Last updated: April 25, 2023

General Questions

Can we access Classic Studio and Creator Studio at the same time? 

Yes! Classic Studio and Creator Studio are linked to the same data - so you use the same credentials to sign in, and all your content, campaigns, topics, groups (audiences), and configurations are always shared by the two. If you make changes in one, you will see them in the other.

Note: All communities in Classic Studio are currently available through Creator Studio URL if you have the necessary role.

Who can access Creator Studio? How do we sign in to Creator Studio?

Who can access Creator Studio is answered in this KB article. And how to access Creator Studio can be found in this article.

How long will Classic continue to be available after Creator Studio fully launches?

We will continue to support all customers on both versions for the time being. We do not have any immediate plans to stop supporting Classic Studio within the next year.

Is any work necessary to set up topics to replace channels?

No, there is not. See "Can we access Classic Studio and Creator Studio at the same time?" above for why.

When and what will change in the member experience (mobile app, web experience, microapps, etc.) to reflect Creator Studio?

• For You tab appears on mobile and web.
• Polls published from Creator Studio will appear in users’ feeds - this does not require an upgrade to the mobile app or web experience.

What is new about Creator Studio? What makes it different from Classic Studio?

• Creator Studio includes a completely reimagined publisher experience and an optimized smoother email creation experience with Intelligent Delivery for individualized notification plans.
• Updated audiences (groups) editor - most advanced audiences should be able to be created in the UI without entering the advanced view. We have also introduced the ability to archive audiences.
• Other major areas are accessible in both Classic Studio and Creator Studio (Insights (Analyze), Calendar view, etc.) - the main exception is a few Configure pages.
• Language Guide - customers with this premium feature will have the option to set up a series of language rules, with suggested replacement text and explanations on why the change is recommended. 

Content/Campaign Questions

How do I migrate my content over to Creator Studio? 

No need! See "Can we access Classic Studio and Creator Studio at the same time?" above for why.

How do I create “a post”? “An email”?

Your publishing experience is now all-in-one - when you create a single campaign, it is published to all of your channels such as mobile app (post), email, etc.

Can I delete or edit campaigns created in Creator Studio in Classic Studio?

When clicking on a campaign created in Creator Studio in Planner in Classic Studio, a link will appear that will redirect you to edit or delete the campaign in Creator Studio.

What Creator Studio roles have access to the full blocks library?

All roles can access the block library. 

We have a custom template we use every day. Will it automatically transition over to be available in Creator Studio?

The Firstup team can assist with migrating any custom templates you have from Classic to Creator Studio. Please contact Support for assistance. 

What is the difference between Standard versus Video (or Link) when selecting the cover type in Compose?

If you select Standard, the user has to click/tap into the content and then launch the video or link from inside. Selecting Standard essentially makes the post an Article.

If you select Video/Link, the user can play the video or go directly to the link right from the feed. 

If you want users to be able to view the full description or be able to have a few paragraphs of text, you would choose Standard. Selecting Standard also allows you to display specific styling that you want to show in the post, which a Video/Image gallery card does not support. 

Is there something similar to the Note content type in Creator Studio?

Yes. We recommend using a text block for any text-only content that you were previously using Notes for. 

Can we import specific fonts that will be reflected across multiple templates?

Creator Studio supports custom fonts, allowing you to brand your campaigns and web experience according to your unique brand image.

Are there any templates for pushing out a single post, like the current Smart Campaigns? We get great engagement with individual pieces of content via email/mobile, separate from our weekly newsletter recaps.

Yes, templates range from a single post to newsletters. Any template can be sent to any channel (Email, Web, or Mobile). 

Is there space in building templates to insert alt text for images so that these comms are accessible to all?

Yes, you can add alt text to images so they are accessible. When inserting an image, you'll have an alt text field visible to fill out. 

Which roles can access polls? How do polls work for Email-Only customers or no web experience?

