Watch the video and then complete the to-do list.
- Video Transcript
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With MyConnect, your contacts can manage their own messaging experience. The portal can easily be customized to fit your brand, and allows your contacts to:
- Update contact information
- Subscribe to specific topics and types of messages
- Set device and language preferences
- Review past messages from you
- View news and information via RSS feeds
There are two types of MyConnect portals: open and closed. Anyone can register with an open MyConnect portal. In a closed portal, they must provide information on file for a contact at that institution, to prove they belong.
Let's explore Open portals a bit more. To register, someone just needs the URL and then they can follow the easy sign up process, log in, provide their contact info, and set their preferences. An open portal is ideal if you are interested in letting members of the community at large stay up to date on what's happening at your institution or agency.
To register with a closed MyConnect portal, a user must associate themselves with a contact already on file in Connect 5. To do this, they must have the ID number of the contact, as well as either a phone number or email address on file for that contact.
The user will be shown the pre-loaded contact info for the found contact, and is able to add to, edit, or delete that info. The user is then allowed to subscribe to the available message types and any portal groups that have been established. Lastly, the portal user can then specify which numbers and emails each message type goes to.
Either way, open or closed, your contacts have complete control over their messaging experience--except when it comes to emergencies. Rest assured, your recipients cannot opt out of receiving emergency messages.
In a closed portal, every user must receive emergency messages, and they are automatically subscribed via all contact points provided (all phones, all emails, all text numbers).
In an open portal, if the user subscribes to any message type or portal group, they are automatically subscribed to emergency messages for that institution.
If you prefer that portal users contact you to make any updates to their contact info--so that you are aware when anything changes--then a read-only or partial read-only portal is for you.
The read-only type allows users to view their contact information but not make any changes to it. Changes must be made by calling the institution.
The partial read-only type allows users to view their contact information and edit certain pieces of it while other pieces are locked down.
For both, when changes are uploaded into Connect 5, the portal user will be notified via email that new contact information is awaiting their confirmation. When they log in to MyConnect, they must confirm the changes are correct, and then update their preferences to use the updated contact points.
A regular closed portal can be switched over to a Read-Only or Partial Read-Only, but not the other way around. So it's important that you decide carefully which portal type you want.
Regardless of which portal type you have, there is a free MyConnect app for iOS and Android that allows users a convenient option to keep up to date on what's happening at their institutions.
Once a user has signed up for a login and registered with their desired portal(s) online, they can use the mobile app to update their contact info, subscriptions, and preferences on the go.
Having the mobile app installed will also allow users to receive push notifications when a message is sent to them. This is in addition to all the other modalities they would normally receive.
The push notifications are incredibly fast--faster than text, phone, and email. Upon receiving the push notification, the user can open the app and read or listen to the message that was sent to them, even if it has not been delivered via phone, email, or text yet.
In addition to receiving push notifications, the MyConnect app is location-aware (assuming the user allows location services).
What that means is when you send out a message and select recipients by drawing a shape on the map, you can include recipients based not only on the loaded addresses, but also based on the real-time geolocation of devices with MyConnect installed.
MyConnect ensures your messages reach the right recipients at the right phone numbers and emails, for targeted, relevant communication.
The To-do List
- Decide whether you want a MyConnect Portal. If so, download and read the Blackboard MyConnect Set-up Guides.
- Complete the MyConnect Site Design Form using the Blackboard MyConnect Set-up Guide and email it to [email protected]. If you want to hold off on creating a portal at this time, you can always add one later. There is no extra fee for MyConnect.
