Hi Will, 

Re: instructional videos: (a) yup, you can embed videos by copy-pasting YouTube URL's into the Editor, like so:

Re: other stuff you mentioned:

Secure Customer Portal Area

To create posts, comment, or react with Emojis, customers need to create Customer Accounts via your Shopify Site.

Customers are also automatically redirected to your login page if they try to Post, Comment, or React when they're not logged in - so it's a good way to incentivize new sign-ups.

We can add the features of locking the content to non-members, but then you'd lose out on the Search Engine benefit of having your content discoverable on Google.

Please let us know if you'd like to lock content entirely to non-members.

How To Actually Upload a Video (sorry, got caught up looking at the Rock...)

Simply copy-paste a YouTube URL into the 'Create Post' Box.

Each post creates a dedicated landing page so your content can be easily discoverable via Google.

Videos don't currently appear in the Newsfeed (but we can easily add that feature if you think it will be a smoother experience for your Customers).

Instead, currently, the app will automatically set the first Image in the Post as the Cover Image.

branded social area for members to interact

Please see image below where we've clarified which elements on the Network are customizable.

Members can interact with each other via Posts, Comments & Emojis. The benefit of that, as opposed to a private messenger app, content generated by your customers will all be added to Google's Search Index - again, better for getting discovered via Search.

I hope that answers some of your questions.

Related Products

I know you didn't ask about this, but thought it might be worthwhile to let you know that within each dedicated post page, you can also feature related products.

Please let us know if there's anything else we can do to customize the app to your needs.
We're still working on it full-time, and want to verify that it adds the most possible value to our customers.

Sincerely,
Samantha