Y1CBP Text Message Program

Lauren Gayer Author

06/20/2019 Added

30 Plays

Description

Lauren Gayer, Director of Marketing for UNL Student Affairs discusses the text message program they utilize throughout the year with UNL students.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:11.540]Hello, let me go ahead
[00:00:13.410]and get my screen shared here with you all.
[00:00:19.320]Let's see, and we'll jump into today's presentation.
[00:00:36.092]Let's see here.
[00:00:58.040]Alright, can everyone see my presentation on the screen?
[00:01:06.170]I can't hear you all, so if anyone
[00:01:07.420]can give me a thumbs up.
[00:01:08.850]Yes, we can see it, thank you.
[00:01:10.255]Oh okay, (laughing).
[00:01:12.026]Sorry, I pressed on my unmute.
[00:01:13.538](laughing), perfect.
[00:01:15.460]Alright, so as Megan mentioned,
[00:01:20.220]we'll be talking about text messaging today.
[00:01:22.060]And specifically following the Year One
[00:01:24.430]College Alcohol Profile.
[00:01:26.310]So we'll go ahead and dive in.
[00:01:29.640]Like she said, my name's Lauren Gayer,
[00:01:31.050]I'm the Director of Marketing & Communication
[00:01:33.250]for Student Affairs at UNL, and we dropped
[00:01:37.180]into this program fairly quickly right
[00:01:39.720]after I started in 2016.
[00:01:43.010]When the major had explained the desire
[00:01:45.860]for this program, and so we found
[00:01:47.770]a solution to try to be able
[00:01:49.790]to start text messaging students.
[00:01:52.740]So in today's presentation, we'll go through
[00:01:56.910]a little bit about the audience
[00:01:58.460]and Year One CAP integration.
[00:02:00.540]We'll talk about why we do text messaging.
[00:02:02.630]What makes good content?
[00:02:04.630]We'll talk a little bit about our students' response
[00:02:06.570]to the content that we've been sharing.
[00:02:08.470]And then we'll talk about how we do it currently
[00:02:10.730]with a platform called Remind.
[00:02:13.990]So, as I think most of you are familiar
[00:02:17.160]with the Year One CAP, so there is a screen
[00:02:20.750]where students have the option to share
[00:02:23.710]a phone number.
[00:02:25.220]And so on that screen, we give them, basically
[00:02:29.780]that's where we provide them with kind
[00:02:31.070]of the disclaimer information telling them
[00:02:34.530]about the program and giving them
[00:02:36.370]the option to enroll with their cell phone number.
[00:02:39.200]So this is entirely optional for students.
[00:02:42.180]They can put in their cellphone number.
[00:02:43.890]Typically, we have had about 1200 students each year
[00:02:47.830]over the last three years provide their cellphone number.
[00:02:51.770]And so, that gives us a great opportunity
[00:02:55.360]to continue to message those students, so.
[00:03:01.720]Another way that we also share
[00:03:04.070]the text messaging option is we have digital signage
[00:03:07.620]around campus, and so we promote
[00:03:09.190]and say that they can actually text to join the program.
[00:03:13.380]And so we have this running typically throughout
[00:03:16.020]the year, but specifically during NSE periods.
[00:03:20.190]So any time that there's orientation going
[00:03:21.532]on, we make sure that this is running
[00:03:23.500]so that folks can join.
[00:03:25.220]We also have a partnership with our fraternity
[00:03:27.590]and sorority life that during their orientation programs
[00:03:31.330]for sorority recruitment and right after
[00:03:33.620]gentlemen join fraternities, that they actually
[00:03:37.600]plug this for us as part of their presentation.
[00:03:40.030]And they don't just show them the slide,
[00:03:41.550]they actually walk them through it.
[00:03:42.790]They say we think this is valuable
[00:03:45.270]to you, they ask them to pull out their cellphones
[00:03:47.640]and go ahead and text and do it right there,
[00:03:49.870]which obviously is really impactful
[00:03:52.340]and garners even more participation.
[00:03:55.030]So that's how we start to get our audience
[00:03:57.560]basically for the text messages.
[00:03:59.800]You will notice in the bottom-right corner
[00:04:01.500]that we do promise that it is up to two messages
[00:04:04.230]a week and so we try to keep it not intrusive
[00:04:10.570]and limit our content, so.
