Initial set-up steps

Evelien Schut
Evelien Schut Open Social • 23 October 2017

To get you started, we have listed the steps which guides you through the set-up. The steps are not all critical, but it does point you to a few decisions you can make while setting up.
All steps can be reached via the Sitemanager Dashboard:

SM Dashboard


When clicking on the steps below, you will get directed to a page where there is more detailed information on how to change it.

Feel free to reach out to us if you have questions.

Any technical problems, just send it over to help@getopensocial.com


Branding/Styling


- Add your own Logo and Favicon.
The logo and Favicon (euh What??) > The favicon is the little logo presented in the browser tab :) can be changed into your own.
- Adjust the main colors in the site to your own brand. 
Buttons, links, background colours can be changed into colours that fit your brand.
- Card Corners.
If you feel the corners of the content areas are to round: set a different sharpness via the settings.
- Homepage personalisation.
Write a nice intro text and upload a sphere image on your homepage that reflects the goal of your community.
This homepage is visible for non-registered / non-logged in users.


Site settings

 

- Site name
Set the site's name, which is visible in the browser tab.
- Date format.
Check the order in which dates are presented. For example: 'august 24, 2017' instead of '24 august 2017'
- Site email
Set the emailaddress from which automated emails should be send
- Registration emails.
Check/rewrite the automated e-mails that are being send to users. Make sure they are engaging and in the tone of voice that fits your community.
 


Site Structure


- Public content.
By default all the registered users are able to create public content, which is visible to non-registered users. If you think creating public content should be limited to the higher roles, change it in the settings.

- Menu.
Start setting up your menu structure, by adding pages to the top menu explaining more about your organisation, and adding links in the footer menu.

- Topic Types.
Determine what types of content can be created in the site. The default one are: ' Blog', News', Discussion'.

- Event Types.
Determine if you want to add categorisation to the events that can be created in the platform.

 


Registration


- Open Sign-up?
The default setting is an Open Sign-up, which means everyone can create an account. Determine if this is what your community needs, or change it into an approval flow so that a higher role need to approve a sign-up.

- E-mail verification
Users can sign-up to the platform with or without an email verification process. Change the setting if the default (with) is not according your wishes.

- Privacy

Determine if members should be able to hide their emailaddress to other users in the platform. By default they cannot hide their emailaddress. Change the setting if you feel they should be able to hide their emailaddress! The higher roles will see e-mail addresses no matter what.

- Social Registration/Login

To support members to register and login with their social account, follow the instructions. This functionality makes it easier for users to register.


Other


- Google Analytics

To track the actions in the platform, you can connect Open Social to your Google analytics account.