NEPA Unite
A regional community taken from empty to launch-ready in five weeks
NEPA Unite brings business owners, institutions and residents across Northeast Pennsylvania's seven counties together. When I joined as Community Manager and Lead Strategist, the platform was built but empty and the launch date was slipping. I wrote the launch content, designed onboarding, set the messaging rules and built the LinkedIn presence.
- Client
- NEPA Unite, founded by Jim Giombetti
- My role
- Community Manager and Lead Strategist
- Platforms
- Higher Logic Thrive and LinkedIn
- Timeline
- October to November 2026, remote
Launch readiness, one week before launch
from an empty platform to launch-ready
discussion starters written across the two communities
messaging rules applied to every public asset
open vendor questions answered, onboarding resumed within days
A platform built, but empty
NEPA Unite had a strong vision, a small capable team and a contracted platform vendor. What it did not have was a way to get from 'platform exists' to 'people are in it and getting value'.
Nothing for day one
The community was empty, with no content plan and no onboarding. A new member would have found nothing to read, nothing to reply to and no route into the right space.
A vendor waiting, a date slipping
The platform vendor had paused onboarding work until four open questions were answered. The original 19 October launch target had passed, and the work was scattered across email threads and time zones.
Brand risk in the copy
Draft copy and visuals carried unverified figures, features described as live that were not built yet, a 'nonprofit' label that did not fit, and AI-generated imagery that undercut a brand built on trust.
Make it feel alive on the first visit
Write everything a new member meets in week one, give the vendor what it needs to automate onboarding, and keep every public claim honest.
Write the Community Launch Kit
I wrote the full launch content package, approved by the founder: a pinned Welcome Post in his voice, a Start Here guide with a four-step first week, Community Guidelines with six enforced rules and a four-step moderation ladder, a personal welcome message and a Day 7 check-in. I added two weeks of discussion starters for each community, eight questions in all, each answerable in a sentence.
Design segmentation and onboarding
I proposed one required registration question, 'Which community fits you best?' (Business, Civic or Both), plus a County field. The vendor added it to the sign-up form and built automation on it, so every approved member is enrolled in the right community, subscribed to a daily digest and sent the right welcome email.
Unblock the vendor
The vendor had paused onboarding work on four open questions. I drafted the answers, coordinated them through the project manager and shared the Launch Kit as the content plan. Within days the vendor had built the enrolment and welcome automations and moved the project to final launch readiness.
Set rules that protect the brand
I set messaging rules and applied them to the homepage copy, the founder story, the visual set and the founder's papers: no statistics until sourced, 'digital infrastructure' not 'data center', anything unbuilt marked 'coming soon', no 'nonprofit' label, no partner named without consent. I also steered the website visuals away from generic AI imagery toward an illustrated map of the region and real photography of real places.
Build LinkedIn without risking the account
I created the NEPA Unite LinkedIn company page and designed its banner. I reworked the founder's invitation campaign around a short personal message and honest 'founding member' framing, and advised against third-party automation tools, which LinkedIn's User Agreement prohibits, in favour of a safe manual pace of 25 to 50 invitations a week.
One plan, one date
I edited the founder's paper through two rounds, restoring exact quotes, and planned a four-paper library release: two on launch day, then one a week. I moved copy out of email attachments into a shared Drive and one copy workspace, then added the missing launch prerequisites to the project plan, each with an owner and a date.
The launch system, up close
How a new member moves from invitation to first conversation, the rules that kept every public claim honest, and the LinkedIn page that opens the door.
Ready for launch, one week out
By 7 November 2026, everything a new member meets on day one was written, approved and automated. These are launch-readiness results: the community opens on 13 November.
Where things stood on 7 November 2026
launch date fixed, after the original 19 October target slipped
communities with automatic enrolment from one sign-up question
library papers scheduled across launch week and the two weeks after
deliverables, from the Launch Kit to the launch plan
Launch readiness checklist
| Area | Status on 7 November 2026 |
|---|---|
| Launch date | Fixed for 13 November 2026 |
| Vendor | All four open questions answered; onboarding work resumed within days |
| Onboarding | Community enrolment, daily digests, welcome emails and the Day 7 check-in automated, built on the Launch Kit and the segmentation field |
| Launch content | Welcome post, Start Here, guidelines, welcome message templates and eight discussion starters |
| Library | Four papers scheduled across launch week and the following two weeks |
| Brand risks | Unsourced statistics, features described as live too early, misquoted sources, AI-generated 'local' imagery and a risky LinkedIn automation plan, all caught before going public |
| Channels | NEPA Unite LinkedIn company page live with a custom banner |
Source: project status as of 7 November 2026, one week before the public launch on 13 November 2026. Figures describe what was delivered, not post-launch performance.
What this means for your community
Never open an empty room
New members decide in one visit whether a community is alive. Write the welcome, the first questions and the first week before you open the doors.
Ask one good question at sign-up
A single required question can route every member to the right space and the right welcome, automatically. Keep registration short and make every field do a job.
Protect trust before you chase reach
A regional brand lives on credibility. Hold unsourced numbers, mark unbuilt features 'coming soon', and grow the founder's network at a pace that never puts his account at risk.
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Want results like this for your brand?
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