Mass Texts

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lmstahle94
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Mass Texts

#1

Post by lmstahle94 »

Hi all. I am the new communications specialist in my YSA ward. My bishop would like me to send "mass texts" out to the ward. I saw a thread from 2014 about using the "lists" on LDStools. What else do you guys use?
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sbradshaw
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Re: Mass Texts

#2

Post by sbradshaw »

My last ward used Twitter for mass texts (SMS follow), and it worked surprisingly well. The person responsible for sending texts set up a Twitter account, and everyone in the ward was invited to opt in by texting "Follow @___" (ward's account name). Everything posted is public, so you do have to be careful what you post and how much detail is included.

Lists in LDS Tools work great, except because they rely on your phone's texting ability, they're limited by your service provider's maximum number of recipients (usually 10 people at a time).
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
lmstahle94
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Re: Mass Texts

#3

Post by lmstahle94 »

My last ward actually did that too. Thanks for the recommendation!
famjoann3
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Re: Mass Texts

#4

Post by famjoann3 »

Our YSA Stake would like to go one step up. We'd like to pull their cell phone information from the MLS. Our dream would be to have the functionality to pull similar contact information for singles from the family wards parallel to our YSA wards. Their records would stay in the family wards, but we would be reaching out to them so that they could opt in as desired.
kellymab
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Re: Mass Texts

#5

Post by kellymab »

When I sent out texts in my last two wards, we gathered people's cell provider and cell number and used Gmail to send out the text messages. ( I.e. 8015551234@vtext.com). T-Mobile did start to block us and not all low cost carries are supported.

I don't use Twitter so I'm not sure if people who don't have an account can use sbradshaw's method.
kellymab
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Re: Mass Texts

#6

Post by kellymab »

We also had subgroups for those who wanted alerts about sports, rs/eq activities as well.
quandmeme
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Re: Mass Texts

#7

Post by quandmeme »

Our youth organization use text messages managed by GroupMe because of the ability both for leaders to add and remove people as the age out of classes and for the users to unsubscribe themselves. Most youth can receive texts but are on all manner of social media platforms so we can't standardize. https://groupme.com/en-US/

Because I'm not on facebook. I hate that the only way to know where activity days is to ask someone who is on facebook who was permitted to friend our ward primary so ton of sympathy for those who are stuck on a system that is convenient for someone else but not them! (youngest daughter turns 12 this year so I'm just biting my tongue)
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sbradshaw
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Re: Mass Texts

#8

Post by sbradshaw »

I recently saw the "Remind" app recommended as a way to communicate in a ward. Has anyone used that?
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
MickelsonBJ
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Re: Mass Texts

#9

Post by MickelsonBJ »

I’ve used that for institute classes. Works wonderfully.
davesudweeks
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Re: Mass Texts

#10

Post by davesudweeks »

sbradshaw wrote:I recently saw the "Remind" app recommended as a way to communicate in a ward. Has anyone used that?
A few years ago, my wife and I were added to a "Remind" app without our permission or desire by a well-meaning stake choir director. We got lots of "communication" we did not want nor request. There was no way to get off the list without offending someone - I finally just marked it as spam in my e-mail program to get it all to stop.
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