Overview
School-links now offers you the ability to post Message items to your school’s Facebook page.
The following document describes setting up the integration and posting to Facebook.
Please read through the whole document before using this feature as there are important notes throughout the document.
Step-by-Step Guide
Establish a Connection
The first step is to establish the connection between your School-links and your School’s Facebook page.
- In a browser tab login to your Facebook page with your Facebook Admin-level login. Note: you must be the Admin for your Facebook page, Manager and Editor levels are not sufficient. You can find out how to discover your role here: https://www.facebook.com/help/510247025775149.
Also note: a Facebook account such as your personal account where you connect with family and friends is not the same as a Facebook page that businesses and schools use.
2. In another browser tab sign into School-links with your Master-level login, and Visit as Master.
3. Then go to Admin in the School-links Menu Bar. Then click on Integrations on the right-side menu.
Then click on Facebook Config
You will be presented with a screen similar to the following:
Click on Continue with Facebook
You will then be transferred to the Facebook page that you are logged into in the other browser tab.
Click on Continue as xxxxxxx
This will then ask you what pages you want to use with School-links. If you are the Admin of just one page then that is all that will show. If you are the Admin for a number of your school’s Facebook pages, e.g. the main School page, the Sports page, Room x page, then you will see those in the list. Select the page you want posts to go to. You can only post to one page.
Tick the page you want to post to.
You will then get the permissions page. Select ‘YES’ for each option and click Done
You will get the following screen. Click OK.
You will then return to your School-links portal. Select the Facebook page to use and click Use Selected Page
School-links will now be connected to your Facebook page. You can Post a message to Facebook from this page. Be aware that it will be viewable on your Facebook page.
Disconnect
If you wish to disconnect that Facebook page from School-links then you can do so via Admin > Integrations > Facebook Config.
Enter the Confirmation Code in the ‘Enter Code’ box and click Disconnect Facebook.
Publishing a Message to Facebook.
To post to your Facebook page you need to create the message in Messages:
Click on Messages in the menu bar.
Click on the green Create New Message button.
The first screen has changed with the addition of the Publish to school Facebook page function, highlighted in yellow here:
Create your message as usual and tick the Facebook box if you want the content to be posted on your Facebook page.
If you have SMS Message content then that will be posted to Facebook. If that is empty then the email content will be posted to Facebook. No images or attachments will be posted – see ‘Notes’ below.
There is a Facebook content box at the bottom of the page that will override the SMS and Email boxes, but you must be sending an SMS or Email message in order for the Facebook post to work.
Example usage:
- SMS & Facebook
School composes an SMS message – "Please check the School Facebook page for latest updates on the PTA Fund Raiser www.facebook.com/greenschool". Then school enters a more detailed post in the Facebook box.
- Email and Facebook
School composes an email about student-led conferences. School also enters a Facebook message “We have just emailed caregivers an important notice regarding student-led conferences. Please check your emails”
- All Platforms
School is closed due to flooding and uses all mediums. School just enters text message: “School closed due to flooding. We will provide updates at 9am”. School copies and pastes the message into the email box and ticks the Facebook box. There is no need to enter the text into the Facebook box, as it will default to using the text message.
Continue with your message process as normal (Choose Recipients), select the Group(s) you want to send to and Customise the Recipient list if you need to. You will then go to the Confirm Send screen.
There will be a message about the post going to Facebook and being publicly viewable, not just by the email recipients. Please make sure you are happy for the message to be viewable by anyone who can see your Facebook page. If you don’t want that, then use the Back to Choose Groups button on the left of the page and then the Back button on the Groups selection page to work your way back to the first page and deselect Publish to school Facebook page.
When you click Confirm & Send Now and then OK the email message will be sent and Published to Facebook.
Here is what it will look like in Facebook.
Notes:
- For users of the School-links News function be aware that any News item that is sent will be automatically posted to your Facebook page. If you don’t want that to happen then use the Messages Centre.
- Attachments and images cannot be posted to Facebook from third party tools such as School-links. Include a link to the online document instead (e.g. in Google Drive).
- Web addresses will be displayed as URLs e.g. https://www.school-links.org.nz,
- Publishing to Facebook is an additional publishing option when creating a message. It is designed to save you time. You must be sending the message via Mobile Alert (Text) or Email in order to post it to Facebook, there is no Facebook-only option in Message Centre.
If you have any questions or need help please contact our helpdesk at [email protected] or call 0800 333 480.