[00:04:16.660]Alright, so why did we choose text messaging?
[00:04:19.170]So obviously studies have shown
[00:04:21.070]that providing the feedback can help
[00:04:23.420]correct misperceptions and positively
[00:04:25.970]influence drinking behavior.
[00:04:28.770]So another thing is that 96% of students own a smartphone.
[00:04:33.970]And a UNL study, this one is actually more recent,
[00:04:38.250]it says it's 2019, but a UNL study
[00:04:40.250]in 2015 had this exact same data
[00:04:43.220]and said that 96% of our students had smartphones.
[00:04:46.900]So since it's so prevalent, it's obviously
[00:04:49.640]a great way to communicate with them.
[00:04:52.950]Students in general nationally spend
[00:04:55.840]an average of 94 minutes texting per day,
[00:04:58.130]so obviously meeting them where they're at
[00:05:00.630]allows us to better-provide information to them.
[00:05:08.340]So the goals of our text messaging program
[00:05:12.280]are to provide an optional service
[00:05:15.740]regarding promoting positive protective behaviors
[00:05:20.010]for students who choose to drink,
[00:05:22.060]educating on social norms to help correct misperceptions,
[00:05:25.600]and highlighting alcohol-free activities
[00:05:28.279]that take place on campus, particularly ones
[00:05:30.980]that are on evenings and weekends to try
[00:05:34.110]to pull the crowd that perhaps may not
[00:05:37.240]be looking for that party scene,
[00:05:39.110]but may stumble into it because they don't know
[00:05:42.530]what else is going on, so.
[00:05:46.280]So now we're just gonna look over
[00:05:47.760]some of the content on, these are actual screenshots
[00:05:50.840]of some of the messages that we have sent to folks.
[00:05:54.420]So we try to mix up the content
[00:05:57.130]and provide a good overview of sometimes listing activities,
[00:06:01.860]sometimes listing protective behaviors,
[00:06:05.540]sometimes listing social norms.
[00:06:08.520]But mixing up within that two times per week
[00:06:11.280]so that it's not just that we're bombarding
[00:06:13.130]them repeatedly with a stat about alcohol
[00:06:15.810]and protective behavior, a stat
[00:06:16.890]about alcohol and protective behavior,
[00:06:19.000]but also mixing in those activities.
[00:06:21.700]That's one thing that I definitely learned
[00:06:24.500]through the program.
[00:06:26.170]When we first implemented it, we tried
[00:06:27.770]to keep it a lot more about protective behaviors and stats,
[00:06:31.880]and it was evident that the activities
[00:06:34.520]were actually more sought after,
[00:06:36.590]and so promoting the evening and weekend activities
[00:06:39.390]I think helped balance out the content.
[00:06:42.970]And so in this example, so September 1st
[00:06:46.610]was the first Husker home game,
[00:06:48.380]and as you may recall, the weather
[00:06:50.960]was really bad and it resulted
[00:06:52.470]in a significant game delay.
[00:06:54.320]And so you can see that that last message
[00:06:56.600]on the screen provided a really relatable kind
[00:07:01.040]of message to students as far as a protective behavior,
[00:07:04.950]saying stay with the same group of friends
[00:07:07.050]all evening if you're gonna be stuck
[00:07:08.930]somewhere in the rain, that kind of thing.
[00:07:11.890]So any of our protective behaviors
[00:07:13.580]in particular, we really look at for us obviously
[00:07:17.300]we're influenced significantly by the Husker games.
[00:07:19.950]And so we really try to look at the time
[00:07:21.790]of the game, what's a protective behavior
[00:07:23.840]that would match well to that particular event
[00:07:27.600]and really try to make it relate
[00:07:30.690]so that students feel that it makes
[00:07:36.970]sense to their lives and that kind of thing.
[00:07:41.750]Another few examples.
[00:07:44.750]So you'll see the first one was informational.
[00:07:47.930]We have a few different campaigns
[00:07:51.170]that we share with students and with RAs
[00:07:54.280]through passive bulletin board education,
[00:07:56.670]and so one of them we have the Nine Laws
[00:07:59.380]That You Should Know flyer.
[00:08:01.060]And so, informationally right around
[00:08:04.570]that time when folks may
[00:08:08.280]be getting a little more adventurous,
[00:08:10.550]particularly I believe we had one
[00:08:11.950]of our first night games on September 29th
[00:08:16.350]and so we wanted to remind them
[00:08:18.890]that drinking age is still 21, that kind of thing.
