To scope a feed for partners and employees in one app, assign every person to a group before launch, then set the group on each module that carries content: feed, polls, notifications and chat. Sociana treats scope as a per-module setting, so test each one. A number with no group sees only Home and Profile.
Who this guide is for
You run a partner, dealer or distributor meet where company staff and external partners sit in the same hall and carry the same app. Pricing schemes, internal targets or staff-only sessions must never reach partners; partner awards and travel must never confuse staff. You would rather run one app than two.
What goes wrong with a single, shared feed
A shared feed is friendly right up to the first confidential slide. A staff member posts a photo of the incentive scheme; a partner reacts to it. A welcome notification names a pickup bus that applies to partners only, and employees phone the desk. Meanwhile the alternative, two separate apps, doubles configuration, doubles store submissions and splits the leaderboard.
Scoping by group sits between the two. Content, access, polls, chat and notifications can each be restricted to a cohort, and one app serves both audiences.
What each group should see
Draw this table before you configure anything. It is the specification.
| Content | Partners | Employees | Not yet assigned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda | Partner-track sessions | Full agenda including internal sessions | Hidden |
| Feed posts | Partner-visible posts | Employee-visible posts, plus partner posts if allowed | Hidden |
| Travel and stay | Own flights and accommodation | Own arrangements | Hidden |
| Live polls | Partner polls | Employee polls | Hidden |
| Notifications | Partner notices | Staff notices | Hidden |
| Home and Profile | Yes | Yes | Yes, with a message pointing to the helpdesk |
Add rows for awards, documents and chat rooms if you use them. If a row is blank, the team will argue about it on the day.
Step by step
Step 1: Define the groups and their owners
Start with two or three: Partners, Employees and, if needed, International guests or Managers. Assign each group an owner who approves content for it. Too many groups at launch is a reliable way to misconfigure one.
Step 2: Map the list before the app opens
Import the invited numbers with a group column. At the HCCB Partners Meet 2026 every registered number was mapped to Partners or Employees before launch. Anyone left unmapped saw only Home and Profile, with a message directing them to the helpdesk, which turned a mapping mistake into a visible, fixable condition rather than a data leak. Regional sales managers keep adding partners late, so decide on the cut-off date and the person who updates the list afterwards.
Do it in Sociana: groups and cohorts with a member import.
Step 3: Set the feed rules per group
For the feed, decide who can post, who can see posts from which group and whether posts need approval. Keep partner posting light and moderated; keep staff posting for operational notices. Group-aware feed rules are set on the timeline feed, not on the group itself.
Step 4: Scope notifications and polls separately
Scope is per module. Scheduled notifications take “Send To All” or “Select Group”; polls take their own group setting. Setting one does not set the other. Build a short checklist: a group-scoped notification, a group-scoped poll, a group-scoped post, each tested.
Step 5: Test with two throwaway accounts and one unmapped number
Create one test account in each group and one number that is in no group. Walk through the whole app on each: Home, agenda, feed, poll, notification, travel card. This is the step teams skip, and it is the one that finds the leak.
Step 6: Rehearse a late change
Move a test number from Employees to Partners the evening before the event and confirm what the person sees after a refresh. Late moves are the real-life case.
Step 7: Report by group afterwards
Read participation, poll results and notification recipients by group. A partner-meet report that shows activation among partners separately from employees is the one the sales head asks for.
Roles and approvals on the day
Scoping is a people question as much as a setting. Agree three roles before launch. A group owner for each audience approves what may be posted to it and answers “can this go to partners?” within minutes, not hours. A configuration lead holds the panel and is the only person who changes group assignments in the last 48 hours, so two people never fix the same number differently. A floor moderator watches the feed during sessions and removes anything that was meant for the other group.
Write the escalation in one line on the run-of-show: “If a staff-only post appears in the partner feed, the moderator removes it first and the group owner explains afterwards.” Rehearsing that sentence once is worth more than a long policy document. Keep a short log of every scope change made after the freeze date; it becomes the first thing you read if a partner reports seeing something they should not.
Pitfalls
- Assuming a group setting applies everywhere. It does not; feed, polls, notifications and chat are each configured and tested.
- Staff in the partner leaderboard. Use staff exclusion so internal team members do not rank against partners.
- Mixing groups for convenience. A “Managers” group that sees everything is fine; a “Guests” group that is half partners and half staff is not.
- Forgetting the unmapped message. Write it in plain words and give a phone number.
India and SAARC notes
Channel structures in India are layered by zone, region and tier, and partners are usually registered through a regional sales manager, so the master list is rarely final until the day before. Plan for a group column that carries zone or category as well as audience type. The Ministry of Tourism’s MICE study found that 65% of MICE events in India are B2B in nature (PIB explainer, 2019 study); the audience-split problem is therefore the normal case in this market, not an edge case. For meets that move abroad, the same groups apply, with the hospitality loop carrying passport and visa tasks.
How Sociana handles this
Groups are how one app serves more than one audience. They come from an import, from a rule such as zone or category or, where enabled, from self-join. Organisers pick a group when scheduling a notification or creating a poll, and members with no group see only Home and Profile. Sociana’s scheduled announcements and live polls and voting both take group targeting.
The HCCB Partners Meet 2026 in Goa is the worked example: a cinematic-themed app with Partners and Employees groups, separate content for each, flights and accommodation per partner and notifications by group. Open the group-scoped feed demo to see the two views side by side. Read the related dealer meet playbook for the full timeline.
FAQ
Can a person belong to more than one group?
Plan around one primary group per person, and confirm any multi-group case on a throwaway account before launch. Where a person needs wider access, such as a manager, use a role and a dedicated group rather than relying on overlapping scopes.
What does an unassigned person see?
Only Home and Profile, with a message that points to the helpdesk. This is intentional; it prevents unmapped numbers from seeing group content.
Is group-scoped content hidden from the admin panel too?
Scoping controls what members see in the app. Organisers work in the admin panel under their own role permissions, so agree who may see and edit each group’s content before the event.
Do we need two apps if partners and staff have different branding?
Usually not. Look and layout, including tile visibility, can be scoped by group, so one app can show different home tiles to different cohorts.
Related reading
Glossary: group, group-scoped content, delegation, dealer meet. Occasion hubs: dealer and partner meets, corporate annual meets, sales kickoffs.