All Creator Studio roles can add polls to their campaigns. Users must sign in to the web experience or mobile app to answer a poll. Email-Only clients do not have access to poll blocks at this time. 

Note: If a poll is set to shareable, the shared poll can be viewed but not answered. The best practice would be to just not set polls to shareable.

Will the poll results be in the Content Performance Report or somewhere else?

Poll results will be available in the Poll Performance Report. For any campaign that includes a poll, you can find a link to this report right from the campaign list.

Will polls be auto-translated?

Yes, polls embedded into campaigns are translatable through the mobile app and web experience, just like the content itself.

How do you make a hyperlinked image in Creator Studio? 

Image blocks allow you to add an image from the Image Library or upload a custom image. You then have the option to add a URL for the image to link out to.

How do you add multiple images/photos in Creator Studio? 

From the blocks library, select Images. You can then choose from a selection of image blocks, including blocks that you can add multiple images/photos to.

How do you insert a horizontal line? What is the best way to add lines to break up text?

In Creator Studio, there is a Divider block that functions as a horizontal line.

I just published my campaign, where is it?

Published campaigns can be accessed via the Campaigns page under the Sent tab.

Which view do you see when you are creating a campaign? Web? Mobile? Other?

On the Configure page, you’ll see the campaign as it will be displayed in the web experience. From the preview screen, you can also see what it will look like on email or mobile.

I saved my campaign as a draft but I can't find it on the Calendar page. However, I can find it on the Campaigns page under the Draft tab. Why is that? 

If you have not selected a publish date and time before saving your campaign as a draft, you won't be able to find your campaign on the Calendar page. This is because Calendar only shows posts that have a publish date specified. The Campaigns page in Creator Studio is status-based (all drafts, scheduled, etc.) To be able to view your draft on the Calendar page, you'll need to first visit the Deliver page and select a future date or time. 

This works the same way in Planner in Classic Studio. If you do not adjust the publish date when creating a draft, that is an unscheduled draft that only appears in the list view.

How can I see the 30-day calendar view in Calendar?

Due to the historically low usage and limited visual space for daily event information in the 30-day view, we have consolidated it to a 7-day view in Calendar. The 7-day view provides a more comprehensive event context, and users can easily navigate between weeks using the arrows in the upper right-hand corner of the calendar view to see a full 30-day outlook.

Is there a way to export the publishing calendar so it can be shared internally with business partners?

No, not at this time.

Why do I receive multiple emails from my community all at the same time? 

See Campaign Delivery

Why am I no longer receiving push notifications? 

Push notifications are dependent upon user behavior and campaign priority. Also, ensure you have push notifications enabled.

How can I force a push notification?

The only way to force delivery on a particular channel and at a particular time is by turning Engagement Boost OFF and only having one channel enabled (i.e. if you have Notifiication Center AND Push enabled, the engine is still going to decide between the two which is better to reach your audience). To force a push notification, you will need to turn Engagement Boost OFF and ensure only the push notification channel is selected.

Do we have the ability to create custom templates and then assign them to specific users?

Yes, custom templates can be created and assigned to users on the user details page. Those users will then be able to see and use templates created by Firstup, custom templates set as public, as well as custom templates that have been assigned to them.

How do I embed an iframe, like for live streaming or audio files?

You can embed an iFrame using the iFrame block.

If you target content to both a topic and an audience, does the audience need to have access to the topic to be able to view it?

You can send the content to a topic and also alert an audience. The employees that were in the audience will receive the content even if not part of the topic.

How do Topics and Audiences work together? How does For You work?

A topic is no longer required when creating and sending out a campaign. 

For You is a special section of the mobile app and web experience for a campaign when you are in the audience but NOT the topic. Content will only appear in either Latest/Featured/Trending or For You - it will not appear in both places. We have a whole article about Topics vs Audiences.

Web - For You is always available on the web through the stack icon. A section will only appear on the homepage if there is at least one piece of content to populate the section.

