GovDelivery offers a variety of Bulletin Channels and types of message visibility to allow you to control where your bulletins are published and who is able to see them. Bulletin Channels include:

  • Email messages (HTML and Plain Text)
  • Text messages
  • Social Media sites, including Facebook and Twitter
  • GovDelivery-hosted RSS feeds
  • Shared Bulletin Pages, where your bulletin content is displayed on a website with your organization's branding
You have the flexibility to select which Bulletin Channels you leverage, allowing you to send messages to select groups of recipients without posting them on social networks or shared via an RSS feed.  When sending a bulletin or setting up your topic bulletin template, you have the option to set your message visibility to public or private.
 

Private Message Visibility

When you set a bulletin's message visibility to Private, social media and RSS options are disabled. Your only options are Email and SMS (if it has been set up for your account). If you select private:

  • This bulletin will not have a shared bulletin page.
  • Macros for sharing content (SHARE_THIS, VIEW_THIS, and VIEW_THIS_URL) will not resolve. If you include one of these macros in your bulletin, GovDelivery will automatically remove it.
  • Social Media Channels (including Facebook and Twitter) are disabled.
  • Content will not be included in GovDelivery-hosted RSS feeds.
Message Visibility set to 'Public'

Public Message Visibility

When the Message Visibility is set to Public, social media and RSS options are enabled. You can choose to which bulletin channels you want to publish your content. If you select public:

  • The bulletin is published to a shared bulletin page.
  • Macros for sharing content (SHARE_THIS, VIEW_THIS, and VIEW_THIS_URL) resolve correctly.
  • Social Media Channels are enabled.
  • Content can be included in Granicus-hosted RSS feeds.
  • Content can be included in the Relevant Bulletins feed alongside other shared bulletin pages.

 Bulletin Channel Requirements

Bulletin ChannelPublic Message Visibility Required?Select Channel at Time of Bulletin Send?
Email (HTML and Plain-Text)No

No; all bulletins are automatically sent via email.

Text (SMS) MessagesNoYes; you can specify the text message content.
FacebookYesYes; you can choose whether or not to publish to Facebook and optionally specify a Facebook comment and featured image.
TwitterYesYes
Granicus-hosted RSS FeedsYesYes
Shared Bulletin PagesYesNo; bulletin content is automatically posted to a shared bulletin page when visibility is set to Public.