A Call for Applications
Calls for applications are an important time of the program since this is your first interaction with the viewer. It is at this time that detailed information should be provided to ensure that anyone viewing the program has all of the relevant information to make their decision regarding their interest in the program.
All communication, whether through social media, messages, emails, or third-party platforms should be informative, yet easy-to-read.
A few points of note when planning for calls to application are:
1. Scheduling:
All outgoing communication at this time should be strategically planned to ensure that information is being made available to participants at regular intervals. This should be planned for with respect to all outgoing communication.
However, it may help to create individual plans for different platforms. For instance, the social media handle should have its own schedule, emails should have their own schedule, and so on. This is crucial because it is possible that the audience for each of these platforms is different. Therefore, it shouldn’t be the case where because something has been posted on social media recently, an email will be postponed.
2. Information included:
Different strategies for information dissemination should be created for the different platforms being used. For example, since social media posts are meant for the consumption of shorter information, posts should be planned in a manner where 3-4 back-to-back posts are aligned in terms of the messaging.
With respect to emails or information being sent to third party platforms, everything should be summarised in a concise manner, in a single communication. This is to ensure that everything is referenced to at once.
3. Engagement:
It is also important to continue to engage with those who are responding on these platforms in a timely manner to showcase activity. Timely responses to queries also encourages more clarifications from individuals which will help make the process of accurate information dissemination easier.
4. Point of contact:
It is important to always include the relevant contact details, whether that is an email ID or a phone number or both, to ensure that further conversations on the program can be had, if it is so required.
In case of phone numbers, it is always easier to ensure one common point of contact across platforms so that the messaging is consistent, since it is being handled by one individual. It will also help for this point of contact to understand and analyse common questions and queries which then should be pre-emptively addressed in any communication going forward.
We would suggest you call for applications from prospective participants through these 4 channels: