Documentation
Member Lists
Introduction
The member lists tool allows you to keep track of the work your team has done on a subset of members in the community.
Let’s say you are reaching out to members to personally invite them to your next event. Instead of making a separate spreadsheet to record your progress, you can manually or automatically create a list of members directly in Orbit and keep track of things there.
Member lists are great for keeping track of all sorts of tasks to be done, like:
- Tracking who in your community is new and needs a warm welcome
- Seeing who has not been as active and likely needs a check-in
- Finding out who has reached a community milestone and deserves swag
- Keeping track of who wants to know when a certain product feature comes out
In this article, we’ll cover how to use member lists by walking through all of the key components. Let’s get started.
If you learn better from videos, here’s a walkthrough to help you out:
Create a list
To start using lists, the first thing you must do is create one. You can create a list two ways: from the Lists tab or from the Members tab.
Create a list from the Lists tab
- Go to the Lists tab in your workspace
- Click Create new list
- Add a name, description, and any custom statuses you need for your list.
- After you click Create, you will be brought to your list. Use the Hide Fields column to customize which columns you see on your list. Choosing fewer columns to display is better because it makes it easier for you to skim the list for important information
We suggest choosing a name that makes it clear what action you will do performing, like “Swag Recipients”.
The description field is the perfect place to further explain who to expect in the list and what action you will be tracking with the status column.
Create a list from the Members tab
If you’re already in the members tab looking at members, you can create a list directly from there.
- Select the members you’d like to add to a list
- Click Actions button → Add to list
- Select Create your own from the dropdown
- Enter a name for your list and click Apply
- Use the Hide Fields column to customize which columns you see on your list. Choosing fewer columns to display is better because it makes it easier for you to skim the list for important information
Add members to a list
After you’ve created a list, it’s time to add relevant members to your list. There are two ways to add members to a list: manually or automatically
Add members manually
If you want to add a set of members once, adding manually is the way to go. You might use this if you’re making a list of current champions to contact or of potential event attendees.
You can bulk-add members by going to the Members tab.
- Go to the Members tab and use the filters to narrow down the table to the members you want to add.
- Use the checkboxes to select the members you’d like to add to the list (Or, click Select All if you’d like to add everyone that currently matches your filters)
- Click Actions → Add to list
- Select a list from the dropdown menu
- Click Apply
Add members automatically
If you want members that match certain criteria to be continuously added to your list, then setting up a workflow is the way to go.
You might use this option if you’re setting up a list of really active Discord users that you want to thank, or a list of potential beta testers that you want to contact.
- Go to the Workflows tab and select “Add members to list”
- Specify the criteria that must be matched for someone to be added to a list
- Specify the list that members should be added to
- Click Run Workflow. All members that currently match your filters will be automatically added. Then after that, members will be added on a daily or hourly basis, depending on what option you chose.
Remove members from a list
- Go to the list and select the members you’d like to remove.
- Click the Remove Member from List button at the top of the Actions bar.
Change a member’s status in a list
Now that you’ve set up your list, you can begin keeping track of who you’ve acted on and who you still haven’t. You can do so by using the Status column.
We currently support 3 status categories and provide 4 status options by default:
Status Category | Status Type | What it means |
To Do | No Status | The default status for a member |
In Progress | In Progress | You’re currently working on completing your action on this member |
Done | Completed | You have completed your action on this member |
Done | Skipped | You have decided not to act on this member. |
After you reach out to an individual or put in their order for swag, just go to the Status column to mark the member as Complete.
This is great for helping you and your teammates keep track of who has been acted on and who still needs a reach out.
Delete a list
You may find that the list you created isn’t quite right (or that one of our default lists isn’t right for your community). If so, you and anyone else in your workspace can delete the list.
- Click on the list you want to delete
- Click on the trashcan icon in the upper-righthand corner
Next steps
To help you get the most out of lists, we’ve put together a few playbooks to get you started:
FAQ
How are lists different from tags?
Lists are great for creating a group of members that you need to perform a one-time action and want to keep track of your work, like sending an event invite or emailing a feedback form. Tags are used to record information that you’d always want to know about a member, like their role in your community, topics of interest, etc.
How are lists different from saved views?
Lists provide a way to look at your members from a more actionable perspective. Saved views are a shortcut for quickly viewing a subset of your overall community.
Who can edit my member list?
Anyone in your workspace has write privileges on a member list. This means that they can add members from the list, remove members from the list, change member statuses, edit the list’s title/description, and delete the list.
Let us know what you think and if you have any additional ideas on how to use lists! We’re always excited to hear about new use cases out there.