[00:08:23.820]We like to insert some of the social norms.
[00:08:25.460]So whether it's about studying like this one.
[00:08:29.330]Other ones we talked about service
[00:08:31.080]and how prevalent that is.
[00:08:32.170]We've done things with student involvement
[00:08:35.690]and desire for leadership, for desire
[00:08:39.180]for cultural interactions.
[00:08:40.900]A lot of our social norms, we pull data
[00:08:43.800]from the NESI survey, as well as other surveys
[00:08:48.700]that take place.
[00:08:49.900]We had a Bystander Intervention survey in 2015
[00:08:52.510]that was very large-scale and has a lot of data.
[00:08:56.000]And so we try to pull relevant facts
[00:08:58.810]that are specific to our campus,
[00:09:01.200]which if you have similar data,
[00:09:02.550]I would definitely encourage you to do.
[00:09:05.110]That way students feel like they can relate
[00:09:07.130]with it more, that it's not just
[00:09:08.410]a national statistic.
[00:09:10.750]And then the last one on this another activity,
[00:09:13.720]so that is what we look for in some
[00:09:17.340]of our contents.
[00:09:18.770]If you are interested in viewing
[00:09:20.450]any of our content, you actually can download
[00:09:22.510]the Remind app and subscribe and then you can see
[00:09:26.330]all of our posts that we've done
[00:09:27.820]for the last two and a half years
[00:09:29.600]since we implemented the program.
[00:09:32.950]So, still talking about content.
[00:09:37.010]So like we said, part of our goal
[00:09:40.220]is obviously to target the high-risk events.
[00:09:43.730]So some of that may be some of the holidays.
[00:09:46.380]So you'll see here an example of on October 27th,
[00:09:50.020]so prior to Halloween when we sent
[00:09:52.810]a message related to checking out mocktail recipes
[00:09:57.620]instead of maybe drink recipes, that kind of thing.
[00:10:03.100]In December, there was an uptick
[00:10:06.120]of reports here on campus regarding
[00:10:09.690]possible drink contamination,
[00:10:11.920]and so we wanted to send a reminder
[00:10:14.460]that was the basic kind of concept
[00:10:18.109]of keeping your drink with you,
[00:10:19.810]not drinking from something that you didn't pour,
[00:10:22.010]that kind of piece.
[00:10:24.650]Around the Super Bowl, we tried
[00:10:26.910]to promote kind of snacks.
[00:10:28.950]So knowing that that's a significant holiday
[00:10:31.450]where folks may choose to drink.
[00:10:35.460]Just sending a reminder that they also can make some snacks
[00:10:38.030]to have available for games, that kind of piece.
[00:10:40.210]So we try to time things as much as we can
[00:10:43.460]with things like the football schedules,
[00:10:45.920]but also the holidays that we know.
[00:10:48.350]Another one I know that we've in the past
[00:10:50.950]for content, we did something I think related to Mardi Gras,
[00:10:54.190]St. Patrick's Day, any of the typical kind
[00:10:56.930]of high-risk drinking holidays.
[00:10:59.190]We try to have a text message that may provide
[00:11:02.840]a protective behavior around that time.
[00:11:08.090]Some of our messages also are targeted more
[00:11:11.290]for safety and wellbeing.
[00:11:13.550]And so at the end of the semester
[00:11:16.730]when we know that stress and anxiety
[00:11:19.810]are at their height for a lot of students,
[00:11:23.590]we frequently plug a post for CAPS,
[00:11:28.030]just whether it's for students
[00:11:29.710]to call themselves, or if they're concerned
[00:11:31.990]about a friend's call, things like that.
[00:11:34.440]Another example of a safety kind of one
[00:11:37.640]was this past spring when there was so much flooding
[00:11:39.780]going on, and we were just headed out to spring break,
[00:11:44.857]and we wanted to tell students, hey reminder
[00:11:47.670]to check the roads around the area
[00:11:50.300]that no matter where they were headed
[00:11:52.090]in Nebraska, that they might have experienced
[00:11:54.700]perhaps issues with flooded roadways
[00:11:57.360]and need to find a different route.
[00:11:59.060]So in addition to being for preventative measures
[00:12:03.900]for alcohol, it also provides a good communication tool
[00:12:07.290]for other messages as well.
[00:12:09.570]And another one that we've done in the past around this
[00:12:11.560]is around Fall Break or Thanksgiving Break,
[00:12:13.770]we sometimes do the don't text and drive kind of reminders.
[00:12:18.100]And those are actually received
[00:12:20.050]really positively from students,
[00:12:21.550]that they appreciate those kind of reminders, so.
[00:12:27.150]That kind of gives an overview
[00:12:28.220]of some of the content that we have done here at UNL.
[00:12:32.250]As far as our student response, so this is a screenshot
[00:12:35.160]of a few different responses from students
[00:12:38.140]from a message from spring 2018.
[00:12:40.630]And so this was a simple message we sent for Spring Break,
[00:12:43.850]and this was a stat from our Bystander Intervention Survey.
[00:12:47.490]And it was just that social norm reiterating
[00:12:50.370]that if you're bothered by observing someone
[00:12:53.830]being sexually taken advantage of,
[00:12:55.290]that you're not alone.
[00:12:56.620]And as you can see from the responses
[00:12:59.230]that students generated, it was a really positive statistic
[00:13:04.620]that they expected it to be even higher,
[00:13:07.130]which we would love to think that it was 100%
[00:13:10.910]as someone suggested, but that it's really positive
[00:13:13.660]to see them interacting and responding
[00:13:17.420]to this kind of information.
[00:13:21.450]As far as our text message program,
[00:13:23.070]when we started it in spring of 2017,
[00:13:27.080]we started with a little over 1,000 subscribers,
[00:13:29.670]and those were entirely uploaded
[00:13:31.460]from the Year One CAP, individuals who identified
[00:13:35.140]that they were interested.
[00:13:37.550]By the end of the semester, we still had almost 800.
[00:13:39.870]So students could unsubscribe from the system
[00:13:42.360]at any point throughout that timeframe.
[00:13:45.910]And so retention was 79%.
[00:13:49.670]Like I mentioned, we were really heavily pushing
[00:13:52.390]specifically just the alcohol-related norms
[00:13:57.070]and protective behaviors at that time,
[00:13:59.670]not nearly as many event-based kind of messages.
[00:14:04.540]And so really in fall and spring
[00:14:08.170]of '17, '18 is when we started entering
[00:14:11.310]a little bit more of the event-based messaging.
[00:14:14.920]So as you'll see, we've continued to grow
[00:14:17.550]the number of students participating each year.
[00:14:20.670]In addition to uploading the list,
[00:14:22.990]obviously I mentioned that we have students self-adding.
[00:14:26.080]At this point, we haven't actually
[00:14:27.870]been removing any students,
[00:14:30.040]since we know that we still have students
[00:14:32.790]from fall '16 who were incoming students,
[00:14:36.230]that they most likely are still with us,
[00:14:38.050]I think that's something we would need
[00:14:39.290]to look at futuristically, that after
[00:14:42.599]the four-year mark, we probably want
[00:14:44.780]to go ahead and maybe auto-remove,
[00:14:46.240]there may be some of them still around,
[00:14:47.750]but that they may not be as interested
[00:14:50.260]in our messages at that point.
[00:14:52.490]'Cause we haven't seen the bulk,
[00:14:53.940]as described kind of things at this point.
[00:14:57.130]But we do have now over 3300 students
[00:15:01.870]that are receiving our messages.
[00:15:05.540]Was there a question?
[00:15:06.910]I do have a question,
[00:15:08.240]how, you said removal, so coming
[00:15:11.060]from community college world, is it fairly difficult
[00:15:14.970]to remove those messages, or is it
[00:15:18.400]a one type one-sort module?
[00:15:23.280]Yeah, so I'll dive
[00:15:25.350]into the mechanism and show a couple of screenshots
[00:15:28.010]later, so but the mechanism that we're using, Remind,
[00:15:32.300]it is easy to upload, it is easy
[00:15:35.270]to individually delete when they send back,
[00:15:40.790]that they want to be removed or something like that.
[00:15:43.290]I can't say that I have tried to bulk delete.
[00:15:46.640]That might be something that I would actually.
[00:15:48.410]It does have with them a date that they subscribed,
[00:15:52.280]so I'm sure that you could essentially sort
[00:15:54.660]and see, oh, I want to delete everyone from this point.
[00:15:57.710]That might be something that I would have
[00:15:58.930]to contact the company for assistance,
[00:16:00.920]'cause I don't think I can bulk do it by the date,
[00:16:03.770]but since it does have that date parameter with it,
[00:16:06.630]it should be something that could at least be done.
[00:16:10.280]Awesome, okay.
[00:16:11.150]Sorry to interrupt.
[00:16:12.000]No, no, you're fine.
[00:16:14.104]So yeah, just an idea that our students seem
[00:16:16.680]to really enjoy the messaging.
[00:16:18.760]One thing that I did want to share
[00:16:20.380]about the messaging is that the first year
[00:16:24.240]and a half or so, it felt like it was kind
[00:16:26.270]of well does anyone even know that we're doing this?
[00:16:28.680]And starting last fall actually, we started getting
[00:16:33.080]requests from some of our student programs,
[00:16:35.310]so UPC, or University Program Council
[00:16:38.400]that's all student-based.
[00:16:40.660]A student coordinator in the Women's Center reached out
[00:16:43.040]and first year experience reached out
[00:16:47.320]from one of their student workers.
[00:16:48.610]But, all of those students, they received
[00:16:51.260]the text messages and they wanted
[00:16:52.420]to know if they could provide content for text messages.
[00:16:55.020]And so I think that that showed at that point
[00:16:57.660]that it was really validating that they knew
[00:17:00.290]that it was a good mechanism for getting information
[00:17:02.320]out to students.
[00:17:04.080]One thing though, my response to them
[00:17:06.580]was that I was absolutely open to hearing
[00:17:09.530]what they would like to send.
[00:17:10.670]However, we remained very specific
[00:17:13.990]that our goals though are to highlight evening
[00:17:17.700]and weekend events and to promote
[00:17:20.780]the positive protective alcohol
[00:17:24.570]or positive protective behaviors related to alcohol kind of.
[00:17:27.660]So if their content didn't fit that scope,
[00:17:32.610]that we may not run their message.
[00:17:35.210]And also just 'cause, once again we're trying
[00:17:37.750]to keep it to only two per week.
[00:17:39.750]But it was very validating that they saw
[00:17:43.880]it as a good mechanism to contact their peers, so yeah.
[00:17:52.340]So how we do it, so our system
[00:17:55.100]is that we're using Remind.
[00:17:56.730]And so Remind is a text messaging platform
[00:17:59.570]specifically for education.
[00:18:01.650]It's used by lots of even K through 12 institutions
[00:18:05.700]I think primarily.
[00:18:07.100]But it also is wonderful for higher ed.
[00:18:10.470]It has the capability where you can go in
[00:18:12.870]and you can schedule messages ahead of time,
[00:18:15.550]which is awesome so you can think out your content
[00:18:17.570]calendar and then schedule things.
[00:18:19.570]And you can link to additional info which is nice
[00:18:23.240]if there is maybe more info about an event.
[00:18:26.150]It does have a 140-character limit in the text message,
[00:18:31.360]so sometimes you can't get in everything you want to,
[00:18:33.440]but you can try to link to where
[00:18:36.560]they can get more information.
[00:18:40.320]So that's basically how that works.
[00:18:42.910]I was telling Megan right before this.
[00:18:44.730]So Remind has been a free platform.
[00:18:49.050]It's been awesome the last few years,
[00:18:50.810]however I did get an email from them yesterday
[00:18:53.110]that they are changing their structure
[00:18:55.360]and naturally, so now they are going
[00:18:58.430]to have more paid plans.
[00:19:00.090]So as I understand it that anything
[00:19:02.110]over 150 students in a class would be considered
[00:19:06.330]a paid plan, so we're gonna have
[00:19:07.630]to look at figuring out how to fund essentially our plan
[00:19:13.460]since we do have the 3300 students
[00:19:15.320]and that doesn't even include however many
[00:19:17.920]we'll add this next year.
[00:19:20.000]But it was a great starting place for us,
[00:19:23.540]and I think that we have seen it be accepted
[00:19:27.550]very well from students, so I do think
[00:19:29.500]that it's something that we will continue to pursue.
[00:19:34.220]So unfortunately, I hate to tell you
[00:19:37.150]that it might be taking a paid route.
