation, and provide a more structured learning experience for users. Manually-sorted Articles: Manually sort knowledge base articles on the KB board in Manage Content > Guides by dragging and dropping them into the desired order. This enables members to view and navigate the content in the sequence you prefer. Layout If you choose Guides for the Type, you can select from the following Layout options: List Card If you choose Manually-sorted Articles for the Type, you can select from the following Layout options: Detailed list List Card Configuration options List style The available List style options for Detailed list and List include: Space: Uses whitespace to create space between items. Divide: Adds a horizontal line to divide items. Border: Creates a border that separates items into individual boxes. Card size and text alignment If you select Card as the Layout type, you can set the Card size (Small, Medium, or Large) and the Card text alignment. Widget title The Widget title sets the title that appears at the top of the widget. If the Visible only to screen readers toggle is enabled, the title remains hidden to most visitors; however, the title information is still relayed to visitors using screen readers. Number of items Use the slider to indicate how many articles or guides (up to 20) can be displayed on the widget. List item/card elements Elements are additional pieces of information that can be displayed along with each item in the widget. The list of available elements changes depending on which layout you've selected. Guides Layout options Description: Description of the KB Guide defined in Manage Content > Guides for the knowledge base Avatar: (Card only) Knowledge Base content type avatar or avatar defined in site structure Manually-sorted Articles Layout options Author: Username of the author of the article Body preview/teaser: (Detailed list and Card) Preview text for the article Image preview: (Detailed list only) A preview of any image(s) in the article Centered card content: (Card only) Article content is centered on the card Media preview: (Card only) Preview of any media included in the article Place: (Detailed list and Card) Board where the article lives Reply count: (Detailed list and Card) Total number of replies to the article Tags: (Detailed list and Card) Any tag(s) associated with the article Timestamp: Time and date the article was published Unread message indicator: (Detailed list only) Total number of unread posts or comments on the article (for example, "1 unread"). View count: (Detailed list and Card) Total number of views the article has received Like count: (Detailed list and Card) Total number of likes the article has received Author rank: (Detailed list and Card) Rank of the author of the article Detailed list and List layouts have an additional Lead with drop-down menu. It enables you to choose to display the item author's Avatar, discussion style Icon, or None along with the item in the widget. Max lines of description text The Max lines of description text slider gives you control over how many lines of text from the post are displayed along with the post in the widget. After the set number of lines, an ellipsis (...) is used. More options Additional options are available at the bottom of the Edit Widget panel: Hide if empty: Hides the widget if there are no articles or guides to be displayed. Include “More Guides” link: Adds a link to the bottom of the widget to enable visitors to display additional items once the Number of items has been reached. Configuring the Knowledge Base Article content widget In communities that use the KB Guides feature, the Knowledge Base Article widget on Knowledge Base Article templates can be configured to show the guide navigation. To configure the Knowledge Base Article widget for KB Guides: In Designer, go to the Knowledge Base Article template where you want to adjust the widget. Locate the Knowledge Base Article widget and select Settings (gear icon). In the Edit Widget panel, below Guides, turn on or off Show guide navigation. With Show guide navigation on, guides appear on the article page within the widget. With Show guide navigation off, the widget appears as though you do not have the KB Guides feature enabled and does not show a table of contents.Aurora: View community experience survey results
Admins can enable community experience surveys, which prompt members to provide feedback about their experience in the community (see Create community experience surveys). Survey responses and scores can be collected via an export. These results are in CSV format. To export community experience survey results: Open the Account menu. Select Settings. Select Content Features. In the left column, select Community Experience Survey. In the Questions and Answers section, beside Survey results, select Export. The CSV file contains the following information for each visitor who responded to the survey: The date on which the survey was taken The place in the community where the survey was triggered The username of the member who took the survey The member’s rank The member’s role(s) The answers given to each questionAurora: Create community experience surveys
Admins can enable community experience surveys surveys, which prompt members to provide feedback about their experience in the community. Survey responses and scores can be collected via an export (see View community experience survey results). Create a survey Creating a survey requires several configuration steps, including designing the branding, designing its behavior, selecting its questions, and finally, turning it on for visitors. To access survey configuration options: Open the Account menu. Select Settings. Select Content Features. In the left column, select Community Experience Survey. Set up your survey: Design survey branding Design survey behaviors Select your questions Turn on the survey for visitors Design survey branding In the Branding area, select Edit. In the window, update the following as needed: Community name: The community name used in survey questions Brand name: The brand name used in survey questions Survey logo: Use a PNG or SVG logo; horizontal preferred. Text color Header background color: Used in the background of the survey header Select Submit. Design survey behaviors In the Survey Behaviors section, select Edit. Select whether you want to Present To: Signed-in members Anonymous users Both members and anonymous users (Optional) Select the role(s) you want to survey. (Optional) Select the role(s) you don’t want to survey. (Optional) Select the place(s) where you want the survey to be triggered. In the Frequency area, enter the number of Maximum responses to collect per month. This field sets the maximum number of surveys to collect for a given calendar month. After collecting this number of responses, no users will be prompted to take the survey until the first day of the following month. Enter a number of visits in the Present survey after this many visits field. This field sets the number of visits (0-500) to wait before prompting a viewer to take the survey. For example, if set to 3, the viewer isn’t prompted to take the survey until their fourth visit. Default = 0, which is the first visit. Enter a number of minutes in the Present the survey after this many minutes field. This field sets the number of minutes (1-60) to wait before prompting a viewer to take the survey after the defined number of visits have occurred. Default = 2. In the Conditions area, enter a number of days in the If declined/abandoned, repeat after this many days field. This field sets the number of days (1-365) to wait before prompting a viewer to take the survey after they’ve declined to take the survey. Default = 30. Enter a number of days in the If completed, repeat after this many days field. This field sets the number of days (1-365) to wait before prompting a viewer to take the survey again after they have already completed it. Default = 90. Select Save. Select your questions In the Questions and Answers section, select Edit. Use the toggles to turn on or off the questions you want to include or exclude on your survey, respectively. Some questions have follow-up questions based on the selected responses. Note: Because this survey is intended to gather important metrics and feedback, including CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score), updating question titles and the order of questions is not permitted. Use the checkboxes by responses under your selected questions to designate which responses will be available for those taking the survey. Select Save. Turn on the survey for visitors After you have designed your survey the way you want it, you can enable it for your visitors by turning on the Community Experience Survey toggle at the top of the Community Experience Survey section.About Inbox privacy
While you and your administrators cannot turn off your ability to use the Inbox, there are some actions you can take to personalize and privatize the experience. One such way is muting. In future releases, more options will be available. Mute conversations You can mute conversations in your inbox to avoid receiving notifications for them. This can be useful if there is an extensive conversation occurring and you do not need to view every update but may still need to reference the conversation. To mute a conversation: Go to the Inbox. Select the conversation you want to mute. Open the Options (three dots) menu and select Mute (for one-on-one conversations) or Mute Group (for group conversations). Note: You can unmute a conversation at any time by opening the Options menu again on the conversation and selecting Unmute or Unmute Group. In muted conversations, you still receive new messages—you just do not receive in-app or email notifications when you receive the messages. Muted conversations appear under the Inbox tab and Muted tab with a slashed-out bell icon below the timestamp of the message.About KB Guides
KB Guides is designed to enhance the way you host and navigate knowledge base content within your online community. KB Guides offer a structured and user-friendly approach to presenting valuable information, making it easier for members to find what they need. With KB Guides, brands can efficiently organize and share resources such as training materials, onboarding documents, FAQs, and more. This ensures a seamless and informative experience for community members, helping them access relevant content effortlessly. Enablement KB Guides are enabled by default in Communities Aurora v24.07 and above for all communities using knowledge bases. Permissions Members with the Create, edit, publish, and manage articles permission on the knowledge base board can add a KB Guide to it. Guides widget To start with creating KB Guides, you must add the Guides widget to a Knowledge Base Dashboard template. Set Type in the Guides widget as per your requirement: To view the articles as Type Structured Guide Guides Manually-sorted list Manually-sorted Articles Guides widget configuration Related Topics Adding KB Guides Guides widget configuration General actions on KB Guides, Articles, and ChaptersAurora: Set community to offline mode
If you are performing maintenance on your community, you may want to prevent activity from taking place as you resolve issues. With offline mode, you can present a notice to visitors so they know maintenance is underway and that they cannot participate until the community comes back online. When the community is in offline mode, members cannot: sign in read content create new posts or reply to any content like posts, mark posts as solutions, tag posts, or edit posts reply to messages in their inbox or create new private messages follow or manage existing follows update their member settings Members can still receive email notifications if content is posted by admins during the time the community is offline. When the community is in offline mode, admins are still able to: sign in to the community post content modify site settings update the theme use back-end functionality such as APIs Enable offline mode Open the Account menu and go to Settings > System. Below General, toggle on Enable community offline mode. Confirm this action by selecting Take Community Offline. Customize your maintenance page You can customize the title and message on your maintenance page so that your visitors know what to expect when they reach your community while it is offline. To customize the message: On Settings > System > General, below Enable community offline mode, select Edit beside Title and Description. In the Edit Offline Text window, edit the Title and Description as desired. Select Save.Aurora: Community email options
