A Pew Research study released last month notes that nearly one out of three kids between 12 and 17 years old send over a 100 text messages a day. And four out of five teens say they sleep with their cell phones or keep them near their beds.
OK, so kids that age are hardly your target audience. You’d be willing to bet that adults are all thumbs when it comes to texting. Well, you lose that wager. Another recent Pew study shows that 68% of Americans 18 and above with texting capabilities on their phones send text messages. Across age groups, the numbers are impressive:
• 25 to 34—87%
• 35 to 44—74%
• 45 to 54—69%
So the texting audience is there, and some forward-thinking marketers (primarily in the consumer space) have been taking advantage of mobile messaging for quite some time—pushing out special offers, redeemable coupons and invitations via cell phones.
But where does PR fit in the texting platform? Much like it does in the overall mobile space: It’s a new frontier that hasn’t been explored much, yet should be looked at by PR executives (for an in-depth view of mobile PR, see PR News 03/15/10 issue).
But explore with caution, says Anthony Risicato, CEO of Mobile Commons, a New York City-based a text-messaging platform provider for marketers. “Receiving text messages is a very personal thing to an audience, and not to be taken lightly,” he says. But the payback can be equally as personal. “We see messages that are texted to us, and the personal nature of the responses is amazing,” says Risicato. “They feel like they are talking to a person.”
Thus, the interaction must be conversational, somewhat paralleling social media platforms.
If done right, texting can be a powerful medium to reach and mobilize highly targeted audiences. This power has been displayed via “flash mobs,” where hundreds of young people use mobile messaging to gather in cities such as Philadelphia, New York and London, for mostly playful activities—yet lately some mobs have, unfortunately, turned violent.
But how can PR executives leverage texting for more peaceful—and profitable—results? So far, most PR activities around the platform have taken place in the nonprofit, cause space. Laura Durington, online community manager for Catholic Relief Services (CRS), is beginning to use texting for advocacy campaigns. “We know that with advocacy, e-mail campaigns are starting to wane in effectiveness,” says Durington. With texting, she continues, “People can text in and listen to talking points around a certain issue, then they can immediately connect with their own congressional office to voice their opinions.”
Catholic Relief Services was testing the mobile messaging platform when the Haiti earthquake hit in January, says Durington. It was that disaster where texting proved its mettle throughout the cause space, particularly with donations, as organizations made it easy to for people to give via texting. However, because the CRS Haiti texting effort was rushed into service, says Durington, respondents couldn’t be tracked after the fact.
“I wasn’t able to ask all the right questions before we started,” she says. “I was floored when we couldn’t follow up with those donors.”
RULES OF THE GAME
The CRS’ inability to follow up is directly related to regulations that govern mobile marketing. Spelled out in the Mobile Marketing Association’s Best Practice Guidelines for the industry, the basic rules are as follows:
• Users must affirmatively OPT-IN to receive SMS messages. No renting/selling of lists.
• Users can be opted-in only to the program they originally responded to.
• STOP or QUIT are “special” words and must trigger an immediate opt-out.
• It must be clear what a user is opting in to, and what they will receive in return.
Risicato notes that most of the detailed prohibitions are around Premium SMS, where users are buying something or entering into a paid description for content. However, none of those apply to Standard SMS Messaging, which is primarily used by PR and marketing.
Following those rules are key to building good relationships through texting, says George Weiner, chief technology officer at DoSomething.org, a volunteer site aimed at teens. “You want to follow best practices of permission-based marketing,” says Weiner. “The last thing you want to do is make people angry with you.”
DoSomething.org has truly taken advantage of those aforementioned teens who sleep with their cell phones. Last year, 850,000 of them took action through its programs, and they are on track for 1.2 million teens taking part this year. And texting figures prominently in that participation.
How? Twice a month, DoSomething.org pushes out messages to 35,000 teens around the country (see the map for distribution) informing them of volunteer opportunities in their areas. The organization also does surveys via texting—one recently gaining 2,000 responses, says Weiner.
It’s by using tactics such as surveys that Weiner feels PR can leverage texting. “I’d look at instant polling,” he says. Weiner adds that sending out simple facts around an issue or brand would work well for awareness building.
GETTING STARTED
Because texting is such a personal medium, Risicato says to think carefully about the outcome you seek before sending out messages. “We get a lot of calls from organizations that want to have a mobile messaging program,” he says. “But you have to have a clear understanding of goals. It’s possible texting may not be the right platform.” Other texting tips from Risicato:
• Find someone in your organization who will pay attention to texting. “In larger organizations, I see ownership of mobile splitting up between PR, marketing and even IT, which causes paralysis,” Risicato says. Figure out where mobile is going to live, and who is going to be in charge of it.”
• Pick a vendor who understands your space. “Some vendors just blast out messages without any understanding of what the goals are,” he says. “It’s problematic throughout the whole mobile messaging industry.”
• Regular communication is key. “Some clients text once or twice, then never follow up,” says Risicato. “Sometimes you even have to manufacture an event to keep in contact.”
• Understand that this is a channel that works best in conjunction with an integrated media campaign. “Tie it in with social media, your Web site, e-mail and other platforms,” says Risicato.
Weiner says that having a vendor is necessary to navigate a currently upside-down world of carriers and application service providers (ASPs). He recommends first looking a Textmarks.com, a site that allows free trial texting campaigns. Weiner also says there is no reason not to be collecting data such as cell phone numbers and ZIP codes from your customers and prospects.
Meanwhile, Durington’s texting efforts for Catholic Relief Services is evolving. “As part of collecting ZIP code information, we’ll be able to geo-target our audience and send them notifications, say, if a speaker will be at a parish near them,” she says.
Weiner was secretive in describing DoSomething.org’s future text messaging campaign plans: “We’ll have a deeper integration of content and users via mobile,” he says. “All for the purpose of driving action.” PRN
CONTACT:
Anthony Risicato, [email protected], Laura Durington, [email protected], George Weiner, [email protected].