Note: This article only applies to Community Admins, Brand Super Admins, or applicable custom roles. For more details on Creator Studio access, please refer to the Defining Roles and Permissions article.

Why Manually Add or Import Users?

We strongly recommend that you manage the creation (and deprovisioning) of your users through an automated sync such as the User Data File or API. However, there may be occasions where you need to grant access to your experience or Creator Studio for individuals outside your HR information system - contractors, volunteers, board members, etc.

If you are prepared to manually manage the deprovisioning of these users, you can manually add or import them in bulk. Note, manually added or imported users do NOT have custom attributes and will NOT auto-deprovision.

Note: Avoid adding distribution lists as individual users. If a campaign is targeted to a distribution list, everyone included in the list will get a notification. Additionally, all metrics will be attributed to the distribution list email, not the individual users. Create an audience of your users instead, perhaps via copy and paste of their emails.

How to Import Users

Note: Imported email addresses will not become reachable for email campaigns until our system updates the reachability per user. Reachability is updated several times a day.

1. In Creator Studio navigate to People > Users page.
2. Select Import users.
   
   
   
   
3. If you have a file/spreadsheet prepared, confirm that it has the 4 required columns and then click Choose File to select a CSV (.csv) or Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) file.
   
   If you do not have a file prepared or you would like to confirm the column header names, click the hyperlinked text to download a sample file template with example headers. When ready, return to Import Users and click Choose File.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Upload to start the upload and import process. The dialogue window will close.
5. Once the upload is completed, you will see the import results and can quickly access the import’s audience.
   
   
   
   
6. You can navigate back to the People page to view users and invite the uploaded users.

After Successfully Importing Users

User Status and Audiences

• New unique users are imported into the community and appear on the Users page with a Created status. If you specified a Community Role with access to Creator Studio, they will have that role immediately assigned and they will be invited to manage your community in Creator Studio. For the member experience, note that all created users can register for the experience via Join Now or you can invite them to register using invitations.
• Users that already exist in the community or appear more than once in the file are counted as duplicates. We recognize duplicates based on the universal identifier or email. Duplicates are ignored for the purpose of import or profile updates, but they ARE included in the audience generated by the upload. To update the role or other information of a duplicate user, please return to the Users page and use View to modify the user's profile.
• Two audiences are created:
  • All users appear in a newly created snapshot audience with a name matching the original file name with a tag of 'import'. You can edit the name of the snapshot audience, but the members can not be edited, so it acts as a permanent record of who you imported, even if the list included duplicates. Instead of editing this audience, you can target it directly as a full list or you can refer to this audience from other audiences. For example, you can see the snapshot ID when viewing the snapshot audience. In a new custom audience, you can refer to the existing audience by name.
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • Created users with a value for their email have a custom audience created to enable invitations targeted to just the new users. The audience name will match the original file name. The custom audience can be edited, so you can adjust the membership as needed for targeting invitations, topics, or other communications. By default, the audience starts out with filters that will help you target an email invitation - snapshot ID (referencing the original list of imported users), status Created (has not been invited yet), and email "anything" (a wildcard here says, only include users with something as an email).
    
    
    

Note: Click Go to audience to create and save an audience with the same import file. 

Invitations

• If Community Role was specified and there were new Creator Studio users, they were automatically invited to Creator Studio immediately after the file was successfully processed. You do not need to take any further action.

Processing Notes for Import Users File

Required Columns

1. First Name
2. Last Name
3. Email Address
   • Each user listed in your file must have a unique value for either email address or universal identifier. This column must be included even if you do not provide an email address for your users. However, we strongly recommend always including an email address so that you can send invitations.
4. Universal Identifier
   • Each user listed in your file must have a unique value for either email or universal identifier. This column must be included even if you do not provide a universal identifier for your users.
   • We advise including the universal identifier in addition to the email. If your community leverages User Sync via SFTP or SSO, the universal identifier must match the unique ID (NameID) used for those tools in order to avoid creating duplicate users.
   • Universal identifier is also known as the federated identifier.

Example file with the minimum 4 required headers:

Other Columns:

• Program Role
  • If not specified, new users will be imported as Members. To specify a Creator Studio role for new users include a column named Community Role and match the role titles exactly: Content Creator, Content Publisher, Community Admin, Brand Super Admin.
  • Note, you cannot demote or promote pre-existing users with this column (duplicates are not updated).
• Additional Columns
  • The import will ignore any additional columns such as “Manager”, “Department”, or “Location”. The file will still process but these values will not appear in the community. To import custom attributes please review automated options for User Sync.

How to Add a User (Individual)

If you would like to quickly add one user, you can follow these steps. When you add an individual user, Creator Studio invitations are sent out immediately, as well as member experience invitations as well if applicable. (Note: E-mail Only customers do not have member experience access.)

SSO Note: If you have SSO authentication, Add User should only be used if your IdP passes an email to Firstup. If you have a community that is configured for SSO and you do not use emails as NameID (you only have a universal ID), you should use Import Users instead of Add User.

1. In Creator Studio navigate to People > Users page for your community.
2. Click Add User.
   
   
   
   
3. Enter all information:
   
       General Info
   
   
   • First name and Last name
   • Email - Required for communities that have email sign-in enabled
   • Username  - Required for communities that have username sign-in enabled
   • Universal Identifier - The universal identifier is the value used to identify each individual in your community. Each user must have a unique value for either email or universal identifier
     
     
     
     Permissions
     
     Note: Only Brand Super Admins have access to the permissions section of the user details page.
     
     
   • Role - Assign the user a role of Member, Content Creator, Content Publisher, Community Admin, Brand Super Admin, or a custom role.
   • Topics and Audiences - All default roles, except for Brand Super Admin, are restricted by topics and audiences. If assigning a default role other than Brand Super Admin, you will need to select which topics and audiences the user can contribute to. Click into the boxes to open the full topics and audience lists. Add at least 1 topic and audience from the list by selecting the checkbox.
   • Templates - Users can be granted access to use non-public custom templates by clicking into the Templates box and selecting one or more templates
   • Email Aliases - If an email alias has been enabled for a topic contributor role for a topic that the user has been assigned, the alias can be selected for use for the user by clicking into the Email Aliases box and selecting the email alias. 
     
     
     
     
4. Click Save to save the user, they will appear on the Users page as Created or Invited (depending on whether a member experience invitation was sent).

After a user has been added via Add User:

• The Created/Invited user can register for the member experience via Join Now or you can invite them to register for the community using invitations.
• Creator Studio users can either follow the Creator Studio invitation link to create their password or go straight to studio.onfirstup.com and click Forgot Password to trigger a password reset email.

Video

For visual learners, check out our video on how to assign roles and permissions.