OK so you can communicate in lots of different ways:  talking, writing, print, radio, TV, the internet, the mobile internet, email, texting, tweeting…

But whatever medium you choose, you’ve got to make sure you’re listening. If you’re broadcasting only, you can never know what people want from you.

Text messages get a 97% open rate and are amazingly responsive.

So if you want to do a mobile marketing campaign, send alerts or other staff and customer text updates, it’s just the thing. Especially as you can get replies in real time. What could be better?

How do I send text messages?

Go online and log into our user friendly web app, enter the mobile number you want to send to, pop your message in and send. That’s it.

If you’d like to send to a group rather than an individual, just upload their mobiles to a group from an excel or a csv file, select and send your message.

You can use textburst to send anything from 1 to 20,000 texts to your contacts in one go. It’s a flexible and astoundingly powerful marketing and communication tool.

All texts are 5p each and you can buy them as you need online.  Alternatively we can sort you out with an invoice/direct debit account. Whatever’s best for you.

How do I receive text messages?

You’ll need a virtual mobile number.

These are numbers that are added onto your online account rather than a mobile phone. They look like this ‘07123456789’ (just like any other mobile number).  They cost £25/month.

When your customers text your virtual mobile number, their message will go direct to your online account. You can see them and respond to immediately or download and analyse as you wish.

Incredibly easy to add to your account, just email me and I’ll sort it out for you.

2 Way SMS

If you want to keep in close fuss free touch with people, there’s no better way than via their mobile and 2 way SMS.

I can hear you already, “what’s the problem?”

Here’s the abbreviated story:

One of the recipients (we’ll call him John) wasn’t happy about receiving the text message, he considered it SPAM.

So John picked up his phone and complained to his network provider (Orange). During that conversation John mentioned that the message contained the shortcode 84433.

Orange know that 84433 belongs to mediaburst and so they referred John to us.

When someone complains to us about a text message the first thing we do it search our system. We need to verify the complaint, we check to see when the message was sent, which of our customers sent the message.

Of course in this instance our search delivered no results for John, no text message had ever been sent through mediaburst to John.

And that’s where the confusion starts, we say it wasn’t from us, Orange say it was, John is more inclined to believe orange so thinks we are lying or incompetent. And between us all, we can’t figure out what’s going on.

All this confusion leads to frustration and no one’s reputation is enhanced by confusion and frustration. Then there is wasted time, we had 3 people working on this trying to find out what happened. Orange were working on it, John was spending time on it.

We did eventually get to the bottom of it. A customer of ours had rented a keyword on 84433 but for the purposes of trying to save a few quid had sent the text messages out using a cheaper supplier, a supplier that didn’t sell keywords or shortcodes.

Ultimately it fell back to the customer to explain what had happened, but the fall out has been much larger than I have room for. John was only one of many complainants, there have been dozens of emails, phone calls and conference calls. None of which add value, earn money, or are pleasing to deal with. It’s just hassle and problems form the fall out of mixing SMS providers.

So my advice is this: whether you use textburst, our SMS API, or another provider; please don’t mix your providers, choose one, get to know them, think of it like a long term relationship, share information, explain what you are trying to achieve, work with them, and you’ll reap the rewards.

But there’s a problem brewing, there’s a group of people conspiring to ruin it for you. Even worse, they’re going to succeed. You can be sure of that because they’ve already done it with the internet, so there’s no reason to believe it won’t happen again.

Annoying distractions

You know what I’m talking about, adverts. Adverts on your mobile phone. Popups, banners, buttons, sliding moving flashing annoying distractions getting in the way of us doing the things we really want to do.

They’ve already crept onto mobile websites, they are on apps, sometimes on the end of text messages. But it’s a massive growth market for advertisers so it’s not going to get any easier on us.

Inconvenient

Now let’s face it, you bought the phone so you could check emails, update facebook, send SMS, use maps, play games. What you didn’t do was buy it to read adverts, they don’t make life easier, they’re an inconvenient distraction. Devised to grab your attention from what you were doing and lurch off to show you the latest offer or product or another app or a link to this or that.

Adverts suck

Let’s face it, adverts suck, they just get in the way of doing the stuff you wanted to do in the first place.

What do you think, do you know of any that didn’t distract from the mobile app or website you were using?

SMS Keywords are much easier to remember than full mobile numbers, they are words that can be relevant to your brand, product or service.

You must have seen a car advert on TV, you know the sort, text “CAR” to “84433” for more info.

That said, maybe cars are a bad example as shown in my blog post about how car manufacturers get mobile marketing wrong.

So here’s some guidance on choosing the right keyword:

Avoid the hard to spell

The idea of a keyword is to make to it easy for someone to text in, it’s not a spelling test. So stick to words that are easy to spell, or put differently, unlikely to be misspelt.

There are resources online that suggest common misspelt words and it’s worth a quick glance if you’re thinking of something on the longer side.

Be warned, short words can also be hard to spell too, particularly those that break the normal rules of English such as ‘I’ before ‘E’.

e.g. ‘Weird’

And those where the same sounding word, spelt two different ways, mean two different things.

e.g. ‘Alter’ and ‘Altar’.

Here are some more words that often cause confusion:

Chilli, exceed, gauge, height, liaison, fiery, rhyme, rhythm, seize, until.

Keep it short

This is common sense, short words are quicker to type, easier to remember, easier to spell.

Do I really need to justify this further?

Review predictive text alternates

Switch predictive text on and start typing words, type one word and hey presto, you get another:

Here are some interesting alternates:

Cool = Book
Kiss = Lips
Fat = Eat
Pint = Shot

The same goes for smartphones which auto correct spelling, but not always to what you intended.

This is what my iphone did to some well-known brands:

Addidas = Affords
BT = By
Nokia = Milia or Nolia
Prada = Leads
Moet = Mote

Make it memorable

Words that directly relate to your brand or product are the obvious selection, but so too are words that draw association to your brand or product.

You might also find inspiration in the advertising slogan or product description.

For example, if Kellogg’s were advertising Rice Krispies then either Snap, Crackle, or Pop maybe a better solution than Kelloggs or Krispies.

Also popular are adjectives that describe the product, perhaps its appearance, colour or smell. Or even verbs that suggest activities related to the product (Nike : Run).

Further reading

If you found this useful then you’ll also find some good ideas in our post on SMS Marketing Tips.

Neil, 22 years old at the time simply sent “Merry Christmas” from his PC over the Vodafone network….and with that simple step a whole sub-culture, language, social media, and SMS industry spawned.

The irony is that SMS was actually intended for business use due to the expense, yet 18 years later it is very much the norm for the public and the business community is still just getting to grips with its use.

Anyway, not massively interesting, but it’d seem odd for us not to mention today.

If you want something more interesting try our list of SMS marketing tips

Thanks Neil, and Merry Christmas.

A number of our customers have a large focus on students so it’s worth posting a link to this article on eMarketer.

A recent survey of undergraduate students not only shows 62% own a device with mobile web access but the increase from 2009’s 51% is staggering. Pretty soon they will all have some kind of smart phone.

How things have changed, the best I could manage at Uni was 10p a and trek to the phone box.

We did a successful brochure request via SMS a few years back for Salford Uni but since then it seems things have changed.

So what does this all mean?

Bulk SMS is already pretty big in the student community. But if you deal with, interact with, provide services to students then mobile optimised websites and apps for the iphone and android should be high on the list.

It’s plain text, restricted to 160 characters, crikey, you even have to pay for it.

But despite all the scaremongering it’s continued to outstrip all best expectations. Every day Bulk SMS volumes grow and new companies sign up and start to feel the benefit of bite sized bursts of information.

So what about Facebook and their combined user clout, could unified messaging be a nail in the coffin for SMS?

You can read the information Facebook have released by clicking here.

Well the answer is a resounding no.

In the main because SMS is one element of the service, it’s the combination of email, instant messaging and SMS that makes the proposition interesting.

In a way it’s like the fire triangle, if you take one element away then the whole thing falls apart.

So we welcome Facebook Messaging, and more years of growth in the SMS market.

Increasingly we share the minutia of our lives with friends, relatives, and complete strangers via mechanisms such as broadcast SMS, facebook, twitter.

So, two weeks ago while I sat in hospital waiting for my wife to be administered a dose of drugs to induce labour, I tweeted.

It was nothing at first.

“So… in hospital for an induction today, the wife obviously, not me.”

But having tweeted I realised what an excellent mechanism to keep family and friends up to date. Forget periodical phone calls and passing the message on, I’ll just tweet updates. The wife agreed.

The induction process was pretty slow and I ended up tweeting about hospital food, other patients, and general non events like watching Glee.

Word from family and friends was they loved my updates, and so they continued, during the administration of drugs in the ante-natal ward right through into the delivery room.

In the delivery room they connected her to a drip and started pumping an increasing amount of chemicals into her. But hey, let’s share, so I tweeted.

She sucked in gas and air. I tweeted.

They gave her an epidural. I tweeted.

Now please don’t think badly of me, I wasn’t sat there like a passive observer tweeting her pain for the world to read. I was doing my massage piece and supporting her as best as I possibly could. I just tweeted now and again.

But the point of this is where do you stop?

What is too much information?

I wasn’t consciously thinking of the answers to these questions when I became uncomfortable with sharing. I realised that some things aren’t meant to be shared, that certain events belong to the people present. Maybe it’s because birth is a special event, my wife’s pain was certainly not something to be shared, but I could also feel the weight of those concerned sat at home waiting for the next update.

For a whole myriad of reasons I suddenly realised there are limits, and I’d hit mine.

I tried to leave on a positive note:

“A nice tweet: epidural went in 30 mins ago, Abi sleeping, contractions nice, lovely and peaceful now, midwife got me a pillow. Night night”

But I wonder, there’s a generation coming through that share every detail of their lives on facebook and twitter. What happens when they are my age, will they stop where I did?

What will a world be like when we share our most intimate moments and there are no secrets?

Never mind big brother watching us and data privacy laws, we’re broadcasting everything for everyone to see anyway.

Foot note:
It was a boy, mother and baby doing well.

And for those interested, you can read my twitter feed here.

But I think it’s all media hype. And it’s not just healthcare it’s everywhere, iphone this, iphone that.

But it’s not real yet. All these apps are small scale with limited reach, they target a specific health condition so ultimately are only accessible to those with the health condition, with an iPhone.

How’s that going to revolutionise healthcare?

The future points toward larger screens of blackberry, iPhone, etc. But they’re still expensive compared to normal phones and their penetration levels low.

I recently read that the proportion of iphone ownership around the globe is equivalent to the population of Poland, so if Poland’s your market then go for it.

The challenge with mobile healthcare (and no doubt other industry areas) is to find solutions that are accessible to all. Not just young ones with cool new phones but old ones who are new to phones, the visually impaired who can’t read lovely smooth screens, the ones who can’t afford Apple’s price tag, and those not in reach of a 3G networks.

Focus on the patients

As you know, mediaburst has been developing a very simple healthcare application that patients can get on their phones. Part of our demonstration was a Q&A session with three patients who’ve been using the system during the initial trials.

I’ll be completely honest and admit that during the development we focused purely on the needs of medical staff. We wanted to help them save time and improve the quality of healthcare they provide.

We’d not really considered the patients. Sure our partners at NHS Stoke were doing this, but we weren’t. It wasn’t a conscious oversight, patients don’t buy the system so we didn’t consider them. It was that simple.

Listen to the patients

So this demo was the first time I’d met some of the patients and heard first hand accounts of how they benefit from the application. And, having listened, I’m now completely blown away, totally bowled over. In their own words, we’ve given them their lives back.

COPD monitoring

Two of the patients were long term sufferers of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). They were housebound other than frequent visits to hospital and their current care plans impeded significantly on their daily lives. But now, using our application, they can lead much fuller, much more normal lives.

When I say ‘normal‘, I’m talking about the kind of things you and I take for granted. Going to the shops, visiting relatives, having a night away and going on holiday.

Previously they were tied to monitoring machines at home. Now they are up and about again, enjoying those simple pleasures. You can’t put a value on that.

Resettlement

The next patient we met was nervous presenting to us, she had tears in her eyes and needed the support of her care worker to speak. But her passion was such that she wanted to share her experience.

She’s a long term sufferer of mental health issues, was cared for at residential homes, frequently turned to drugs and alcohol and generally depended on others to get her through the day.

With the assistance of our application she’s now living in her own flat, has learnt to cook and clean, is doing voluntary work, has stayed clear of drink and drugs and, as you can imagine, her self-esteem is through the roof.

Referring to our app she said, “you can’t take it away from me, if you do I’ll cry”.

Changing lives

As I said, I’m completely blown away. This isn’t normal business, these are real lives and we’re changing them.

Changing lives is new ground for mediaburst, but with it our motivation levels are sky high, and we’ve learnt a lesson in mobile healthcare.

To make things really work, focus on the patients.

In this case I’m warning charities away from Premium Rate (reversed billed) text messaging to collect donations. For clarity this isn’t about normal every day, free to the recipient messaging.

A changing market

There have been some ground-breaking changes to the premium rate market in the last year in regard to how much of the money charged to a mobile user the network operators will share with the charities.

More revenue

We have seen 100% of the revenue passed to the charities in massive high profile campaigns such as red nose day.

We have also seen increased amounts of revenue passed down to charities if they use specific “charity” short codes. But the use of these codes is currently limited by very expensive setup costs. But let’s not get too excited about additional percentage revenue. Some of the networks still retain nearly 25% of the donation. Don’t forget, this is the donation the consumer made to your charity.

Tighter regulation

Then there’s the regulation, Phonepayplus are tightening up their rules, you ought to be getting prior approval for premium rate services to ensure you comply with the regulations. Even if an SMS supplier will do this for free don’t underestimate the time you’ll spend on this part alone. The last thing you want as a charity is a regulatory fine and being named and shamed on their publicly available list of adjudications. If you want to avoid this then you’d better be involved.

Will it be successful?

So let’s say you paid the setup fees for a specialist charity code to get a higher share of the revenue. Or perhaps even you chose not to pay for the additional revenue and you’re receiving what can be as little as 35% of the donation. Then is it really going to be worth it or are you better diverting your fund raising energies to other areas?

Clearly you need to work on a case by case basis and calculate the likelihood of success, but I can’t help but feel it’s a massive risk.

Please, prove me wrong

I’d love to hear of some really successful campaigns that are not by one of the big national/ international charities, and if you know then send it through and prove me wrong.

But for now, I’m not convinced.

Although the ipad is more akin to a big iphone than a small laptop it does miss the vital ingredient that makes it mobile, that being a sim card to make calls and send texts.

So what I’m I seeing here, is it bloggers stuck for true mobile content or is it just part of the convergence of the mobile and digital worlds?

It’s an SMS route that manages to offer an extraordinarily cheap price by making arrangements outside of the licensed international telecoms companies. It’s a shady part of the industry, lurking out there offering tempting and apparently innocent deals on SMS pricing.

But remember you only ever get what you pay for.  If you’re not getting a deal through volume, how are you getting it?

You may be offered a cheap route and find that your traffic is going via India, Russia or the Far East and getting clogged up on an overloaded connection anywhere in the world!

Beware of the 1p SMS. You know the old adage if a deal sounds too good to be true it probably is.

The standard interconnect fee between networks is circa 3p, so you do the maths. If it’s 1p then you can be fairly certain something not entirely legal is going on.

How do they do it?

Grey routes manage to offer cost cuts in a number of ways, a couple are outlined below:

Arbitrage:

Routing traffic via an intermediate country to take advantage of the differences in settlement rates

Re-origination:

Giving a call a different originator disguise at some point in its international journey to make it appear it is coming from the country it terminates in, so making it appear to be national rather than international

‘Special’ Carrier Arrangement

Carriers agree to terminate a certain amount of text messages from each other. Excess is charged at a higher rate. So what happens if a carrier has too much or too little traffic?

There is a wholesale market trading in this area. However, the quality of routes can vary, so traded traffic can go down a grey route, especially as the exchanges allow carriers to buy and sell anonymously.

In reality goodwill between carriers can be exploited.

If I’ve made an agreement to accept up to 10 sms in exchange for sending 10 sms to a network and they send me 5 of their own plus 5 of someone else’s, then have they stolen 5 SMS from me? My agreement wasn’t with that other person. If I find out about it, I’m probably going to at the least change my arrangements with the network, at worst cancel my agreement totally.

In Summary

In answer to our question, yes grey routes do seem to exist, however use them at your peril. They may be cheap but they frequently just disappear without notice due to a telco realising what’s happening and blocking the route.

A Grey route can’t guarantee it’s a quality route,  it can’t even guarantee it will be there tomorrow.

At mediaburst we believe in using quality routes for ourselves and our customers.

We wouldn’t touch a grey route with a barge pole and we wouldn’t advise you to either.

The book constitutes a number of short essays containing their advice on how to run a business.

Anyway, here’s our essay on service levels:

Punish Poor Service

We recently had a situation where one of our suppliers was processing messages slowly. We are talking about a small percentage of our Bulk SMS traffic running up to a few minutes too slow.

For us this is not acceptable. The messages our clients send can be time critical. Imagine someone staring at their phone, waiting to receive an SMS before they can get on with the task. Anything more than a handful of seconds is not acceptable.

We need to report this situation to our supplier and get it sorted quickly.

On referring to their Service Level Agreement it would appear a slow platform has a low priority assigned to it. It means when we report the issue they will “initially respond” within 24 hours and “aim to fix it” in 3 days.

This level of non-service is almost industry standard, it’s certainly replicated across our other major suppliers.

We can’t operate like this, we can’t wait 24 hours for an initial response. We can’t wait 3 days for them to resolve the problem, we have customers to serve.

You’ve got to take control of the situation, so here’s what we do now:

If we see any sign of an issue with a supplier or their SMS routes we switch them off instantly. No discussion, no phone calls. Just switch all the traffic to an alternate supplier. Job done.

It means our number one priority (our customers) is attended to. It means we continue to deliver all our messages in the rapid timeframe they are used to.

We then report the issue to the supplier and inform them as soon as they get it sorted we’ll switch them back on.

It means while they are reviewing the issue, initially responding and trying and fix the problem they are losing money. That should help focus their minds.

So it doesn’t matter what your supplier SLA’s are, take control, implement your own.

Aside from the usual junk mail which we just cross “Return To Sender” and repost. I’m surprised at the amount of post that could easily be sent via a digital mechanism. SMS or email are the obvious channels.

We’ve received a few purchase orders and a surprising amount of remittance advices covering payments we received electronically, typically BACS. Now correct me if I’m wrong but second class stamp costs 32p, an envelope about 1.5p, plus a sheet of cheap paper, and some print ink.

Why would you move to electronic payments but still incur these costs?

Why would you not move the remittances to an electronic means and remove all the cost?

Then there is the environmental argument. How many trees would we save if we eliminated unnecessary post, and the reduction in waste?

All this has been said before, but obviously not loud enough.

Not only are the entry instructions printed in black text on a dark red background rendering it almost unreadable. But the instructions are so complex.

See for yourself.

Also note the use of white text on black background and good line spacing (just above the entry instructions)  is very clear and easy to read, why not use this for the entry mechanism?

I’ve challenged and timed a further 2 people to enter. Both have taken in excess of 2 and half minutes to read, work out, and compose their entry. Both admitting that under normal circumstances they would have given up.

I wonder how many others have given up?

I’ve now downloaded a huge range of applications from free fun stuff like the obligatory ipint thingy, games such as Monkey Ball and Angry Birds, to a few productivity apps.

But it got me thinking: which is the best app? What do I use most regularly?

I started looking over the apps I’d downloaded and compiling a list of my favourites but then it hit me. There is one I use every single day, multiple times, without even thinking. Text Messaging!

Yes, predictably this blog is about SMS.

But you can’t blame me because it’s true. It’s the oldest and most widely used data app in the world with over 2.4 billion active users. It’s become part of our culture spawning its own language, it exists on every phone, and there are no social, geographic or demographic barriers to its use. Even my Grandma uses it.

Here are some recent stats:

In the UK alone we send some 11 million texts per hour.

We sent a massive 874 million texts on New Year’s Eve alone.

Current predictions suggest a volume rise of 22% during 2010.

Over 90% of text messages are read within seconds of receiving them.

So there you have it, the undisputed king of apps, and as much as I love Angry Birds, I can’t see it ever competing for the top spot!

How does white labelling work?

Our Online SMS product textburst is the main one, but we also get requests for our SMS API, and our email to SMS product.

The reseller offers the service to their customers or markets in any way they feel fit. They take care of the billing, collect the money, provide support etc. We just exist in the background as their little secret.

The truth is we have offered while label services for many years but have had little success other than via a few reputable organisations such as O2.

The Problem

Many resellers see your application as a nice piece of technology. They think if they rebranded it as their own they could sell it to their existing customers, make a million and retire on a beach in the Bahamas. But it just doesn’t work like that.

We used to do loads of free while labels in the hope that we’d benefit by extending our reach, but so few come to anything it’s not been a priority.

About 2 years ago we introduced a nominal £500 to while label textburst, what happened was interesting. We certainly scared a few would-be resellers off. In my mind anyone not willing to pay £500 was indicating that they were not confident of their own ability to sell the product. Those that did pay in general sold more than those that hadn’t.

A solution?

Back in January we released our latest version of textburst and removed the ability to produce new white labels easily. Hence the £500 option is now gone completely. All white labelling is bespoke and we don’t look at it unless we feel the potential reseller can actually resell.

But the question I’m now left with is this: In our experience very few while labels have been successful at all, so why does anyone do it? We spend an inordinate amount of time developing our services and intellectual property, should we really be passing this on to anyone who thinks they can sell SMS?

There are literally hundreds of web applications out there who offer white label services, but is that not undermining the value of your own investment and brand. If your application is so great why would you want to make it look like someone else and let them take the brand value?

What we do now is much simpler, we say just introduce the client to us, we’ll do what we are good at, you do what your good at, and by way of a thank you we’ll give you some commission. Surely that can’t be wrong?

Everyone’s got a TV as well, but it’s not always switched on. And even when it is switched on they might not be watching the channel your expensive advert is on.

2. Everyone’s got a mobile

And everyone has got a radio, but again it’s not always switched on. And even if it is on they might not be listening to the station your expensive advert is on.

3. Everyone’s got a mobile

They also have computers, but some only at work and we’re not at work 24/7 (well, most people anyway). And some only have a computer at home, and we’re not at home 24/7. And again, even when we are at home or at work, we might be watching TV or listening to the radio, and not watching the computer.

4. Everyone’s got a mobile

Sorry to sound repetitive, but are you with me now? Everyone has got a mobile, it’s always switched on, and it doesn’t have different channels. They are always messing with it, and if they’re not messing with it it’s in their pocket or on their desk. So when you decide to send your message out to them they are there, ready and waiting…for you.

Oh, and if they have a smart phone, which is after all, just a mini computer. They probably listen to the radio on it, watch TV and video on it, read the news on it, check the scores on it, check facebook, twitter, linkedin, shop on it, take photos on it, read maps, and on and on and hence why you need to be thinking about mobile.

Simples!

A blog about Mobile, Advertising and Social media. Its creator Murat Mutlu is also a user experience designer so logically (and thankfully) we get a nice looking easy to navigate site. Murat has worked in agencies with a whole host of well known brands and his credentials and experience help to produce and informative yet fun read.

If nothing else you should get up to speed with this kettle that tweets, or “twettle” concept. It’s already creating quite a buzz.

Run by Ewan Macleod a daily serving of news and opinion. Originally the site was SMS Text News but as the market changed so too did their focus. There is regular content about all aspects of the mobile industry but what we like most is unbiased opinion, and it comes in bucket loads.

Today they have over 250,000 readers, and well worth tuning into.

It’s far from the prettiest of sites but as a relative newcomer it’s worthy of mention and certainly a visit.

The site is created and run by Daniel Nordberg who is head of business development at Sony Ericsson and a board member of the European branch of the Mobile Marketing Association. So while he may not be the best graphic designer he’s certainly well connected in the industry and carries an inherent interest in market growth.

He posts successful and creative examples of mobile marketing campaigns. There is a good site index down the right hand side making it easy for you to find campaigns in your particular area of interest.

Not masses of opinion but a great source of inspiration.

Here’s a popular site with a global attitude. They cover all things mobile including campaigns, strategies, company reviews, news, tips and interviews.

Although there is a lot of big company news, Microsoft, Apple, AT&T etc there is also a good helping of small business information and success stories.

The picture is completed with a newsletter and links to free guides such as “Mobile Marketing Industry Glossary” Text Marketing to Cell Phone users” and “Mobile Web Developers Guide”

Another basic site that carries some great content. There is plenty of advertising but thankfully the simplistic design places the content firmly as the centre of attention.

There are stacks of updates containing, opinion, news, company wins, and campaigns in a scrollable format.

American based news and blog site dedicated to the mobile industry. Clearly it has a focus on USA based campaigns but you’ll find a whole range of articles and news in an easy to navigate format.

They also have daily news alert which some may find useful.

The only downside is the excess of online advertising detracts from the content, but I guess you’ve got to fund yourself somehow.

Part of the well known Techcrunch site this blog covers hardware software and services of the mobile industry.

This site does tend to have a large focus on hardware and in particular, smart phones. But many of you will find this useful to keep abreast of the ever changing handset market. Perhaps relevant to look at new features and functionality that you can leverage for mobile campaigns.

No prizes for originality on the name, but there is no doubt, it is what it says it is.

What we like is accompanying the news and campaigns are a series of Mobile Marketing tips and tutorials covering in the main, SMS & proximity marketing.

This kind of resource is great for clients doing some research of what can be achieved with mobile.

Summary

So there you have it 8 great mobile marketing blogs…

wait…

did I not say 10….

the truth is we struggled beyond 8 so have 2 remaining spots, so leave your suggestions below and we’ll have a look, see if we can fill the final 2.

The reason for blogging was my disappointment at the standards that are currently being set and inaccuracies in the teaching material.

Examples:

• One suggests SMS messages could not be branded. You can actually append your brand name on the end or as the message header.
• Another quotes PhonepayPlus’ maximum fine as £100k, in actual fact it is £250k,
• And, one informed that it is possible for a sender to identify when an SMS has been read. This is completely untrue, unless of course you look over someone’s shoulder.

The list goes on…

My concern is that these bodies are teaching the future stars of our industries. It’s these students that with proper education and experience will create and run groundbreaking campaigns. They will take mobile to the next level, to new markets, new and old companies, to a whole new audience.   

But this won’t happen if they are not taught well from the outset.

So it’s vitally important that industry bodies who teach mobile as part of their syllabus do so in a responsible and accurate manner.

Now I don’t work in the education sector but I imagine this requires thorough research, regular reviews to align with a changing environment and market, and regular discussion with those in the industry.

So come on industry bodies, let’s up the standards please, let’s give the stars of the future the best possible chance to create some amazing campaigns.

So in a slight attempt to clarify the position here it is:

We are very happy with our connectivity, routes, pricing, reliability, security, and relationships.

We are not in the market for new routes nor do we anticipate being in the near future.

The truth is we use a mixture of aggregator and direct connections to process our SMS traffic. All have been chosen on the basis of quality, speed, reliability, underlying financial strength, and finally price. By doing proper due diligence and long term testing we end up with routes that cater for our needs over the long term.

Choosing routes purely on price is not for us, it overlooks too many critical factors.

Switching routes based on the latest discount means you end up spending unnecessary technical time configuring and switching between the suppliers. It means taking on the risk of switching, it means not having time to properly test.

Our supplier choice is a long term decision, we seek to establish relationships that develop and become trusted that once in place we can sit comfortably and focus on selling more product.

When we look at new routes it’s driven by one factor and one factor only, a desire to improve our own service levels.

Fortunately, we have got to a point where we have no single point of failure throughout our SMS platform and supplier network, and our messages are delivered super fast. It’s these factors that help us win business with the likes of O2 and the NHS.

So there we have it, no new suppliers please.

Volvo

Their advert offered a brochure if you texted in. So I did.

I got a response, to which I replied with my address and postcode, they confirmed back by text, ”your brochure will be with you in a matter of days”.

It never arrived!

What did arrive was phone calls offering me test drives.

Being honest, not delivering the brochure isn’t a good start to my investigations, and following up with phone calls is a tad inconsistent with my chosen medium (SMS), but not the end of the world.

And far from Seat’s problems that I’ll detail below…

Kia

Next up was: KIA to 64118 and a response from 84118

“Welcome to the World of 7 Year Warranty from Kia. For a free Kia brochure, pls text your TITLE, FIRST NAME, SURNAME, HOUSE NO. & POSTCODE. Privacy:”

Why did the response come from a different number? Why do they need so much information, thought this was supposed to be easy? Oh forget it, I’m not interested in a 7 year warranty anymore!

Here’s my suggestion:

“Welcome to the home of the 7 Year Warranty from Kia. For a free brochure, reply with your NAME, HOUSE NO. & POSTCODE. Privacy:”

I’ve changed “World” to “Home”. This was to align correctly with their corporate message on their website, which seems logical.

Changed “pls text” to “reply with” because it’s instructional rather than a request and actually informs the consumer where to text to.

I also think just name, house no. and postcode, is fine for a mailing address. Consumers have only got 160 characters to reply with.

As for the response coming back from the same number you texted into. This ensures the consumer instantly recognises the source of the new message. And for smartphone users the two messages show consecutively in the same thread.

In truth I don’t think this is a bad example but can’t help but feel a little more thought could have improved brand consistency and increased the number who took up the brochure request.

Citroen C3

I then texted: NEWC3 to 64118 and, pleasingly received a response from the same shortcode.

“Thanks. For a New C3 brochure or test drive reply with your FULL NAME, HOUSE NO. & POSTCODE. We don’t spam.”

Great, this one’s consistent, and shorter!

But read on, it gets ugly…..

Seat Ibiza Cherub

I saw this great advert (see it here) and I texted: CHERUB to 84118.

The response I got was:

“Info in post. 4 a test drive rply TRIAL. Nearest: Citroen Manchester South, Cross St, M33 7JR, 01619690214. Others: 0800262262. 4 no news rply STOP”

What?

Citroen?

In the post?

I didn’t give them my address?

I requested info on a Seat Ibiza not a Citroen.

Again, why did it come from 64118 when I texted 84118?

This made no sense until I realised, this was on the same night I texted in for the Citroen C3 above. But crucially I didn’t send in my postcode or house number for the C3.

84118 and 64118 are the same service and they got mixed up what came from where.

When I texted ”CHERUB” to 84118 they thought I’d replied with my address and postcode for the Citroen.

They mixed up their shortcodes, keywords, and two very large car brands.

The service must have recognised my mobile number from the Citroen enquiry and bam “info in the post”!

My verdict: What can you say, I’ve not even got into the message structure and content, but promoting a competitors brand, I bet this wasn’t part of the brief!

Alfa Romeo

And finally, I watched an advert for an Alpha Romeo Mito.

Poised, mobile in hand, I waited for the shortcode and keyword.

But alas, it did not arrive.

They don’t use shortcodes on their adverts.

And this, I believe, is the biggest mistake of all.

So where does mobile come into this, there has to be some relevance to the blog of an SMS Provider?

In the infrequently asked questions Gates addresses the question, “should companies help the poor”.

The very obvious point he raises is that companies are there to build great products and sell them, and therefore only consumers that have money can buy them. Hence the poorest are excluded from the cycle and benefits that can be derived from the products.

He argues that companies should invest a proportion of their R&D into work that directly helps the poor, and derive the benefits that come from investing in lower cost models and markets.

So here’s the mobile link:

He suggests that communications companies could benefit by figuring out how the cell phone could help with health needs.

