Keywords: Give Residents Instant Project Access by Text

Keywords let a resident text a single word to your outbound phone number and automatically receive a link straight to the related project or post. It's a fast, low-friction way to connect residents to information — no app, login, or search required.

Keywords work well on mailers, social media posts, yard signs in the project area, door hangers, and any other place residents might see a call to action but not have internet access handy.

How it works

1. You assign a unique Keyword to a project or post.
2. A resident texts that word to your organization's outbound number.
3. Civify automatically replies with a direct link to the project or post page.

Set up a Keyword

1. Open the Project or Post and click Project settings.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter a word to associate with the project.
   • Spaces aren't allowed.
   • The word must be unique across your organization — no two projects can share the same Keyword.
3. Click Save settings.

That's it — the Keyword is now live and ready to receive texts.

Where to publish your Keyword

Once your Keyword is saved, put it anywhere residents are likely to see it, such as:

• Signs posted in the project area
• Social media posts
• Mailers and letters
• Utility bill inserts
• Community newsletters

A simple call to action works best, for example: "Text SORRENTO to (555) 555-5555 for project updates."

When a resident sends that text, they'll immediately receive a reply with a link straight to the project or post — no searching your website required.

Text to Enroll Offer

 If your organization has the "Text to Enroll" feature enabled: if the resident doesn't already have an account, the option to sign up for alerts on the spot through the text to enroll feature is offered.

This flow builds on standard Text-to-Enroll. See that article for the shared signup steps (consent, name, email, address, channels) this flow reuses — this article covers what's different.

Prerequisites

• Your organization must have Text-to-enroll enabled (Organization Settings → SMS) in order to have the message follow up with a prompt to create an account.
• The keyword must resolve to an actual project or post, or be a custom keyword linked to one. A keyword set up as pure custom text with no linked project or post just sends that custom text back — no signup offer, no enroll flow, since there's nothing for the flow to hook into.

What happens depends on the resident's account status

New resident: the signup flow

1. Resident texts the keyword (e.g. PAVING).
2. One combined message goes out: a direct link to the project, plus "Would you like to sign up for alerts for this? Reply YES to sign up."
3. Replying YES, Y, or I AGREE drops them into the same consent → name → email → address → channels sequence as standard ENROLL.
4. The subscription question is different from plain ENROLL. Instead of the general "what do you want to hear about," they're asked whether they also want additional notifications beyond this specific project: recommended (everything), alert categories only, all projects only, or just this project.
5. The keyword project is always subscribed, no matter which option they pick — the question only controls what gets added on top of it.
6. Review and confirmation work the same way as standard ENROLL, but the Subscriptions line in the summary reflects the project-specific wording (e.g. "Main Street Repaving + recommended").
7. Account creation, the opt-in confirmation (if Text/SMS was selected), and the success message all match standard ENROLL exactly.

Existing resident

No enroll session starts at all. The one message they get combines the project link with a note that they already have an account and need to open the resident portal app to subscribe to that project — there's no path to subscribe by text if the phone number is already registered.

If they decline or reply something else

If the reply to the signup offer is anything other than YES / Y / I AGREE, the session simply ends. They still have the project link from the first message, so they haven't lost access to the project itself — they just won't be walked through signup.

How this differs from plain ENROLL

See a preview of the message flow here: https://civify.io/text-to-enroll-feature/