3 Ways Schools Can Use SMS to Reach Students During the Holidays by Ken Rhie explains how the power of sending group text messages can allow any school to run more efficiently. He also tells why such a powerful resource is especially important during the holiday season. If you don’t already have this capability, Ken has a product for you.

Introduction

• Many schools have already discovered that mass texting software can be beneficial for improving communication with parents, staff members, and students. Although this is true during every part of the school year, it is especially important during the holidays. During this time, your institution needs to make sure everyone involved in school activities are kept up-to-date on events, schedule changes, and other important announcements. Here are three ways your school can use SMS during the holiday season.

1. For holiday school events

• Most schools schedule special events during the holidays, such as holiday parties, programs or even fundraisers. Using SMS messaging, you can make sure everyone in your school knows when these events will take place. For example, if the classrooms in your school are having Christmas parties on a specific day, you can mass message parents of students to let them know when the party will take place. You can also use texting to explain any rules or other important information related to the event. Should the event be canceled or postponed, you can use SMS messaging to inform everyone involved of the change.
• For people involved in the planning of a special event, you can use SMS messaging to facilitate communication within the group and keep everyone up-to-date on event planning progress.

2. To discuss the holiday schedule

• In most cases, your school’s schedule will change during the holidays. You may have certain days when school won’t be in session, and/or you may be releasing students early on specific days so they can enjoy more time with their families. Schools using mass texting for communication can send messages to parents, students and staff informing them of these schedule changes. Be sure to send a reminder before the change occurs to make sure everyone is on the same page. Encourage all parents, students and staff members to opt into this notification system so they won’t ever be in the dark about scheduling issues.
• In addition, during the holiday season, inclement weather may force your school to delay sessions or close for the day. Using SMS messaging, you can inform staff and students of any cancellations or delays as soon as the decision is made.

3. To send reminders

• During the holidays, your students or staff may have specific deadlines they need to meet. For example, teachers may need to turn in grades before leaving for the holiday break. Likewise, students may need to complete all of the paperwork associated with a holiday fundraiser, or they may need to remember to attend an important meeting related to a holiday event. Whenever any group of people in your school needs to be reminded of a deadline, meeting or other task, you can use SMS messaging to make sure they don’t forget. With the right text messaging software, you can create customized lists of SMS recipients so your messages are sent only to those people who need to see them, allowing you to use SMS messaging to communicate with virtually any group of people affiliated with the school.
• These are just a few of the ways you can put SMS messaging to good use during the holiday season. SMS technology is a powerful tool for your school throughout the rest of the year as well. It provides many benefits, including instantaneous communication, affordability, convenience and much more. When you utilize this tool properly, you can enhance the efficiency of your school’s operations and improve communication with parents, staff and students.

Ken Rhie

• Ken is the CEO of Trumpia.Com which earned a reputation as the most complete SMS solution including user-friendly user interface and API for mobile engagement, Smart Targeting, advanced automation, enterprise, and cross-channel features for both mass texting and landline texting use cases. Mr. Rhie holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. He has over 30 years of experience in the software, internet, and mobile communications industries.

Share this: