Overview

Please note: Only organizations utilizing our First Class plan can send text, email or voice messages. Economy and Free Forever clients only have the ability to send push notifications to their contacts and families.

Best Practices

Instructions

1. Navigate to your ReachWell Dashboard.
   
2. Select Messages from the top navigation bar, and then Create Announcement.
3. Under Message Type, select the method you would like your announcements to go out (app notification, email, text, or voice message).
   
1. Please note: Text and Voice Messages are for emergency purposes only.
   
4. Under Recipients, select the school(s) or group(s) you would like to send the announcement to. You will not be able to select both a school and groups.
   
5. If sending an announcement to individual contacts, you will not be able to select contacts who are not contactable by the method selected under Message Type.
1. Next to each contact, an icon shows whether they are reachable via app, email, or text and voice: 
   
6. Enter a concise title that clearly articulates what the announcement is about.
   
7. Enter the content of the announcement, including any hyperlinks, screenshots, attachments, emojis, and so on. For specific details on how to incorporate various resources into your announcement, please see the following sections in this article.
   
8. Select Send to send your announcement. Selecting Save will only save the announcement to drafts.
   

Messaging Features

Sending Options

Depending on your plan, your announcement can reach families in multiple locations:

1. All schools and organizations can send announcements to the app by selecting App Notification.
   
2. Schools and organizations that sign up for the post-to-web plan will automatically update their website when App Notification is selected.
   
3. Send an email by selecting Email notification. (First Class Plan Only)
   
4. Send a text by selecting Urgent Only - Text Message.  (First Class Plan Only)
5. Send a text-to-voice call by selecting Urgent Only - Voice Message.  (First Class Plan Only)
   
6. Send a recorded voice call by deselecting App Notification and Email Notification, and select Urgent Only - Recorded Voice Call.
   

Please Note: To set up the post-to-web feature, follow THESE instructions.

Message Formatting

This image labels all of the various features to utilize in sending your message.

Inserting an Image

1. When creating your announcement, click on the image icon to open the image locator box.

        

1. Either enter a URL (i.e. web address) for the image, or select Upload to locate and select an image from your desktop. Please note, once you have uploaded an image to the announcement, the Image URL will automatically populate in the image search box.
   

         

1. Select Save to include the image in the announcements.
   

          

Embedding a URL (i.e. hyperlink)

1. Start from the Create Announcement screen and type the viewable text that you will link to a URL. 
   
1. For example: "Click HERE for instructions." (The word HERE would be the viewable text that is hyperlinked)
   
2. Highlight the viewable text.
   
3. Click the chain icon (i.e. link icon).
   
4. Paste the entire URL of the website you'd like to link.
   
1. Recommended setting: Select the option to open the link in a new window rather than opening it in the current window for users.  
   
5. Select Save. When contacts receive your announcement they will click on the hyperlinked viewable text to take them to the linked content.
   

Sending Google Drive Documents

1. Upload the document to your Google Drive. For instructions on how to do this, please visit THIS Google Help Center article.
   
2. Highlight the document and click the share icon, or right-click on the document to copy the shareable link.
   
3. From the share permissions screen, select the Advanced option to open the share settings.
   
4. Change the setting to On - Public on the web access to make it available to anyone via the web.
   
5. Select Save.
   
6. Make sure you have the shareable link copied.
   
7. Navigate to the ReachWell Dashboard > Messages > Create Announcement screen.
   
8. Add a clear and concise title for your announcement.
   
9. In the body of the message, be sure to include the viewable text that you will link to the Google Drive document URL. 
   
1. For example: "Click HERE for instructions." (The word HERE would be the viewable text that is hyperlinked)
   
10. Highlight the viewable text.
    
11. Click the chain icon (i.e. link icon).
    
12. Paste the entire URL of the Google Drive shareable link. 
    
1. Optional setting: Update the target URL to open in a new window rather than opening the link in the current window for users.  
   
13. Select Save.
    
14. When contacts receive your announcement they will click on the hyperlinked viewable text to take them to the linked content.
    

Inserting a GIF

1. To insert a GIF into your announcement, click on the image icon to open the image locator box.
   

        

1. Navigate to GIPHY.com to search for your desired GIF, and then click on it to open it. 
   
2. Select the Media option to copy the Source URL.
   

         

1. Navigate back to your ReachWell announcement and enter the source URL for the GIF into the image box.
   

         

1. Ensure the width is set to 300 so it will fit on your contacts' devices.
   
2. Select Save to include the GIF in the announcement.
   
3. Your announcement now has a fun GIF embedded! 
   

Attaching a Video

To attach a video to your announcement you have several options:

1. Attach a video: If your video is relatively brief (e.g. 15-20 sec) you can attach it using the Add File section on the announcement page. Be sure to first upload the video to your desktop or device, and then add the video file to your message. Contacts (i.e. families) simply tap the video attachment link in the announcement to view the video on their device or from their email.
   

         

1. Link to a YouTube video: Upload the video to YouTube, and then copy the video URL (i.e. link). Paste the video URL into the body of your announcement. When a contact taps the link it will automatically open the video in the YouTube app if the contact has the app downloaded to their device. If they don’t have the app downloaded to their device,  the video will open in their default web browser.
   
2. Link to a video on Google Drive: Upload your video to Google Drive, and make sure to change the sharing settings for the video to allow viewing by anyone. Copy the share link and paste the link into the announcement body in ReachWell.
   

Attaching a File

1. Navigate to the Attachments section, and select Add File to locate and attach files from your desktop. 
   
2. When sending an announcement with an attachment, we recommend telling the reader to "Open the Attachment" at the beginning of the announcement.

          

Please note: It is important file names do not include any periods.  For example, a file titled 6.30.20.pdf will not be successfully attach to the announcement. However, renaming the file to 6-30-20.pdf or 063020.pdf will make it into an acceptable format.

• Images: pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, gif
  
• Docs: csv, xls, xlsx, doc, docx, txt
  
• Videos: mpeg, mov
  
• Audio: mp3, m4a
  

 

Please note: ReachWell has a 10 MB size limit for announcement attachments, and we allow up to five attachments total. If an attachment is bigger than our acceptable limit, or if you have more than five attachments, we recommend utilizing the Google Drive feature to send the attachment with announcements.  Please see the Send Google Drive Documents section of this article for more!

Editing an Announcement

1. Navigate to your ReachWell Dashboard.
   
2. Select Messages from the top navigation bar and then All Announcements.
   
3. Under the Action column in the far right of an announcement, click on the pencil icon to begin editing.
   
4. Make any needed updates to the existing announcement 
5. Select Send to either send the announcement now or schedule it to be sent at a later time. Selecting Save will only save the announcement as a draft that will not yet be sent to contacts. 
   

The announcement will be redelivered as a push notification to all associated contacts' devices. This will not change the order of how the announcement appears in your contacts' ReachWell app news feeds.  

Draft Announcements

1. If multiple admins are sending out the same announcement or you are reviewing announcements before they can be sent, an announcement can be saved as a draft.
   
2. The admin overseeing announcements can view and send announcements from the drafts tab on the All Announcements screen.

Any announcement sent from drafts from another admin will appear to be sent from the original author of the announcement.

Archiving or Restoring Announcements

1. Navigate to your ReachWell Dashboard.
   
2. Select Messages from the top navigation bar, and then All Announcements.
   
3. Under the Action column in the far right of an announcement, click the archive icon to archive the message.
   
4. To archive multiple announcements, check the boxes on the left that correspond to the messages or check the top box of a page to archive every announcement on the page. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and then select Archive and Submit.
   

Doing this will remove the announcement(s) from all associated contacts' news feeds. To restore archived messages, navigate to your Dashboard > Messages > See All Announcements > Archived tab. Check the boxes to the left that correspond to the announcements, and then scroll to the bottom of the page to select Restore and Submit.

Select Messages > See All Announcements to see all messages sent, scheduled, or drafts. You'll see information on the message author, the creation date, and the current status.