A mass announcement is a one-time email and push notification to each member of your community. It goes out at once, and you cannot recall it. For a notice that stays on the dashboard, use the Message of the Day instead.
By default, only the Admin role can send an announcement. If you do not see the Announcements tab, your role cannot use it.
Open the composer
Go to Settings > Announcements. The Mass Announcements page has two tabs: New Announcement and Announcement History.
If you manage more than one community of a group, choose the community in Community first.
Write the announcement
1. In Delivery Channels, choose one or both channels. Both are on when the page opens.
- Email sends a formatted email to each user who has an email address. Type the Email Subject Line, from 5 to 50 characters. Then type the Email Message, from 20 to 1,000 characters.
- Push Notification sends a notification to the phones of users. Type the Push Notification Title, from 5 to 50 characters. Then type the Push Notification Message, from 10 to 150 characters.
2. To format the email, use the buttons above the Email Message field: bold, italic, underline, a bulleted list, a numbered list and a link.
3. Look at the Live Preview card. It shows the email and the push notification as users see them. The push text is much shorter than the email, so read it with care.
4. Read Estimated recipients. It shows the number of users for each channel.
Send the announcement
Send Announcement is available only when each field is valid and at least one user can get the announcement.
1. Select Send Announcement. The Confirm Mass Announcement dialog opens. It shows the number of users and the channels.
2. Read the warning: "This action cannot be undone. The announcement will be sent immediately to all users."
3. Type SEND in the field. Uppercase and lowercase letters do not matter.
4. Select Send Announcement.
MyWatchtower puts the name of your community before the email subject and the push title. A person gets the announcement only on the channels that they allow in their notification settings, and only when your community has notifications on. A push notification also adds an item to the in-app inbox of the person.
If you leave the page before you send, the Unsent Announcement dialog opens. Select Stay & Edit to keep your text, or Discard & Leave to remove it.
Announcement History
The Announcement History tab lists each announcement that was sent. Each row shows the title, the date and time, the channels and the number of recipients.
Select a row to see the email subject, the email body, the push notification and the recipients. Each recipient shows the channels that reached that person. To find a person, type at least 3 characters in Search recipients by name or email.... Use this list when a person asks why they did not get an announcement.
Before the first announcement, the tab shows "No announcements have been sent yet."