Nextdoor is the trusted communications platform for neighborhoods relied on by neighbors all over the world. We exist to provide neighbors and our government partners with a platform to build stronger, safer, and happier communities.
Neighbors rely on Nextdoor to connect with their local communities and have conversations about everything from finding a babysitter to learning about a rash of break-ins. Unlike other social media platforms, Nextdoor was built from the ground up with the neighborhood in mind.
Hyperlocal
Neighborhoods are founded by neighbors, with mapped boundaries
Private
Only members with a verified address may access their community’s Nextdoor neighborhood. Members are also required to use their real names
Useful
Recommendations, classifieds, events, crime & safety, and more!
Used by thousands of public agencies, Nextdoor for Public Agencies is a free, digital neighborhood engagement platform that instantly connects agencies with the residents they serve.
By expanding the number of residents you can reach and engage at the neighborhood and municipal level, you will increase satisfaction, safety, and trust.
Your Nextdoor administrator will send you an invite via email. Go to your work inbox and search for an email with a subject line similar to “Please activate your account on Nextdoor”
Click the link within the email as seen below
Fill out the fields and click Create your account
Add any contact information you want to share publicly and upload a profile picture (or at minimum a picture of the department’s logo, badge, or patch) and click Continue
To log into Nextdoor, go to https://nextdoor.com/ and click Sign in
Type in your work email address and your password
Click Sign in
If you forgot your password, click Forgot your password
Nextdoor for Public Agencies is not yet accessible via our mobile apps. However, the app is mobile web-friendly. We recommend adding a link to your phone’s home screen by following these steps:
Open Safari
Navigate to https://nextdoor.com/login/
Tap the Go To icon
Then select Add to home screen. The shortcut to the website will now appear as an icon on your home screen
Launch Chrome for Android and navigate to https://nextdoor.com/login/
Tap the menu button and tap Add to home screen
Enter “Nextdoor Gov” for the name of the shortcut and then Chrome will add it to your home screen.
Click on the image in the upper right hand corner
“Your profile” allows you to edit your personal profile picture, bio, and cover photo
“Bookmarks” allows you to see posts you’ve saved
“Settings” allows you to edit notification preferences, name, title, email, and password
“Help” takes to you to the agency help center
“Community Guidelines” outlines how members are expected to behave and held accountable for interacting with each other
“Sign out” allows you to logout of Nextdoor
By default, you will receive an email notifications when:
You will also receive emails from the Nextdoor team with weekly metrics, invitations to webinars, product updates, and best practices (recommended).
In addition, your residents will have the ability to send you private messages which will trigger an email notification (recommended).
If you want to adjust your notifications, uncheck the box next to any email you do not wish to receive. Click “Save” to save any changes you’ve made.
When you post as a public agency user, your title, first name, and last name will be displayed along with the name of your agency. Here’s an example:
In the “Settings” view, click Account
Make the changes to your name, title or email, and click Save
To change your password, click Change your password, enter your current password, your new password, confirm your new password and then click Save
On Nextdoor you can post four types of communications:
Messages are the ordinary posts used to inform and update residents. Give your post a catchy ‘Subject’ that avoids using acronyms or jargon. There is no limit to the length of these posts, and they allow for photos and other documents to be attached. If you need to include a lot of text, be sure to break it up into short paragraphs.
Polls can be used to get feedback about concerns and priorities. Residents can only vote once and are verified as living in your area, giving it more legitimacy than most online polls. Agencies have used Nextdoor polls to help set priorities and consult with residents ahead of major events.
Events can easily be set up on Nextdoor, including public meetings, Coffee with a Cop, and other community events you would like to highlight to residents.
Urgent Alerts are an important message that appears as an email, app notification — and, if residents have signed up for this service, an SMS text alert. Agencies use these messages for missing people alerts and urgent appeals for information.
To post, follow these instructions
#2. Under the Message tab, choose the appropriate category for your post.
#3. Choose the audience for your post.
Click the drop-down arrow next to “Choose audience”
To send a message to the entire municipality (or the service area you are assigned) choose Entire Service Area
To send a message to a service area(s) such as districts or wards, choose Specific Service Areas
To geo-target a message to a neighborhood(s), click Neighborhoods and select neighborhoods in one of 3 ways:
If you know the name of the neighborhood(s), select from the list of neighborhoods in the bottom left.
Click on the Draw a rectangle button
Click to draw a rectangle by dragging and then click to select
Neighborhoods contained within the rectangle will be automatically selected. If the selection is too large, click on the hand at the top of the map and then click on neighborhood(s) you do not want to include in your post
Once you have your selection finalized, click Next — if you toggled to full screen, you will need to hit escape, before the “Next” button appears.
#4. Type the subject line
#5. Type the body of the message
#6. Upload attachments: image, video or .pdf with max size for each: photos 7MB, other attachments 50MB
#7. Click Review message to preview the post and make sure all information is included and there are no typos
#8. Click Post
2. To thank a member for their reply to your post — Click on the smiley face by the member’s reply.
If you need to remove a member’s abusive reply to your post (all content on Nextdoor must be neighborly, respectful, and constructive), click the drop down menu next to the reply and click Delete. Note, Nextdoor archives agency content, and we have a retrieval tool should you get an open records request.
If a Nextdoor member repeatedly replies inappropriately to your Nextdoor posts, you can report this member to Nextdoor, and our support team will take the appropriate action. To do that:
Click on the member’s name next to their reply
Click View Profile
Click the dropdown arrow to the right of the person’s name and click Report
Follow the instructions to report the member
On your agency’s page (below the post box), click the drop down menu next to “Filter”
Choose All local agencies
Note: this feature will only display messages from other agencies that have the same jurisdiction as your agency
Each Nextdoor neighborhood has a designated Lead. Nextdoor Leads are typically the person who started their neighborhood on Nextdoor or are one of the most active members. Leads moderate neighborhood conversations and have the ability to suggest boundary/name changes.
Click Inbox in your left-hand navigation menu
Click Compose
Click on the name of the neighborhood you wish to contact. This will initiate a group chat with all of the Leads in that neighborhood
Enter a subject and message. If you’d like to receive a copy of your message in an email, check the box that says Email me a copy of this message
Click Send
Click Metrics in your left-hand navigation menu. You have access to two types of metrics: Nextdoor Membership and Content & Engagement
For Membership:
The default view for Membership is viewing 4 metrics by area (total members, new members joined in last 30 days, claimed households — households with at least one verified member, agency posts — the number of posts your agency has shared with that area in the past 30 days)
If you want to view by neighborhoods, click Change View and select Neighborhoods
Click Content & Engagement
Enter a start date
Enter an end date
Click Generate a CSV
You will receive an email at the address associated with your Nextdoor account with a link to a .csv file.
To view the Nextdoor neighborhood boundaries and metrics for specific neighborhoods:
Click Neighborhoods in the left hand navigation panel
Zoom in to see the neighborhood names (or search by address using the search bar)
Click on a neighborhood to view metrics
You have several options for inviting our residents to join you on Nextdoor from within the Nextdoor for Public Agencies platform. Click Invite Residents in the left hand navigation panel to invite your residents through your social networks, adding a badge to your agency’s website or to your email signature, or to share the a link to the public version of your Nextdoor page.
On your agency page, please upload a banner, logo for the page, and add information to the about section. To upload photos, click on the camera icons for the cover and photo, browse to the picture, and choose open then done. To edit the about section, click where it says “click here to edit” and when done choose “Save Changes.”
With Nextdoor, you can add custom service areas that will allow you to target messages to your custom geographies (police beats, planning areas, fire zones, etc.). This also allows you to assign your staff to geographic regions. To do this, follow the instructions described in this help article.
Click Add staff members in the left-hand navigation menu
Enter the email addresses of staff members in the text box. You can separate multiple addresses with a comma
For each staff member email address:
4. Click Submit
Each staff member you add will receive a verification email with a link that will allow them to create their accounts. If a staff member does not receive the verification email, send them the invitation acceptance link found in the Add staff past invitations section.
If a staff member receives an error message that their email has already been used to join a neighborhood, please contact agencysupport@nextdoor.com so their old account can be removed by a Nextdoor staff member
Click Directory in the left-hand navigation menu
Click the Manage button to the right of their name
Click Deactivate
Click Confirm Deactivation in the pop-up window
Click Directory in the left-hand navigation menu
Click Manage to the right of the staff member’s name, then click the area you want to assign them too. Your selection will automatically be saved
Administration of the City/County Nextdoor page:
When evaluating which departments should be given an account to post on Nextdoor:
If your department is not already a partner, apply for its free account at business.nextdoor.com/en-us/public-agency