The Basics

You can access your account by navigating to myalertblast.com or through myonecloud.com. The home screen provides a brief overview of the steps to follow to create and send a Message.

Note: Contact Groups must be created before the sequence of Steps. See the Add Contact Group instructions for creating contact group(s) and adding contacts to it.

Create Message

Personalize variable (drop-down menu)

First name – existing contact name
Last name – existing contact last name
Pause 1(s) – adds a 1 second pause to a voice Alert
Tone (beep) – adds a beep to the text-to-speech that is transmitted over the paging system
Repeat – causes a voice alert to repeat
Custom 1 – token that can be customized 
Custom 2 – token that can be customized 

Choose SMS, Voice, Page, Email

The Add Message Type button will let you choose among the delivery options. Click on it, then select the delivery method(s).
Text Alerts are preselected. You can send a Message using only one delivery method, or multiple delivery methods at once.

Text Alert – sends message via SMS – Voice Alert – sends a recorded message
Page Alert – sends message to intercom – Email Alert – sends message via Email

Choose Contact Group

Contact groups must be previously created to be available for choosing. See the Add Contact Group instructions for creating a contact group and adding contacts to it.

For this step, grab the desired Contact Group(s) and drag it over to the delivery method(s). You can select all four delivery methods or leave blank the ones you do not intend to use. You can also use different delivery methods with different contact groups.
For example: a Voice message can be sent to one group, and an Email or SMS to another group simultaneously using the same AlertBlast.

Contact Group

Delivery Method(s)

Send, Schedule, Save

Click on Send your Message button to have the message delivered immediately.

Scheduling and Saving Alerts

As part of Step 4, Messages can be saved and or scheduled to be delivered at a later date or time. From the Home screen click on the  symbol found on the right side of the Send Your Message button; it will populate two options: Schedule and Save.

Schedule

NOTE: It is advisable to inform your contacts to save the AlertBlast telephone number on their devices so they can easily identify who is sending the Messages.

Add Contact Groups

Contact Groups need to be created and have existing Contacts before they can be used.
To build a Contact Group click on the contact groups tab on the left side menu.

• Create group name, you can also provide a description.
• Under Type, there are three options: standard, page, and device
-select page for a paging-system-only group.
-select device for a device-only-group. These can be any on-site devices that can receive broadcast messages. (ie. IP-phones, wallboards, signs and other network devices)
-select standard for all other contact groups. Then hit submit.

Add Contacts

You can select one contact group or multiple contact groups on the same URL.

Once you click Submit, another window will populate with the generated URL; it can then be copied and sent out to multiple contacts.

2. Contact Groups also have a unique QR code that can be generated and used much like the Invite URL Link. To obtain a QR code, simply click the third icon on the right-hand side menu.

3. From the Contacts menu you can add and or edit individual contacts which can later be assigned to a Group.

You have options to add contacts manually, by importing a CSV file (a link is provided under this option to download a sample CSV file), by importing from Salesforce directly, or importing from the Paging adapters on OneCloud.

Click on the Add Contact button for these options.

Advanced Features

Jobs

The Jobs screen defaults to Previous Jobs, a list of all sent Messages are found here.

Saved Jobs shows a list of jobs that have been saved for future use.

Scheduled Jobs shows a list of jobs that have been scheduled to be delivered at a future date, and/or reoccurring jobs.

Reminders will list any active reminders. As well as let you add new reminders.

Keyword Triggers

A keyword is a word or phrase people can text in that triggers an automatic reply with a pre-selected Response or an Action within the system. Ex. a keyword trigger to send a message to a Teams Group, a keyword trigger to add a user to OneCloud Callback Queue, or a keyword trigger to sign up someone to your email list/Contact Group.      

To add keyword triggers click on the Keyword Triggers tab on the left-hand side menu.

Then, click on the Add Keyword button. 

On the populated window:

• Select the desired phone number if applicable.
• Select an Action Type:
  –Text Response
  – Webhook – will trigger a webhook on another application for a real-time API call.
  – Subscribe – will populate Contact Group to choose from, can create new, or recall existing contact group.
  – Email – will send a notification and the message to an email of your choice
  – Call Back Queue – will populate a Call Queue to choose from: a Queue Auto response, a No Agents response, or Email if unavailable response.
  For example: a Queue Call Back allows your users to request a call back from your OneCloud system. The user’s phone number will be added to a queue in OneCloud and when an Agent becomes available, the system will call your agent and then connect them with the user requesting the call back.  
  – Microsoft Teams – sends a blast to a Teams channel.

• Type keyword or phrase (no spaces)

• Type desired Response or Action

• Click on Submit

Conversations

Conversations show the communications history between the Messages and Contacts.

Integrations

The integrations screen will allow you to set up for importing a Salesforce Campaign Content that can later be added to Contact Groups.

There are two buttons with User Guides, one for importing, and one for API setup.

Alert Dashboard

In the Alert Dashboard you can see all Saved Jobs and future Messages.
You can also create messages within the dashboard to share (via URL) with someone who is not an AlertBlast user or logged into AlertBlast.

To create an alert dashboard, click on the Add Alert button. 

Enter a Name, Description, PIN (URL link/dashboard will not be accessible without the chosen PIN), choose the Job(s) you want to display on the Dashboard. When ready click Submit.

Your Alert will now display showing the URL link you will use to share.

Send From

Some companies will have multiple dedicated lines from which to send an AlertBlast. If that is the case, from the Home screen or when prompted, select the desired telephone number from the Send From pulldown menu.