Nextdoor is unique in the social media world—a platform that allows you to connect with those who live nearby. While it can be an excellent forum for neighbors trying to find lost pets or list household items for sale or free, it is so much more! As a publisher, you have a locally focused platform to share targeted content with the people who need it most. It’s time to start developing Nextdoor social media strategies. This guide shows you how to engage audiences on Nextdoor—without adding stress to your already full content calendar.  

As part of our commitment to helping publishers post smarter, not harder, we’re excited to announce that True Anthem is integrating Nextdoor as our 10th supported network. This means our platform will now help automate and optimize content distribution across Nextdoor, making it easier than ever to show up for your community—without burning out your team.

What is Nextdoor Publishing?

In short, a Nextdoor News account is a business page that allows local news operations to share relevant local news articles with residents on the platform. The app prioritizes publisher content in the feed and exhibits it prominently in the main feed. Its purpose? To help publishers reach their local communities, drive more traffic, and grow their audience.

In short, the platform is unique in its ability to stay locally relevant and create powerful geotargeting opportunities, both of which can help you earn the trust of your readers. 

How to engage with the local community on Nextdoor

So much of social media success comes down to one thing: Showing up. No matter which platform you’re on, making the effort to be consistent is what will determine how successful you are. Social Media 101, right? It’s elementary for a reason. You cannot succeed if you forget to post, recycle boring and awkwardly shared posts from other platforms, and ignore your audience. Here are some tips to get your audience’s attention—and keep it.

• Start conversations! Ask questions designed to spark discussion, or even try creating a poll. If we can count on anything online, it’s that people will share their thoughts. Nextdoor users come to the platform to discover and discuss local information—give them a chance!
• Choose appropriate topics. The purpose is to stay local and relevant. You need to understand the issues impacting your audience and address them. Cover events that may interest them, gather and share information that affects their life (like local politics, crime and safety, and community topics), and keep it up-to-date.
• Answer your messages. If readers reach out with tips, questions, and relevant comments, a response goes a long way!
• Make your interactions creative. Some great ideas from Documented:
  • Creating content hooks in post text that preview engaging story elements and utilize language like “Did you know …?” or “Are you aware …?”
  • Regularly review comments and encourage feedback and participation by engaging with likes and responses.
  • Using emojis (such as 🎤🚨📣and even national flags) to catch users’ attention visually. 

Which features will help me as a Nextdoor publisher?

If you don’t already have a Nextdoor page, you can create one. If you already have an unofficial one, you can authorize your primary page. True Anthem’s Nextdoor integration can help! 

Here are some things that True Anthem can help with: 

• Claiming or authenticating your page 
• Scheduling and automating your content distribution
• Receive analytics directly from Nextdoor’s API

Once a post is submitted, Nextdoor requires 15–30 minutes to process and verify it. This delay is built into their system to ensure that every piece of content aligns with their Publisher Policy—meaning no national news or political content, obituaries, or opinion pieces. It’s part of their commitment to surfacing trusted, hyperlocal content, not just anything from a feed. While it may slow things down slightly, it helps ensure your content appears in the right place, reaches the right people, and doesn’t compete with irrelevant or off-topic posts.

What content performs best on Nextdoor 

So what type of content should you create? It shouldn’t surprise you that the most successful content on Nextdoor is hyperlocal and newsworthy. How you set it up also matters—a lot! Getting specific with neighborhood names in your headlines, including maps and images, and knowing the appropriate time to post will go a long way. However, here are some types of content that tend to perform well on Nextdoor:

• Crime reports, fires, accidents, and other safety-related stories.
• City council updates, school board decisions, or zoning issues. Knowing what is going on is essential!
• Emergency weather alerts, including power outages, road closures, and general emergency updates. Keep them in the know!
• Inspiration content highlighting local heroes—such as teachers, first responders, and others. People love a feel-good story!
• New business openings, farmer’s market hours, and restaurant closings. You can even generate some engagement by asking for memories after a place closes, or prompting reviews of a new restaurant.
• List-style posts can be highly SEO-friendly and helpful. Top 5 activities for families, best brunch spots, highly rated landscapers, splash pad locations, etc., can be incredibly useful—and are also great evergreen pieces to recirculate and update.
• Local issue posts: How to appeal a property tax increase in [your city] or how to pay parking tickets in [your town]. 

Check out Nextdoor for additional thoughts on what to post. A few tips: highlight urgent and timely stories, and pay close attention to your image quality. 

Tips for lean teams: Scaling Nextdoor without burnout 

This can all sound overwhelming. The thing is, if you’re working in a local newsroom, your team is likely creating content that will appeal to the Nextdoor audience. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to be successful! Incorporate your existing links, videos, graphics, and social media copy into new posts for the Nextdoor audience.

This is where True Anthem can make your life so much easier. We can pull your content and share it with the right audience at the right time, maximizing your success on Nextdoor and beyond. Your team doesn’t need to be stretched any thinner—let us help you do more with what you already have! True Anthem helps publishers extend reach and relevance across all platforms—without doubling your workload. 

Discover how automation enables Nextdoor to be a low-effort, high-impact solution. Schedule a demo today to see how we can help—or, if you’re already a customer and ready to get started, connect with your CSM to activate Nextdoor.

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