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All About Communities: A Master Help Guide
All About Communities: A Master Help Guide

Learn all about the Ivorey™ community feature, and how to create, manage and promote your free or paid groups!

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Written by Grace
Updated today

Getting Started With Ivorey™ Communities

Before you steam ahead setting up your communities, here's some good-to-know information that will ensure you understand how communities work in Ivorey™, and whether a community is the right fit for your needs.

Learn the basics of communities

Ivorey™ communities are designed to replace tools like Mighty Networks, Skool, Discord, Facebook groups etc. Whilst you may be running a membership, a mastermind or a group program, - think of a "community" as an interactive space for your users to engage with each other, share content, ask questions and build connections. Once you create a community, you can provide login details for people to access the beautifully branded portal you create online too.

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Ivorey™ communities can be structured to organise different topics of conversation into channels. These community areas are seamlessly integrated into your courses, eliminating the need for separate community software. You can create an integrated experience by linking relevant courses in the learning tab, some members also utilise this feature to upsell other courses. You can help members keep track of upcoming calls using the built-in events calendar, and encourage participation by using gamification tools like leaderboards and rewards.

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When someone purchases a product, you can automatically grant access that will trigger an email to be sent automatically providing your new member with their login details via the community email notification settings. We have pre-made email templates ready for you inside the Ivorey™ Template Library to shortcut this process for you!

How many communities do I need?

Most Ivorey™ clients setup multiple communities, breaking them down by offer type. For example, a Coach or Course Creator could have all of these community portals:

  1. A community to host their Membership

  2. A community to host all their Group Programs

  3. A community to host all their Masterminds

  4. A free community to develop relationships and act as a lead magnet

By giving each community its own space, you can customize the branding, who gets access and take full control of each member experience. Plus your members can seamlessly navigate between different communities using the switcher feature.

How long will it take to setup my community?

Besides from loading in your actual content (e.g. pinned posts, videos, uploading files and adding events to the calendar) - each community portal will take approximately 20 minutes to fully brand and set up - including all your automated emails that will replace the system default ones inside your community email notification settings (since we have pre-made all of the templates for you!) Once you've made your first community portal, it will become even quicker next time since you can clone/duplicate the first portal and make the small adjustments and customisations required.

Which type of community should I choose?

There are three types of communities available in Ivorey™ you can choose to create a private, paid or free community.

  1. Private/Paid Communities: In these communities, users must be invited or have a paid subscription to access the linked course.
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  2. Free Communities: Members automatically gain access to the linked course, regardless of whether they've paid separately for it or not.

What's the difference between a community and a course?

A course is a portal that houses all your learning material and content. A community is similar to a facebook group - its a place where you connect, collaborate and chat with your members.

Can the Ivorey™ team setup my community portal for me?

Absolutely! Our mission is to close what we've coined the 'Implementation Gap', which is why women hire us to "do it for them" every single day! Browse and book a done-for-you service right here.

How To Setup A New Community: A Step-By-Step Guide

Below is a step-by-step guide of how to setup your new community - just select the drop-down and follow along!

STEP 1: Set up your Client Portal

Ivorey's client portal feature allows you to create a centralised hub for your clients to access your courses, community, affiliate programs, invoices and contracts all in the one place. This will be the same client portal for ALL of your courses and communities, so you only need to do this once.

TIP: If you have already set up your client portal you’ll only need to complete this once, so skip ahead to the next step!

STEP 1.1: Create a custom domain for your client portal

  1. Click on [Site Pages] in the left-hand menu of Ivorey™
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  2. On the top bar, select [Client Portal] then > [Settings]
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  3. Click [Domain Setup] to setup your Client Portal domain
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    1. Option 1: Customize your client portal domain by updating the text in the “Sub Domain” section, OR
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    2. Option 2: For a unique domain name, you can create a subdomain using your domain provider for example: clients.yourdomain.com

STEP 1.2: Customize your client portal branding

  1. From the main Ivorey™ menu, go to [Site Pages] then > [Client Portal] then > select [Settings] from the drop-down menu.
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  2. Click [Branding] and follow the prompts, and don't forget to save your changes!

STEP 1.3: Setup your user profile inside your client portal

  1. From the main Ivorey™ menu, go to [Site Pages] then > [Client Portal] then > select [Dashboard]
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  2. Click on your [Client Portal URL] and login. If this is your first time logging in you'll be prompted to set up your password.
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  3. At the top left, select the Circle image placeholder, select [View or Edit Profile]
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  4. Follow the prompts to setup your profile, and don't forget to save!