Khoros Communities offers several email configuration options to ensure the deliverability and security of emails sent from your community. This article goes over the common email configurations that Khoros provides in a standard community launch. Note: Additional email configuration options might be feasible but aren't included in your community launch. Consult with your Khoros representative for more information. Modify sender name and address You can modify the sender name and address of community emails in the admin settings. For example, emails are sent from “Community Mailer” and "mailer@us.khoros-mail.com" by default in US-based communities. You can change this to something better tailored to your brand, such as “Acme Community” and "notifications@mailer.acme.com." Refer to Edit the Aurora community email sender name and address for steps. SendGrid SendGrid is Khoros’ current default relay used by most of our customers. SendGrid features higher mail delivery rates and is capable of handling much more traffic. However, due to our infrastructure, SendGrid does not support strict DMARC policies (“none” is supported). SendGrid is required for the Community Analytics (CA) metrics reporting feature. We do not support Community Analytics email reporting for any other relay type. Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Khoros strongly recommends that all customers update their SPF records to include the region-appropriate Khoros domain. This helps provide a good balance of deliverability of mail from Communities, reduce setup time, and increase security. Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records enable domain owners to publish a list of IP addresses or subnets that are authorized to send emails on their behalf. The goal is to reduce the amount of spam and fraud by making it more difficult for malicious senders to disguise their identity. SPF records can be set only on the A DNS record, not a CNAME DNS record such as (community.customer.com). We strongly recommend that the sender address is a subdomain of your primary domain and that the SPF record is set on that subdomain. For example, if your primary domain is [customer.com], we recommend the sender address to be a subdomain such as [anything@mail.customer.com] and to set the SPF record there. Refer to Configure SPF records for community emails for more information. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) is an email authorization technique that leverages unique keys to digitally sign mail. This is done by adding an encrypted DKIM signature to the message header. DKIM helps combat certain techniques often used in phishing and email spam, such as emails with forged sender addresses that appear to come from legitimate organizations. This configuration requires coordination with Khoros in order to exchange key information and configure the Khoros mail relay properly. Note: Strict DMARC policies are not supported and require a Custom Relay instead. Refer to Configure DKIM for community emails for more information. Custom Relay In the rare case that none of the above options are acceptable, you can use your own mail servers for delivery. Essentially, all email outbound from Community are sent to your mail server first and then out to complete the delivery. This solution involves additional engagement with the Khoros Professional Services team.Aurora: Configure DKIM for community emails
DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) is an email authorization technique that leverages unique keys to digitally sign mail. This is done by adding an encrypted DKIM signature to the message header. It helps combat certain techniques often used in phishing and email spam, such as emails with forged sender addresses that appear to come from legitimate organizations. Our customers commonly implement DKIM records together with SPF to meet DMARC policies. This can provide better protection for your domain against malicious emails sent on behalf of your domains. Learn more about SPF setup. Note: Khoros cannot support a custom DKIM implementation in conjunction with SendGrid custom relays. Custom DKIM implementations also prevent the use of Communities Email Analytics. To perform this implementation with Khoros: Provide Khoros the mailer address to be used. Refer to Edit the Aurora community email sender name and address for best practices regarding the address choice. Khoros will provide the DKIM selector and key, which your teams will then install on the target mailer subdomain. Validate the DKIM configuration using tools such as mxtoolbox. The domain to check is the part following the @ symbol in your mailer address. For example, if your address is notifications@mailer.customer.com, then the domain to check is mailer.customer.com. Ensure all checks pass with the domain and selector. Once the DKIM configuration on your DNS entry is validated, Khoros completes the final Community configuration. Best Practices Refer to Edit the Aurora community email sender name and address for best practices regarding the choice of mailer address. You must use DKIM if you have restrictive DMARC records in place, even if you do not want to DKIM sign emails. The strictness is indicated below: Strict - Reject Strict - Quarantine (with a 25%+ apply percentage) policy Relaxed - Quarantine (with a < 25% apply percentage) policy Relaxed - None policy DKIM deliverability is not as high as with SPF only due to the IP addresses of the Khoros DKIM mail relays being newer (~2020) and part of AWS’s IP space. These relay servers may never be considered trusted by some email vendors for this reason, thus being more susceptible to emails being blocked. You must ensure there is no SP (Subdomain Policy) attribute present on the same subdomain. This can result in your top level DMARC policy being applied to your subdomain, and as a result, email not being delivered. To do this: Go to https://mxtoolbox.com/DMARC.aspx. Add your domain in the field (for example, khoros.com or everything after the @). Select DMARC Lookup and see if an SP message is displayed, which should look like this: “Organization Domain of this sub-domain is: example.com Inbox Receivers will apply example.com DMARC record to mail sent from mail.example.com”