[00:19:40.070]But if you're looking for a place
[00:19:41.100]to start, it still may meet your needs.
[00:19:44.640]A few things about Remind.
[00:19:45.740]So we use just the Teacher role.
[00:19:48.190]So they have where you can be an administrator,
[00:19:50.450]a teacher, a student or a parent.
[00:19:53.150]We just have a class called Husker Life.
[00:19:55.520]And so through that class then, we can enroll students,
[00:19:59.930]they can enroll themselves.
[00:20:02.390]It's affiliated with UNL.
[00:20:05.500]You probably have other teachers
[00:20:07.470]that may be using this program within your school
[00:20:09.480]even if you haven't heard of it.
[00:20:10.580]I know the way I heard about it was our Honors program
[00:20:13.550]was using it here on campus.
[00:20:16.370]And so one thing is that if you do choose
[00:20:18.820]to use this platform, I encourage you to think
[00:20:21.360]about the class name and class code.
[00:20:24.260]The class name is visible on all messages,
[00:20:26.830]so where you saw on some of those screenshots
[00:20:29.130]that it said Husker Life, and then had the message,
[00:20:32.830]originally we were just gonna call it UNL Student Affairs.
[00:20:35.830]And I quickly realized that that was gonna appear
[00:20:39.810]in every message, and students don't care
[00:20:41.700]if it's Student Affairs, but they want
[00:20:43.870]to know who it's from.
[00:20:44.730]And so it made sense to call it Husker Life
[00:20:46.470]and make it sound a little more relevant to student life.
[00:20:51.210]So that's one thing to kind of think about.
[00:20:53.770]In Remind, there are two types of messages
[00:20:56.090]that teachers can initiate,
[00:20:57.430]so you can initiate announcements,
[00:20:59.700]which it's the one-way text to all class participants,
[00:21:03.360]and that's primarily what we're using.
[00:21:05.690]Or it does have conversations,
[00:21:07.300]and so you can do two-way texting,
[00:21:09.750]which this is nice because sometimes
[00:21:12.030]individuals do actually text back with responses,
[00:21:15.670]questions, sometimes it's about the time of an event
[00:21:18.120]if we are promoting it, that kind of thing.
[00:21:21.570]So it does allow them to participate a little bit.
[00:21:28.090]This is basically what it looks like to initiate a message.
[00:21:31.100]So it automatically populates with all of our students,
[00:21:34.770]it's not like we have to go in and select,
[00:21:36.550]you just type in what your message is
[00:21:38.170]and then either send or schedule.
[00:21:40.560]So it's a really simple and easy to use interface,
[00:21:44.590]so we've enjoyed using that.
[00:21:47.250]As you see, you can upload photos or videos,
[00:21:51.490]pull something from GIPHY's so that it's something
[00:21:53.600]student-friendly, things like that.
[00:21:56.170]The one thing is if you choose
[00:21:57.240]to do any of those kind of things,
[00:21:58.430]it does take away from your character limit.
[00:22:00.900]So once again, kind of limited on that option.
[00:22:07.540]The one thing that I will mention
[00:22:08.660]and it's some of the, I mentioned the response.
[00:22:11.270]Sometimes we do get responses from students saying,
[00:22:14.090]take me off of this, that kind of thing.
[00:22:17.180]And it is really easy to, you see their name basically
[00:22:22.380]when it comes back, and so you can just go into Remind,
[00:22:26.390]search their name and remove them from
[00:22:27.970]the class is basically all you're doing.
[00:22:30.450]And so that is an easy action.
[00:22:33.480]Students also can remove themselves.
[00:22:36.580]Unlike most types of systems, instead
[00:22:39.180]of stop, they have to text, it's an @ sign and then leave.
[00:22:43.140]And so a lot of the time, they'll just reply with stop,
[00:22:46.400]which is kind of the standard text messaging removal,
[00:22:49.620]and anytime I receive that, I just manually remove them.
[00:22:51.980]And really, it's not a huge amount,
[00:22:55.190]so it's definitely manageable.
[00:22:58.560]But that's kind of how that all works.
[00:23:02.280]So if you do venture into doing a text messaging system,
[00:23:06.730]a few tips.
[00:23:09.180]So first, develop a list of your messages first.
[00:23:13.390]For us, we actually have what's called our Alcohol
[00:23:15.258]Messaging Guidelines that we came up with in 2016,
[00:23:18.350]and I know we're going to work on revising I think
[00:23:21.130]in the next couple of weeks.
[00:23:22.480]And so that basically gives us a list of all
[00:23:25.890]of the different kind of things that we'd like
[00:23:27.500]to say to students, whether it's a protective behavior,
[00:23:30.220]it's got a list of those, it's got a list
[00:23:32.550]of statistics that are relevant
[00:23:34.650]as far as social norms.
[00:23:36.460]But just pulling together all of that into one place
[00:23:38.990]makes it really easy for them when you actually want
[00:23:41.530]to populate a content calendar that you know
[00:23:45.600]what content you want to put in.
[00:23:47.020]It's not that you're trying to come
[00:23:49.210]up with a whole lot, so you've got a great place to start.
[00:23:52.160]The next thing is have a calendar
[00:23:53.380]of events available.
[00:23:55.100]Definitely being able to identify evening
[00:23:57.920]and weekend events, whether it's that those
[00:24:00.010]are particular evenings and weekends
[00:24:01.790]that you know you need to put an alcohol message,
[00:24:03.900]or that those are evening and weekend events
[00:24:05.940]that you want to actually promote.
[00:24:08.400]Either way, it just make it easy to have that all at hand.
[00:24:12.190]And then the last thing is I really suggest
[00:24:14.310]working head, for me, it's easiest to schedule
[00:24:17.640]things a few weeks at a time.
[00:24:19.210]I use the system as basically get it all scheduled
[00:24:22.300]in Excel, and then I'll go in to Remind
[00:24:24.480]and basically once a month kind of pop
[00:24:26.230]all the messages in.
[00:24:27.470]That way, I can adjust if needed.
[00:24:29.300]Maybe something has changed on the calendar
[00:24:32.410]and so I can accommodate that, or perhaps
[00:24:36.690]certain trends, as we know that different party trends kind
[00:24:40.770]of drive sometimes some of our messaging,
[00:24:43.690]that we can adjust and accommodate throughout the semester.
[00:24:47.530]So that's basically how we are doing
[00:24:51.150]our text messaging system,
[00:24:52.570]and so if you have any further questions,
[00:24:55.520]I'm happy to answer them.
[00:25:00.880]Thank you Lauren, that was a great overview
[00:25:02.610]of the messaging and the program you guys use.
[00:25:07.520]Does anyone have any questions or maybe concerns
[00:25:11.440]you see about using a similar program on your campus
[00:25:14.070]that you'd like to discuss?
[00:25:19.270]Can you go back to the outreach
[00:25:23.200]as far as from Remind what they documented
[00:25:27.330]to regarding cost, what was the change?
[00:25:30.710]I wrote down 150 and then.
[00:25:33.650]So what they sent me yesterday
[00:25:35.570]in the email is that now they will allow campuses
[00:25:39.350]to have I believe it's 10 classes
[00:25:42.610]of up to 150 individuals each, and that's for free.
[00:25:47.920]That anything above that is going to be a paid plan.
[00:25:54.410]And I have reached out to our route
[00:25:56.100]to get initial cost information, but I haven't yet
[00:26:03.280]received that, so.
[00:26:05.230]And I know when we wanted to implement
[00:26:06.850]this program initially, we also were looking
[00:26:08.880]at other text vendors, and so naturally we'll compare
[00:26:11.880]with other text vendors too to see
[00:26:13.500]if there is.
[00:26:15.280]When you're looking at text messaging,
[00:26:17.410]some charge per contact, and some charge per message,
[00:26:21.490]so it just depends.
[00:26:23.240]If you have an idea of kind of how much you're sending
[00:26:26.830]in volume, you can determine which option
[00:26:30.440]is the best for your program.
[00:26:38.490]And I see that there's a question here,
[00:26:40.120]can you only set up one group of students
[00:26:42.270]or are you able to subgroup them for targeted messages?
[00:26:47.380]You can set them up if you wanted
[00:26:48.860]to as different classes.
[00:26:51.180]So essentially the way that Remind has it is that you
[00:26:56.320]can message an entire class.
[00:26:58.200]I know we had initially thought
[00:26:59.890]about doing our generic one and then we also were looking
[00:27:03.130]at possibly having a separate class
[00:27:05.430]for Greek members, but if there was something
[00:27:09.093]that we wanted to sign specifically to those.
