Author aliases allow you to publish content under a name other than the Creator Studio user who created it. For example, you can publish a campaign as your CEO or Planning Committee, or use an alias to credit the original content creator. The selected alias appears as the campaign author in the member experience.

Comment aliases allow you to post comments as another user or team, giving you more flexibility over the voice associated with your comments.

Looking for training on author aliases? Enroll in our eLearning course in the Training Center!

Permissions

Permissions to manage and assign aliases depend on your role:

• Create and manage author and comment aliases: You must be a Brand Super Admin, Community Admin, or have a custom role with permission to manage aliases.
• Assign author and comment aliases: You must be a Brand Super Admin or have a custom role with permission to manage permissions.

Note: Content Creators are able to designate a different author on the Deliver page, however, they are not able to publish the campaign.

Aliases Page

The Aliases page allows you to manage all aliases in one place, including bulk actions. Use the available filters to filter the list by Status (Archived/Unarchived), Type (Community/Team/User), and/or Created by (the Creator Studio user who created the alias).

To access and manage author and comment aliases, navigate to Configure > Aliases.
 

Then select the Author / Comment Aliases tab.
 

Alias Types

There are 3 types of aliases: Community, User, and Team.

• Community - Use the community alias when you want the voice of the campaign or comment to be the community, rather than an individual user or team. The community alias is automatically generated by the system but must be assigned to restricted users in order for them to publish as the community. The community alias cannot be deleted or archived and can only be edited via the Branding section of the Configure page.
  
  
   
• User - User aliases are linked to real user profiles and, as such, the name, image, etc. are tied to the user’s profile. Use user aliases to give credit to the original author or to change the individual voice of a campaign or comment. The CEO may request you publish or comment on their behalf or you may need to publish or comment on a colleague's behalf in their absence.
  
  Deactivating a user that is tied to a user alias will remove the associated alias from the Aliases page. Aliases tied to deactivated users will still persist for users in their profile and will become automatically available to them via the Deliver page and member experience in the event the deactivated users are ever re-activated. Campaigns and comments previously published/posted with an alias tied to a deactivated user will still show the alias as the campaign or comment author.
  
  
   
• Team - Team aliases allow Creator Studio administrators to create an alias that is not tied to an individual profile and lets them control the exact name, image, etc. Creating a team alias does NOT create a user profile on the user’s page. Create team aliases to represent departments, teams, and more. Team aliases increase engagement and author or comment relevancy for each target audience. For example, you might use an 'HR Department' team alias when publishing campaigns related to company health benefits or 401k or commenting on PTO or expense policy posts.
  
  

Archive/Unarchive

To archive an alias, select the checkbox next to the alias and click Archive. Aliases can also be archived in bulk by selecting multiple checkboxes, or the top checkbox to archive all aliases listed. Both user and team aliases can be archived, however, the community alias cannot. Archiving an alias will remove the alias as an assignment option from the author alias dropdown on the user profile page, as well as an author option on the Deliver page and a commenter option in the member experience. Previously assigned archived aliases will still persist for users in their profile and will become automatically available to them via the Deliver page and as a commenter option in the member experience in the event the aliases are ever unarchived. Campaigns and comments published using an alias that has since been archived will continue to display that alias as the campaign author or commenter.
 

To unarchive an alias, select the Status filter and then Archived to filter the list by all archived aliases. Then select the checkbox next to the alias and click Archive. Aliases can also be unarchived in bulk by selecting multiple checkboxes, or the top checkbox to unarchive all aliases listed. Once unarchived, aliases become available again for assignment in the Author Alias dropdown on the user profile page. They also become available as an author option on the Deliver page and as a commenter option in the member experience.

User Aliases

To create a user alias:

1. Click the + Author / Comment Alias button on the Author Aliases page.
   
2. Under Alias Type, select the User Alias tile.
3. From the Display Name dropdown, select a Creator Studio user or community Member.
4. Give the user alias a description or nickname that describes who the alias is (i.e., Creator Studio role and/or company title) to other Creator Studio users. This description is only visible from the Aliases page.
5. Choose where this user alias can be used under Alias Permissions. User aliases can be used to author campaigns in Creator Studio, comment on posts in the member experience, or both.
6. Under Display Avatar, upload an image to be used as the author and/or commenter's image. (Recommended: 200 x 200 pixels)
   
   Note: Updating the display avatar will update the user's author alias image, as well as their profile picture in the member experience and Creator Studio.

Creating Author Aliases for Newly Promoted Creator Studio Users

For Members who have been newly promoted to a Creator Studio role to appear in the list of author aliases, there are 2 options for adding them to the list of author aliases.

1. An admin can manually add the user to the Aliases page.
   
   OR
    
2. The user can create a new campaign (for author aliases). Once the user creates a new campaign, they will self-populate on the Alias page. Note: Duplicating an existing campaign will not achieve self-population on the Author Alias page, however, creating a new campaign via template will.

Enabling a User as an Alias for Unrestricted Users

Any user can be used as an alias by unrestricted users (such as Brand Super Admins) as long as the user is an active alias on the Aliases page. To remove a user as an alias option, they must be archived.

Team Aliases

To create a team alias:

1. Click the Create Author / Comment Alias button on the Aliases page.
   
2. Under Alias Type, select the Team Alias tile.
3. In the Display Name field, give your team a name (i.e., Team Building Committee or CX Team).
4. Give the team alias a description or nickname that describes what the team alias is or should be used for. This description is only visible from the Aliases page.
5. Choose where this team alias can be used under Alias Permissions. Team aliases can be used to author campaigns in Creator Studio, comment on posts in the member experience, or both.
6. Under Display Avatar, upload an image to be used as the "author's image". (Recommended: 200 x 200 pixels)

Assign Aliases to Restricted Users and Members

Brand Super Admins, along with custom roles assigned the ‘No Restrictions’ permission can publish and comment on behalf of all aliases. All other Creator Studio users must be assigned an alias in order to publish or comment as that alias, including their default community name. 

Members can comment as aliases but cannot publish as aliases. Therefore, member profiles only display the Author Aliases permission.

Note: Only activated (unblocked) Creator Studio users and community Members can be assigned aliases.

1. Sign in to Creator Studio.
2. Navigate to People > Users.
3. Select the user you want to assign an author alias to.
4. In the Permissions section, click the Author Aliases or Comment Aliases box to view the list of available aliases.
5. Select the check box next to the aliases you want this user to be able to publish as.
   
   
    
6. Click Save to save the aliases. The user will now be able to publish and/or comment as the assigned aliases.

Publish and Comment as an Alias

Note: If the author alias is modified after a campaign has been published, the member experience will display the newly selected author on the card and in the opened content view.

Publish as an Author Alias

Select the preferred author alias for your campaign from the Author drop-down menu on the Deliver page. in Creator Studio.

• Themselves
• Community name
• Creator Studio users
• Members
• Team aliases

Note about default authors: By default, if a user has permission to publish as the community name, then this will be set as the author when creating a campaign. If a user does not have permission to publish as the community name, then the current user will appear as the default prior to author alias selection.

Some communities may be configured to instead always use the current user as the default author. Contact Support if you would like to change this setting for your community.

Community Name

• You must be assigned the community name in order to publish as the community.
• Content will appear to be published by the community itself.
• The "author's image" is the community icon.
  
  

Specific User

• You can choose yourself or an assigned user alias.
  • All Creator Studio users, other than Brand Super Admins and custom roles assigned the ‘No Restrictions’ permission, can only choose from their assigned author aliases.
• Content will appear to be published by the specified user.
• The "author's image" is the user's photo in their User Profile.
  
  

Team

• You must be assigned the team name in order to publish as the team.
• Content will appear to be published by the team itself.
• The "author's image" is the avatar uploaded for the team alias being used. If no avatar was uploaded, the default image will be displayed.
• Note: Currently, clicking a team avatar on a post redirects users to the profile of the post creator. However, it is also possible to configure the team avatar to link to a team alias page, where users can view all posts published under that team alias. To enable this feature, simply submit a support ticket.
  
  

Comment as an Alias

Refer to Comment on Content to learn more about commenting on comment and how to comment as an alias.

Author Alias Content Notifications

The following outlines how notifications are routed based on how content is submitted or published:

• Content submitted via the member experience - All notifications should go to the original content creator.
• Content published with own user as the author in Creator Studio - All notifications should go to the same user (author).
• Content published with another user as the author alias in Creator Studio—All notifications should go to the original content creator.
• Content published with the community as the author alias - All notifications should go to the original content creator.

Author Aliases in the Member Experience

In the member experience, users will be able to click a user's profile and view all of the content the user is the author of, even if the content was published on behalf of them.

Content Published on Behalf of a User

User's Profile Showing Content Published on Behalf of Them

Campaigns and Calendar Page Filter

Both the Campaigns and Calendar pages allow you to filter by author. Results will include all content (including article drafts) created by or on behalf of that user. When you create content using an author alias that is not your own (e.g. community default), then the content will fall under the alias rather than your own name when filtering by author.

To see content created by a user regardless of the selected author, use the Creator filter.

Campaigns Page


 

Calendar Page