Using dynamic communities, you can use targeting criteria to define a specific population of users that you want to group. Users that meet specified criteria will be added to this community. If and when they no longer meet these criteria, they will be removed from the community. If you load in new criteria, it can take a few hours to update.
NOTE: Dynamic Communities are updated once a day, overnight. Users that meet or no longer meet the selection criteria may take up to 24 hours to be added or removed from this community. You can use this functionality to create up to 5 dynamic communities.
1. Visit Your Communities Page
2. Add New Dynamic Community
Click Add New Dynamic Community in the top right corner of your screen.
3. Enter Your Community Details
Enter the overview details for your Community. You'll want to include...
- A community name
- Family group (Prospective Families, Current Families or University (both prospective and current families))
- Description (optional)
4. Choose Your Targeting Criteria
4A.) Include users that match any/all of the following criteria
To demonstrate dynamic communities and how the number of estimated recipients changes depending on the criteria selected, we will first show an example of the “any” vs. “all" functionality.
If you select “Include users that match all of the following criteria:” then users must match all criteria in order to be included in a dynamic community. If you select “Include users that match any of the following criteria:” then users are only required to match one of the criteria to be included in a dynamic community.
In our example, we will be creating a dynamic community for users who match all the following criteria:
- Users belong in the “First Year Families” and “Second Year Families” communities
- Users have a Parent Account
- Users joined the portal in the last 30 days
By default, your dynamic community will populate the “Community” targeting option.
You can select your desired communities so that families in those communities are added to this new dynamic community. In this example, we’ve selected “First Year Families” and “Second Year Families” to be added to this community. We can see the number of estimated recipients changes from 0 to 250.
You can also filter by user type within dynamic communities. You can add users to this community depending on if they have an ”Admin” or “Parent” account.
In this example, we’ve only selected “Parents” so the number of estimated recipients has decreased to 235.
You can include users in a dynamic community by their join date, last activity, and last login.
In this example, we’ve selected to include users based on the user’s join date. We’ve selected the last 30 days as a relative date.
Users with parent accounts that have joined the portal within the last 30 days and who are also in the “First Year Families” and “Second Year Families” Communities will be added to this Dynamic community. The number of estimated recipients has decreased to 120. The number of recipients will adjust overnight to add any new users and remove any users who have been in the portal for more than 30 days.
Now that we’ve shown you an example, let's dive deeper into each targeting criteria!
4B.) Targeting by Community
By default, your dynamic community will populate the “Community” targeting option. You can click the "X" to get rid of the community option to start with another targeting criteria.
You can select your desired communities so that families in those communities are added to this new dynamic community. In this example, I’ve selected “First Year Families” and “Second Year Families” to be added to this community .
If you select “Members of all of these communities:” then users must be in all selected communities in order to be included in this dynamic community. If you select “Members of any of these communities:” then users only have to be in one of the selected communities in order to be included in this dynamic community.
4C.) Targeting by User Type
You can filter by user type within dynamic communities. You can add users to this community depending on if they have an ”Admin” or “Parent” account.
4D.) Targeting by Parent Promoter Score (PPS)
You can select a range of Parent Promoter Scores (a measure of how engaged families are based on account conversion, campaign clicks, email opens, etc.) to include families of different engagement levels. We recommend toggling the bar and checking “Estimated Recipients” to make sure you’re including a significant amount of users. In this example, we can see the estimated number of recipients changes depending on the range we select.
NOTE: This example only applies to customers with the Student Enrollment and/or Parent Giving modules.
4E.) Targeting by Activity Date
You can include users in a dynamic community based on their join date, last activity, and last login.
In this example, we’ve selected to include users based on their join date. You can now select Relative or Absolute Date.
Relative Date: Select this option to include users within a selected time frame. In this case, we are including users who joined the portal within the last 90 days.
Absolute Date: Select this option to include users within a specified date range. In this case, we are including users who joined the portal between 2/22/2023 and 3/22/2023.
4F.) Targeting by Profile Field Value
The image below is an example of the different profile field values that can live on each user’s profile.
Using Profile Field Value, you’re able to include users in a dynamic community based on the profile field values you set up in the portal. These profile field values are visible to admins on each user’s profile.
In this example, we have profile field values of student first name, student last name, relationship to student, student id, fafsa, counselor assignment, etc. You can include users in a dynamic community based on any of these profile field values.
Selecting the ‘counselor assignment’ profile value, we receive a drop-down menu. You can select one or more indicators to include users. If you wanted to create a community that included families assigned to a specific counselor, you could configure it this way.
4G.) Targeting by Organization
You can include users in dynamic communities based on which organization(s) they are a part of. You have the ability to use the “any” and “all” functionality. If you select “Members of all of these organizations” then users must be in each selected organization in order to be included in this dynamic community. If you select “Members of any of these organizations” then users only have to be in one of the selected organizations in order to be included in this dynamic community.
You can select users who belong to the Current Families and/or Prospective Families group (these may be labeled differently at your institution).
