Collaborator Guide: Blog & Resource Content
Having a variety of content for community members to read is a great way to engage and share information to draw your members to the community.
The guide below walks you through the steps to create, edit and manage written content from your dashboard.
Dashboard
The dashboard is the behind-the-scenes or back end of the community where you can create and manage content.
Your community administrator is the one who has granted access and permissions to you. Therefore if you are unable to access something that you believe you should be able to, please reach out directly to your administrator.
The direct link to your dashboard is dashboard.gradual.com.
Navigate to that link and sign in by entering your email address in the email field. This will prompt the system to send a magic link to your email inbox to log into the dashboard.
Follow the link in your inbox and you will be directed to the dashboard. Select the community you will be managing, and you're in!
Blogs vs. Resources
Blogs and Resources are similar to the extent they are both written content in your community and it takes the the same steps to create them.
Resources are very similar to blogs, but come with a table of contents on the right-hand side of the page for easier navigation. Users can select items from the table of contents to navigate them directly to those sections of the content in the resource description.
Creating and Editing Blogs and Resources
The guide below walks through creating and editing written content and the access and permissions for those as the Blog/Resource Editor (fewest permissions/most limited access) to the Blog/Resource Admin level (most permissions/most expansive access).
The permissions and access build off of the level before, so Blog/Resource Managers have all the permissions and access of a Blog/Resource Editor plus any listed below that level. A Blog/Resource Admin has all permissions and access of a Blog/Resource Manager, plus those of a Blog/Resource Manager, plus any listed below that level.
The administrator of your community has configured your access and permissions, so if you think there is something you should be able to access or see that's not available, reach out to your administrator directly.
Blog/Resource Editor
As an Editor, you can create, edit and manage many elements of a blog or resource.
To create or edit blogs and resources, navigate to the Content menu item in the dashboard and select Blogs or Resources.
Creating blogs or resources
- To create and write a blog, select the +New Blog or the +New Resource button at the top right.
- Fill out all of the fields required including the title, sub title, and cover image. The Title will be visible on the front end, and the subtitle will populate under the title and should be a one-liner description.
Note: The Summary is not mandatory but populates under the Content page and provides another opportunity to summarize and describe the blog or resource. It can be the same text as the subtitle if you'd like.
Listing an author is also not mandatory, but a great way to give credit to authors, or promote members of the community who are writing pieces.
- Fill the Content description with your content! You can embed links, tables, images, and even iframes in the content block.
The following are links to more helpful articles around blogs and resources:
For Resources content blocks, you can create a table of contents by using 'Heading 1' and 'Heading 2' as text types and sizes. Heading 1 will be the first delineator, and Heading 2 will be the second delineator.
You can also copy and paste blog content from a markdown editor or Google docs. Just be sure to double-check as some formatting doesn’t always copy over when pasting.
Preview and publish! Before a blog or resource is published you can preview the post using the preview link, found in the upper right-hand side of the detail page in the dashboard.
Note: This link is a special tokenized link that will expire after 24 hours to prevent blogs from being viewed before they’re published.
Editing blogs or resources
If at any time you want to make changes to the content, or information, you can do so by selecting the edit icon, or the eye icon in line with the blog or resource from the list, and selecting the 'Edit' button in the upper right.
Once published, you can change the Published Time. The most recently published content will be listed first on the homepage and content page.
Changing SEO settings
You can make edits to the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of each blog or resource by selecting the 'SEO Settings' button in the upper right-hand side. This allows you to change the title that's listed when social sharing or searching, add keywords to guide users to your piece and provide a description of up to 160 characters. The platform will automatically load the cover image as the social sharing image, but you can upload any graphic you'd like in its place.
Blog/Resource Manager
Managers have all access and permissions listed above under Editor plus the ability to publish or unpublish the blogs or resources.
Publishing blogs or resources
Published blogs and resources are visible and searchable on the front end to members.
Once you have uploaded and created the piece and are ready for it to 'go live' on the front end of the community, you must Publish it.
All blogs and resources remain unpublished and hidden until an admin or collaborator takes action to publish them.
You can publish it by selecting the eye icon in line with the blog/resource from the list. From here you'll be navigated to the page, and you'll select the green 'Publish' button at the top.
Unpublishing blogs or resources
Unpublished blogs and resources are hidden from members on the front end and the community home page or content page. Keep a blog/resource unpublished while it's in draft form, or if you want it hidden until a certain date or time.
All blogs and resources remain unpublished and hidden until an admin or collaborator takes action to publish them.
If you need to unpublish it, select the eye icon in line with the blog or resource from the list. From here you'll be navigated to the page, and you'll select the red 'Unpublish' button at the top.
💡 Pro Tip: Unpublished blogs or resources are visible and accessible through the direct URL!
If you would like certain people to view the content piece, but don't want it visible to all members, keep it unpublished and share the Blog or Resource URL found on the blog/resource's page in your dashboard (beneath the Cover Image graphic).
Blog/Resource Admin
Admins have the combined access and permissions of Editor and Manager, plus the ability to change the URL slug, and delete the blog or resource entirely.
URL slug
This is the text that is included in the URL and direct link to the blog or resource. The platform automatically populates a slug that includes the title and the date that it was created. You can edit the text included in the slug, but note that changing it may affect SEO performance if it has been shared in the past or includes great keywords related to the blog or resource.
Deleting blogs or resources
If you need to delete the piece entirely, select the eye icon in line with the blog or resource from the list. From here you'll be navigated to the detail page, and you'll select the white and red 'Delete' button at the top.
Deleting is permanent and you will NOT be able to recover the blog or resource once it's deleted.
If you'd like the blog to be hidden from the front-end community, simply Unpublish it by selecting the red 'Unpublish' button at the top.
💡 Pro Tip: Add tags! Tags serve to power related content and group it in a way that members can select a tag, and see all content that's been tagged and is related.
Tags should be one word, or very short as they appear as hashtags either below the title, or beside the content list to navigate users to grouped content.
