To set up Texting, an Administrator needs to be a "Data Manager" for the campaign. It is necessary to create a campaign's Surveys, Non-response Sets and Groups before creating Texting activities. To begin, click on "TEXTING" on the Campaign where you want add a textbank.
Click on "Create New Texting Activity."
The "Create a Texting Activity" form will pop up.
Give the texting activity an Activity Name and Description. The Activity Name and Description appear on the the list of texting activities as in the example below.
All Activities in Amplify require a Survey, NonResponse Set and Group to be defined before an activity can be created. A Survey in Amplify is the input from the activity.
Next add the users who will send the texts and organizations who may add their users.
Next, add the actual text message.
A text message is sent out in segments. A text segment is 140 characters. An image is also one segment. A text with and image and 141 characters is three segments. One segment is .04 cents. So a 140 character text with an image will cost .08 cents to send to one person. To send an image only is .04 Cents. Spaces count as characters.
Adding the the sender's name and the receiver names add characters. People with long names may make your carefully crafted 130 character haiku into a two segment text.
The preview of your text will appear under the "Full Text" field.
The "Include Sender Name" toggle will add "This is Jeff" to the beginning of the text.
The "Include Receiver Name" toggle will add "Hello 'receiver' " to the beginning of the text. 'Receiver' will be replaced with the 1st name of the target in the database.
The "Attach an Image" toggle will attach an image if the URL is pasted into the "Image URL" field.
An image URL must be in a publicly accessible directory. Images uploaded to Particle 64's website will work. The images file format should be a jpeg, png or gif so that mobile phone services will show the image. The image must be less than 100 megabytes to upload it but for faster loading speeds on the target phone, you want it smaller, less than 2 megabytes.
The "Generate An Image URL Here" button will take you to the website's Image Up-loader here: https://p64.io/node/add/image_uploader
Choose an image file, give it a title and save it. The same text is used for both the title and alternative text. Once the file is uploaded click "Save."
After you save the image, an Image URL will be generated. Copy it and paste it into the form's "Image URL" field.
Next, you can add "Quick Responses" to the texting activity. This allows the users to have common responses ready and saves them time typing.
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Click on "SAVE."
The new texting activity will now be listed and visible to all the users added to the activity.
Texting Messaging Principles and Best Practices
CTIA – The Wireless Association (a lobby group for wireless communications) developed this Messaging Principles and Best Practices document. While it is not law, it is a good guide that will keep your texting campaign well within the law. The law and texting practices are changing state by state so this will be updated going forward. This is from 2019 and remains the guidelines recommended by Twilio. It is a 22 page pdf of riveting reading and, if followed, will keep your texts out of the spam folder.
CITA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices pdf: https://ampdocs.p64.io/CTIA-Messaging-Principles-and-Best-Practices-FINAL.pdf