And there we are, he’s stepped on the holy grail of mobile. It’s an area that so far no one has successfully managed to figure out. Don’t believe me? Manchester University has even setup an M-Health Innovation Centre to act as the UK focus for such initiatives.

We are talking serious stuff here, helping people get better, improving lives. Forget all the premium rate muck that plagues the industry this is where we should be heading.

But the problem is healthcare is complex and longwinded, we all have different needs, differing ailments and issues.

Then you’ve got healthcare providers, government bodies who enshrouded themselves in an impenetrable layer of red tape.

We need to find a chink in the armour of bureaucracy, a way in. Perhaps someone who believes in the benefits so much that they help you unlock the door and guide you through the corridors to the right department.

And that’s what mediaburst have found, someone who understands what can be done with a mobile phone.

Someone who understands healthcare and can correlate the apparently unconnected.

Someone who’s drawn the parties together to collaborate and develop.

So watch this space, healthcare is coming to your mobile.

The site went through a great many changes to arrive at the finished product. There’s a lot to consider. Does it all work? Will people take the time to read it? Will they click in the right places? Will they go from homepage to sign up in a few fluid moves?

Inevitably compromises are made and inevitably copywriters get upset. Well, this one does anyway.

Because, while I love the site, it’s design and it’s execution, I loved the earlier versions more. They had more words you see. Clever words, warm fuzzy words, “come in and get to know us” words and snappy little lines that showed how clever I am.

However, as a professional, ( please stop sniggering at the back ), I’m used to this. I shall gather up all those clever words, dust them down and put them back in my bag for the next job. And when that job goes to press or appears on the screen I’ll gather them up, dust them down and put them back in my bag again. That’s how it is for us poor, misunderstood copywriters.

Compromises and sour grapes aside though, I think it’s a great site and it was a pleasure to work with Stiff Rowlands, Phil Thompson and, perhaps most of all Gary. It’s not every client that lets you have a good old gripe on their own blog you know…

The jargon trap

We’ve liked all our previous websites but they have all been based on providing information on mobile technology. We’d fallen into the trap of using industry jargon and overcomplicating everything. This made it difficult for those new to mobile to understand our products. We’d used cliché photo’s of mobile phones and a site structure that didn’t lend itself to growth. Have a look here

So as well as making everything simpler and easy to understand, the key driver was to allow users to sign up and buy online. Such a radical change in direction for a website required a complete overhaul. The conundrum we faced was to retain all the useful information but create a site structure users could easily follow to the products they are interested in or obtain the information they are looking for.

The result

I think we’ve done this exceptionally well. The navigation into key products is easy, each product page contains links to relevant supplementary information, and pricing is crystal clear. Alongside this we’ve beefed up the blog and will use it to publish articles on how to get the most from mobile as well as company news and interesting facts and figures.

We’ve now got a dedicated section for agencies regarding mobile marketing. This area is small but crystal clear in what we are offering and how we can help agencies in the mobile marketing arena.

There is a dedicated customers section to showcase the brands using mediaburst and relevant case studies. Over the coming months we’ll be adding more content.

Significantly there is now a SMS API section. Not only does this contain the API code and samples but also an online signup mechanism and a showcase of products that are already using the API.

What do you think?

So there you have it, a new year, and a new site. It’s the most significant customer facing redesign we have ever made. It’s the culmination of 6 months of hard work, and we hope you like it?

So why does this still happen, why is our industry still blighted by these people?

Let’s take a look at the most recent adjudication, case reference 773809.

PPP received 127 complaints for a service run across 2 shortcodes. They investigate, deem it as a very serious case, uphold breached of fairness and legality, issue fines and ban the information provider from operating premium rate services for 12 months.

Excellent, it would appear job well done.

Now let’s take a look at the financials involved. The information I use here is taken directly from the adjudication itself.

Revenues generated by the combined service fell in the bracket of £350,000 to £750,000.

The combined fines imposed amount to £305,000.

So a very rough calculation shows that profit after fines falls in the bracket of £45,000 to £445,000.

And here lies the very reason the industry still suffers from the scammers.

It would appear PPP need to be able to fine the total value of revenue received on a service, what do you think, how else do we clean the premium rate industry?

If I leave TweetDeck running on my PC I end up with an endless stream of useless messages.

“10 best this and that”

“have a look at our blog”

“new candidates available now”

but nothing new, nothing interesting.

If I want the latest news there are various decent websites, you may have heard of them:
BBC, SKY, CNN.

There is also plenty of industry sites that will keep you informed on the latest iphone apps that nobody buys.

A quick look at what’s trending at present revels, #nowplaying, Christmas, SNOW, #in2010. This can’t be anything more than idle chit chat.

So why do we bother, should businesses leave twitter alone, leave it for personal users who want to discuss Christmas, Snow, what they did last night, and who they want to follow on Friday?

Narhh, I’ll stay on tweeting my blogs, recommending links, re-tweeting others tweets, adding to the stream, because actually, I don’t think I contribute to the SPAM.

Like everyone else, I share useful, valuable information!

The X-Factor for new online media brands today is who you partner with not how much money you have to spend.

A month ago I was at the C@binet conference on the future of media, organized by the government at the impressively Footballers’ Wives Grove Hotel.

If all your customers have £500 a night to spend, and you like the idea of swimming in a pool so black that you hit your head at the end of every length, you might want to think about holding your next corporate event there too.

There were three really remarkable things about it.

Put the slides down

First there was a total ban on Powerpoint. Not a partial moratorium where people kind of used it in the background. But a total absence from any presentation in three days.

And here’s what happened: the world did not end. People looked the audience in the eye, told stories, expressed opinions, and engaged with each other.

Anyone doing a job like mine gets to go to a lot of conferences and do a lot of public speaking. It’s how you make new contacts. And I am now convinced that the as far as reading out powerpoint slides goes, zero tolerance is the best policy. Get up there and tell them a story, preferably a funny one.

(By the way, this classic and brilliant New Yorker article remains the definitive study of the saddos of Powerpoint. It’s a must-read.)

TV can be so last year

The second remarkable thing about the conference was the palpable marginalization of TV. I can recall barely any session where broadcast TV was centre stage, as opposed to a prop for a wider discussion of SEO, aggregation, atomization, YouTube revenue splits-..and not a mention of the creaking structures of the TV industry.

It’s a cross-platform world, and the government is totally onto that. For another interesting Northern media company like Mediaburst, this is of course old news  it makes its trade on the no. 1 universal media tool of the planet, the mobile phone. But for many in the finance trade, the redefinition of the media into new genres and not just, say, TV or publishing, is still a newsflash.

Take your partners

But the third point actually came from a finance person, and was the most interesting of all. Julie Meyer, a venture capitalist and one of the dragons on the BBC’s online Dragon’s Den (my tip: she’ll be on the real show any day now) said some really smart things about how you start and launch media projects these days.

Time was, say in year 2000, that the way to get an online business going was to raise £10m, have a huge marketing budget and outspend the rivals. Think Amazon.com for a successful implementation, and the original Boo.com for a failure.

But now, as Julie said, it’s about fighting smarter. The strength of your startup is about who you are partnering with and how.

Partners mean prizes

In a mobile phone content business that’s self evident. Almost everything a firm like Mediaburst does will have a service provision partner (a O2) and a client (a Kellogs).

And it’s true for Ten Alps too. We spent the last year really working up a portfolio of new media brands, and every one is about its partners. We start with a fairly low investment maybe £100k. Then we roll out it with friendly organisations.

Take Newton a new science project we will soon launch. It’s got some cool technology and great science content: but the real point of difference is the partners, the Science Museum, the Open University and the Royal Institution. It’s they who bring the traction, the existing traffic, the content credibility.

Take Yossa a jobs and entreneurship site we are rolling out next year. It looks like launching with as big an online partner as you can get. Or any of our TV programmes with broadcasters. Or Accountancy TV, which where we are looking to work with the big firms to help with their training. Partners, partners, partners.

