If you plan ahead, you can maximize your free trial to actually see how Honeycommb will work for your members and align to support your business model. Follow these 7 steps to get all you can out of your 14 days.
Honeycommb is the most complete, all-in-one community platform for brands, organizations, and creators. You can launch your own branded social network within your own native, modern iOS, Android, and web apps with minimal cost, effort & time compared to custom development.
When you start your free trial you get full access to your own social network that lives on the web. This means you can invite your members into the community and they can create their own user profiles, start posting photos & videos, DMing each other, and joining your groups. The purpose of the trial is to use this time to build your foundation and set up your network for long-lasting success. Therefore, there’s a good chance you might be overwhelmed by functions you didn’t know existed like choosing the correct follow models and UI translations for your community.
For that reason, you should start preparing to get your monies worth before you start the actual trial.
First up, do your homework and ask questions.
- Explore all the resources offered to help you launch and understand the feature set you have access to and ASK QUESTIONS. This includes:
- Watch Honeycommb’s Demo Video
- Going through Honeycommb features to confirm it offers what you’re looking for
- Review the Launch Checklist from Honeycommb’s Knowledgebase
- Join Honeycommb’s testing network, Honeyjar, to test out the designed UX
It’s important to understand what Honeycommb provides as a white label social network solution and that it checks as many boxes on your wishlist. Recognizing what your own requirements are as far as function and features will help you evaluate if starting the trial is worth your time and effort.
Honeycomb’s sales team can be reached via email, chatbot, form submission, and phone to answer your questions.
2. Have your branding and assets ready to go!
Honeycommb creates social networks that support all different types of communities. But, what makes each network special and valuable is that it’s branded and easily recognized as a safe space by its members. Some custom assets you can upload and control include:
- Like icon
- Favicon
- Up to 8 custom Livestream reactions
- Navigation logo
- Community description for reg/login page
3. Make your network setting selections carefully
Every network is different. Some are open to the public while others are closed and want to vet and approve each user who joins.
Some community settings to consider:
- Will your network be open or private?
- Will you allow private messages via DMs in your network?
- Do you want your own Terms of Service, Privacy & Data Policy or will you use Honeycommb’s boilerplate?
- Will you have Verified Users in your network and how will they be different from the rest of your members?
4. You control your network and you own your user data & content
A major reason creators and brand owners are choosing to manage their following outside of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok is control and ownership. Once you have your own network powered by Honeycommb, you dont have to compete against algorithms, distractions, or Zuckerburg disagreeing with your content and banning you. You’d now have control over the following:
- You can export your members’ user data
- You can export your network’s content
- You can send push notifications to the mobile devices of your members
- Set up Custom Fields to capture additional data as your user’s register
- Add your own custom slide-out menu items
5. Check out Honeycommb’s integrations
Honeycommb is a stand-alone social network solution but with its powerful and ever-evolving integrations, your community turns into a buzzing central hub to give and lead your members to what they need.
- Zapier Integration —
In place of an API, use Zapier to push and pull data between the network and outside platforms. You can also use Zapier integration to automate your own processes for your members like auto-adding them to a group based on a custom field response, sending a welcome DM to new users, or adding them to your drip campaign within your Email Service Provider. - Thinkific Integration —
Your members can tap right into your online course platform right from the network with one click. This connection authenticates the user so they don’t have to log in each time. - SSO —
You can connect your identity provider supported by SAML 2.0 or Oauth2 to be the single source of registration and login to your network. - Facebook SDK —
You can attribute Facebook ad clicks and community registrations with this Facebook ad integration.
6. Gather your team and expand to your most loyal followers to TEST
If you end up going with Honeycommb, you’re certainly not going to be the only person using it. As such, we recommend getting a cohort together who will explore the free trial with you.
You don’t need everyone on your team, though — just the people who will be responsible for managing the community. The more involved they can be in the trial, the more effectively you can evaluate the platform as a whole.
Test out how you organize your network and gather feedback from those on your team and also members of your audience that you trust. At the end of the day, the reason your community exists is because of and for your member so their input can help you succeed sooner rather than assuming you know what they want.
As a bonus, this tactic can also help populate your network with real content to make it more inviting to your members when they first join.
7. Turn on Membership Subscriptions — Generate revenue before you pay for it!
Owning your own social network includes the ability to monetize through your audience if you have a strong value exchange. Many coaches offer direct access to their expertise for their clients and many creators offer access to themselves to their fans via Honeycommb’s subscription system.
During your free trial period, you can turn membership subscriptions on and charge for:
- Premium Groups
- Premium Content
- Premium Tiers to package up content, groups, and also feature affordances like being able to DM with others, get Verified User status, and more
You can create your own promotion codes to offer sales and hype your offerings to limit redemptions
Subscriptions are processed through Stripe. Credit/Debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay are supported payment methods.
You’re ready to start your free trial of Honeycommb and have all the tools to make it successful. Get started now!
