How to Use the Community Feature & Best Practices to Build an Engaging Community

We're super excited to announce the launch of Community on the app! Before you enable the feature on your channel and get started, we want to make sure you understand how the feature works and things to take into consideration before you agree to use and promote this feature with your subscribers and audience.

Check out the information below so you can make the best decision for yourself and your business. Plus, get a list of best practices to help you start building an awesome and engaging community!

As always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask — we’re here to help!

How Community Works

Check out this article to see how Playbook’s community works.

Creators can:

  • Post pictures and videos in the group via the Creator App and Admin Panel

  • Respond to users via the Creator App and Admin Panel

  • Add emoji reactions ❤️👏🔥

Subscribers can:

  • Post in the feed

  • Share images and videos

  • Reply to each other by adding comments on posts

  • Add emoji reactions ❤️👏🔥

Promote this awesome new feature on social media with these marketing assets.

Things to Consider Before Opting In

Comparing Our Community to Facebook

We want all creators considering opting into Community to understand that we do not have immediate plans to update this experience — there will be a block of time this feature will not receive any upgrades. We want to make sure you’re comfortable with it before you offer it to your subscribers and audience, so please take a look at the risks and considerations to make an informed decision.

Take the below into account, especially if you already have an existing/established Facebook community.

  • All subscribers on the app can access your community whether they are your direct subscriber, another creator’s subscriber, or an organic subscriber.

    • The likelihood that subscribers outside your immediate community will choose to access and participate in your community is slim, but it is a possibility. You must be comfortable with the fact that subscribers who don’t pay you directly will have access to your community.

  • There are no established gatekeeping or onboarding rules you can set (like in a Facebook group).

    • This means subscribers of all backgrounds will have access. We don’t have the ability to identify only users who purchased directly, all females, all males, people involved in a certain challenge, etc.

    • You will not be able to approve of subscribers who want to join your community. If you need to block anyone or delete posts you can reach out to our support team at creatorsupport@playbookapp.io.

  • There are no available analytics at this time. You can’t see info on how many people are in your community, post interactions, etc.

  • You cannot reply directly to individuals. If you comment on posts, it will be visible to all subscribers.

  • Livestreaming is unavailable. While you can send pictures and videos, you can’t livestream.

  • You don’t have the ability to create a welcome message or pin posts to the top of the community feed.

  • One-time purchase users cannot access the community. The feature will only be available to subscribers for the time being.

Best Practices to Build a Successful Community

These are the 4 things that make a community successful.

  1. Identify themes/topics to post about that work (Check out our suggestions below. You may need to experiment at first!).

  2. Post consistently — create a schedule if that’s helpful for you.

  3. Engage with your community consistently (posting 1-2 times a week is a great place to start).

  4. Market community to subscribers and non-subscribers as a huge bonus to the app with exclusive access to you they won’t find anywhere else.

Topic ideas for posts:

  • Daily or weekly updates: long-form, pre-recorded video and content similar to what you are posting on Instagram

  • Shoutouts/celebrate subscriber success

  • Exercise videos — share exercise videos and even education

  • Nutrition/recipes — share what you eat and education around it

  • Beauty/health tips — your daily skincare routine, makeup routine, products you like, etc.

  • Personal life updates

  • Motivational quotes and comments

  • Say "good morning" and share what’s on your schedule for the day ahead

  • Exclusive video/photo content that cannot be found anywhere else

  • Behind-the-scenes look at where you work out

  • Daily/weekly/monthly challenges you’re running

  • New feature or program you plan to launch

  • Opinions on a variety of topics — favorite podcast, workout equipment, brands, playlist, meal of the day, etc.

Key questions you can ask:

  • Content: Have users help decide the content you’ll create.

    • What content do you want to see more of? (leg workouts, stretching, programs, nutrition, etc.)

  • Content improvement: Have users share their feedback.

    • Are there any ways I can improve my content experience or offerings? Is there content I don’t offer that you think I should?

  • Struggles: Find out what will help users get over their fitness/wellness hurdles.

    • What are you struggling with right now that I can help you solve? What is your biggest fitness/wellness obstacle?

  • Decision support: Prompt users to help you make a decision.

    • What times should I post workouts? I’m thinking about making a new guide, what would be helpful? What kind of workout should I drop next?

  • Prompt: Ask a question that prompts certain users to engage.

    • What types of food make you feel best? What’s your favorite way to practice self-care? Where are my moms at — best recs for getting a baby to sleep? What are your fitness goals?

Encourage your community to share:

  • Progress updates

  • Before and after pictures

  • Pictures of their food

  • Sweaty selfies

  • Post-workout pics

  • Failures and struggles

  • Written reviews

  • Affirmations

  • Feedback

  • Questions for fellow group members

  • Questions for you

Getting Started With Community

How often you should post and how can you keep your audience hooked? While a lot of the activity in the community will come from users interacting with each other, you should aim to post 1-2 times per week to keep everyone active and engaged. Of course you can always post more, but this is a good starting point!

  • Be authentic and know your audience: Focus on what your audience wants rather than making it all about you. Approach your audience in a way that shows you want to help them and provide them with something valuable.

  • Get your audience involved. Go into your community with the intent to make it interactive. Prompt your subscribers to take daily pics of their Apple watch to share their step count, post pics of water jugs to encourage others to drink their water, share additional pics for accountability, etc.

    • EXAMPLE POST: Write down all the bad things you say to yourself in a day and burn the paper at the end of the day 🔥 Share a photo of you burning it here with us & commit to being more compassionate towards yourself — starting today!

Your First Post

Even though you can’t pin posts, you want to make sure your first post in the community welcomes people! Feel free to copy and paste this directly, or just use it as a starting point for your brainstorm.

I am so excited to welcome you all to this amazing community! This is going to be the place I share everything with you, like:

🏋️‍♀️Workout modifications

🍕Meal tips

🧴My fav skincare products

😓My struggles

💪Motivation tips & so much more!

I want you guys to use this as a safe space to share your own struggles, tips, and successes — everyone is here to support and encourage you along the way!

❓Have a question for me? Just ask!

💡Want to share a tip that made squats easier for you? Do it!

🥑Looking for recommendations for healthy snacks? Ask everyone!

We’re all on this journey together so let’s make it count!!!

How to Market Community

A community is a major sales asset to your followers. People want the chance to interact with you, so we recommend marketing that accessibility to gain new subscribers to your app.

  • Share across social media platforms: With the marketing assets we provided, or even creating a selfie video talking about the feature/how excited you are. Share across all platforms to engage with your whole audience!

  • Sell size (even if you’re just starting out): Make people think they’re getting in on something big and impressive.

    • EXAMPLE: “Join me and hundreds of other community members to share motivation, inspiration, and get your fitness questions answered.”

  • Create pinned highlights on Instagram: Be careful about sharing screenshots of sensitive community posts/comments without people’s permission. But, you should create a highlight on IG to promote your community (similar to the way you promote the app).

  • Reach out to your email list: If you have an email list, use it! Send out an email to market this awesome feature and tell people what they can expect if they sign up for the app.

  • Put it on your websites/sales page: Make sure you’re marketing this feature when people are checking out what your app offers.

  • Market it for challenges: When you’re promoting a new challenge make sure you advertise that you’ll be interacting with people in the community (maybe even posting bonus content!) during the challenge to keep those who sign up motivated.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I close down my Facebook group to bring everyone to the app community?

If your Facebook group is well-established, you should still use it to your advantage! Use Facebook to actively promote and sell the app. You should absolutely promote your new in-app community in your Facebook community to help migrate people — if users in your Facebook community have FOMO they might sign up for an app subscription.

  • EXAMPLE: Create FOMO on Facebook by advertising giveaways in the app community or offer a 5-minute FaceTime with users who join and post in the app community. The goal is to get people into the app community (and join as a paying subscriber) to see what they’re missing out on!

We recommend that you gradually build out your community on the app. As you gain a level of comfort, we can work with you to develop a strategy for transitioning your Facebook community over to the app permanently.

What do I do if someone posts something inappropriate or is just too negative for the group?

You can block users in your community or delete posts and other community members can report posts. Get instructions for how to do that here.

Can I close down the community on Playbook if I decide it’s not working for me?

Yes. You can turn off the feature by visiting “Settings” in the Admin Panel.

Who do I contact if I have additional questions?

You can reach out to support at creatorsupport@playbookapp.io.