If your Community is looking for a way to better connect its Members to one another, then follow these steps to setup a Community on Towner:
1. Create a Towner Account
If you haven’t already, create an Account on the Towner app. It’s recommended you do this on a mobile device, as the Towner app (different from the Towner Console) is designed for a mobile interface.
A profile requires you share the following information:
- Basic information about yourself (Name, Email, etc)
- A recent picture of yourself, which will be verified later
- Your interests, or Intos
2. Create a Towner Community
Once you’re logged in, navigate to the “Community” tab, scroll to the bottom and hit “Create a Community”.
A community requires the following information, which you can adjust later:
- Community logo / picture
- Community Name and description
- Community address (i.e. any Google location, which could simply be a City)
2. Set Preferences as needed
Customize your Community to serve your Members by specifying (1) how prospective Members should be screened to ensure they belong in your Community, and (2) what Intos, or interests, should Members be able to connect around.
Review the available preferences below to make sure your Towner Community aligns with your needs and expectations.
Member Authentication
By default, a new Community is automatically set to “Users ask to join”. Upon creating a Community, the “Screener Prompt” is requested, and can be adjusted later.
To change the Member Authentication method, navigate to your Community > Community logo > ••• > Member Authentication. Here you’ll be able to change the method to “Email domain verification” and specify the email domain(s) necessary for entrance into the Community.
| Screening Methods | Specifications |
| Users ask to join | Users request to join, then Admins approve/deny prospective Members |
| Email domain verification | Users verify domain-specific email to gain access to Community |
Community Intos
By default, all Intos followed by any Member are visible to the other Members. This allows Members to quickly see what Intos are followed by Members of the community. But some Communities might only want to connect around certain Intos. Or additionally, connect around an Into that doesn’t even exist yet.
To manage the Intos within a Community, an Admin can navigate to the Into Settings page (i.e. Community > Intos > Into Settings). Here, they’ll be able to do the following:
- Activate/Deactivate Into(s): To set the Intos that Members can use to connect, use the “Active” toggle.
- Feature Into(s): To feature Intos on the Community homepage or content page, activate the “Featured” toggle.
- Custom Intos: To add an Into that isn’t available on Towner, use the “+” icon to add a new Into that is only available to your Community Members.
3. Onboard Members
Invite your Members to join your Towner Community by following these steps:
- Open your Community’s onboarding page (Community > Logo > Share icon > Onboarding page)
- Once on the landing page, hit the Share icon, then copy the link.
- Add “https://” in front of the link, then share it to anyone you want to join your community.
- Users will then be walked through the process of joining Towner, verifying their Profile Picture, then requesting to join your Community.
4. Gain insights on your Members
Once you have users joining and connecting within your Community, use the Towner Console to learn more about how to serve your Members in the following ways:
- See what Intos are most popular in your Community to better serve your Membership
- See when last activity was for any of your Intos, so you can gauge how active any activity is within your Community
- Get an idea about the parts of town people are interested in based on the Browsing Addresses of recently active Members.
- See how engaged your Members are with recent activity stats.