Mobile - For You is a new tab in the mobile experience - scroll to the far right when looking at Latest, Featured, or Trending.

Both - Once content appears in For You, it persists like regular content. The post will only disappear if you archive the campaign, remove the assigned audience, or add a topic (once you add a topic, the post will move to the Latest/Featured/Trending/topic view).

How do I create a recurring campaign?

Recurring campaigns and drip campaigns are configurable under Workflows in the Configure section of Creator Studio. 

What content has click-through functionality via e-mail?

Click-through functionality via e-mail is only available on link, video, or poll content blocks.

Can I schedule a campaign to be published at a later date and/or time with Engagement Boost turned OFF?

With Engagement Boost turned OFF, campaigns do not have to be published immediately. You can schedule a date and time in the future for the one-time engagement.

Can the Deliver page be restricted so that it's not available to specific roles?

Currently, all default roles have access to the Deliver page in some capacity. Community Admins and Brand Super Admins have full access. Content Publishers have full access, with the exception of being able to set campaigns as Critical. Like Content Publishers, Content Creators have majority access to the Deliver page, however, they are unable to set campaigns as Critical, as well as select notifications. Content Creators are also unable to publish. 

Will we be able to hide campaigns from other users as we can in Publish in Classic Studio?

Yes, the ability to hide campaign drafts is available in Creator Studio.

How do I add text overlay to an image block?

You can use the image block selected in the screenshot below:

Is it a known issue that when you paste a URL into the URL field in a link block in Creator Studio (from a previously published article in Classic Studio from the member experience) that the metadata does not automatically populate?  

It is expected behavior right now - we don’t do this in Classic Studio either. The reason for this is that we don’t want to inadvertently expose content data to a user who does not have access to it.

With Optimized Delivery turned ON, does the engine take into account user behavior at the priority level? For example, will it know I’m more likely to engage with Critical priority content on mobile versus email and then target Critical to mobile? Whereas, I engage more with Nice to Know content on email.

Priority drives the channel selection per user. If I'm pretty engaged in the Notification Center, then maybe for Nice to Know and Must Know campaigns I'll be reached there, but if I also have pretty good engagement on email, then maybe I'll receive an email for a Critical campaign. It depends on the channels a user is most engaged on, and whether the priority and user plan requires a quieter or noisier channel for a particular communication.

Where are the Audit Feed and Notes sections in Creator Studio?

The Audit Feed is now referred to as Campaign History and can be found when viewing or editing a campaign. Notes can be found here as well. 

From looking at the Campaign Delivery report, how can I determine how many more emails might be sent for a campaign?

This report won't reflect how many more emails, pushes, or Notification Center notifications might be delivered since that is subject to change based on the engine and the users' plans. # Users Opportunity to Read is just the number of emails, pushes, or Notification Center notifications sent plus the number of impressions, so it wouldn't be accurate to use that in trying to figure out how many future deliveries there will be.

If a customer uploads a distribution list for the Email-Only platform and it contains a name and email that is not one of the users that were imported from the HRIS file transfer, will it allow them to upload that name?

There shouldn't be anything preventing the addition of users outside the user data file sync. Our system doesn’t know the difference between a name, a group, or a distribution list.

Are individual link clicks tracked in Creator Studio?

Yes, these are tracked like in Classic Studio.

What is a good “low” fatigue score?

This one is difficult since it is dependent on the community and the specific communication. (Fatigue is looking at the noise of adding the newly created campaign to the audience's communication plan.) Generally speaking, the lower the better.

Is there a hard Delete in Creator Studio vs. Archive?

Yes, both options are available for campaigns.

How much data/time does Intelligent Delivery need before it makes the determinations for the engine?

The engine needs at least 5 days of solid, reliable engagement data per user to make personalized determinations. Users already in the system will have data already for the engine to work with. The engine is adapting to changes in user behavior over time, too.