STEP 1.4: Choose your client portal permissions

You can choose which features you want your clients to have access to inside the client portal. The choices are:
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- Communities
- Courses
- Affiliates
- Self-Billing
- Contracts
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To choose what you would like people to be able to access inside your Client Portal, please go to your main Ivorey menu, then [Site Pages] > [Client Portal] > [Settings] > [App Permissions] where you can toggle them on/off based on what you want your clients to be able to access.

Once you make your selections, clients can access the Home Icon (top left of Client Portal) or the App Icon (top right of Client Portal, shown below) to access the different areas of the portal.

STEP 2: Create A New Community Group And Setup Your Profile

Start by creating your new community group, then customise it to suit your needs. Follow the steps and prompts shown, or watch the video tutorial below.

STEP 2.1: Create a new community group in Ivorey™

  1. From the main Ivorey™ menu, select [Courses] then > [Communities] then > [Groups].
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  2. Select [Create Group] and follow the prompts.

STEP 2.2: Set up your user profile for your communities

  1. From the main Ivorey™ menu, select [Courses] then > [Communities] then > [Groups].
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  2. Click on your [Community] and login. If this is your first time logging in you'll be prompted to set up your password.
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  3. At the top left, select the Circle image placeholder, select [View or Edit Profile] and follow the prompts.

STEP 3: Customise Your Group Channels and Branding

With your group made, you're now ready for the fun part - customising it! The next step is to add channels, think of these as dedicated discussion areas within your community, allowing people to engage on specific topics. You can also tailor each group to reflect your brand's unique style and aesthetics. If you have multiple communities, you can create a distinct feel when your members toggle through the different ones they are in.

STEP 3.1: How to create channels inside your community

  1. Click on the [Community] you want to edit
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  2. Once inside on the bottom left, select [Add Channels] and follow the prompts
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  3. You can also opt to make some channels private if you desire to

STEP 3.2: Customise your community branding

  1. From the Ivorey™ main menu, click on [Courses] then > [Community] then > [Groups]
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  2. Select the community you wish to customize, select [Settings] then select [Themes]
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  3. Choose from pre-designed [Community Themes] or leverage the [Custom Theme] option to incorporate your brand's hex codes for a tailored look.
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  4. Click [Save] to apply your chosen theme.

TIP: Be sure to regularly hit ‘save’ so you don’t lose your work!

STEP 4: Add a Course To Your Community Learning Tab (Optional)

Create an integrated experience by linking courses to your community so that your users can access both course content and community discussions from a single, convenient location. You'll notice your community has a 'Learning' tab. This is where you can add courses.

STEP 4.1: Learn use cases and considerations for adding courses to communities

  1. The courses that you add to the learning tab will show up to ALL members of that community, there is currently no way to hide who sees what. Due to this, be sure to only add courses here that you'd be happy for all members of that community to see.
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  2. When you add courses, you can set them as free. This is a great option if you have a group program, course or mastermind for example, where all of the members inside the community get access to the matching course. You could add the course into the learning tab and set it to free.
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  3. You also have the option to set them as paid. This is a great option for free communities, or more general memberships where there's a mixed bag of people inside and you'd like to create more opportunities to sell. Members can click on a course and buy it directly from the community, from whatever price you set it for inside that community itself. If someone already has access to that course, they'll be able to login to it without paying.
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  4. If you don't want to use this feature - you don't need to! Members can always use the 'Home' tab to see all of their courses, so adding additional things to the learning area is not a requirement.

STEP 4.2: Add courses to your community learning area (optional)

  1. Login to the community you want to edit as an admin.
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  2. Navigate to the [Learning] tab then > [Community] then [Add Course] and follow the prompts.

STEP 5: Add an Event Calendar To Your Community (Optional)

Ready to take your community engagement to the next level? The built-in events calendar is designed to help you easily create, manage, and invite your members to exciting gatherings within your groups. Whether you’re hosting a local meetup, online workshop, or celebration, the Events Calendar feature makes it easier than ever to bring your community together and keep everyone in the loop!

STEP 5.1: How to add events to your community

  1. Login to the community you want to add an event and select the [Events] tab.
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  2. On the top bar, select [Community] then > select [+ Event] and follow the prompts

NOTE: When you create new events in your community, it will automatically send a notification to whoever you chose as eligible for that event. It will also send automated reminders about the event so you don't have to worry about doing that manually yourself! We have an email template you can customise to your brand for Event Notifications to help you create a beautiful branded experience! See Step 8 below for where to find these branded email templates and how to pull them into your Community Email Notification Settings.

