Many current discussions about mass texting have focused on their possible uses in sales and marketing.
Since more people are using text messaging on their smartphones, SMS has become a useful new tool for businesses to help increase awareness of products or services, and hopefully convince existing customers/supports to buy, or at least seek more info.
Though the commercial appeal of a text blast is definitely, well, appealing, businesses aren’t the only ones that can benefit from the power of reaching many people at once with a single text.
Schools, for instance, can use texts to spread the word in a hurry, especially emergency information. Since so many high school- and college-aged students are pretty much tethered to their phones, it’s a perfect way to connect – more so than traditional emergency phone calls/trees. And, like commercial texts, the sender may not necessarily desire a two-way conversation – they may want to convey the info only.
Here are some ways schools can use the power of mass texting.
- Emergency commands. If there is a literal life-and-death emergency or at least a public safety incident, a text can relay campus-wide information to anyone who has opted in to these alerts. “Seek safety immediately: threat on campus.” In this case, the limited characters can be useful – students don’t need or have time to read the complete details, but they do need the critical information to move fast. The same methods can also be used for an official all-clear.
- A “this is only a test/training” text blast. This instructs the recipients that something they may be seeing isn’t an emergency at all, perhaps a training exercise for the campus safety department or local fire department. It should be accompanied by traditional outreach such as a daily bulletin, official site blurb, news release, student newspaper story or in-class announcement. But since not everyone receives these or pays attention, a text might alert them that what they see isn’t real.
- Traffic concerns. If there’s an accident blocking or limiting access to campus, it’s also something that students and staff might want to know about, especially if could impact their commute and may not be newsworthy enough to merit a report on the news social media channels.
- Weather reports. Winter weather means increased chances of snow days! Depending on your part of the world, familiarity with the white stuff and local resources, classes may be delayed or canceled due to a certain number of inches or conditions of local roads. The info usually goes out over the radio or local TV/radio sites, but a text would be convenient to students and parents. Parents would want to verify and subscribe to the text blast instead of hearing from the kid that school is closed. The same info could cover other weather-related changes to the campus schedule (windstorms, local flooding, etc.)
- Daily activities. Texting could be a good way to alert the campus community to interesting things taking place and invite them to click for more. This could be events in the student union building, a campus-wide celebration or something worth checking out. However, this should be a separate membership list for only those who specifically request them, as opposed to the larger “emergency/safety” membership list that students should be encouraged to be a part of. Too much contact from a single source could result in recipients wanting to ignore or feeling annoyed.
- Staff-only messages. A texting service can help you separate different text lists to different recipients. Faculty might be interested in reminders, such as deadlines to submit grades or registration information about upcoming activities/in-service days.
- Promotional activities. A college’s Marketing Department can use the power of texting to offer some kind of activity or game. A daily trivia text? A clue for an ongoing quiz or contest?
- Geo-tracking. This is still a new science, at least from a texting perspective. You may be familiar with how you happen to receive a text from a retailer when you’re near or inside their physical location. The same principle can be utilized so you can get a certain automated text when you arrive onto campus or visit a particular area. Perhaps it could be as simple as “just got here? Walk over to ___ building to get a parking pass or register at the office. This needs to be done correctly – perhaps tracking cookies be used to display the message only once a day vs. every time a person moves around campus.
Texting has the potential to be a useful tool on a school campus, especially in emergency situations. But it also can’t be overused – too much “contact,” no matter how well-intentioned could result in a student saying “enough” and not receiving critical data. For more details on creating SMS solutions for your institution, visit Trumpia.com.
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