6 Tasks Every Online Community Manager Should Automate

As a community manager, especially on a small team, you wear a lot of hats—jumping from answering questions to moderating discussions, all while working to keep engagement levels high. It’s a lot, and it’s easy to feel like the constant upkeep is cutting into the time you need to drive those meaningful interactions. 

So, how do you lighten the load? Higher Logic Vanilla’s automated workflows are built to take over the routine tasks that eat up your day—things like clearing out outdated posts, escalating disruptive content, and ensuring every question gets a response. 

By automating these essential tasks, you can get back to what you do best: building a community your members want to be a part of. 

Curious how automation can make a difference? Here are six smart ways you can use Higher Logic Vanilla’s automated workflows to reclaim your time and elevate your community. 

1. Prioritize top-voted ideas for review.

In a busy community, great ideas can easily get overlooked. No one wants to see a valuable suggestion vanish into the noise—especially not your community members who took the time to share it. 

With our automated workflows, when an idea hits a certain number of upvotes, it’s automatically moved to the right status. This way, your product team always knows which ideas are gaining traction, so they can focus on the features your users care about most. 

Example:  A member shares a new feature idea in the “Product Suggestions” category. It quickly gains momentum, with the community rallying behind it. Once the idea hits 50 upvotes, it automatically shifts to “Under Review,” signaling the product team that this suggestion has strong support and deserves their attention. 

2. Clean up outdated and irrelevant posts.

As a community manager, manually auditing your community to weed out stale or off-topic content can feel like being caught in a never-ending cycle of cleanup. It’s tedious, time-consuming, and let’s be honest, not the best use of your talents.  

That’s where our automated workflows come in. With a few triggers, Vanilla quietly sweeps away anything that’s gone stale—whether it’s discussions that have fizzled out, questions collecting dust, or featured posts that overstayed their welcome, without you having to manually comb through it all. 

Declutter outdated posts.

Keeping a community active is no small feat, especially when old content starts to pile up. With our automated workflows, you can set triggers based on how long it’s been since a post saw any action—automatically closing or moving posts that become inactive. Plus, you can tailor these actions by post type—discussion, question, idea, or poll—and even by category or tag. 

Example: In a software developers’ community, discussions about outdated programming languages can clutter the forum over time. For instance, posts tagged with “Python 2” are automatically closed if they haven’t seen any activity in six months, ensuring only the most current discussions, like those about “Python 3,” stay front and center. 

Refresh featured content regularly.

Curated collections are great for showcasing the best your community has to offer, but they need regular updates to stay relevant. With our automated workflows, you can decide how long content should stay in a featured collection—either by setting a specific timeframe or letting it stick around until it goes quiet with no new activity or comments. Content that’s past its prime is automatically removed, making space for new material that better reflects the community’s current interests and trends. 

Example: A popular discussion thread earns a spot in the “Community Picks” collection, highlighting it for the community. It stays featured for 30 days or until two weeks pass without any new comments. Once it hits either limit, the discussion is automatically removed from the featured collection. 

3. Drive ongoing engagement in your community.

Keeping your community engaged isn’t just about starting new conversations—it’s about making sure the good ones don’t fall by the wayside. Our automated workflows let you highlight the content your members are really connecting with, while also giving those posts that deserve a second chance some extra exposure—all without you having to manually track every discussion.  

Spotlight your community’s best content.

When a post in your community starts earning points via engagement, it’s a clear sign that your members are finding it valuable. Instead of letting these high-performing posts get buried by newer content, our automated workflows can instantly elevate them. Set a trigger for when a post hits a specific point threshold, and it will automatically move to a featured collection, get bumped to the top of the discussion list, or tagged for easy discovery.  

Example: A member’s post in the “Product Tips” category begins to gain attention, gathering likes and comments. Once it hits 50 engagement points, the post is automatically bumped to the top of the discussion list and added to the “Featured Tips” collection. It’s also tagged as “Top Tip.” 

Highlight uplifting posts.  

Your community thrives on positivity, and when a post radiates that kind of energy, it deserves the spotlight. With our automated workflows, you can set triggers based on sentiment analysis. If a post is tagged as extremely positive, it can automatically be added to a featured collection, bumped to the top of discussions, or tagged for easy access. This helps spread the good energy and encourage more of the same positive engagement. 

Example: A member shares an inspiring success story in the “Community Wins” category, and it quickly stands out as highly positive. Once identified, the post is automatically bumped to the top of the “Community Wins” list and added to the “Featured Stories” collection, making it easy for others to find and be motivated by the story. 

Promote overlooked discussions.

In a busy community, some posts can slip through the cracks. With our automated workflows, you can set a trigger for posts that haven’t received comments within a specific timeframe. Vanilla then automatically bumps those posts to the top or adds a tag, making sure nothing goes unnoticed.  

Example: A member posts a question in the “Troubleshooting” category, but it sits unanswered for 48 hours. To bring it back into focus, the post is automatically bumped to the top of the discussion list, increasing its chances of getting the attention it needs. 

Revive past favorites.

Great discussions shouldn’t fade away just because the conversation slowed down. With our automated workflows, you can set triggers to revive posts that haven’t seen new activity for a while. Vanilla automatically bumps them back to the top or tags them to draw attention, giving those once-popular threads a second chance to shine. Whether it’s sparking fresh ideas or reigniting old debates, this keeps your community engaged and ensures valuable content stays visible. 

Example: A lively debate in the “Industry Trends” category starts to quiet down after a few weeks of inactivity. After 14 days without new comments, the discussion is automatically bumped back to the top of the “Industry Trends” list, reigniting the conversation and keeping it fresh. 

