Text Broadcasting Online: Sending and Receiving SMS Messages
By Lee Simonson
Text (SMS) broadcasting and polling can be done online. It is a simple, fast and inexpensive way to send and receive SMS text messages with hundreds or thousands of people. No hardware is required and the system is already up and running. (This article is about commercial and marketing text messaging, and not about sending personal texts to friends online.)
85% of the American population now carries a cell phone with them and 2010 was the first year that texting eclipsed talking as the preferred method of personal communication. Yes, people are now texting more than talking. Most will tell you that it's a faster and more discreet way to communicate. Why spend ten minutes on a phone call when you can accomplish the same thing in 5 seconds with texting?
There are a number of advantages to text broadcasting, not the least of which is sending text coupons to clients and prospects. You can also use texting to send alerts, announcements, reminders -- anything that requires messaging a large group of people quickly. Moreover, texting can also be used to receive messages such as polling or voting solicitations that engage audiences and ask them for their opinions. Such polling results can be reported in real time. Overall, texting is the newest and most popular way to communicate with customers, fans or patrons, and can be used in unlimited number of commercial and non-profit applications.
If you are just getting started with text broadcasting, also known as text blasting, or mass SMS texting, there are a couple of things you will need to know.
First, it is against the law to send commercial text messages to anyone without receiving their permission first. Your recipients need to "opt in" to your list, either by texting you first or by signing up online. You can also compile lists on hard copy forms, but those forms will need to clearly state that you are receiving permission to use the phone numbers. The text carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc.) are taking a hardline on preventing junk text messages. And rightly so, since the carriers don't want to see text communication fall victim to same spamming forces that overtook the email industry. The texting carriers monitor the use of systems carefully and take strong action against abuses.
Second, outsourcing your texting program to a service provider is much easier than trying to set up your own system. Setting up your own text system can take hundreds of thousands of dollars, and months of red tape in getting the approvals and your short code. A short code is simply a five or six digit number that serves as your text address.
Since it is so expensive and time consuming to set up your own text system, 99% of the text broadcasting users "share" a short code. While you share a short code with other organizations (you probably will never know who they are) you are able to reserve "keywords" that differentiate you from others using the same code. For example, let's say you wanted to advertise a special at your restaurant. You could reserve the keyword "lunch" and have people text the word "lunch" to your shared short code (as an example, your ad would say, "Text the word LUNCH to 12345") People who did that would get an automated text back immediately that would say, "Free dessert with lunch today. Show this to waiter."
Text broadcasting will revolutionize the communications and marketing fields and you will see more and more of it in the coming months. You are only limited by your imagination on how you can use this amazing technology.
You can get more valuable information about text broadcasting here: http://www.orangepoint.net/text_blast_sms_messaging_voting.html
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