Groups are the foundation of your Blink experience. There are two ways to group users together; in a team or in a community.
A team is a type of group that is defined by an administrator and usually reflects your organizational structure. Only an administrator can add or remove team members.
A community is a type of group that’s discoverable and open for employees to join or leave as they please.
In this article:
See below for further details on groups:
Groups Explained
There are two types of groups in Blink: teams and communities.
Teams | Communities |
Teams are defined by administrators and their membership tends to reflect your organizational structure. Think about your organizational team structure - locations, departments and roles.
For example: HR, Operations, Location 1, Location 2, Managers, and everything else. | Communities are discoverable and open for employees to join or leave. Think Company Pets, Menopause in Work, Company Marketplace, Veterans, LGBTQ+, Run Club, PetrolHeads, the Knitting Society, and so much more!
Communities offer a place to connect around social or well-being topics and interests. |
Users can be added to teams in bulk and/or automatically based on their profile details. | Communities allow any user to become a part of the group but don't presently support the option to add users to the group in bulk: users can be added individually or they can add themselves independently |
When content is shared on Blink - via any feature, e.g. journeys, the feed, or the hub - you must select an audience for your content. The audience picker will surface the users and groups (teams and communities) you have permission to share to:
When a user is added as a member of a group, that user will be able to see all content shared to that group throughout Blink. If you leave a group, you will no longer see that group’s content in the Hub; however, any feed posts shared to that group will remain in your feed so that you don't lose any important information.
Viewing groups
There are two ways to access groups:
Via the Connect menu (web and mobile)
Via the Groups widgets (web only) - speak to your admin if these aren't visible on your main feed.
Connect > groups
A user can view groups via their Connect menu. See my groups and discover groups carousels:
My groups
My groups surfaces all groups I am a member of, starting with my teams and then my communities, listed in alphabetical order. I can scroll through the full list from my Connect page, or I can click through to a dedicated page displaying all My Groups. The dedicated page separates your teams and your communities.
Discover groups
Discover groups surfaces open groups that I am not a member of - this is the full list of your organization's communities. They are listed by popularity (e.g. those with the biggest membership first). I can scroll through the full list from my Connect page, or I can click through to a dedicated Discover Groups page.
Anyone in the organization can discover and join your communities.
If I don’t have any communities setup, the Discover Groups carousel will not be visible:
Clicking on any group from the Connect menu will take me through to the group homepage. Read here for further details.
Note: Discover Groups shows me communities I can join. It does not show me teams I am not a member of. This is designed to complement your organizational structure, as location, role, or department are fixed.
Groups web widgets
On web, admins can add two groups widgets to the left or right columns on the main feed:
Discover groups widget
My groups widget
Discover groups widget
Consistent with the Connect page, our Discover groups web widget surfaces open groups that I am not a member of - this is the full list of your organization's communities.
They are listed by popularity (e.g. those with the biggest membership first). If there are too many groups for my widget to display, I can click View all on the widget (it will become visible if you hover bottom right of the widget), to be taken through to my dedicated Discover groups page.
If I don’t have any communities setup, the Discover groups widget will not be visible.
My groups widget
As with the Connect page, My groups web widget surfaces all groups I am a member of, starting with my teams and followed by my communities, listed in alphabetical order. If there are too many groups for my widget to display, I can click View all on the widget (it will become visible if I hover bottom right of the widget), to be taken through to a dedicated My groups page.
FAQs
What will my end users see if I choose not to set up a community? | If I don’t have communities setup, the Discover Groups carousel will not be visible. |
Who can create a community? | At the moment, only Organization Admins and Content Moderators can create communities. We may explore changing this in future, pending customer feedback. Read more here about creating and editing groups. |
Who can join a community? | Anyone can join a community. Users can discover and join them at their discretion. |
Do group channels work for communities? | Yes. A default channel will be created for every community. This is the natural home for community communications. Group admins can create more channels if they wish. Read more here about Group features. |
Can members be added automatically to a community? | Members can only be added manually. Unlike teams on Blink, community membership is user-led and therefore automatic membership rules are not accessible for this type of group. |