Click the “Create” button (+) in the top right to begin an announcement.
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Step 1 of 3 - Compose:
“Compose” is where you will choose your recipients, enter your English content and add any attachments.
The initial text content will be the default text across all delivery channels (Feed, Email, SMS, Voice TTS). You can tailor the announcement per channel and language by clicking on the "Customize" option for each modality.
- Enter your recipient group(s). This is any district, school, class or group you want to receive the announcement. (See also: CSV Ad Hoc Recipient Upload)
- Once a recipient group is selected you can further customize that group by clicking the number count within the recipient pill. (For more: See Announcement Subsets.)
- Enter your announcement in the announcement field in English. This content displays in the feed and will display as the single feed item for SMS text message delivery.
- Click the Customize option to create a formatted and custom-translated feed post.
Note: Video formats must be ".mp4", ".Webm" or ".ogg"
- Attach files, if interested
- Click on “Add an attachment” (paperclip icon)
- Select your file
Best Practice: Always include messaging that describes the attachment so that recipients are inclined to click the links in the email or head to the app to find the attachment.
The attachments will show up as links if a recipient views the message within an email. The attachments will not be visible in SMS text but members that click on the SMS link will be able to view the attachments within the single item feed.
- Click Next (at this time, you need to click it twice. The first time saves the content and the second time moves you to the Customize step).
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Step 2 of 3 - Customize:
Announcements including students within the recipient group will give announcement creators the option to send to Students Only, Guardians Only, or Both. (An announcement will include any other roles within the recipient group as well).
“Customize” your message per channel or disable a delivery channel completely. Take advantage of these options or Skip to the “Review” step.
Those with enhanced permissions might have additional "Preset" options to send Urgent and/or Emergency messaging. These permissions must be manually added by a Moderator (an Admin cannot update his/her own permissions). See Customizing Member Permissions.
Emails
- Email options to format:
- Who the email displays as sent “From”. Owners can select his/her own name or the Group name from the drop-down menu.
- Email subject line is now customizable or will default to “An Announcement from (Name)".
Note: The subject line has a 250 character limit. - Content to include basic formatting features - hyperlinks, bullets, sizing, color, etc.
- Shortcuts available:
- Bold: Command/Control + b
- Italic: Command/Control + i
- Underline: Command/Control + u
- Indent: tab
- Outdent: tab + delete
- Undo: Command/Control + z
- Redo: Command/Control + y
- Select All: Command/Control + A
- Customize Text Translations (See: Customize Text Translations)
- Notes:
- Customizing the email does NOT customize the feed, as entered within the initial Compose stage.
- The district can elect to append translated emails with English content. If this was not an option during implementation, the District Admin can send a request to support@signalkit.com.
- Please attempt to avoid the following compositions when allowing machine translation:
- Avoid Compound Sentence Structure
- Avoid Slang
- Avoid Colloquialisms
Voice Calls
- Custom Voice Recording - you have the option to record via computer (2 minute recording time allowed) or phone (5 minute recording time allowed) and in the language of your recipient. You can also share with another translator/interpreter to create a recording. See Custom Voice Recording for details.
- If relying on machine translation, the text-to-speech verbiage is editable within the text box. You can listen to the TTS Preview before moving to the next step.
- If a particular language is not supported or if the machine translation is unsatisfactory, districts can elect to send English versions for select languages instead of relying on machine-translation. Announcement creators will still have the opportunity to record, share or update human translations, but it will default to English unless overridden by the message creator. If this was not an option during implementation, the District Admin can send a request to support@signalkit.com.
- Calling Logic:
We will attempt to call all available phone numbers for an individual recipient and a "live" person or voicemail is the goal. Once a person answers or a voicemail is left, we will not call the next phone number associated with that person.
If nobody answers the phone call (live person or voicemail), the number goes back into a queue and we attempt again in 15 - 20 minutes. We attempt a retry twice. If a person has more than one phone number in the system, we attempt the mobile number 3 times, then move to home phone for 3 attempts, and finally, work number for 3 attempts.
SMS Texts
- General and Emergency SMS Text messages now default to use a pre-translated message and an optional link:
General Announcement default message: "[Group Name] has sent a message: To view: [Link to Feed Version]".
Emergency Announcement default message: "[Group Name] has sent an EMERGENCY message: To view: [Link to Feed Version]".
Note: Triggered/Auto-Alert announcements delivered with an SMS option such as Attendance, Nutrition or Grade are not impacted by this change.
- The SMS Text message can also be customized in each language, overriding the default message. (See: Customize SMS + Delivery or Customize Text Translations)
- If you choose to customize AND include a link, we reserve 60 characters for the link, leaving 100 characters for your custom content. If you disable the link option, you will have access to the full 160 characters but no link to the feed version will be delivered.
Emergency
- Selecting Emergency will send your announcement to all contact info/modalities available for each user, overriding user preferences. Emergency announcements may only be sent for approved “Emergency Purposes”. Please refer to the TCPA guidelines.
- District Admins can add Twitter posting permissions to select Admins within the district. Twitter content can be customized and posted to the Twitter URL as determined by the District Admin. Please see Twitter configuration to set up Twitter for your District or School sites.
Click Next
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Step 3 of 3 - Review:
“Review” is an extensive summary of results before sending. You can also preview all outgoing notifications and schedule your announcement to go out later.
- Summary tab indicates the reach results based on the modalities selected (Feed, Email, Phone, or SMS). You can see who is receiving the message, the modalities and language in which each person will receive the message, and most importantly, the members who will NOT be receiving the message. You can export the data before sending as well. Please see Review Step Summary for more details.
NOTE: Twitter reach is not available within the Review step
- Tabs indicate preview for each modality: Feed, Email, Voice, or SMS Text Message
- “Prev” will take you back to the Customize step
- “Schedule” lets you assign the date(s) and time you’d like the announcement to be delivered (See: Schedule Announcements )
General announcements and direct messages will not send during Quiet Hours hours set by the District Admin. The message will send when quiet time hours have expired. “Admins” can give special permissions to message senders to override quiet hours. Please see Quiet Hours or Customizing Member Permissions for more information.
Click Send or Add To Queue (if scheduling)