Back to School: 3 Creative Ways to Text your Audience

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3 Easy, Creative Ways to Text your Audience

Texting in is the new raising your hand in class.

Our client Chalkbeat covers community news about education - and there’s never been a back to school season like this one before.

They’ve gotten creative and acted fast, using text messages to reach parents, teachers and students quickly. Here are some of their strategies and lessons learned:

  1. A text message based discipline project. Text in your school’s name and you’ll receive the percentage of suspensions and expulsions there.

    1. Dept. of Education spreadsheets are nearly impossible to find and understand so a quick text was a super easy way to let folks compare schools.

    2. Even teachers had trouble finding the info on their own schools and were eager to text in and find out stats for their own workplaces.

    3. The texts also provided a channel for parents and teachers to share stories on their experiences with discipline in their schools.

  2. Text your zip code to find meals for students. In both English and Spanish, parents can quickly find places for kids’ meals with schools closed.

    1. They received questions back like, Do I have to speak English to receive a meal?, Do I have to bring my kids to the site?, and Can I get a meal for my baby who is not school aged?

    2. Texting can be a lifeline. It’s extra critical for communities who don’t sit at a computer all day - it reaches people wherever they are.

    3. In order to share the meal hotline, Chalkbeat texted a PDF flier with the number to text into. The text line popularity soared with Spanish speaking families.

  3. Texting about your School Board Meeting. These meetings are typically long, boring and at night, making child care difficult. In Detroit, Chalkbeat texts a monthly alert to say when the school board is meeting, what’s on the agenda, and how to watch it remotely.

    1. Afterwards it sends a recap of the 3 most significant things that happened there.

    2. Dramatically increases engagement at a time when people aren’t able to show up to this meeting in person.

    3. More participants can chime in and these important meetings become significantly more accessible.

You can use these strategies to increase engagement and participation with your own audience. These times are hard, reaching out to people is easy with GroundSource.

Andrew Haeg