Communicate En Masse Via Text, Email Or Mail

SeekerWorks.NET™ empowers you to quickly send SMS Texts to all or selected cell phones, and receive texts as well. If you'd rather, send mass emails to all or selected email addresses, or print labels and use 'mail-merge' printing with Microsoft Word to print personalized letters newsletters or special correspondance:

Text all or selected cell phones…  (skip ahead, if desired):

The (Texting) menu option, which is on the 'People' menu, is used when you want to send SMS Texts to all or selected cell phone numbers.

  • The "Texting" screen is a scratch-pad table in which each user can load cell phone numbers for all or selected people:
    Texting

    Use the (Clear Texting List) button to reset your Texting list when you want to start fresh. Then, choose one of the buttons on the right to load cell phone numbers for people based upon your requirements. The filters "Gender", "Exclude Inactive Names" and "Exclude Visitors" apply to whatever button you choose as well.

    For example, if you choose the (Load Age Group) button, then choose " - (All)" Age Group, all names who have a cell phone number are loaded to the Texting list. Use the (Load Selected Names) button to choose each name when one of the other options doesn't fit your needs (see below). Use the (garbage can) button to remove a name from the list. Then, use the (Send Texts) button to fill in the text of the message you want to send. See the "Send Pending Texts" screen below.

  • The "Select Names To Text" screen is used to choose names with Cell Phone numbers:
    Ministry Age Group Information screen

    Click or touch a name on the left to link the name to the Texting list. Click or touch (Done) when you've finished selecting all of the names. The previous screen will then re-appear.

  • The "Send Pending Texts" screen is used to type in the Message Text:
    Ministry Age Group Information screen

    Since SMS texts are generally limited to 160 characters each, the number of characters left before the text is too long appears below the Message Text box. Click or touch (Send) when you are ready to send the text to the Cell Phone numbers selected above.

  • The "Send Progress" screen appears next:
    Ministry Age Group Information screen

    This screen shows you each cell phone number to which the text is being sent. Click or touch the (Continue) button at the bottom when all texts have been sent.

  • The "History" screen shows a list of all texts sent or received:
    Ministry Age Group Information screen

    Use the (eyeball) button to Review a text message.

  • The "Review" screen shows the contents of the Text:
    Ministry Age Group Information screen

    The Twilio Message Status shows whether the message has been received yet. In this example, "Queued" means it is waiting to send the text to the carrier, which is expected using a phone number with test credentials (in this example).

  • The "Twilio Settings For Texting" screen is used to provide the Twilio account information along with your unique Texting phone number.
    Ministry Age Group Information screen

    Texting will not work unless you create a Twilio account, which also makes receiving texts possible. The received texts appear on the Text History screen as well as with the 'My Messages' option on the 'Manage' menu for the primary user(s). Twilio provides a pay-as-you-go monthly charge for the 'from' phone number, currently $1.15 per month, and a charge per text of $0.0079 (less than a penny each) in the US. However, always check with Twilio for current pricing (https://www.twilio.com/sms/pricing/us). In our experience, the texts are generally received after a few seconds.

Email to all or selected email addresses…  (skip ahead, if desired):

The (Email) menu option, which is on the 'People' menu, is used when you want to send emails to all or selected email addresses.

  • The "List Of People To Email" screen is a scratch-pad table in which each user can load email addresses for all or selected people: