Getting started guide
This guide walks you through everything you need to successfully set-up your new HealthUnlocked community — from adding your branding to promoting events and running your first poll. Use it as a setup checklist and refer back anytime as your community grows.
Table of contents
Community Set-up
How to encourage engagement
How to grow your community
- Regular email campaigns
- Social media
- Paid promotions
- Non-digital promotions
Community Set-up
Video length: 3min 19sec
1.Add your logo and banner
Your community’s branding helps build trust and familiarity.
- Logo: 140x140px (JPG or PNG). Avoid text or busy backgrounds.
- Banner: 2500x500px (JPG). Don’t include text or logos — they may be cropped on mobile.
Send your banner image to your HealthUnlocked contact to have it uploaded.
2.Add your community information
The “About” section helps members understand your community. Go to the About section in your community to see option to add/edit: description, guidelines, contact information and support information.
Community description
Include answers to:
- Who is the community for?
- Who runs it?
- Why was it created?
- What topics or themes are welcome?
- Where can people find more (e.g. website, contact info, social links)
Community guidelines
Create a post outlining expected behaviour, then pin it so it’s always visible.
Your guidelines should cover:
- What the community is for
- What members can and can’t do
- Tips for getting started
- How to report harmful or unhelpful content
- Contact details for your team
Enable your support box (optional)
The support box lets you highlight donation or fundraising opportunities. You can link to any external donation platform or page, with a short message and call to action.
3.Set your welcome message
This message appears to new members the first time they visit your community.
Go to the moderation team dashboard and select 'Welcome message'
Include:
- A warm welcome and intro to the space
- What the community is about
- A link to your community guidelines
- A suggestion to post or comment (include a link to “write a post”)
How to Encourage Engagement
Video length: 2min 29sec
1.Create engaging seed content
Early content helps define the community tone and prompt engagement.
Start with:
- Open questions like “What helped you most in your first week with [condition]?”
- Personal stories or reflections — these often encourage replies and build trust
Avoid overly clinical or impersonal content in early days.
- Launch your first poll
Polls are a great way to boost engagement — and they automatically trigger an email notification to your followers.
Tips:
- Use short, accessible questions
- Choose between single or multiple choice answers
- Use results to spark follow-up discussions in comments
2.Create a campaign
Campaigns appear at the top of community pages and help you promote time-sensitive activity.
Use campaigns to signpost:
- Polls
- Events
- Fundraising
- New posts or guides
- Awareness day content
You can monitor and manage performance via the campaign tab.
Only press “Start campaign” when you’re ready to go live — it starts immediately.
3.Add a widget to your website
Increase your community’s visibility by embedding a post feed on your site. Learn more
Add the HealthUnlocked logo or icon to your site to link members to your space. Contact support for assets.
How to grow your community
Video length: 2min 13secs
Communities require ongoing investment of resources to grow and thrive. Community growth requires ongoing and regular promotion. It can be slow to get things going in the first couple of years, but consistency is key! There needs to be a steady flow of new members within your community even after it reaches a good size to offset any disengaging members.
Following these steps & getting your marketing team on board to support the growth of your community will allow your space to grow and flourish in the long term.
Here are the top, tried and tested ways of promoting your community:
Email campaigns
Frequent email campaigns and a regular spot in your organization's newsletter are exceptional ways of getting people to land in your community. Any promotional campaigns that link to your community will increase the likelihood of people finding it.
Social media
Social media and adding links across your channels is another great way of navigating people to your community
Paid Promotions and GoogleAds
If you have the budget, paid promotions, especially google ads, are a proven way of gaining new members aside from your existing audience.
There are Google Ads grants available for non-profit organizations. This is a great way of getting cost-effective access to this promotional tool.
Please note, when using the grant, your Google Ad will need to link to a page on your organization’s website that promotes your community. As HealthUnlocked is a for-profit organization, ads linking directly to HealthUnlocked will not be eligible for the grant.
Non-digital promotions
More traditional promotional strategies, such as leaflets, are also recommended to help you grow your community, especially for those who are more apprehensive about finding information digitally. Talking to specialists and asking to place leaflets in areas such as a doctors office or medical centers, will help promote the credibility of your community and build awareness
Need help?
If you have questions or want help optimising your setup, contact the HealthUnlocked support team at
or via your admin dashboard.
We’re happy to help you plan, launch, or grow your community.