Guest User Invite vs. Request Link - When to Use the Right Option for a New Contributor

Hey. What's going on, folks? It's Daniel Litwin, voice of b two b. So you have a new creator that you're looking to bring into the fold. You want them at the content creation table, but you're not sure the best way to get them into MarketScale Studio. There are usually two main ways to get a new creator to the content creation table and in the mix of MarketScale Studio. One is to just invite them outright as a user. The other is to focus first on that first submission of content and to invite them via a request link into the platform, right, which is a more practical way of getting content, a, but, b, also kind of easing someone into the platform. So I'm going to use the example here of inviting an external user into the platform because this is where this really hits. Right? When you've got internal people you wanna bring to the table, you should just invite them into the platform as a standard user. This is standard practice, pun intended, and standard users get visibility into all the content flowing through the channel. This is what you want for your internal team because you want collaboration from the people that, you know, are under the roof of your company's brand. But what about for those externals, those channel partners, those customers that you want participating in content? Does it make sense to invite them, right? As a user, are you gonna be collaborating with them a lot? Or does it make sense to just request content from them once or twice to ease them into that collaboration and make the collaboration a little bit more practical to get started? Well, there's no one right answer. It's really going to depend on who you're looking to activate. So let's go over both of these, right? Guest user invite versus request link. Start with the right one based on your people, right? So one path, which is inviting people, is going to bring them in for ongoing collaboration. Whereas getting people to submit over a request link is really just to get a single piece of content and also plant the seed of further collaboration. So really, it's more of a human game. Who are you dealing with? Who are you activating, and what's the right strategy for them? So when you invite someone as a guest pass user, you are giving them a walled garden of access to your space. Right? A guest pass user is only gonna see the content they've created or the content you've invited them to create. So, you know, baked into that role, that permission, you already have privacy. So you don't need to worry about that. But inviting someone as a guest user is there to bring them to the collaboration table more officially. Right? You want them logging into MarketScale Studio. You want them being more proactive with their content creation. If that's who you're thinking of, usually for, like, channel partners or really collaborative customers of yours, then you probably should get them in as a guest user. And then we at MarketScale can help coach them and get them creating independently. However, a common mistake we see is that sometimes people will just invite people into the platform, and then there's friction around learning a new tool. Right? When really all they needed was one quick clip, a quick testimonial, a quick, you know, submission of videos from a a trade show or an on-site install. So careful to not overcommit the relationship before the relationship's even been established. You may have good rapport with someone, but are they content forward? How do you need to massage them into being a more content forward collaborator? Well, you may want to do option two, which is the request link. Right? The request link is for quick content for someone new. You know, obviously it can be used for getting content from established contributors, but in this use case, we're saying, new person, you want them brought to the collaboration table? Well, if the main priority is a very specific piece of content, make it easy for them and get them a request link instead. What that's gonna do is actually prompt them after the fact to create a Guest Pass account, and it'll keep them in as a warm lead in the platform. You plant the seed of continued collaboration, but you also get the benefit of a frictionless initial touch point that is content forward. My personal suggestion is to default to the request link, especially if you already have a content idea in mind. Let it be content forward, prove the concept, then worry about getting them invited to the platform and training them on the platform. Right? That's just my suggestion in general, but both of these absolutely play a role. Because you don't just wanna send someone a request link if you are trying to lock them in for continued collaboration. If you trust that relationship, you should own it and get them invited. Make this a celebration. Say, we're, you know, giving you access to a content creation tool because we value you as a partner. That's gonna hit harder if you do option one versus option two. So let me show you the workflows for both here, right? If you wanna invite someone into the platform as a Guest Pass user, it's as easy as going to invite users, typing in their email, bobjonesyahoo dot com, and we're gonna click here and choose guest. Again, Guest Pass users only see their content or content you've invited them to collaborate on. So everyone's got a walled garden. No need to worry about, you know, this competing customer seeing this competing customer's content in the channel media feed. You can also just resend pending invites if this is someone you've already invited previously. Right? Now what about the request link? Well, that would be going to request here and actually building a custom request for content. So let's say it was this one, right? I could go here into view responses and see, okay, I got these people to respond to my request, right? So now these people are loaded in the platform and I could invite them to be Guest Pass users. Building a request is fully customized, right? You make it based on an actual ask for content. So I could click create here, right, and actually build out questions and how I want people to respond. So you prioritize the content contribution, but the net effect is that people who respond will then be added into the platform as a participant, as a warm lead, which you can then use to turn them into a guest pass user, a consistent collaborator. So to do that, again, let's go find some participant users. So I'm going to go to users here. I'm going to go to participants. Nice. So these are people who are warm leads, right? They have somehow gotten into the platform by responding to a request. You sent it to them. Maybe it was a big newsletter, you know, send, whatever. They responded to a request, and now they're sitting here waiting to be turned into a Guest Pass user. So now you could go to these different users, pop into that profile, and turn these participants into Guest Pass users. There you go, folks. So those are the two main workflows that I recommend, again, for getting a new creator in the platform. Either they're a guest pass user and you invite them, you know, right off the bat to the table, or you get a request link their way to prioritize one piece of content submission, and then you use that to on ramp them into the platform. All right, team. Good luck out there. Let's get those new folks in your tool, broaden the horizons of creators under your content umbrella. Get the reps. Get the on-site field teams. Get the customers. Get the channel partners in the platform. And depending on how you wanna get content from them, choose the right path for on ramping them into MarketScale Studio. Alright. Good luck, folks.