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Title: The Messages Section of Citizen Builder

Original CoS Document (slug): the-messages-seciton-of-citizen-builder

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Attached File: The_Messages_Section_of_the_C.B._Dashboard.docx

Last updated on 1/18/2

Created: 2022-01-13 11:52:44

Updated: 2023-01-13 19:00:00

Published: 2022-07-09 01:00:00

Converted: 2025-04-14T20:03:15.949062924

Convention of States Missouri

The Messages Section of the Citizen Builder Dashboard

The Messages/Inbox is a one-way communication tool which National uses to send updates about upcoming classes or events. You cannot reply to these notices and many of them will also be sent via email. Once you have reviewed them click the trash-can icon to delete them.
The Messages/Notifications section is where you create the messages which are received in the Inbox described previously. Depending upon your role, you may not even see this option. If is it visible to you, keep in mind who your audience is and whether or not they have access to Citizen Builder. For example, Social Media Warriors can be ‘notified’ but they work out in the wide-wide world, not on Citizen Builder.
The Messages/Email Blasts section is where you develop emails to supporters within our database. Depending upon your access you may see ‘My’ in the upper left corner or ‘My,’ ‘Others,’ and ‘Without Author.’
1. For District Captains – you will see only your district and you should be able to create and send an email without National review. However, you will be documenting that you have reviewed the email with someone else. Please do so as it is easy to miss typos. If you are having an area-wide event and need to email supporters outside of your district, please contact your Regional Captain, the State Director or State Communication Coordinator; they can write an email for you or over your name, depending upon their role access.
2. For Regional Captains or the State Director – you will see only your region and, depending upon the number of supporters receiving the email, it may need to be reviewed by National. Plan to allow for the time needed for this step. Currently, the cut-off limit to send without National review is 500.
3. State Communication Coordinator – you should have access to the whole state and you are able to write an email showing someone else’s name. If you are writing on behalf of someone else, it is suggested that you do a hyperlink with their email address below their signature. Most people will reply by linking to it but some people will simply reply to the email. Those will be sent to your email. Please forward them to the appropriate person as soon as possible.
Setting up the email blast
1. In the ‘Recipients’ box your three choices are:
  1. A dynamic list which is already created
  2. Marking the box ‘All People Available to me’
  3. Choosing your criteria. Most criteria designated within the People/User section can be used.
  4. The blue section which shows how many people will receive the email is an estimate. MailChimp will exclude some of these and there is nothing you can do about it.
2. ‘What’s Your Message’ Section
  1. Choose your ‘Email Blast Group Type’ Current choices are weekly newsletter, call-to-action National and call-to-action local.
  2. The best template to use is the ‘COSA-MO Blank.’
  3. Under the ‘From name’ name section, fill in your name and you can add your COS role also (if you are an SCC writing on behalf of someone else, use their name.)
  4. Subject line (try to make it an ‘eye-catcher.’
  5. In the email template, back space over {Insert text] and start typing. You can choose the recipient name from the Merge Fields in the choice bar between the message and template sections. (When you run a test email to check any links and proofread your work the name will fill in as ‘Friend.’)
  6. Blue SAVE button is on the bottom left. Once you hit that it will build a connection to MailChimp and you may see the recipient number decrease but never increase.
3. The comments section will not show on the emails. This is where you can request a particular date and time for your email blast to be sent.
4. After the SAVE and MailChimp actions you will have a visual of your email. Edit button is in the bottom lower right of the screen. We suggest that you send yourself a test to check the email; this test must go to a cosaction email account. If you have an assigned role but use your personal email, you also have a cosaction email account forwarded to your personal email account. (Can’t remember it? Go to your Profile page and scroll down towards the bottom of the screen. It will show as a non-primary email.) Also, you can send the test to other cosaction email account holders by putting a comma and space between your email and theirs. You can also send a test email to one email at a time.
5. Under the ‘Message Review’ section you will need to confirm that you have reviewed the email with someone and that there is nothing related to legislative actions or situations or that it does not support a candidate. If there is any chance that these situations are in play, please contact the State Director and forward him a test email. For most emails, boxes two and three on right will apply. Then hit the blue READY FOR REVIEW (aka RFR.)
6. Under the ‘Delivery section you will be given a choice to send it now or schedule its delivery or you will be advised that National will handle the delivery.
The Messages/Text Blast section allows you to text supporters who have cell phones and have opted in to receive text blasts.
1. In the ‘Recipients’ box your three choices are:
  1. A dynamic list which is already created
  2. Marking the box ‘All People Available to me’
  3. Choosing your criteria. Most criteria designated within the People/User section can be used.
  4. The blue section which shows how many people will receive the email is an estimate.
2. ‘What’s Your Message’ section:
  1. Title, not included in message – write a short description
  2. Body of text – 150 character limit. Suggestion: if you have a link to include, put it last but watch that the end of the link is not cut off as you type the words before it. Make it ‘an eye-catcher.’
  3. Hit the blue SAVE button.
  4. You must contact a Regional Coordinator (Slack is best) to process the text. At this time, the request should go to: Jonathan Viaud, Brenda Karlin and Paul Phillips. Let them know the text is ‘Ready for Review’ (RFR) and when you would like it delivered.