Invite a partner brand and set content access

Invite a retail, consumer, or media brand to your network, choose how it relates to your organization, and set which communities and social handles each side shares.

The Network module in your Business Account holds your relationships with retail, consumer, and media brands, including parent and child brands through Holding Company and House Brand relationships. Through these relationships, brands share content across communities and social channels, collaborate on sponsorships, and track each partnership from one place.

You control content access and permissions for every relationship. For how Network fits with the rest of Genuin, see Network: what it does and where to start.

Start the invitation

You need access to your Business Account with network management permissions, plus the contact email and website URL of the brand you're inviting. The brand handle is optional: you use it to find a brand that's already on Genuin, and a missing handle can be added later without recreating the relationship. For roles, see Business Account Roles and Scoped Roles.

1. Sign in to your Business Account.
2. Go to Manage > Network.
3. Select the brand's category tab: Retail Brands, Consumer Brands, or Media & Entertainment Brands.
4. Click the add button for that tab: + Add Retail Brand, + Add Consumer Brand, or + Add Media Brand.

The panel has three steps: Brand Details, Content Access, and Notification. Only Brand Details is open at first, and each later step unlocks when you click Next. You can go back to an earlier step without losing what you entered, but clicking a locked step does nothing.

Clicking Cancel or the close (X) on any step opens the Discard Changes popup. Keep Editing keeps your entries, and Discard closes the panel and resets the form.

Choose the brand relationship

Under Brand Relationship, select how the invited brand is associated with your organization.

Existing network relationships are classified as Partner automatically. Learn more in How brand relationship types and access control work.

Partner is selected by default, and each option shows a short helper text. Changing the relationship type clears the brand details below it.

Add the brand details

Search existing Genuin brands

1. In the Brand Handle field, search for the brand.
2. Select the brand from the results list.

Genuin fills in the brand's contact information and website. You can add more contact emails if you need them.

The selected brand appears as a chip, and the filled-in Website URL is read-only. Removing the selected brand clears the brand details below it.

Add a new brand

If the brand isn't on Genuin yet:

1. In the search results, click + New brand.

1. Enter the Brand Name, Contact Email, Website URL, and, optionally, a Contact Phone Number.
2. Click Next.

Genuin creates a brand profile and an onboarding workflow for the new brand, so you can invite brands that don't use Genuin yet.

Configure content access

The Content Access step sets what each brand shares with the other.

1. Under Request Content Access, select the Social Media Handles and, under Select Community, the communities you want access to from the invited brand.
2. Under Provide Content Access, select the social media handles and communities your organization is willing to share.
3. Click Next.

Each relationship type starts from different defaults:

The starting selections on each side are:

Locked means the selection covers every community and social handle and can't be changed. Editable means you can select or deselect individual communities and handles before you send the invitation.

With Aspire to Partner, nothing is shared until you grant permissions explicitly. Social media handles become available only after the invited brand accepts, and communities you add later become available for permission management after activation.

If a brand has no social handles or communities, the step shows an empty state. When your own brand has no social handles, an Add Social Handle button appears.

Review and send the invitation

The Notification step shows a preview of the invitation. Email is the supported delivery method. SMS appears but isn't active, because it has been phased out.

1. Review the invitation details.
2. Select Email.
3. Click Add to send the invitation.

The confirmation message Invitation Sent appears, and the invited brand appears in the Network listing.

Its status is Invite Sent.

Accept a network invitation

An existing Genuin brand accepts an invitation in five steps:

1. Open the invitation email and review it.

1. Click Manage Request.

1. Sign in to your Business Account.

1. Accept the agreement, if required.

1. Open the invitation with View Details, then click Accept or Reject.

A pop-up notification confirms the acceptance.

Once the brand accepts, the status changes to Active, content-sharing permissions become available, and sponsorship collaboration can begin. Learn more in Create and send paid partnership proposals to network brands.

If the brand rejects the invitation, the status changes to Rejected.

When the invited brand is new to Genuin

Genuin creates the brand's profile and emails the invitation. The new brand claims its brand profile, verifies its email, sets a password, accepts the terms, and completes onboarding. The relationship becomes Active automatically once onboarding completes, with no separate accept or reject step.

Track relationships in the Network table

The Network table shows every relationship with these columns:

Each row also has a three-dot menu. You can search the table by brand name or handle, filter it by Brand Destination, Status, or Relationship, and page through the results. Columns can't be sorted.

Each relationship has one of four statuses:

Canceled isn't a status: when you cancel a pending invitation, its row is removed from the listing altogether. Each relationship shows under the tab it was created from, for both brands.

You can update relationship details and resend an invitation, or cancel one that hasn't been accepted. The status decides which of these actions are available. For those actions, see Manage network invitations, content access, and brand relationships.

Manage holding companies and house brands

Once a Holding Company relationship is active:

• The parent organization automatically receives access to approved content.
• The holding company becomes an admin across the house brand's communities and groups, whichever brand sent the invitation, and its administrators can switch between the brands. Learn how in Switch between connected brands.
• New communities automatically inherit approved permissions.
• Network management becomes centralized.

With a House Brand relationship, the house brand appears in the holding company's Brand Switcher only once the relationship is Active. While it's Invite Sent or Rejected, the holding company can't switch into it.

For example, a media organization that owns several publishing properties invites its parent company as a Holding Company. After acceptance, administrators switch between brands, content access is granted automatically, and governance is centralized.

Examples

Limitations

• One holding company. A brand network can have only one Holding Company. If one exists, you can't create another Holding Company invitation.
• Rejected or canceled doesn't count. Only an active or pending Holding Company relationship blocks a new one. A rejected or canceled one frees the slot.
• 7-day re-invite cooldown. You can't resend a rejected invitation until its 7-day cooldown period has passed.
• Email only. SMS invitations aren't supported.
• Social handles after acceptance. You can see the invited brand's social media handles only after it accepts.

See also

• Brand Partner Invitations and Permissions
• Manage network invitations, content access, and brand relationships
• How brand relationship types and access control work
• Create and send paid partnership proposals to network brands
• Build your network in your Business Account