Introductory Tutorial for New Members

[Community Support (Ning 2.0)]

Has anyone ever created any kind of tutorial that opens the first time a new user logs in? I'd like to be able to give my members a quick introduction on how to navigate and use the site. Is this possible? Any other ideas?

Thank you!

[Ryan Mclaughlin]

Hi Joshua 

 

this was something i wanted as well but sadly not able to - so far ! we started a new members group with a learning academy for top tips -  video's made here by creators allows us to teach members how to set up email and privacy settings etc as well twitter and facebook etc 

pay us a visit at http://shineonms.com or http://shineonms.com/group/newmembers

Ryan 

[Janettee McCrary]

Yup that's what I'm doing too, although I'm still adding content to mine.

You can see mine here: http://thehumantouch.ning.com/group/newmemberorientation

[Shaun]

Janettee, Great idea for a new member orientation group. I will definitely use this idea. 

Don't you think that a few 30 to 60 second screen casts would make it so much easier to understand? So where are the Ning guides?, I wonder. If you find any please let me know. 

 

[Janettee McCrary]

I'm glad you like it:)

Yes, that would be helpful, but I just don't have the ability to do this (I've tried, but can't get it to work out for some reason)... And Ning doesn't have any that are ready-made:( It would be nice if Ning created some generic tutorials for the various features (blogs, forums, photos, etc) that those of us who don't mind being associated with Ning could use... But I haven't really found any. If there are any (maybe 1-2), they would most likely be either on here in the Videos section, or in the "help" section of Ning.com.

[Shaun]

Following your example, I have just added a new member orientation group to my network and started to make up my own tutorials. Ning is pretty intuitive but there are some tips that can radically enhance a member's experience and value.

So once again, thanks for pointing the way to a great way to help new members :)  

[Janettee McCrary]

You're welcome:) Glad to be able to help!

[Speed Racer]

very nice!

[Kos]

Joshua there are a # of videos here at Ning or on YouTube which may assist you.  I've posted two below but feel free to surf and see what you can find........ or do a 30-day FREE trial with Camtasia.  http://www.techsmith.com/download/camtasia/default.asp  In one weekend, I uploaded three of my own videos specific to my site alone.  If *I* can do it - anyone can do it; believe me.  Camtasia's step-by-step videos were invaluable although I never could stand the sound of my own voice *lol*   Good luck!

http://creators.ning.com/main/sharing/share?id=4244211%3AVideo%3A12108

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rthSoyfwcmY&feature=player_embedded

[Shaun]

I've been wanting to make instruction videos for new members and then wondered:

Why on earth doesn't Ning have quick and simple instructions for the various features?

Surely there are some but just not easily found. 

[NingStar]

Using a popout tutorial video for members will work.

[Agosthina]

yes!

[Denis]

The thing is, you can't have one video that would really instruct your members on how to explore your network fully. It would be messy, boring and even above the Ning video upload capacity. Our networks have a lot of tiny features needing explanations that we take forgranted because we own, run the networks and know exactly where to click. Try this simple experiment I tried. Get someone who is not familiar with social networking websites at all, shut up and watch them on your network. You will be alarmed at how confusing things are to them. They just click everywhere. In my case it's worse because I am dealing with people who barely able to use English.

So we decided to make 20 short 2minutes How-to-videos for specific areas. Then we made the page appear as a sub tab tothe Home tab. Any new user who goes to "Home" sees the option "How to use this website" tab.

You can see the subtab here

You can the list of our How-to videos here.