Managing Followers

The Managing Followers section covers all the tools you have for controlling who is part of your community. From approving new follow requests to blocking disruptive users, marking alumni, and assigning community roles -- this is your command center for community membership.

Key Concepts

Before diving in, here are the core ideas behind follower management:

• Follow requests -- When someone wants to follow your organization, they send a follow request. You can approve or reject it, or enable auto-accept to approve all requests automatically.
• Invitations -- You can proactively invite users to follow your organization. Once invited, they can accept or decline.
• Blocking -- Followers who are disruptive or no longer welcome can be blocked. Blocked users cannot re-follow your organization until you unblock them.
• Alumni -- When a follower has completed their time with your organization (graduated, finished a program, moved on), you can mark them as Alumni. This preserves their historical connection while separating them from your active community.
• Community roles -- Every follower has a role that determines their level of access and responsibility: Follower, Member, Coach, Admin, or Alumni.

What You Can Do

Task	Description
Approve requests	Accept incoming follow requests to add new followers to your community
Reject requests	Decline follow requests from users you do not want in your community
Enable auto-accept	Automatically approve all new follow requests without manual review
Invite users	Send follow invitations to people you want in your community
Block followers	Remove and prevent a follower from re-following your organization
Unblock followers	Allow a previously blocked user to request to follow again
Mark as alumni	Move a follower to the Alumni tab while preserving their history
Restore alumni	Bring an alumni member back to active follower status
Change community role	Assign a follower a different role (Follower, Member, Coach, Admin)

How Follower Status Works

Every follower has a status that tracks their current relationship with your organization. Admin actions and user actions both affect this status:

  User sends follow request          Org sends invitation
          │                                   │
          v                                   v
     ┌───────────┐                      ┌──────────┐
     │ Requested  │                      │ Invited   │
     └─────┬──────┘                      └─────┬─────┘
           │                                   │
    ┌──────┴──────┐                    ┌───────┴───────┐
    │              │                    │                │
    v              v                    v                v
  Approve       Reject            User accepts     User declines
    │              │                    │                │
    v              v                    v                v
┌──────────┐ ┌─────────────┐    ┌──────────┐   ┌──────────────┐
│ Accepted  │ │ OrgRejected  │    │ Accepted  │   │MemberRejected│
│ (Active)  │ │  (Blocked)   │    │ (Active)  │   └──────────────┘
└─────┬─────┘ └──────────────┘    └─────┬─────┘
      │                                  │
      ├──── Block ────> OrgRejected (Blocked)
      │
      ├──── Mark Alumni ────> PastAccepted (Alumni)
      │
      └──── Change Role ────> Same status, new role

info

When auto-accept is enabled, follow requests skip the Requested stage entirely and go directly to Accepted status. The follower is immediately added to your active community.

In This Section

• Approving & Rejecting Requests -- Handle incoming follow requests, set up auto-accept, and manage the invitation flow
• Blocking & Unblocking -- Remove problematic followers and control who can re-follow your organization
• Alumni & Community Roles -- Mark followers as alumni, restore them to active status, and assign community roles

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What's Next?

Start with Approving & Rejecting Requests to learn how to handle incoming follow requests and set up auto-accept.