Social media managers trade work all day. A caption formula here, a reporting layout there, a question about a client who wants a viral post by Friday. Most of that now happens in chat apps, where a useful answer scrolls out of sight within a day and nobody can search for it later. A community on your own WordPress site keeps the good material findable and puts job leads where the right people will see them.
This guide sets up that kind of community with Jetonomy for discussions, WP Career Board for job posts and BuddyNext for profiles and the member directory, all styled by the Reign theme. Jetonomy, WP Career Board and BuddyNext are each free with an optional paid Pro licence. Pro features are labelled as such. If you want the wider picture of running a professional network, our members-only business network guide covers directories, referrals and meetups.
One boundary first. Nothing here is legal or contract advice. Rules about client confidentiality, platform terms and who owns a template are set by your contracts and local law, so tell members to check theirs and write your community rules accordingly.
Who joins, and what each person is looking for
Before you create a single space, decide who the community is for. Social media work is split into very different jobs, and a space that serves all of them badly serves none of them well.
| Member type | Arrives wanting | Lives mostly in |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | Templates, pricing sanity checks, new clients | Template swaps, job leads |
| In-house manager | Benchmarks, tool opinions, a sounding board | Client questions, discussion |
| Agency staff | Process ideas, hiring help, overflow work | Job leads, discussion |
| Hiring manager or brand | Someone good, quickly | Job board |
You will not need a rule that keeps these groups apart. You need member types so that people can tell each other apart, and BuddyNext has them. Under BuddyNext > Members > Directory > Member Types you create types such as Freelancer or In-house, give each a colored badge, and decide whether members may choose their own. A badge shows on the profile and the directory card, and the directory gets a filter for each type.
Spaces to create on day one
Jetonomy organizes everything into spaces, and each space has a type that changes how posts behave. Four types exist: Forum, Q&A, Ideas and Feed. Matching the type to the job is the most important decision in the build.
| Space | Jetonomy type | Why that type fits |
|---|---|---|
| Introductions | Feed | Short posts, no title needed, a card layout that reads like a stream |
| Template swaps | Forum | Threaded replies let people adapt a template and show the result |
| Client questions | Q&A | The asker can accept one answer, and good answers rise with votes |
| Tool and platform changes | Forum | Open-ended discussion with no single right answer |
| Wishlist for the community | Ideas | Members vote on what the community should add next |
Set the Ideas space aside for later if you want fewer rooms at launch. A new community with ten empty spaces feels abandoned, so start with three and add the rest when members ask for them.
Each space also has a visibility and a join policy. New spaces default to Public with Open joining, which suits introductions and template swaps because public discussions can be found by search engines. For anything where members discuss real client situations, consider a Private space with join requests approved by you, so the people reading are members who agreed to the rules.
Template swaps that people can reuse
A template swap fails when the post is a vague screenshot with the line “here is my content calendar”. It works when every post answers the same few questions, so that a reader can decide in seconds whether it is useful.
Use prefixes to label what the template is
Jetonomy lets a space owner turn on topic prefixes and define colored labels per space. Under Jetonomy > Spaces > (your space) > Settings you tick Enable topic prefixes for this space, add labels and pick a color for each. For a template space the labels could be Caption, Calendar, Report, Brief and Audit. Members pick one prefix when they post. Prefixes are plain labels, so clicking one does not filter the list, but the colors make the space scannable.
Use tags for the platform and the niche
Tags are free-form and shared across the whole community. Ask members to tag by platform and by sector, and reuse existing tags instead of inventing new spellings. A tag page lists every topic carrying that tag across all spaces, so a member can click a platform tag and see every template and question about it in one place.
Settle how files are shared
The plain truth about attachments matters here. In free Jetonomy, members can add images to a post through the composer toolbar, by drag and drop or by paste, and the composer gains that ability for a member once they reach Trust Level 1. Attaching files such as PDFs, spreadsheets or slide decks from the composer is a Pro feature (the File Attachments extension). Free Jetonomy will display attachments that arrive some other way, but it will not let members attach new ones.
If you run free Jetonomy, ask members to share a link to a view-only document and paste an image preview into the post. Jetonomy turns a pasted web address into a link preview card. If template files are the heart of your community, treat File Attachments as part of the plan from the start.
Write the rules for templates down
Put a short pinned post at the top of the space. Say what a member may post, whether templates must be original or credited, and that client names, metrics and personal data must be removed first. Moderators can pin topics in a space, and the pinned post is the one thing every newcomer should see.
Client questions: answers without exposing clients
The Q&A space type is built for exactly this. Every post is a question, replies are answers, and the person who asked, or a moderator, sees an Accept button on each reply. An accepted answer carries a tag and, if it sits on a later page of a long thread, also appears in a box above the replies. The space list shows an Answered badge, and an Unanswered filter shows only questions nobody has resolved, which is the list your most active members should work through.
Reputation does the rest. By default an upvoted post earns the author 10 points, an upvoted reply earns 5 and an accepted answer earns 15. Every value can be changed under Jetonomy > Settings > Permissions > Reputation Points. Members move through trust levels as they post and receive replies, and the profile shows reputation so that readers know whom to trust.
Give people a safe way to ask
Questions about a client often include things the asker should not publish. Two options help, and they differ in price.
- Private topics (free). A member ticks Private in the composer. Only the author and the space moderators can see the topic, and it does not appear in search. This suits an account question that needs a moderator’s eyes only.
- Anonymous posting (Pro). A member posts under the name Anonymous, while moderation and reputation still work behind the scenes. A site administrator can reveal the real author, and each reveal is logged. It needs two switches: the extension turned on site-wide, and Allow anonymous posts ticked on each space where you want it.
Anonymous posting suits a space about difficult client situations. Keep it off everywhere else, as the documentation advises, because a space where nobody is known is also a space where nobody is accountable.
Teach people to ask well
Pin a short guide to writing a good question. Ask for the platform, what has been tried, and what a good outcome looks like, with client details removed. A Q&A space improves quickly when the first dozen questions are well-formed, because later members copy the pattern.
Job leads with WP Career Board
Job leads come in two forms, and it helps to keep them separate. A formal job post is a listing with an application route, the kind a brand or agency publishes. An informal lead is a member saying they have more work than they can handle and passing a client along. WP Career Board handles the first. The second belongs in a normal Jetonomy space.
What the free plugin gives you
WP Career Board is fully usable on its own. The free plugin includes:
- An Employer role and an Employer Dashboard where people post and manage jobs
- A company profile that a poster needs before they can publish a job
- A four-step job form with a salary range, a remote option, an application deadline, and an optional apply link or apply email
- Candidate applications with statuses from Submitted through to Hired or Rejected, shown in a List view or a Board view
- Guest applications, so a candidate does not need an account
- Saved jobs for candidates
- Lists you control for categories, job types, locations and experience levels
Employers choose from the lists you maintain. They cannot invent a new category or job type unless they are a moderator, so create the job types you need up front. For a social media community, that is where you add the contract shapes your members actually work in, such as freelance, part-time or retainer.
Keep the board clean
By default Auto-Publish Jobs is off, so every submitted job goes to Pending and an administrator approves it before it appears. For a small community, leave it that way. Any signed-in member who does not own a job can report it, and reported jobs gather in a Flagged view for moderators. Rejecting a job lets you give a reason that goes to the poster in an email.
What Pro adds
WP Career Board Pro adds a pipeline with hiring stages you define, a resume builder, a credits system for charging employers to post, job alerts for candidates, a map and a job feed. Resumes and job alerts are the pieces most social media communities will want first, because freelancers like to be found and like to be told when a matching job appears. If you plan to charge for listings, read the free-versus-Pro table below before you promise anything.
Show jobs inside the community
On BuddyNext, jobs appear in the activity feed and in community search when BuddyNext Pro is active alongside WP Career Board. Members who publish jobs get a Jobs panel on the Portfolio tab of their profile. Without BuddyNext Pro, the job board still works, but it sits on its own pages rather than in the feed. If your community runs on BuddyPress rather than BuddyNext, WP Career Board has its own BuddyPress integration, and the free plugin tags members as Employers or Candidates.
Where informal leads go
For the “I cannot take this client” post, add a Feed or Forum space called Leads and give it prefixes such as Open and Filled, so the list shows what is still available. Ask posters to mark a lead Filled by editing the title, and have a moderator close or delete filled leads so old ones do not mislead newcomers. Set a rule against sharing a client’s private details, and tell members that any referral fee arrangement is between them and should follow the laws that apply to them.
Profiles and the member directory
A social media community works because people can find the right person. BuddyNext gives you the machinery.
- Profile fields. Create fields such as Platforms managed, Industries, Typical clients or Portfolio link. A field marked Include in search is added to the directory search and the site search, so typing “TikTok” finds the members who filled it in. Each field also has its own visibility, from Public to Only me.
- The directory. It shows member cards with the type badge and an online indicator, lets people sort by newest, alphabetical or most active, and offers an Online only switch. Members can follow, connect or message from the card.
- Connections. A connection is a mutual relationship that both members accept. It also unlocks a Connections only audience for profile fields and posts.
Private messages in BuddyNext are powered by the MediaVerse plugin, which stores and delivers them. If you want members to message each other, install MediaVerse and switch its Messages setting on. Do not promise messaging on the pricing page until you have done so.
Jetonomy and BuddyNext work together without configuration. When BuddyNext is active, Jetonomy takes on its colors and typography, hands the page header and navigation to BuddyNext, and follows dark mode. That means your forum and your profiles look like one site on Reign.
Keeping self-promotion under control
Every professional community fights the same problem: members who only post to advertise. A few controls keep it manageable.
- Trust levels. New members start at Level 0. Levels 1 to 3 are earned automatically, with defaults of 5 posts, 3 days active and 10 replies received for Level 1, and higher thresholds for Levels 2 and 3. You can change the thresholds.
- CAPTCHA and Akismet. Jetonomy supports reCAPTCHA v3 or Cloudflare Turnstile, and members at Trust Level 2 and above skip the CAPTCHA. If Akismet is active, posts it flags are saved as spam and held out of view.
- Flags and the moderation queue. Members flag content, and moderators work through the queue. Both are in free Jetonomy.
- A written rule. Decide what share of someone’s posts may be promotional and publish it. A simple rule that moderators can apply the same way every time beats a clever one.
What is free and what needs Pro
| Need | Free | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Spaces of four types, tags, prefixes, voting, accepted answers | Jetonomy | |
| Private topics, flags, moderation queue, trust levels | Jetonomy | |
| Attach new files from the composer | Jetonomy Pro | |
| Anonymous posting | Jetonomy Pro | |
| Post jobs, company pages, guest applications | WP Career Board | |
| Resumes, job alerts, hiring pipeline, paid listings | WP Career Board Pro | |
| Member types, profile fields, directory, connections | BuddyNext | |
| Jobs in the activity feed and community search | BuddyNext Pro | |
| Private messages between members | MediaVerse engine |
For the full list of what each plugin includes, see the plugins overview and the free versus Pro page.
Your first month, in order
- Week one. Install the stack, create the member types, and build three spaces: Introductions, Template swaps and Client questions. Pin a short rules post in each.
- Week two. Add the topic prefixes and the profile fields. Invite a few people you trust and ask each to post one real template and one real question.
- Week three. Set up the job board, add the job types, keep Auto-Publish off, and approve the first listings by hand.
- Week four. Look at which spaces get replies and which do not. Close or merge anything quiet and add the Ideas space so members can vote on what comes next.
If you want to test the layout before committing, the Reign demos show the theme with the community plugins, and the forum picker helps if you are weighing Jetonomy against another forum.
Frequently asked questions
Can members share template files in free Jetonomy?
Not by attaching them from the composer. Free Jetonomy lets members add images and paste links, and it displays attachments that already exist. Attaching new files such as PDFs and documents needs the File Attachments extension in Jetonomy Pro, or you can ask members to link to a shared document.
Does WP Career Board need Pro to be useful?
No. The free plugin includes the employer dashboard, company profiles, job posting, applications with statuses, guest applications and saved jobs. Pro adds resumes, job alerts, a custom hiring pipeline, credits for charging employers, and maps.
Can freelancers post their own availability?
Yes, but not as a job. WP Career Board is built for employers posting jobs. A freelancer announcing availability fits a Feed or Forum space with a prefix such as Available, or a profile field in BuddyNext that says what they offer. Resumes in WP Career Board Pro are another route.
How do I stop members from posting only to advertise?
Use trust levels, the moderation queue and a written rule about promotion. Add a CAPTCHA or Akismet for new accounts. The rule matters most, since moderators need something clear to point to.
Do I need BuddyNext, or will Jetonomy alone do?
Jetonomy alone gives you discussions, profiles, a leaderboard and the moderation tools. BuddyNext adds the member directory, member types, searchable profile fields, connections and an activity feed. For a community where finding the right person matters, BuddyNext is worth adding.
Which theme should I use?
BuddyNext works with any WordPress theme. Reign gives you more prebuilt layouts and finer styling controls, and WP Career Board reads Reign’s own color palette, so the job pages match the rest of the site.