Will the member experience change for end-users who are submitting user-generated content? Or will their posts still "look" like the old posts and then posts from Creator Studio will "look" new? 

No, the member experience submissions process will not change. 

Is the calendar in Creator Studio integrated to show all types of posts? 

Yes, Calendar has everything, including Classic Studio posts.

What is the difference between a 'Standard' and 'Link' link block?

The behavior when selecting ‘Link’ (which is selected by default if applicable) in Creator Studio matches the behavior when publishing a link from Classic Studio or the member experience. You can go directly to the link by clicking the green link that appears on the card, but clicking elsewhere on the card opens the detail view where you can share, comment, etc. 

Which legacy reports are not currently available in Creator Studio?

Legacy reports will not be moving over to Creator Studio. The reports in the Legacy collection will not be migrated.

When creating and saving a template to the Library, are the Deliver page settings saved with the template?

Yes, all Deliver page settings are saved with the template, with the exception of the scheduled publish date/time, as this is subject to change with each campaign.

Email-Only Customer Questions

How does Email-Only change Intelligent Delivery?

There is no change to how Intelligent Delivery works, only a restriction of which channels it evaluates as ways to reach the Member. So, instead of comparing email, push, and Notification Center, the engine can only evaluate email as a reachable channel. This places more emphasis on the other variables - such as how many emails is the Member already receiving on a given day, what priority they are, etc. - but does not change how the engine works.

In Email-Only, what can be viewed without authentication? 

Users will not have to log in to view emailed content. However, playing videos will require a user to click through to access the full content.

Are all content blocks available for Email-Only? 

All content blocks, except poll blocks, are available for e-mail only.

How can Email-Only customers use topics in Creator Studio? 

An Email-Only community can still use topics to organize content internally and for publishing without sending communications. For example, if you want to create a bunch of stories to then feature in a newsletter, you can publish those stories first without an audience to avoid sending an email about them.

How do you create a newsletter? Do you have to link to existing "posts" like in Classic Studio?

Use link blocks when creating a new campaign to create a newsletter. The Creator Studio experience allows you to create a newsletter by linking to existing content (just like Classic Studio), linking to external content, and/or placing content directly in the email.

More details on Classic versus Creator Studio area are available here. And an example of creating a newsletter in Creator Studio can be found here.

How do the drips or other multi-step emails work?

Drips and other multi-step emails are configurable from Creator Studio under Workflows in the Configure section. 

Metrics Questions

How do email metrics work in Creator Studio?

There is no change to how we track or report email metrics. For example, we still track Email Open/View based on loading an image pixel. Metrics are based on the recipient, so if emails are forwarded, subsequent metrics will be associated with the original recipient. In the web, we track views, clicks, video plays, and document downloads.

Which report should I use to look at metrics for my Campaign? 

In Creator Studio, we recommend using the Campaign Performance report. That is the report that is linked from the Campaign on the sent Campaigns page.

User/Audience Questions 

We have to upload users regularly because our attributes are not accurate from our HRIS. Can we still upload employee spreadsheets to create audiences?

Yes, importing users is available in Creator Studio. Importing users is available from the Configure page.

Is there a way to hide criteria options in the new Audience query builder that we don't use or need?

No, standard criteria will be displayed globally and we cannot hide any at this time.

Can we delete old groups (audiences) in addition to archiving them?

No, delete is not available. Currently, it is only possible to archive audiences that you no longer want to use. This maintains any historical data about the audience for future reporting. 

Are archived audiences auto-populated?

Archived audiences are removed from the audience list to provide less noise.

If I have existing groups (audiences) in Classic Studio, will those be accessible in Creator Studio?

Yes, you can update and archive existing audiences in Creator Studio that were created in Classic Studio.

Is user data private?

