A member onboarding process helps community owners to fully leverage the time that a new member has spent in joining your community. The general goal is to deliver an engaging experience from the very beginning to make them come back to participate on a regular basis.

Here are some of the key benefits of onboarding new members:

• Helps in setting the right expectations for both the new member and the community owner.
• Keeps the member aware of the community culture and guidelines.
• Provides new members with the tools and information necessary to get the best out of the community.
• Helps the members discover peers with a shared passion so that they can form networks and add value to each other
• Allows the community manager to make the new member realize the value of the community so they return to the community

Some examples of mechanisms for member onboarding, include: welcome videos, guided tours, email sequence, introduction thread, and new member groups.