Engage Mobile: Creating Broadcasts

Overview

At Fourth we are always looking for new ways to let our customers in Head Office interact and engage with their employees within Engage to bring people closer to what is happening inside a company.

‘Broadcasts’ is a company-wide communication tool (separate to Announcements) that can be used to configure small and concise messages within the Salesforce console by an Administrator.

The new capability allows Administrators in Head Office to keep their employees up to date on important or significant events, with a requirement for employees to engage and acknowledge that they have viewed the relevant information.

When published, Broadcasts messages will surface in Engage when a user logs in for the first time.
 

• In a web browser they will appear as a pop-up
• On mobile they will appear on top of Engage

 

Fig.1 - A Broadcast message on a web browser

 

Fig.2 - A Broadcast Message on Mobile

Using Broadcasts in Engage

When a message is displayed, there is the choice to:
 

• Read the message, tick Do not display again, and then select Got it! This will dismiss the Broadcasts message and it will not appear on the next log in
• Select Got it! or close the Broadcasts pop-up window (with the X button in the top-right corner). This will return to the main Engage menu as normal but the same message will appear each time the user logs in, until Do not display again is selected

 

Fig.3 - ‘Do not display again’ checkbox to prevent the pop-up reappearing
 

• To enable the Broadcasts functionality as an Administrator, go to the Account page in the Salesforce Console and tick the Enable Broadcasts box 

 

Fig.4 - Switching on Broadcasts at account level

 

• If required, the label of the ‘Do not display again’ text can be changed by editing the Broadcasts Checkbox Label information within the Salesforce Console on the Account page

 

 

Fig.5 - Editing the ‘Do not display again’ label in Account page on Salesforce Console

Administrators will also have access to a brand new area within the Salesforce Console to create Broadcasts content.
 

• To create a Broadcast, select the Broadcasts button and enter the required fields and content

 

 

Fig.6 - New Salesforce object – ‘Broadcasts’ for creating and managing broadcast messages

 

Fig.7 - Creating a new ‘Broadcasts’ message

Each broadcast message is restricted to a character limit of 280 characters to ensure that they are concise. This is inclusive of any text, spaces and hyperlinks.

The main Content field supports the use of:
 

• Plain Text
• Bold
• Underline
• Italics
• Hyperlinks
  • To open hyperlinks within the same browser window or within the Fourth App, ensure the Target is Same Window (_self) – see Fig.8
  • To open hyperlinks in a new tab on a desktop browser or default mobile device browser, ensure the Target is set to <not set> - see Fig.9

 

Fig.8 - Configuring hyperlinks to open within the same window

 

Fig.9 - Configuring hyperlinks to open in a new window

    

Broadcasts can be created with ‘Expiry Date’ and ‘Time’ settings whereby the message will disappear from the Engage User Interface on the date and time configured. However, broadcast messages will appear in Engage from the moment a record is saved.

 

 

Fig.10 - Setting an Expiry date and time for Broadcasts

Only 3 Broadcast messages can be ‘active’ at any given time, displayed as 3 separate pages within the Broadcasts window in Engage.

If Administrators create more than 3 records, they will not be published to Engage until one or more of the active Broadcasts are either:
 

• Deleted by the Administrator

• Expired