Before You Get Started

Welcome to BigTent! We provide a free service that's designed to help you connect with the communities you care about. We think of our service as the "Swiss army knife" for groups.- We have a ton of features, including membership management, payment collection, discussion forums, and subgroups. You pick which features are best for your group, making it easy to customize BigTent for groups both big and small.

This guide will walk you through the steps to set up, add content to, and launch your group. The "jump start" instructions are essential for you to start your group, but this section will only take 10-15 minutes, and you can do the rest whenever you have time. We look forward to seeing more of your group!

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Jump Start Instructions

 

Create a group on BigTent:

• Go to www.bigtent.com/signup, fill out the form, and click "Create my group."
• Sign in, or create your new account on the next page.
• Choose which features to add to your group and click "Finish."

 

Once your group is created, you need to complete a few more steps before you're ready to invite members, or move your exisitng membership:

• Inform members about the switch to BigTent (if applicable). We've prepared this helpful template message (in a Word doc) which you can edit and email to your members to alert them to the switch. Also check out this FAQ for info to help your members get started using BigTent. 
• Create a membership form. Go to manage > invite members > member types and forms. Learn more: Video & Guide: How do I collect information from my members upon registration? NOTE: If your group plans to collect membership dues, see:  Video & Guide: How can I set up my group to collect membership dues through BigTent?
• Decide on new invitation settings. Go to manage > invite members > new invitation settings. Learn more: Video & Guide: How to Customize Member Invitations You can decide on renewal settings too, if applicable. Go to manage > invite members > renewal settings.

You can continue setting up your group by adding content and customizing the look and feel of your group. See "The Nitty Gritty" section for details. Or you can invite members to your group.

 

Invite members:

• Go to manage > invite members and add or invite your members now. Check out these helpful guides and FAQs about inviting members to your group:  

- What's the difference between inviting and quick adding members?

- Video & Guide: Inviting members to join your group or subgroup

- Video & Guide: How do I add members and their information to my group?

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Visual Aid

 

 

Can't see the video above? Click here to view it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/v/DTh7tM6tOEM

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The Nitty Gritty

 

How can I get help setting up my group?

• Join the BigTent Group Administrators group to get advice from other group leaders.
• Browse our FAQs to learn everything you could possibly want to know about BigTent.
• Get help from within your group. Give members special leadership permissions to help share the workload of group leadership. Check out our Video & Guide: Delegating responsibility to other group leaders using Roles and Permissions to learn how.

Customize your group

• Choose a color theme. Go to manage > customization. Learn more: How do I change the theme color or background color of my group?
• Feature content on the group's home page. Learn more: Video & Guide: How do I feature photos, news, polls, or a video on the Buzz page?
• Go to manage > group information to edit information, group picture, and other settings. Learn more: Where do I add or edit information about my group?
• List your group's leadership team for members to see. Learn more: Video: Assigning Leadership Titles

 

Enable features and add content

The following are features available in BigTent. Click on each feature to see FAQs about that feature, and to learn how to add content to, enable, disable, or configure it. 

• Forums
• News 
• Calendar
• Events
• Member List 
• Photos
• Deals
• Files  
• Classifieds 
• Reviews
• Subgroups
• Polls
• About Page

 

Publicize your group

• Enable your group's Public Page (if you don't already have a public website): Video: What is the Group Public Page? What's on it?
• Add BigTent widgets to your group's website. Learn more about widgets here.
• Add your group to the BigTent Group Directory: How do I list our group in the BigTent group directory?

Once you've invited members

• Moderate forum content: Video & Guide: How do I moderate forum messages?
• Suspend or remove members: How do I suspend or remove a member from my group?
• Run membership reports: Guide: How do I create a membership report?

 

We hope you enjoy your new group. Feel free to drop us a line if you need help managing your group. Just submit a ticket to BigTent Customer Support and we'll get back to you with some advice.