Intelligent Delivery uses individual user data to tailor and personalize its decisions to each user. This user data includes activity within the Firstup platform, like the topics a user engages with, the channels a user is reachable and engaging on when a user typically engages with content in a single day, and the number of communications that are currently published to the user. The engine uses individual user data scoped to the community, and the global default settings for planning are based on the observation of anonymized data in a community. We will never cross-reference personal info from another community. All of this data is limited to the Firstup platform. We do not collect external data on users. The differentiator with the engine is the collection of this data and forming a strategy around it. Much of a user's activity is already captured in reporting in our Insights reports. Clients should not have any concerns about the collection or use of this user data.

Are there any ramifications in the GDPR space with the new AI and information you may be gathering on each user's behavior?

No. The platform is not collecting any new information at this time so we are still in compliance with GDPR requirements. 

What does "Deactivate" do? And how is it different from "Forget user" or "Block user?"

"Deactivate" is the Creator Studio term for "Blocked". In Classic you could "Block and Demote", but in the Creator Studio it is called "Deactivate". "Deactivating" a user will terminate their access to the experience, as well as demote their Creator Studio status to Member.

If we import a list to create an audience, will it be dynamic? In other words, will we be able to update it?

Imported lists will create a Snapshot in both Classic and Creator Studio. You can use that Snapshot to build an audience just as you can in Classic Studio.

Love the temporary audience feature. Will the temporary audience be able to access that piece of content in the future? Or will the content "disappear" once the temporary audience goes away?

The temporary audience is associated with the campaign, so they do not lose access. Temporary can also be thought of as “one-use”. They do not appear on the Audiences page, only on the Campaign they were created for.

Are Favorites user-specific? Or can they be grouped for a particular role?

Favorites are individual and tied to your Creator Studio account. When you sign in to Creator Studio, you will only see your personal Favorites. 

Is there a way to export an audience? We do that a lot to have a leader double-check our distribution list.

Yes, you can export the list of users from any audience by editing the audience, clicking 'Preview' at the top of the page, and clicking the 'Export' button above the list of users. This should download a CSV file directly into your computer browser.

Is there still a way to do the manual query build like in Classic Studio?

Yes! When creating an audience, click 'More' at the top of the page and select 'Advanced query builder'. This will open up the view to manually type in a query. 

How does user information get pulled into the "profile" attributes? For example, our department option is empty, but we do have department information in our custom data.

This will be related to how the data was mapped during implementation (or any updates post-implementation). If you are passing Department via a user data file, you should see it under Custom Attributes at the bottom of the list. You can talk to your CSM about mapping it to the Profile section.

Could you give a brief overview of the audience "types"?

This article explains all the different types of audiences. 

Do we still use the same CSV file for importing lists?

Yes, it's the same CSV file format. The template is still available from the Import Users page if you ever need to download a new template. 

Can you import a CSV list to create an audience, or only to create users?

Yes, you can. If you leverage the import, it will create users if they don’t exist. It will not alter existing users. In all cases, an audience is created.

If you schedule a campaign with a temporary audience to publish at a later date, can you go back in and edit the temporary audience before publication?

No, temporary audiences cannot be edited. You would need to remove the temporary audience from the campaign and build a new one before saving the changes. 

The 'Status is not blocked' query is missing from the query builder in Creator Studio. How do we remove blocked users from our audiences?

By default, blocked/deactivated users have already been filtered out and are not included in your audiences in Creator Studio. If you want to include blocked/deactivated users in an audience, click 'More' at the top of the page and select 'Include deactivated users'.

Can an export of an audience or users page include the full data set available (custom attributes)?

Currently, the full data set is not available due to security reasons.

What is the data displayed on the right side of the Audience Query Builder? Can this be edited or customized?

The sidebar only displays standard attributes, not custom attributes. This results in ‘No Value’ displayed for communities only using custom attributes. Currently, it is not possible to change this data on the Audience Query builder sidebar.

Contact Support

Didn't find an answer to your question? Please reach out to our Support team.