STEP 6: Create Rewards To Gamify Your Community (Optional)

Gamification is proven to increase user activity, retention, and satisfaction in online communities. Gamify your community to boost engagement, foster competition, and reward loyal members!

By default, Ivorey™ communities will create leaderboards that celebrate members who are proactively engaging in the community through posting, commenting and liking. You can also add your own rewards system on top of this, to actually gift them something when they hit a certain tier. For example, you could encourage community engagement by having free merch, bonus calls, or access to paid courses/communities through your rewards program.

STEP 6.1: How to setup rewards in your community

  1. Login to the community you want to edit and select the [Settings] then > [Gamification & Rewards] and follow the prompts.
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  2. Make sure you have additional workflows or monitoring to actually gift people the rewards once they hit the rank - the inbuilt feature just manages the reward system, but you will need to actually grant them access/deliver the reward to them.

STEP 7: Choose How To Sell or Promote Your Community

There are multiple ways you can sell or promote your community. Use the drop-downs below to find your preferred way!
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Option 1: Share the direct link to your group

By sharing the URL straight to your group, they'll be able to see some basic info about your group, then subscribe and pay. If your group is free, they wont need to pay anything - but both options still require them to create their own account. Once they do this, they will have access the community and also be saved as a new contact inside of Ivorey™

To find the direct link for your group, login to the community and click on the [Invite Members] button > under the [Share your group link] field click on the [Copy] button to copy your group link.
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You can also invite members individually by adding their Name and Email in the fields shown below.


​NOTE: You can only invite someone once, so make sure you have your client portal URL set and your automated emails in place before inviting anyone to your community so all links are up to date and will direct them correctly.
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Option 2: Sell your group via a website or funnel

If you prefer to create a branded sales page for your community, you can follow the Funnels Master Help Guide which will show you how to create a sales page, checkout page and thank you page - then a workflow that grants access to your community. Once you grant access so they can create their own account and login.
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TIP: If you have a standalone paid community that you are seriously invested in growing - then for best practice, we highly recommend building a funnel with an order form on a dedicated checkout page. Although it's slightly more upfront work, you'll be able to get the best tracking and analytics, where you can see how many people viewed your sales page, abandoned cart, and converted. You will also be able to add bump offers at the checkouts and upsells on the thank you pages. Funnels give you the most flexibility, control, and opportunities to increase conversion, as well as the most functionality and features for branding, design and payment options.

Option 3: Include your group as part of another purchase

Many Ivorey™ members sell courses, group programs and masterminds that they want to provide a community for. In this case, all you need to do is add one step in your post-purchase workflow for the other product, to "Grant Access To Group" and use the [Filters] to select the group you want to grant access too. This will tell Ivorey™ they have permission to join the group without charge.

Step 8: Set Up Your Automated Welcome and Login Emails

Once you’ve branded your client portal, set up your community group, and decided how you want to sell it, the next step is to setup your community notification emails that are automatically sent once someone is granted access to the group. The system default email templates are currently in place, but we have pre-made email templates ready for you to customise to your branding that you can download from the Ivorey™ Template Library. By setting up these emails now, it can completely automate your community management experience - including sending your members their login details, notifying them when a new event has been created, plus so much more!
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STEP 8.1: Customize our pre-made email templates

We have created pre-made email templates for you that are available inside the Template Library. They are pre-filled with custom values that will automatically pull in customised data to send, such as your client portal URL and your contact’s login details

  1. From the main Ivorey™ menu, go to [Marketing] then > [Emails] then > [Templates]
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  2. You'll see email templates we have already pre-loaded into your account under the [Community Emails] folder.

    Note: If you don't see the Communities Emails folder inside your Email

    Template list, you can find these by clicking on the [+ NEW] button at the top left of your screen > selecting [Email Marketing Templates] > click [Community Emails] on the left menu > here you can click on each email template to download to your Ivorey Account.
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    Alternatively, you can reach out to the Ivorey Support Team via the Chat Widget and ask us to import the Community Emails Folder into your Account so you can start customising these straight away!
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  3. To edit the email templates, click on each email to open the email builder to customise to your branding by adding your own unique colours, and images. Be sure to keep the custom values we have added as these will automatically pull in your members name, email, login URL etc.

    Note: If you want to send a more personalised welcome email to your community members when they join, you can set this up inside the connecting workflow in step 9 below.

  4. Add your Client Portal URL to your 'Login Here' buttons inside your community email templates so that your members are directed to your Client Portal to login and access their community. To find your Client Portal URL from the main Ivorey™ menu, go to [Courses] > [Client Portal] > [Dashboard] > click the copy icon under 'Client Portal URL'. Then go back to your community email templates, click on the login button, and past your Client Portal URL into the Link Url tab on the left hand settings.
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  5. Hit [Save]

STEP 8.2: Add your pre-made email templates to the Community Email Notification Settings


To have your branded email templates send out to your members automatically, you will need to select each email template inside the Community Email Notification Settings and toggle ON the automated email notifications you want being sent out to your members. This means anytime someone gets granted access to ANY of your community groups, they'll automatically get sent your branded login detail email and any of the notification emails you have toggled on. These emails apply for ALL communities so the text should be generalised - we recommend keeping our email templates with their custom values as is for these emails.
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If you want to send a more personalised welcome email to your community members when they join, you can set this up inside the connecting workflow in step 9 below.

  1. Click on [Courses] in the left-hand menu of Ivorey™ then > [Client Portal] > [Settings] > [Email Settings]

  2. Under the [Communities] tab, toggle each email notifications ON that you want your community members to receive, and pull in the email templates that you customised for in step 8.1.

    The email notifications we highly recommend turning ON are:

    • Group Invitation Email > Joined the Group (user)

    • Group Membership Status Email > Approved (user), Denied (user), New Member Request (Admin)

    • General Group Emails > Tagged in post, Tagged in post @Everyone, Tagged in comment @Everyone, New Calendar Event Created

    • Learning (courses) emails > New Courses Added

      ***NOTE: you only need to turn these on if you are using the Learning Tab feature inside your community ***

    The email notifications we recommend turning OFF are:

    • Subscription/Payment Status Emails > we suggest turning these off as payment processors like Stripe have the functionality to manage these notifications directly.

    • Role Changes > we suggest turning the role emails off unless it's necessary for your group structure to have these turned on.

  3. Press [Save]

Step 9: Test your Community Member Journey

We highly recommend that you test your member journey before going live and sharing it with your community, to make sure that you receive the right emails, and that the workflow triggers correctly. This ensures a smooth client experience for your members, and nourishes your nervous system when it's time to launch knowing all of the automations are working in the background for you.

Step 9:1: How to test if you are using the Community Invite Link to sell or give access to your Community

IMPORTANT: If your Community is PAID you will need to turn it onto TEST MODE by logging into your community > click [Settings] > click on the [Subscriptions] tab > click [Edit] on your price > make sure Test Mode is toggled ON

  1. Login to your community and click on the [Invite Members] button > under the [Share your group link] field click on the [Copy] button to copy your group link

  2. Paste your link into a new browser (where your are not logged into your Ivorey Account) and enter your details to create an account to sign up.


    ​NOTE: If you can, use another email that is not the one you use to sign into Ivorey with so there are no conflicts with the community ownership login you set up when you first created your community.

    For Paid Communities, you can use Stripe's dummy card to purchase by entering the following details below:
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    ​Card Numbers: 4242 4242 4242 4242
    Expiry Date: 12/34
    CSV: 567

    PLEASE NOTE: The dummy card will only work if the Community Subscription is in Test Mode. See Important note above for how to toggle on test mode.

  3. Once you have gone through the sign up or checkout process, go back to your Community Settings and make sure you turn the Subscription back onto Live Mode before sharing your invite link with your community.

Step 9:2: How to test your client experience if sharing or selling your community through a Sales Funnel

To test your Sales Funnel, you will need to put the Funnel into test mode by going to [Site Pages] > [Funnels] > click on your funnel > click the "Settings tab" > scroll down to toggle over to test mode under "Payment Mode"
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Once you have put your Funnel into test mode, you can then paste the Funnel URL into a new browser to checkout as if you were a new member signing up for the community.
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You can use Stripe's dummy card to purchase by entering the following details below:
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​Card Numbers: 4242 4242 4242 4242
Expiry Date: 12/34
CSV: 567

PLEASE NOTE: The dummy card will only work if the Funnel is in Test Mode.
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Once you have gone through the checkout process, go back to your Funnel Settings and make sure you have turn it back onto Live Mode before sharing with your community.

CONGRATULATIONS! You've officially setup your community and are ready to start welcoming your first members through the door! 🥂

Frequently Asked Questions About Communities

Is there a limit on how many groups I can have?

There are currently no restrictions on the number of groups or the number of users within the groups that you can create in a Community. It's important to be aware that this may be subject to change.

Is there an app people can access my community from?

Yes! Please download the Kollab app (here for iPhone and here for Google) which is a free inclusion of all Ivorey™ plans. You will use the same login details as you usually do for your community. You can provide all of your members the same details to also download the Kollab app - and sign in with their own login details too.

Can I white-label my own app for courses and communities?

We are so excited to say that yes - you can! The Kollab app that has been shared above, is also available to white-label with all your own name, courses, community and branding. There is a 3-4 week process to complete the legal documentation required by Apple and Google, but once you do that - it gets officially lodged in the app store (it's a real app!) and your clients or student download it to access all of your content and communities on-the-go! The white-label app can be added onto your current plan for $79 USD per month. To get started, follow the steps below:

  1. From the main Ivorey™ menu, go to [Communities] then > [White Labelled App].

  2. Follow the prompts to subscribe and complete your payment.

  3. You will be redirected to a form where you need to answer questions and lodge some business information in accordance with legal requirements from Apple and Google to be able to get in their app store.

  4. You can also add the colors, images etc for your app - and you'll be notified when it's live and ready to go!

How can I grant admin access for my team to manage my community?

  1. Click on [Courses] in the left-hand menu of Ivorey™

  2. On the top bar, select [Communities]

  3. Select the Community you would like to grant admin access to and login when prompted

  4. On the right side of the screen select [Invite Members]

  5. Under 'Invite via Email' enter your team member's name and email then make sure to toggle on 'Give Administrative Privileges' before clicking [Send Invite]

Can people see all my groups available to join?

Inside the settings for each community group, you'll see an option that allows you to choose between Public or Private. Private means only members can see the contents of that group, whereas public is available for anyone to see - even if they aren't a member. Just below that setting, there is another option that says "Accessible From Switcher" - toggle this ON if you want people to be able to browse all your available groups (no matter whether they are public or private). Turn it OFF if you don't want it shown.

How can I change my community's URL?

You can only modify your community URL once so it’s important to carefully check spelling before saving any changes.

How can I remove a member from my community?

To remove a member from a community:

  1. Click on [Courses] in the left-hand menu of Ivorey™

  2. On the top bar, hover over [Communities] and then select [Groups]

  3. Select the Community you would like to remove a member from

  4. Select the [Members] tab

  5. Find the member you'd like to remove and select the three dots next to their name

  6. Select [Remove Member]

How can I add links into my community?

To add links inside your Community follow these steps:

  1. Click on [Courses] in the left-hand menu of Ivorey™

  2. On the top bar, hover over [Communities] and then select [Groups]

  3. Select the Community you would like to add a link to

  4. On the right side of the screen select [Settings]

  5. Select [Links] then [Add Link]

  6. Add your description, URL and choose whether you'd like to make your link public or private then click [Add Link]

Note: You can add up to 3 links inside your Community. If you'd like to link more courses within your community, consider using the 'Courses' feature inside the 'Learning' tab within your community

How can I close a community that’s no longer active?

  1. Click on [Courses] in the left-hand menu of Ivorey™

  2. On the top bar, select [Communities]

  3. Change the status of your Community to from 'active' to 'inactive'

  4. On the deactivation pop up, click [Confirm]

Once a community has been made inactive, members will no longer be able to post but you as an admin are still able to view the community.

How does the chat feature work inside of communities?

Inside any group, select the [Chat] button on the top right and you'll see a list of your group members pop-up. Click on any member to initiate a private chat with them. If you'd like to disable the chat feature within any of your community groups, please login to your group, then go to your [Profile] in the top right, then [Account Settings] and you can toggle the chat feature on/off.

How do I link my community group to my client portal so members can access it?

Go to [Site Pages] > [Client Portal] > [Settings] > [Apps/Permissions] > in here you can toggle on or off the assets you want your clients to be able to see inside their client portal

How can I make my communities only visible to the members that have access?

To make sure your communities are only accessed by the members you have granted access to, please log into to your Community Group > click [Settings] > under the [Details] tab, scroll down to the bottom > make sure 'Private' is clicked and 'Accessible from Switcher' is toggled OFF > click [Save]
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How can I manage my notifications for my community?

There are several areas you can manage your community notifications:

1. For chat features: Inside your Community, go to [Profile] in the top right, then [Account Settings], where you'll find a toggle to turn the chat feature on/off.

2. For email notifications about new comments or tags: From your dashboard go to [Courses] > [Client Portal] > [Settings] > [Email Settings] > [Communities] tab, untick the email notifications you want to turn off and click save.

3. For app notifications: Download the LeadConnector app and use your phone settings to turn notifications on/off for this app.

STILL NEED HELP? We're just a chat away. Send a message via the widget inside your Ivorey™ account, and we'll be there to support you! You can also browse our done-for-you services if you want us to do the work for you instead 💙

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