Manage broadcasts
Overview
The Settings sub-tab contains options for the System, Broadcast, Destination, and Feature settings. This sub-tab also allows you to manage activation tokens and set the information that users will see.
Repeating Broadcasts are broadcasts that are scheduled to send on certain days and at certain times. These often include attendance and food service-related broadcasts that go out at regular intervals. During periods that your contacts will not need to receive them (such as summer vacation in the case of school districts), you may wish to stop the Repeating Broadcasts from going out.
While many are triggered when a specific import is updated with required data (such as with attendance-related broadcasts), there are some that simply send out automatically without an import-related trigger, so it is always best practice to disable them if they are not needed.
You can disable Repeating Broadcasts entirely, or you can disable individual Repeating Broadcasts while leaving others running.
Note: Typically, only System Administrator and other top-level Users have access to the parts of the program needed to make the following changes. If you do not have access, you may need to consult your System Administrator for help.
Broadcast types
There are four different types of broadcasts:
Emergency
High Priority
General
Surveys
You can select the broadcast type when creating a broadcast.
To delete a broadcast type, click Delete.
You cannot delete Emergency and High Priority Broadcast types.
Create broadcast
To create a new broadcast message:
Log in to Communicate.
Click New Broadcast.
Enter Subject.
Select Type.
To select recipients, click Add Message Recipients.
Select recipients from the Saved Recipients List.
Click Add Recipients.
Click Continue.
Add Phone, Email, SMS, and Posts to your broadcast message, if necessary.
Click Continue.
Enter Message Content.
Click Continue.
Review message.
Click Create.
Automatic addition of recipients
SchoolMessenger now enables the automatic inclusion of users in broadcasts sent by school staff, eliminating the need to add users manually via list or contact selection. This ensures that key staff members are informed about any communication taking place at the school level.
For instance, Principals will be included in all broadcast messages sent from their schools, even if they are not part of a specific broadcast list.
There are two ways you can include recipients:
Automated inclusion
Manual inclusion
Administrators can specify the usernames that must be included in broadcasts within the Data Import Manager. Refer to Check your Data Imports to understand how data import works.
The data import file must have the Viewable By and the Include on Viewable Broadcasts column. Refer to Edit data import files for more information.
Automatic inclusion
To check if a specific username is automatically included in a broadcast message:
Click Admin.
Click Import.
Within the System Imports table, click Download for the specific staff import file. The file will download as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
Open the data import file.
Check the Viewable By field for the user sending out the broadcast. The field must have the username that needs to be included in broadcasts.
Locate the username mentioned in the Viewable By field in the spreadsheet. The value in the Include on Viewable Broadcasts field must be TRUE.
If the username is listed in the Viewable By field, then administrators cannot add or remove Viewable Users within the specific user’s User Information. Refer to Data View Restrictions for more information.
Manual inclusion
When a username has TRUE in the Include on Viewable Broadcasts field, but no usernames are listed in the Viewable By field, administrators or super users can manually select when the user can be included in a broadcast.
This is useful when admins want the flexibility to select who receives a specific category of broadcast messages.
To manually include a user in broadcasts:
Click Admin.
Click Users.
Locate the user you want included in the broadcast. Click View.
Within Data View, ensure Include in Viewable Broadcast is selected.
Select Viewable Users to choose users whose broadcast message will include the user.
Click Done.
Manage repeat broadcasts
You can disable all Repeating Broadcasts simultaneously and later re-enable them if desired.
To do so, click Admin -> Settings -> Enable/Disable Repeating Broadcasts
Click to place a checkmark in the Disable Repeating Broadcasts checkbox to disable them, which will prevent the system from performing any of its scheduled Repeating Broadcasts.
If instead you are here to enable Repeating Broadcasts, then un-checking this box will allow the Repeating Broadcasts to resume at their next scheduled time.
After making your change, click Save.
Manage repeat broadcasts individually
You may have a situation where you need to disable a single Repeating Broadcast but leave others running as scheduled. If you do, do not follow the previous steps to disable Repeating Broadcasts entirely – follow the following steps to disable them individually instead.
Note: Like the option to disable Repeating Broadcasts entirely, typically only System Administrator and other top-level Users have access to the parts of the program needed to make the following changes. If you do not have access, you may need to consult your System Administrator for help.
Repeating Broadcasts are stored under individual User Accounts. First, you must determine under which User Account the Repeating Broadcast exists. Go to the System tab, then to the Repeating Broadcasts sub-tab.
Look at the listed Repeating Broadcasts and make note of the User Account your target broadcast is under.
On this same screen, click the Login as this user button to log in as the User that contains the Repeating Broadcast.
Navigate to the Broadcasts tab and then click the Broadcasts sub-tab.
The broadcast will be listed under My Repeating Broadcasts.
Click Edit under the Actions column for the broadcast.
Find the Repeat section in the screen that loads, and un-check the days that the Repeating Broadcast is scheduled to run. Click Save at the bottom when finished. This will disable this individual Repeating Broadcast until you manually edit the broadcast again and re-check the days of the week.
To re-enable a Repeating Broadcast that was disabled this way, simply follow the steps again, but this time, place a check in all of the boxes for the days of the week that you would like it to run, and click Save when finished.
Change the intro message
To change the intro message, you must first record a replacement message. Then, you must select it in the settings.
Record the new message
These intro messages will play before all phone messages. The best intro messages contain a brief greeting and instructs the user to press 1 to hear the message. You should also let recipients know that they can press pound (#) to place the call on hold.
Navigate to the Broadcasts tab, then click the Messages sub-tab.
Click Add New Message.
Fill out a Message Name for your message. You can also add a Description of the message if you wish.
Click Next.
In the Message Content section, click the grey box next to the English option under Phone.
Click Record.
Note: You can use Text-to-Speech by clicking Write instead if needed, but recording a message is generally recommended.
Use the Call Me To Record interface to record the message. (If you have chosen to use Text-to-Speech, type your message here and make sure to preview it first). Refer to online help if you need assistance.
After the recording, click the Done button.
You will be taken back to the main Message Editor. Repeat this process for any other languages you wish to record a new introductory message for.
Note: Keep in mind if using Text-to-Speech that not all languages have compatible Text-to-Speech accents. Also, do not use the icon to use the Automatically Translate from English to Other Languages function, as the Message Intro must contain separately recorded or written messages, so each must be done one at a time.
If you need to have a separate intro message for general broadcasts and emergency broadcasts, repeat you can record a separate emergency Message Intro.
Replace the old message
Now that you have recorded a new intro message, you can replace the old one.
Navigate to the Admin tab, then click the Settings sub-tab.
Click the Message Intro link.
You will now be in the Intro Settings section. The first set of drop-downs is for the Default Intro, which is for the English language message.
There are a set of two drop-downs for the General and Emergency Intro types. The rightmost drop-down allows you to select a message from the general database, if applicable. The leftmost drop-down allows you to select a user. If this is done, then the rightmost drop-down will now contain their saved messages. You can select your own account that you used to create the intro messages if necessary to see them here.
Use the drop-down menus to select the appropriate message.
If you had recorded a separate general and emergency intro message, be sure to select the messages accordingly.
If you had recorded separate messages for other languages, or if you have other languages in one message, select the appropriate messages in the Language Intros for each intro.
Make sure to click the Preview button to preview on each one to make sure they are correct before continuing.
Click the Done button at the bottom to finish.