Badges in Communities help you recognise members for joining, contributing and staying active. Community administrators can set up badges that are awarded automatically when members reach certain milestones or engagement thresholds. Members can see the badges they've earned, track their progress and choose an earned badge to show throughout the community. This guide covers badge types, setup, what members see, filtering and badge customisation in ZipLeads.
What Are Badges in Communities?
Badges in Communities are recognition tools that automatically reward members when they reach set milestones or engagement thresholds. Administrators control which badge triggers are active and set the qualifying conditions. Members can review their earned badges and track progress towards more achievements from their profiles.
Badges generally fall into two categories:
One-time badges: Recognise specific community milestones or membership events.
Engagement badges: Recognise ongoing activity such as posting, commenting, reacting or receiving likes.
Key Benefits of Badges in Communities
Badges give visible recognition for meaningful participation and help administrators encourage ongoing community engagement.
Automatic recognition: Reward members when they reach set milestones or activity thresholds.
Visible achievements: Let members show an earned badge next to their name throughout the community.
Continued engagement: Use engagement badges to encourage ongoing participation.
Progress visibility: Let members review earned badges and progress towards future achievements.
Flexible configuration: Turn on individual triggers, set thresholds and choose the badge linked to each trigger.
Member insights: Filter community members by badge and review badge-holder information.
Prerequisites and Limitations
Badge award settings are set up inside a Community group, while badge designs are created and managed in Credentials.
You need access to your ZipLeads account and the Community group you want to set up.
You need the right access to manage Community settings and badge triggers.
Members can show one selected earned badge next to their name at a time.
Engagement badges are designed to refresh quarterly.
Badge designs are managed separately from Community badge triggers.
Note: The badge settings and controls you see may depend on your account access and the current Communities experience.
How to Set Up Badges in Communities
Community administrators can turn on automatic badge awards for one-time milestones and ongoing engagement. Each trigger links a qualifying condition to the badge a member receives.
In your ZipLeads account, select Memberships from the left navigation menu.
Select Communities, then select Groups.
Open the Community group you want to set up.
Inside the group, select Settings.
Select Badges.
Find the one-time or engagement badge trigger you want to set up.
Turn on the trigger.
If the trigger has a threshold, set the number of qualifying activities or days needed.
Select the badge members should receive when they meet the condition.
Apply or save the configuration using the available control.
Badge Types and Award Conditions
The available badges recognise both Community milestones and ongoing member contributions.
One-Time Badges
Badge | Award Condition |
Group Admin | Recognises a member who becomes a Community administrator. |
Newbie | Recognises a member when they join the Community. |
Founding Member | Recognises members who qualify as some of the earliest members to join the Community. |
Engagement Badges
Badge | Award Condition |
Always On | Post, comment or react for the set number of days in a row. |
Top Contributor | Post the set number of comments. |
Power User | Publish the set number of posts. |
Crowd Favourite | Receive the set number of likes on posts the member has published. |
Administrators set the engagement thresholds. Engagement badges refresh quarterly.
How Members View and Display Badges
Member profiles are a central place to review earned badges and progress towards more achievements. Members can also choose an earned badge to show next to their name.
Go to the Community where you've earned badges.
Open your member profile.
Select the Badges tab.
Review your earned badges and your progress towards upcoming achievements.
Choose an earned badge to show beside your name using the available badge-selection control.
The selected badge can appear beside the member's name in places like the Community feed, Members list and comments.
Members can also get notifications when they earn badges, plus progress reminders as they get close to an achievement.
How to Filter Members by Badge
Badge filtering helps administrators find members who hold specific achievements and review Community participation.
In your ZipLeads account, select Memberships.
Select Communities, then select Groups.
Open the Community group you want to review.
Select the Members tab.
Use the badge filter to narrow the member list by badge.
Review the matching members and badge-holder information.
How to Create and Customise Badge Templates
The Credentials area in ZipLeads has tools for designing badge templates. Once you've created a badge, you can select it when setting up a Community badge trigger.
In your ZipLeads account, select Memberships from the left navigation menu.
Select Credentials.
Click + Create in the top-right corner.
Select Create Badge.
Choose a template or start with a blank design.
If you choose a template, click Create to open the builder.
Customise the badge using the Text and Elements tools.
Click Preview to check the badge.
Click Save to store the badge template.
To link the badge to a Community trigger, go back to Memberships → Communities → Groups, open the group and select Settings → Badges. Choose the right badge when setting up the trigger.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will members receive a badge if they already qualify when I turn on the trigger?
Yes. Members who already meet the condition can receive the badge when the trigger is turned on.
Q: Can administrators turn individual badge triggers on or off?
Yes. Each badge trigger can be set up on its own, so you can turn on only the achievements you want to use.
Q: Can members choose which badge appears next to their name?
Yes. Members can choose one of their earned badges to show beside their name.
Q: Do engagement badges refresh?
Yes. Engagement badges are designed to refresh quarterly to encourage ongoing participation.
Q: When do members receive a progress reminder?
Members can receive an "almost there" notification when they reach 80% of the progress needed for a badge.