4. Ensure every question finds an answer.

Unanswered questions can be frustrating for your community members. With our automated workflows, you can set a trigger for questions that have gone unanswered for a certain period. Vanilla can automatically bump the question back to the top of the list, add it to a content collection, or escalate it to an assigned moderator or third-party support platform—such as Zendesk, Salesforce, Jira or, GitHub—ensuring it gets the visibility needed to prompt a response.  

Example: A member posts a question in the “Get Help” category. After three days without a response, the question is automatically bumped to the top of the “Get Help” discussion list and escalated to Zendesk for further assistance.  

Additionally, the question can be automatically added to a content collection—a curated group of posts or resources. These content collections can be tailored based on user roles within the community, so only certain members, like moderators or role-specific experts, can access them. By directing unanswered questions into these role-specific content collections, the most relevant community members are alerted, making it easier for them to step in and provide the needed answers. 

5. Jump on problematic posts for quick action.

Moderating a community is a delicate balance—keeping the atmosphere positive and engaging while enforcing rules and managing a flood of content and diverse member behaviors. It’s no easy task, especially when issues start cropping up faster than you can keep up. That’s where our automated workflows come into play. They handle moderation and escalation for you, ensuring that serious issues get the attention they need right away, so your community stays safe and well-moderated without you having to be constantly on high alert. 

Flag and escalate disruptive content.

Every minute a problematic post sits unchecked, your community’s risk grows. Small fires can quickly turn into full-blown crises, and without the right tools, it’s easy to fall behind. With our automated workflows, you can set up triggers for posts that receive a specific number of reports from users. You control which report reasons—like spam, abuse, fraud, or rule violations—activate the automation. From there, Vanilla can automatically hide reported posts (if you chose) and escalate them to the right moderator or even external platforms like GitHub or Zendesk.  

Example: A post receives multiple reports from users flagging it for abuse. After five reports, the post is automatically hidden from the community and escalated to a moderator for review. 

Manage negative feedback.

Negative sentiment can quickly spread through a community if not managed properly. Our automated workflows let you stay ahead of the curve by setting up triggers to catch posts with negative or highly negative sentiments. Whether it’s a frustrated member’s post or a potential issue flagged by sentiment analysis, Vanilla can automatically take action—closing the post, escalating it to the right team, or removing it from your featured collections. You can customize these automations to target specific categories, like support or product feedback, or even apply them based on user roles, ensuring that high-priority discussions from your VIP, tenured, or most active members get the attention they need. 

Example: A member posts a strongly worded complaint in the “Product Feedback” category, and sentiment analysis flags it as highly negative. The post is then automatically escalated to the product team for immediate attention and removed from any featured collections. 

6. Onboard new users to your community.

Personalizing onboarding for every new community member might seem overwhelming, especially with a small team. But with our automated workflows, you can deliver a tailored experience to each user without overextending your resources. These workflows let you automatically assign roles, segment users, and guide members through their community journey—efficiently and at scale. Whether you’re onboarding one member or a hundred, you can make sure each person feels connected and valued from day one. 

Personalize onboarding based on user interests.

When a new user joins your community, you want to plug them into the right conversations from the start. With our automated workflows, you can, by tailoring the onboarding experience to each new member. By setting up triggers based on the details they provide during registration or profile updates, you can automatically assign roles, have them follow categories, or invite them to join specific groups that match their interests. This ensures users find the most relevant content and connections right away, making your community valuable and sticky from the moment they log in. 

Example: During registration, the user selects “Product A” as the type of product they’re most interested in or currently using. The user is automatically set to follow the “Product A Tips & Best Practices” category. This category includes discussions, articles, and updates specifically tailored to users of “Product A.” 

Similarly, Vanilla enables you to have users automatically follow categories based on their email domain. For instance, if a new user registers with a corporate email like “jane.doe@financecorp.com,” Vanilla can be configured so that all users with the “@financecorp.com” domain are automatically subscribed to categories like “Finance Industry Trends,” “Financial Compliance Discussions,” and “Investment Strategies.”  

Keep new members engaged with timely onboarding milestones.

The onboarding journey doesn’t stop after day one. With our automated workflows, you can keep your members engaged by setting triggers based on how long they’ve been registered. After a set number of days, the system can automatically assign them new roles, introduce them to additional categories or groups, guiding them deeper into the community. This ongoing support helps users discover more value over time, increasing their likelihood of sticking around and becoming active participants. 

Example: A new user registers for your community and completes the initial onboarding process. They’re welcomed and introduced to the most relevant categories based on their interests and profile information. They’re assigned the “New Member” role, giving them access to basic content and discussions.  

After 90 days of being registered, they’re automatically assigned a “Contributor” role, unlocking access to more in-depth discussions and exclusive content. Additionally, they’re introduced to a new category, “Advanced Topics in [Industry/Interest],” encouraging them to explore more specialized content.  

After six months, the member is added to the “Expert Roundtable” category, where they can engage with industry leaders and participate in more advanced conversations. Their role is updated to “Engaged Member,” reflecting their growing involvement.  

After one year, the system recognizes the user as a long-term member. They’re automatically invited to become a mentor for new members, with access to a “Mentors & New Members” category. Their role is updated to “Community Mentor,” allowing them to contribute more significantly and guide newer members through their own onboarding journeys. 

Scale your community with confidence

As your community expands, so do the demands of managing it. But with Vanilla’s automated workflows, growth doesn’t have to mean more manual tasks. Routine jobs are handled automatically, so you can focus on the strategies that actually drive engagement and growth. 

By automating now, you’re not just getting some time back—you’re setting up your community for growth that doesn’t leave you feeling stretched thin. 

Ready to see how it works? Schedule a personalized demo.