Finally take Link2, the trade portal we are running out of our Manchester office. It’s not just a website, it’s a content aggregator providing sector based content from 437 published titles we have, which users can choose to select and then read on the device of their choice, including mobile. So our partners are-.ourselves, our own published titles. Without the titles, the site would never have been viable.

Mobile like Mediaburst’s output is about dissemination of content and user choice. And so is link2. The content you want, when you want it, with the freedom + flexibility of web and mobile. And all delivered by partners  keeping the platform elegant and profitable.

Partners can make things interesting. Some are just plain free like Facebook’s complimentary search optimization of your business name-.And they make you profitable too.

About Alex Connock

Alex Connock is Chief Executive of Ten Alps, a company he founded in 1999 alongside Bob Geldof. Ten Alps is now listed on AIM and produces factual media across all platforms.

When visiting websites and you make decisions based on the information available and designers and copywriters are tasked with putting forward relevant information while giving consideration to users and our short attention spans.

This comes to the forefront of my mind today due to my experience at the weekend of visiting Manchester Aquatics centre. Now I will admit that while Manchester Aquatics has excellent pools my opinions are already tainted of this poorly run facility because it’s generally monopolised by Manchester Swim teams and other group sessions rather than being “publicly” available. For a facility that has 3 x 25ish meter pools and a 50 meter training pool I was always dismayed to be lane swimming with 40 others in just 2 lanes, all while the 50 meter pool was closed and the 25 meter diving pool unused.

Anyway, they have a half decent kiddie pool with few slides (one of which is a complete waste as it’s only open for 1 hour per week). So with intentions of taking my daughter on Saturday morning I checked the opening times on the website the night before. 7am until 6pm, perfect, we’ll go after breakfast.

If you have kids you’ll know how much upheaval it is going anywhere so imagine my frustration to arrive at 8am and have the following conversation:

“Me and one baby for the kiddie pool please?”
“I’m sorry the kiddie pool doesn’t open until 9am”.
“But your website says you open at 7am?”
“Yeah, we don’t run the website”

I drew in breath, lots of expletives went through my mind, I held them in and left, never to return.

It looks like Manchester Aquatics is run by Serco and I can imagine it’s a lengthy and expensive contract. So please, please please make your website accurate and draw appropriate information to relevant factors, because that’s what we make our decisions on.

In actual fact the information is there, if you dig and dig you’ll find a pdf download, bottom section, size 5 font.

The rational amongst us know it can’t be true. But we’ve become a slave to the cheapest price concept, and faced with a cost saving, we lose all rationality.

In our industry the cost of building an SMS platform can vary enormously. You can enter the market with a single server hosted in your bedroom, support it yourself via email or mobile phone, and if your server dies get yourself to PC World sharpish, and in the meantime your customers are buggered.

At the other end of the scale you can build a multisite secure platform linked via lease lines with numerous backup systems in data centres that are not on flood plains. Support provided by multiple customer support staff, and a technical team on call 24/7 doing regular performance checks.

It’s unlikely a top end SMS provider will offer the cheapest prices as they need to cover the cost of their infrastructure, likewise it’s unlikely the low cost providers will be able to afford to upgrade their platform.

It comes down to cost v’s quality and where on the curve you want to operate at.

What prompted this post?

Some of our competitors regularly beats us on price, we always try and justify our prices by reference to the level of infrastructure and support we provide, but the lure of low prices is often too great for some.

One competitor recently suffered a significant system failure, I wonder how many of their customers ‘accept’ the problems as part of the low pricing, or were they jumping up and down, I suspect the latter.

My advice (if you want it) is two part:

1. Decide where you want to be on the cost v’s quality line and find a supplier that matches up.
2. Remember that quality cannot be measured on a single item, you need to look at the complete package offered. In our industry this is not just network connections, but also failover and backup systems, customer support, financial health, and technical expertise.

What we mean by one way SMS Marketing is sending out an SMS message to prompt someone into a course of action i.e. come to the latest sale, attend an event, call the office.

SMS represents one of the cheapest forms of marketing available. With only 160 characters of black and white to use, you don’t need a graphic designer or creative agency, just a common sense approach applied with an understanding of your target audience.

So, you’ve signed up to an SMS service, bought yourself a bundle of messages, you’ve now got 160 characters to get your message across, where do we start…

1. Target Market (Who)

Identifying and understanding your target market is one of the most fundamental practices in SMS marketing. No campaign should start without understanding who are they, how old are, what sex are they, where do they live, you simply can’t find out enough.

In the case of SMS marketing bear in mind that you are delivering a personal message to the most personal of electronic devices. To be effective and non-intrusive it must be relevant, and that means understanding as much as you are able about the person who reads it.

2. A Compelling Offer (Why)

Is your offer something that somebody wants, if not then you don’t need me to tell you you’re wasting money.

A simple SMS reminder that your shop exists may be sufficient to bring some additional customers to browse and kick tyres. An offer or discount on purchase will not only bring in more customers, but chances are some of them will make a purchase. Clearly discounting has an associated cost, but it’s an offer made to customers who otherwise wouldn’t have purchased anything.

Consider offering a percentage off if they present the SMS message at point of purchase or a buy one get one free style offer.

3. Timing (When)

Let’s face it, there’s no point sending an SMS reminder for your night club on a Monday morning. Equally 10 minutes before you open is going to be too late.

Timing is a careful balance, get it right and you’ll reap the benefits. Get it wrong and you’ll waste your money.

Getting it right comes from understanding your audience and their habits. Think about your audience, when do they make arrangements, when do they make decisions on what you’re offering. The trick is to deliver your message just as they are making those arrangements. For example, if you’re promoting take away food or a restaurant, send the SMS message out to a local audience at 5pm just when they are deciding what to have for dinner.

Look at how BMW used timing to perfection in their MMS marketing campaign here.

4. The Text Itself (What)

SMS has spawned its own abbreviated language, love it or hate it, it’s here to stay.

Now I’m not saying you need to turn into a 15 year old and shorten everything you send but most abbreviations are there to reduce the character count and increase message content. It’s for this reason a basic appreciation will help get your message across in 160 characters.

For example, SMS marketing messages should always contain an opt out mechanism, this could be

“to opt out from this mailing list please send a text message with the words “STOP” to 84433”

But easier is:

“Opt out txt stop 84433”

So there you have it, SMS is a fantastic form of communication and can yield exceptionally high response rates, spend a little time considering the points above and you’ll be onto a winner.

For some time the integrity of their voice to text services have been called into question. But in the same week they delivered a poorly received demo to some of the industry’s top journalists. See the Techcrunch article. The Times has only compounded the situation by publishing a negative article surrounding allegations of financial mismanagement. Click here for the full article.

They say there is no smoke without fire.

So it came to my dismay to stumble accoss a Google adword sponsored by the Labour party as below:

It’s been down for the last few hours and it makes me wonder how Stephen Fry and a whole host of celebrities are managing to go about their daily lives without updating the rest of the population at the same time.

Hopefully it’ll be back soon and normal twittering can resume.

Maybe we could advise them on network architecture, we certainly don’t suffer outages.

However a more interesting side show also occurred with a demonstration of an iPhone being hacked via a set of binary codes sent to the phone via SMS.

The conclusion was that as users we trust the communications to our phones more than we do e mails to our computers.

Once more this underlines the high value of mobile marketing, but also underlines the responsibility that comes with it.

Now their mad existence has now become even more ridiculous.

A new iPhone app can now even tell them which carriage to board so that they can exit right bang in front of the station exit.

John Harrison has launched an Apple iPhone application called TubePro which allows commuters to hasten their exit and will duly charge them £1.19 for the privilege.

Incredibly it is not on it’s own with a competitive ‘Tube Exits’ iPhone app, developed by Australian-born Wimbledon resident Lance Stewart launched just last month but more expensive at £1.79.

Nice functionality but utterly pointless

Even though the directory has been approved by the Information Commissioners Office as complying with both the Data Protection Act DPA) and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR)the thought of a mobile directory has still created considerable concern.

I guess the fact remains that most consumers regard their mobile number as private and personal.

We have said many times before that mobile marketing is a highly influential medium, but one that must be treated with repsect.