[00:27:12.050]We ended up not going down that route,
[00:27:13.850]because my one fear was that we would duplicate
[00:27:17.210]our content between for individuals who
[00:27:19.780]are both first-year student enrolled
[00:27:23.190]in the general bunch and then also
[00:27:26.700]in a fraternity or sorority.
[00:27:28.998]But if we, but I just I didn't want them
[00:27:33.130]to start getting messages twice.
[00:27:35.390]So instead we started building it just knowing
[00:27:37.680]that in the first year we would collect students
[00:27:39.920]and then we would continue to kind
[00:27:42.500]of move them along into first, second year,
[00:27:45.600]third year, that kind of pace.
[00:27:58.857]Any other questions?
[00:28:00.240]I'm really sad to tell you that Remind
[00:28:02.571]is potentially not working the way that it had been
[00:28:06.450]for the last three years, 'cause it was really rewarding
[00:28:10.030]to me when I looked back at how much our program has grown
[00:28:12.480]over the last three years.
[00:28:14.000]And the fact that our unsubscribes
[00:28:17.820]have actually substantially
[00:28:18.870]decreased, and so I think that students
[00:28:21.360]are seeing the value in the text messages,
[00:28:24.880]which tells us that we do need
[00:28:27.260]to find a way to continue the program.
[00:28:33.210]Lauren, I was just gonna share right now
[00:28:34.710]my son's elementary school uses Remind app quite
[00:28:37.900]a bit for their teacher communication and PTA,
[00:28:40.620]and I remember there was a time last year during
[00:28:43.100]the school year that they were gonna start
[00:28:45.270]charging Verizon customers, and there was
[00:28:47.560]a lot of backlash around that and they pulled back on it,
[00:28:50.640]so I wonder how much they're willing to work
[00:28:53.710]with subscribers who have used the program
[00:28:56.010]moving forward about cost and that kind of thing.
[00:28:59.340]Right, I do recall when
[00:29:00.640]that was originally announced and yeah,
[00:29:07.253]I thought that that was going to absolutely end
[00:29:09.550]our program because Verizon being a huge carrier,
[00:29:13.070]they weren't gonna carry those phone numbers.
[00:29:15.070]There was no way that we were gonna continue
[00:29:16.255]to spend time on providing content into their platform.
[00:29:22.080]But I agree that perhaps they may change
[00:29:25.340]it, I can understand, I think that ultimately
[00:29:28.860]they probably have to get some income somewhere
[00:29:32.380]to provide the service, but hopefully
[00:29:34.573]that it may be at a rate that would be significantly reduced
[00:29:38.160]compared to other platforms.
[00:29:41.340]And I know when we chatted before
[00:29:43.090]the meeting started, you had mentioned
[00:29:44.160]that obviously this is pretty new information for you
[00:29:47.110]just getting it yesterday, but that you would
[00:29:49.720]be willing to kind of pass along
[00:29:51.080]what you hear in terms of what that'll mean cost-wise
[00:29:54.320]or what the break points are as you find
[00:29:56.190]out more information.
[00:29:57.880]Yes, absolutely.
[00:29:59.310]Once I hear what the pricing is and how that's going
[00:30:03.280]to work, I will let folks know
[00:30:06.050]so that they can evaluate if it's something
[00:30:08.314]that they can implement for their institution.
[00:30:12.580]Thank you.
[00:30:15.510]Anyone else have any questions?
[00:30:23.250]Alright, well Lauren I want to thank you again,
[00:30:24.930]it was a really great overview,
[00:30:26.210]very interesting combination of messages,
[00:30:28.640]and I think it's great to hear that I think
[00:30:30.860]a lot of us are used to getting text messages
[00:30:33.130]that we don't necessarily find useful,
[00:30:35.800]but it sounds like a lot of the students
[00:30:37.580]who are receiving these messages really do appreciate
[00:30:39.890]them and are excited to see how they can also
[00:30:43.600]be utilized for their purposes on campus,
[00:30:45.840]so I think it's a great thing for other schools
[00:30:49.190]to look into, it's a really easy way
[00:30:50.720]to reach out to students throughout the year, so.
[00:30:54.450]Thank you all for your time.
[00:30:56.960]Thank you guys.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Y1CBP Text Message Program

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments