Thank you for joining the RepresentUs Text Team!
Welcome! On this team, you’ll use our texting platform to connect with voters across the country and help fuel important anti-corruption and pro-voter victories. Textbanking is an exciting and fun way to take an impactful action.
We post textbanks throughout the week in our #text-team channel on Slack. After you’ve signed up for a Spoke account, keep an eye out for @here notifications in the #text-team channel to see when the latest campaigns are live and ready to send.
How Textbanking Works
We use a online platform called Spoke that allows you to have text conversations with supporters very quickly via your computer. You can help guide the supporters to an action or event that’s relevant to them and update them on campaigns in their area. Staff and volunteer leaders provide you with training and support during our textbanks on our volunteer Slack community. Our volunteers really enjoy textbanking and keep coming back for more!
Getting Set-Up
Step 1: Make a Spoke account. Here’s the link to create your account. Make sure to select the “Sign Up” tab on the right side of the entry box. The information you enter is just for RepresentUs to reach back out to you to follow-up. Your info is 100% secure, and all of the texts go out using our online system and RepresentUs phone numbers.
Step 2: Join our our volunteer community on Slack and click on the #text-team channel. This is where Text Team Captains will provide you with a special link that gives you access to your assigned text conversations. These Captains are available to help answer both your technical and policy-related questions!
Once you have clicked the link you were provided with and entered the campaign you were assigned, the initial message will be loaded for you. Repeatedly click the “send” button (using your mouse or the enter key) until all texts are sent. You must send all the initial texts you are assigned before moving on to the next step! Once you have sent all of your initial texts, refresh your dashboard to see the number of replies you’ve received and click on “Respond” to go to the new messages and start replying. When you’re ready to respond to a text reply that you received please use the pre-written responses provided at the bottom of the page by RepresentUs organizers to help you answer the most commonly received replies for that campaign. Find the reply that relates to the text reply you have received, click on it, and that language will simply populate into your texting conversation. Feel free to add personal salutations into the reply before you click “send” to make it feel more personal, or to customize it for a situation that is a little different than the ones outlined in the recommended replies. However, please remember that these responses have been carefully formulated and approved by our policy team, and we’d like you to use them whenever it is appropriate to do so. Don’t see a recommended reply for the situation you’re dealing with? Don’t know which one to select? It’s always okay to check in with other Text Team members in the #text-team channel. There are two other very important functions on Spoke to be aware of: CLOSE - Once you have had a conversation and gotten a clear answer or a final response from someone, you may click the “Close” button at the bottom of the text conversation to move that conversation off of your screen. Doing so will not delete the conversation, it will move the conversation to a separate folder that you can access from your dashboard. This function helps keep your texts organized so you know which conversations you still need to respond to. OPT-OUT - Sometimes you will encounter people who no longer wish to receive text messages from RepresentUs. Sometimes they will politely ask to be removed from our list, and other times they won’t be so polite. A common response is “STOP”, which many people type because they think we are an automated system (like when you receive text updates from your bank or pharmacy). Regardless of the manner in which the request is made, please click the “opt-out” button at the bottom of the conversation to remove this person from our contacts. Don’t worry about sending another message to them to confirm the Opt Out, as that might provoke further agitation. It’s best to leave it there. Tagging Conversations Spoke allows you to tag conversations to let RepresentUs HQ and Text Captains know what conversations need attention. Moved - Sometimes you’ll be sending texts into a specific region with an ask that requires the person you’re talking to to live in that area. When you encounter someone who has moved out of state, use the Moved tag to let HQ know to update their info. Wrong Number - Sometimes you’ll text a different person than what’s on file who doesn’t want to be opted out. In these cases, use the Wrong Number tag to let HQ know to update their info. Elevate to HQ - In the instance that a conversation gets overwhelming or makes you uncomfortable, use the Elevate to HQ tag to pull in a Text Captain or HQ Staffer to handle it. One of the most important things to note when asking for a text assignment is that you will not only be responding to people who reply to you right away, but also to people who respond to you later. When signing off for the day, Spoke has a feature you can use to release your texts to make sure they get answered after your shift is finished. Before you sign on and start texting, here are three very important principles to ensure that you and the people you interact with have a positive experience: Sending Messages
Answering Replies
Using Recommended Replies
Closing & Opting Out
Signing off for the day
Best Practices