In the new Podia, community is built into the platform instead of being a separate add-on.

When someone buys a product, joins a plan, creates an account, or signs up for a free product, they can access your community — but only if you’ve set one up.

How you use community is entirely up to you, and you can turn off community visibility for anyone.

In this article, we’ll show you how to structure your account if you prefer not to use community features.

Overview

The biggest change your members will notice in the new Podia is the home feed.

This is the page they’ll see when they log in, replacing the old customer dashboard and acting as the main hub of their account.

From the home feed, members can access their products and see updates or posts from any spaces they have access to.

If you don’t create any spaces, they won’t see a community experience, and everything will continue working as it did before.

At the same time, you’ll still have new ways to communicate with your customers, such as setting up a welcome message or creating posts in a space where only you can post, turning it into an announcements feed.

You can keep things simple — for example, using the home feed just for announcements — or use spaces and discussions if that fits your business.

Community features are flexible to fit your business. You can choose to create posts, manage conversations, and use chat, or you can choose not to.

Setting a welcome message

One of the easiest ways to set up your home feed without using community features is by adding a welcome message.

This message appears on the home feed and can help guide customers to the page where they can access their products.

You can read more about setting up a welcome message here.

Managing your spaces

Spaces give you control over what appears on your members’ home feed.

You can delete all your spaces so members won’t see posts, updates, or community activity when they log in (aside from comments within the products they have access to).

Alternatively, you can keep a single space and use it to share updates or announcements with your customers.

Everyone who is a customer will be added to your general home feed, and you can post a single “Welcome to my business, here’s how to find your way around” message.

Here’s an example post you can share on your home feed to welcome your customers and help them get familiar with the new experience. Feel free to customize it to fit your style.

Title: Welcome to [Business Name]! Here's what to do first.

Thank you for joining. Here’s a quick tour so you can get started right away.

In the left sidebar, you’ll see a few areas of our community:

Home is where you are now. This is your main feed where you can see any updates or comments on your products.
Chat is where you can send me a message or connect with other students 1:1. You can also make group chats with up to 10 members.
Products is where you can find any courses, downloads, coaching sessions, or bundles that you’ve signed up for.
Members is where you’ll find info about other people in my programs. (If you don’t want to be listed in the Members area, you can turn this off in your account settings.)

In the “Spaces” area, you’ll see a list of any discussion areas that correspond with your products or course. If you only see any product-specific spaces, that just means that your purchase didn’t have a forum attached to it.

Finally, you can customize your profile and account settings by clicking on your avatar in the bottom left corner and selecting “Account.”

Click “Profile” to change your profile picture, bio information, social media links, and privacy settings.
Click “Notifications” to customize where and when you get notified of new content.

I’m so excited you’re here, so head to the products tab and let’s get started!

[Your name]