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Getting started with Text-in Engagement (Beta)

Add a dedicated phone number to the Ideas tool, and cross the digital divide using Text-in Engagement.

Tess O'Brien avatar
Written by Tess O'Brien
Updated over a week ago

🧪 THIS FEATURE IS CURRENTLY IN BETA AND AVAILABLE ONLY TO SELECT CLIENTS 🧪


What is Text-in Engagement?

Text-In Engagement enables you to allocate a mobile phone number to any EngagementHQ project using an 'Ideas tool', so that community members can submit their feedback via SMS, without a connection to the internet.

The moment a community member texts into the Project using the associated number, their contribution automatically becomes a part of the consultation; from there, others can like, comment or share as they do with all Ideas.

Setting up Text-in Engagement

Before community members can start submitting their feedback via SMS, you must first configure the Ideas Tool in your chosen Project:

Adding a number to the Ideas tool

Follow the steps below to associate a number to an existing Project and Ideas tool:

  1. Navigate to your chosen Project

  2. Select the Ideas tool you would like to receive text contributions for

  3. Click on the new button labelled SMS

  4. In the right-hand draw click on the hyperlinked Marketplace text in step 1: Activate your number from our Marketplace

  5. From the Marketplace page www.yourdomainhere/admin/marketplace/sms-integration click Manage Numbers:

    I. If a number is associated with a tool, this is shown here.

    II. An Active number accepts incoming SMS. This can be turned off if required.

    II. The Association Status indicates if the number is associated with a tool or not. A Site Admin can break the association to re-use the number on another tool.

  6. If a number is not associated, a number will be generated based on the site's location.

Creating a new project? Add the Ideas tool first, then follow the instructions above.

Note : If you no longer want to receive SMS ideas, you can either disable the 'Link Status' in tool settings or go to Marketplace and remove the association with the tool by clicking on the link status button.


Edit the SMS reply template

Once you have associated a number to the Ideas tool, you can choose to edit the automated reply text via the “Set up SMS Engagement Drawer” in the content editor under "Thank you message" accessed via the SMS button.

View submitted SMS Ideas

View submitted Ideas as a participant to see the contribution made via text-in engagement while the consultation is in progress.

Text message support

  • Text messages can be up to the standard 160 character limitation in length.

  • Ideas submitted with less than 140 characters will be displayed in the title of the Idea.

  • Ideas with more than 140 characters will use the first 140 in the Ideas title and the remainder in the Ideas description.

  • Text-in Engagement does not support MMS, images submitted via SMS will not be displayed in the Ideas tool

  • All Text-in Engagement content is moderated in-line with the EngagementHQ moderation policy, you can understand how moderation works here.

Reporting on Text-in Engagement Ideas

Ideas submitted via Text-in contribute through an "unverified" account.

The username is "via Mobile" with the email address in reporting displaying the mobile number of the participant, e.g. +1457861374@mobile.ehq.

Every submission made via Text-in Engagement will count as:

  • 1 Aware, Informed and Engaged Visitor with 1 Visit and 1 Contribution.

  • Each subsequent submission will count as another visit in the same manner.

For example, if an Ideas tool receives three Ideas via SMS, this would contribute a total of 3 Aware, Informed and Engaged Visitors, with 3 Visits and 3 Contributions but no page views. Find out more about Reporting on Ideas here.

Next Steps

Now that you've set up your one free number as part of our Beta for Text-in Engagement, you can start promoting it as part of your consultation and watch the contributions roll in. When you've reached the end of your consultation, you can unlink the number from the associated Project and Tool using the link icon in the Manage Numbers interface.

Contact our support team if you need any further assistance via chat or email support@engagementhq.com

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