The issue right now is that while the site is down then no one can access the site to remove their details so the question is how will this impcat on mobile marketing.

Abuse of the opt in -opt out rights of these consumers could seriously damage the credibility of the industry.

• 360 – 380 billion mobile phones are in operation worldwide.
• There are twice as many mobile phones as credit cards worldwide.
• There are 70 million mobile handsets in the UK, of which 4.2 million are vulnerable to ID theft.
• 80% of mobile phones contain enough data to commit identity fraud.
• 40% of mobile users state that losing phone would be worse than losing wallet.
• In the UK 16% of people carry their bank details and 24% carry passwords and pin numbers on their phone.
• In 2006, 2% of mobile users were victims of phone theft. That is 800,000 people.

The article highlighted how TfL and 02 had developed the swipe phone, German supermarkets had developed a bar code scanning system that allowed users to have shopping lists and payment details on their phone and how NTTDoCoMo is set to launch a new phone that makes house keys and cash redundant.

Is this not just making it worse?

The question is, would you be comfortable using your phone to purchase big-ticket items, such as long haul air travel? Or front row seats at a concert?

A recent study of two thousand adults found that more than half would be comfortable booking hotel rooms and buying airline and entertainment tickets using their mobile.

“It’s just a few years before we’re all buying products on the phone we typically buy on the Web,”

The issue is turning a concept into something that produces revenues and profits.

Although services such as Facebook and Myspace provide a multitude of functionality for end users, the simplicity of Twitter has turned back the clock and its growth is evidence of consumer support for simple effective communication.

So as social networking gravitates to mobile could SMS be the mechanism that produces the revenues, and could social networks be the catalyst for the next phase of SMS growth?

Which gets me thinking, has anything really changed or have we gone full circle, isn’t social networking what we used SMS for in the first place?

Indeed their latest issue follows up with evidence that their prediction was accurate. We’ll I’m pleased to report that Mediaburst are seeing more and more brands utilising mobile in their marketing campaigns, ranging from simple SMS marketing to more integrated campaigns.

If this is not the year of the mobile then it’s not difficult to predict that there is a huge amount of growth yet to come, and we certainly look forward to that time.

“Now is not the time to be cutting back on mobile investment” quotes Justin Pearse ”Media companies and brands can’t afford to be left behind as consumer behaviour continues to shift toward the mythical year of mobile”.

They do however take much longer to read and understand compared to conventional English text. A small group of students were asked to compose messages. They were then asked to read the message aloud in English and as they saw it in “textese”. Although the majority of the students were faster using the textese, it took half of the student twice as long to read these messages and say aloud than the messages written in proper English.

So it may be quicker to write in textisms, but reading and understanding the messages is taking longer. We are used to reading full words and sentences, it is harder for us to decipher the message. “Research showed that despite the popular belief that textese is ruining spelling, it actually does not reflect our literary skills. Sound structure and grammar was significantly linked to the ability to decipher textese” So If u cn rd this quickly, gd 4 u!!!!

To quote from the MDA site, “All three measured metrics continue to grow; SMS has again surpassed expectations with 1.4 billion text messages being sent in the UK every week. SMS has established itself as a true social connecting tool and continues to have mass consumer appeal, at the same time there are signs of SMS being applied in commercial applications which will see the volume continue to rise”.

To really drive the benefits of moofing you need to look at a combination of different mobile technologies to provide an improved working solution. SMS, MMS, mobile internet, mobile e-mail, all spring to mind. Converged technologies provide a powerful tool, one that can be tailored to an individual business to drive exceptional results, but interestingly James McCarthy from Microsoft comments, “Far too few companies are trying real innovative things to find new ways of working”. There looks to be difficult times ahead but with the accessibility of mobile technologies, those who take the time to review their operating model might well prosper.

Interestingly the group while often an unknown entity offline, are able to achieve expert status online and form the core of a consumer group as a result of their enthusiasm for and knowledge of a particular product. Gaining their favour, the study says, will be a “critical battle” for enterprises in China. Something that could catch on in the West? Jo

Not surprisingly SMS use remains strong and they commented that, “SMS has established itself as a true social connecting tool and continues to have mass appeal”. They expect to see SMS growth to be circa 30% in 2008. What is more pleasing is that aided by the proliferation of camera enabled devices and simplified settings there is now more than 10m MMS sent per week representing year on year growth of 30%. On top of this the mobile internet currently has circa 17m users per month and is expected to grow by 20% in 2009. The MDA commented, “there are powerful signs all around that mobile Internet access will supersede traditional PC access.

The MDA predict that mobile internet will become a true rival for traditional desktop Internet access.” Interesting, I wonder if the phone will eventually become obsolete.

Although from separate articles, I believe it shows a clear picture of where the market is heading in the next 12 months.

• “Mobile internet access becoming key consideration for phone buyers”
• “65% of those who intend to buy a phone in the next year will demand a good mobile internet experience”
• “online and mobile are converging and our consumers expect to access our brands via their phones”
• “mobile broadband on the rise” “up to a 3rd of users could be going online (via mobile) by 2012”
• “Emarketer estimates this year’s global mobile ad spend will be over £2.45m, trebling by 2011”

Social networking applications are clearly on the rise and we are certainly at the beginning of the phenomenon. The problem with current systems is that you have to be sat at your PC, set them up, logon, and it’s not always convenient, especially when you’re at work or out and about.

There is however an exceptionally accurate reflection of your social network that hasn’t been fully exploited. And yet you carry it on your person at all times and comes with all the gadgetry you need to social network, the humble and still underutilised mobile phone.

So here I am watching the impressive demo of the new iphone and some of the new applications and in particular loopt, which does finally capitalise on your phones capabilities. It’s an application, not a website, update your status, change your profile photo, and all this is reflected instantly on the contacts list of your friend’s phone. Next, plot your friend’s current position on maps, sort your contacts list by how close they are at that very moment. It does sound a bit scary but when this technology is the hands of the younger generations do you really believe they will go to a PC to social network?

The latest campaign will see the Pope aiming to connect with technology loving Catholics on World Youth Day by sending out thousands of text messages, setting up a digital prayer wall and the launch of a web-based social networking site. The co-ordinating bishop Anthony Fisher said,”We wanted to make WYD08 a unique experience by using new ways to connect with today’s tech-savvy youth”. The six-day event will be held in Sydney in mid-July and is expected to attract more than 200,000 young Catholics to the Australian city. We constantly monitor the market place and we saw this as a clear indication that even organisations that are considered traditional are seeing value in new technologies.

GP Bullhound the UK technology investment bank has made their Technology Media and Telecoms sector predictions for 2008. They believe that 2008 will be the year when mobile specific Internet applications, such as WAP, disappear. Because handheld devices are provided with the power and display capabilities of laptops (albeit in mini format) this will eradicate the need for differentiated web and mobile applications. This should mean that developers no longer need to duplicate web content into WAP sites.

They also predict that mobile specific applications will also find it increasingly challenging to argue a unique value proposition to consumers. This however will not happen overnight and they recognize that there will be a significant installed base of low-bandwidth / limited form-factor users who continue to demand mobile specific applications for a long time to come.

Alongside this they predict that Ad funded mobile services will become mainstream. Mobile advertising didn’t take off as expected in 2007 with most deployments still in trial and evaluation phases. 2008 developments will see advertisers pay for this service by integrating mobile marketing messages on screen, through pre and post call voice messages, branded icons placed within SMS messages and also by branding on the actual device itself. What this all shouts to me is that if 2008 is the year when the mobile and PC devices become as one then brands and their agencies need to re-evaluate digital offerings and “Think Mobile”. The collaboration of service providers and the full integration of mobile into digital campaigns will become a more compelling proposition than ever before.

The trio were stuck for two hours until Mr George-Carey finally managed to send a text message saying: “trapped on a rock, surrounded by water, SOS, send coastguard”. Thankfully George understood that SMS travels on a different part of the network to voice and therefore does not rely on signal strength to succeed. “I had tried phoning the hostel but there was only one signal bar left and they couldn’t hear me. In the end, I texted someone.” stated a relieved George. Ray Farnham, station commander of the National Sea Rescue Institute, said: “A few more minutes and they would have been swept off the rock.” This is why many businesses rely on SMS for disaster planning communications

You can set times when the phone can and can’t be used e.g. in class times, monitor MMS, limit SMS usage, to name but a few functions. In terms of SMS an interesting feature looks for 1500 objectionable words in text messages, when an objectionable word is found parents are notified. Additionally, if your phone has GPS the software can restrict mobile phone use while driving. Big Mother is watching you!

Of 2,500 surveyed:

• 40 per cent could not spell “questionnaire”
• 38 per cent were stumped by “accommodate”
• 37 per cent were defeated by “definitely”

Nearly a third were unable to spell “liaison”, “existence” or “occurrence” and other simple words which caused problems were “calendar”, “embarrass”, “library” and “receipt”. Two-thirds blamed their inability to get words right on the predictive text function on their mobile phones.

Alarmingly, 14 per cent did not think it was important to spell properly, and 11 per cent were not bothered by colleagues’ spelling mistakes. Twenty per cent said they avoided writing documents by hand because their spelling was poor, and 59 per cent said they relied on their computer’s spell checker to get things right – even though some are programmed with American English.

Frighteningly 6 per cent said their spelling was so bad they had lost a job because of it.

The Plain English campaign commented:

“People seem less inclined to consider correct spelling important. When we spell words incorrectly, it is bound to cause confusion and make writing more difficult to read.”

The 20 simple words we appear unable to spell:

1. Questionnaire
2. Accommodate
3. Definitely
4. Liaison
5. Existence
6. Occurrence
7. Referring
8. Occurred
9. Millennium
10. Embarrass
11. Calendar
12. Receive
13. Necessary
14. Separate
15. Cemetery
16. Library
17. Accidentally
18. Independent
19. Occasionally
20. Receipt

The local police couldn’t speak any English and the tourist police were unavailable. So they did as any intrepid explorer would and sent an SMS to AQA “We are lost in the Thai jungle do you have any idea as to what we could do”. AQA stepped up to the challenge and arranged for mountain rescue to come to their aid. Hats off to AQA!

The mobile watchdog said it was pressed to do so after “some mobile phone companies and third party sales agents are still engaging in unacceptable practices that are against the consumer interest” and receiving around 700 complaints a month. The regulator is particularly riled about two practices: where customers are given false or inaccurate information when they want to buy a mobile contract; and some “cash back” promotions offered by sales agents where they fail to reimburse the consumer.

If the rules are adopted, it will mean mobile operators will be bound:

• not to engage in dishonest, misleading or deceptive conduct and to ensure that those selling their products and services similarly do not mis-sell;
• to make sure the customer intends and is authorised to enter into a contract;
• to make sure consumers get the information they need at the point of sale;
• to ensure that the terms and conditions of cash back deals offered by their retailers are fair;
• and to carry out due diligence and a number of checks in respect of their retailers.

Anything that adds to consumer protection and confidence in the mobile industry can only be a good thing.

Applause for Ofcom.

I think it’s time we all considered SMS for business continuity.

The current volatile climate could be something that we all need to start getting used to. Severe weather could become the norm over the next 25 years, according to the experts.

The prediction comes from the Met Office, which has started to develop ten year climate forecasts in the hope of giving practical help to those charged with tackling the effects of global warming. Flooding will be a risk for many more UK businesses, with torrential rain, stronger hurricanes and more violent storms on the increase. Spokesman Wayne Elliot said: “We expect more active and energetic weather systems in the UK in the future. In the summer months, we expect more scenes like last year’s flooding.”

All business managers must face the challenge of the effects of changing weather and review their Business Continuity plans. Ask yourself how would you quickly and easily communicate with staff and customers in the event of a crisis? STUART

Another great quote is that we already know the mobile as the Fourth Screen but the report is billing mobile as the “Fifth Channel” in reference to bank’s access to their customers. I wonder if in time the mobile can become our Sixth Sense. More interestingly Juniper predicts that the global market for mobile payments will reach a staggering $587 billion by 2011, this might seem some way off but if the trends in East Asia are anything to go by then it may well unfold. Apparently, in the Philippines the main mobile operator Globe Telecom transacts over $100 million per day ($77 for each of its 1.3m subscribers) through its mobile payment and remittance service. There are a number of mobile payment systems around ranging from Premium SMS to WAP billing, and there are considerable regulatory issues that will no doubt raise their head with such increases in volume, but sure as the internet revolution, once end users become comfortable with a piece of technology then the Gold Rush Will happen, I’m off to Paint My Wagon!

The 2007 bestseller list, recently published by Japan’s biggest book distributor, Tohan, revealed that incredibly five of the year’s most successful novels, including the top three, were first written for downloading on mobile phones. The number one seller, Love Sky, selling two million copies in the last year, has now been released as a film, and has made a star of its author, a woman in her early 20s known only as Mika.

The new dominance of mobile novels – keitai shosetsu in Japanese – is all the more remarkable for the revenue opportunities they have created. In 2006, the revenues from these applications rose to 9.4 billion yen (£42 million). Several publishers operate mobile novel websites from which phone users can download novels for a subscription of about 300 yen (£1.33) a month. The stories are divided into bite size chunks called “gobbets” which can be read in about three minutes, the typical distance between two stops on the Japanese subway. Watch out on the Bakerloo line.

Dr Freier read out the prayer to a congregation, and curious onlookers, at Federation Square in Melbourne. It was part of his “prayer4melbourne quest” marking the former Darwin bishop’s first anniversary in the job. The SMS prayer was displayed on a big screen and Dr Freier encouraged the crowd to type it into their phone and send it on to a friend, with a group of children on stage doing so as an example. Well done I say.

One of the key points I picked up on was his suggestion that we need to move away from the concept of Premium Rate to that of the mobile device being just another way to pay for something. In my view there are two key issues to this:

1. It can only happen once there is sufficient consumer confidence in the payment mechanism.

This means improving on the current understanding and putting in place more standard mechanisms that consumers become comfortable with. A simple example of this is to promote a wider knowledge that sending STOP to a short code will terminate a subscription service, and in regard to this particular example we welcome RegTel’s current TV campaign. [watch the advert]

2. The second, and I suspect the one which may be more difficult to conquer is the simple fact that the Network Operators currently take a significant proportion of any payment, and until they are willing to reduce this then it’s unlikely we will see retailers shifting away from their regular payment methods to a mobile solution. From a service providers point of view we are firmly committed to working with RegTel and PhonepayPlus, I believe that if we work with regulators to provide increased consumer confidence and protection then we will overcome some of the barriers to growth, all that is left is someone to tackle point 2.

The Royal mail has cancelled all door-drop deliveries for the next three weeks ahead of strike action by the Communication Workers Union. It would appear that door-drop companies were notified of the move only this week, which is expected to affect up to 80 million items scheduled for delivery. They were told that they would be compensated for the costs of delivery and other logistics, but not for the cost of printing the items. This means door-drop firms could lose out, especially in the case of having to compensate clients who planned to send time-sensitive creative, which it would be impossible to deliver at a later date. I would invite all door drop companies to embrace Mobile Marketing. Time sensitive content can be delivered directly into the hands of consumers, rather than the doormat, without the cost of printing, and without the hidden cost of industrial action.

Almost half make do with just one mobile phone, but 40% of us now have more than one number. An extraordinary one in ten (9%) have more than four mobile numbers and handsets. Such a ready market has not been lost on our friends at Google. The internet giant is attempting to drive take-up of mobile pay-per-click advertising by allowing brands to extend their existing search campaigns onto mobile for free. Advertisers will be included in the trial for a two-month period, after which they will be charged per click on mobile keywords unless they opt out. Unsurprising then that the Nielsen Monitor Plus has just reported that US ad spend has gone into reverse for the first half of 2007, with radio and newspapers the worst hit, whilst according to the Internet Advertising Bureau, UK paid-search revenue grew by 52% last year to reach £1.2bn. With TV advertising revenues in decline and mobile phones outselling PC’s and TV’s by a considerable factor I think many brands will be watching these developments very closely!