In this example, members who are a part of either the “Current Families” or “Prospective Families” organizations will be included in this dynamic community.
In this example, however, only members who are part of both communities will be included in this dynamic community because I toggled to "Members of all of these organizations."
NOTE: This example only applies to users who have both the Student Enrollment and Family Communication modules.
4H.) Targeting by Funnel Stage
You can include users in dynamic communities based on the funnel stage(s) they are a part of. If you select “Members of all of these funnel stages,” then users must be in each selected funnel stage in order to be included in this dynamic community. If you select “Members of any of these funnel stages,” then users only have to be in one of the selected communities in order to be included in this dynamic community.
In this example, we are including users who belong to either the inquiry or applicant stage.
If you’re targeting a Funnel Stage, we also recommend adding a Cohort Criteria (see the next step in this guide) so you can specify the entry term you’d like to include in your dynamic community.
NOTE: This example only applies to customers with the Student Enrollment module.
4I.) Targeting by Funnel Cohort
You can include users in a dynamic community based on funnel cohort(s) they are a part of. If you want to include users in various cohorts, select the checkboxes. In this example, we are only including users in the Fall 2023 cohort.
NOTE: This example only applies to customers with the Student Enrollment module.
4J.) Targeting by Funnel
In this example, we only have one funnel, so selecting “Enrollment Funnel” will send out communication to everyone in a funnel stage. If your portal utilizes Parent Giving AND Student Enrollment, you may have 2 funnels.
NOTE: This example only applies to customers with the Student Enrollment and/or Parent Giving modules.
4K.) Targeting by Student Connection Status
You can include users in dynamic communities based on their student connection status. In this example, we are including users who are not connected to a student.
NOTE: This example only applies to customers with the FERPA Management module.
4L.) Targeting by Account Conversion Status
You can include users in a dynamic community based on account conversion status. Users who have registered their account are those that have completed the onboarding survey and created a password for their account. These users are generally more engaged than users who have not registered their accounts.
In this example, we’ve selected to include users who have an unregistered account.
4M.) Targeting by Event Registration Status
For customers who use events with registration, you have the ability to use the “any” and “all” functionality. If you select “Registered of all of these events,” then users must be in each event in order to be included in this dynamic community. If you select “Registered for any of these events,” then users only have to be in one of the selected events in order to be included in this dynamic community.
In this example, users who have registered for any of these events will be included in this dynamic community.
4N.) Targeting by Paid Membership Status
You can include users in dynamic communities based on their subscriptions to various memberships. Targeting criteria for each membership group includes whether users have an active paid membership, an inactive paid membership, or a membership expiring in a specified period of days.
In this example, we are including users who have a paid membership expiring in 30 days.
NOTE: This criteria is only applicable to customers who use CampusESP's Membership Management Module.
4O.) Targeting by Email Confirmation Status
You can include users in dynamic communities based on whether users have confirmed or not confirmed their email addresses. In this example, we’ve selected users who have not confirmed their email addresses.
4P.) Targeting by State
You can include users in a dynamic community based on the state that they are from. States will populate from information you send over in your files and information that families fill out on the onboarding survey.
NOTE: Because this information is pulled from the files you send over and the information families select from the onboarding survey, you may have some states that are formatted differently. For example, Pennsylvania can appear as “PA,” “Pa,” “Pennsylvania,” or another format so make sure you are selecting all relevant indicators.
4Q.) Targeting by Country
You can include users in a dynamic community based on the country that they are from. Countries will populate from the information you send in your files and information that families fill out on the onboarding survey. You can select as many countries as you’d like.
NOTE: Because this information is pulled from the files you send over and the information families select from the onboarding survey, you may have some countries that are formatted differently. For example, the United States can appear as “US,” “United States,” “U.S.,” or another format so make sure you are selecting all relevant indicators.
5. Additional Options
Once you’ve set up your community details and targeting criteria, you will have the option to:
- Exclude the dynamic community’s events on the aggregate calendar
- Exclude the dynamic community’s open rate, click rate, etc. from engagement reports
- Make the community publicly viewable
- NOTE: Families will not be able to join the community, since you are configuring very specific targeting criteria. In most cases, you will want to make your dynamic community a private community.
- You can organize the community in the following community types:
- Class Year
- Location
- Type
- Interest
- System
- Parent Recruiter (For Customers with Parent Recruiter)
- Enrollment Funnel (For Customers with the Student Enrollment Module)
EXCLUSION CRITERIA
You will also, in many cases, be able to decide whether to Include or Exclude certain criteria. Some popular examples of why you might create a community while you "Exclude" certain criteria is to:
- Exclude "Graduated Families" from a "Current Families" community
- Create a community of everyone who has NOT registered for Family Weekend for Family Weekend Reminders
- Create a community of families who have NOT made a gift to send Giving Solicitations
5. Voila! Your New Dynamic Community! was successfully created.
Community population may take several minutes or up to an hour. Your community will live in your list of communities! You’ll be able to see membership numbers, the number of posts + events tagged to this community, as well as open and click rates within these communities.
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