Shared Short Codes – Buyer Beware

Why is it so important when selecting a text message marketing provider to make sure that the provider doesn’t allow the ability for their clients to import mobile phone numbers?

One simple reason, most text message marketing providers are using what is called a shared short code, which means all their clients text message marketing messages come from the same 5-6 digit phone number. This means that the pizza restaurant across the street, the salon downtown and your business are all sending messages from the same phone number. So what’s the big deal?

When a text message marketing provider allows their clients to import phone numbers, it puts the entire shared short at risk. You can see why here in this example, where we were able to spam 1,000+ mobile phone numbers in under 60 seconds with a text message marketing provider that allowed importing of mobile phone numbers.

When the mobile phone carriers are made aware of text message spam from a text message marketing provider, instead of shutting down individual text messaging campaigns, they shutdown the entire shared short code. This means that every business using that shared short code now is unable to text message their customers.

This happened to Tatango competitor EzTexting in 2010 when T-Mobile said that EzTexting wasn’t following the rules, and therefore blocked all text messages from EzTexting to T-Mobiles’ 34 million mobile subscribers.

How can you make sure that the text message marketing provider you are selecting isn’t at risk of having their shared short code blocked by a mobile phone carrier? It’s actually pretty simple, when doing research on potential text message marketing providers, check the following two things.

    Check to make sure that the text message marketing provider doesn’t allow the ability for their clients to import any mobile phone numbers into their software.
    Check the text message marketing providers’ shared short code against text message spam reporting databases like SMS Watch Dog. In the EzTexting case, their shared short code 313131 had 17 consumer complaints. I’ve attached a few of these complaints below.


If you check those above two things when selecting a text message marketing provider, you will be able to greatly reduce the risk of your text messaging campaign being blocked by the mobile phone carriers.

Article from: tatango

A Quick Guide To Get You Started With Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is used by companies to advertise across mobile devices such as cell phones and portable media players. Methods of mobile marketing that companies use can be something simple like a visual ad or something a bit more complex such as a qr code. To decide which mobile marketing method is best for your company, use the following advice.

Even though it is important to be brief in cellphone communications, do not incorporate TXT shorthand in your messages to customers. Regardless of its overall acceptance, TXT abbreviations are unprofessional. You may find that customers who accept shorthand are counterbalanced by an equal number that take offense or are turned off by it. Avoid the whole balancing act and stick to proper language.

Do not send out offers by text too frequently. If you send them out too often, customers will not have the incentive to take up your offer because they know there will another one coming soon. You want to make your offer special so that customers will feel like they cannot miss a good deal which might not come again any time soon.

If you are using mobile marketing in your advertising, you need to make it easy for someone to opt out or unsubscribe. Sometimes, your customers will go overboard with adding companies to their messaging options and end up receiving hundreds a day. So make your's easy to unsubscribe from and it will make a good impression on your customers.

Do not limit your mobile marketing to a mobile website. These websites must remain relatively small and do not allow you to do much. Take advantage of the efforts social networks do to provide people with apps: send your customers a lin to your Facebook page or to your Twitter feed.

If you're thinking about expanding out to a different market with a different product, make sure that you start this effort normally first before you branch out to mobile marketing. It's going to be very difficult to pull people in from the mobile world to your new product, so go with what got you here and just repeat the process.

Provide a better value for your mobile customers by creating a dedicated opt-in database option for them. This will allow you to provide your customers with a much better value and a great experience while simultaneously giving you a much bigger bang for your buck. It's a win-win situation here.

Tie your marketing to big events or holidays. Special occasions can make your marketing really work. Give special vouchers to ladies only on Mother's Day. Hold contests on big sporting event days to give your brand a presence. Give your clients a short code number where any person who send in a text message has a chance of winning.

As stated before, many companies use mobile marketing to advertise on mobile devices. Companies use simple mobile marketing methods like visual ads and complex mobile marketing methods as well, like qr codes. By using the advice from the article above, you can choose a mobile marketing method that will work for your company.

SMS API for mobile communication with customers

In the race of competing with your business counterparts, there is an array of SMS solutions available that can meet your business needs. One of these solutions is the Bulk SMS gateway or SMS service that can help you enhance the manner of handling your business.

Application Programming Integration (API) provides an interface between which internet-based or desktop sources can communicate through text messaging with mobile recipients. API integrates your web-based applications with mobile phone communication infrastructure. It makes it possible to send messages via mobile phone networks to customers.

At the same time, API has support for integration of mobile networks with software on your desktop. As such, you may use API integration to send text from computer based applications. API solutions may offer options for sending of a single text message or bulk messaging from your computer.

SMS API is the preferred choice for businesses that wish to communicate with multiple recipients across multiple carriers efficiently and at reasonable costs. There is a lot of tasks you could accomplish automatically by incorporating SMS software in your system, whether through the web or otherwise.

For instance, you could use your SMS API to link your billing system with mobile telephony networks to send reminders or thank you messages to your clients/customers. At the same time, such a link could help interface your payroll system to send salary information to your employs directly to their cell phone numbers.

With Bulk SMS messaging, your SMS software allows for receipt of feedback from your customers.  A customer may immediately respond upon receipt of a text message. It is an open ended communication system that permits real time processing of information.

A Bulk SMS system may do your business wonders

Corporate organisations, enterprises, banks etc have already begun to implement systems that permit dissemination of large number of short text messages from computer terminals to mobile recipients. The system knows no geographical boundaries and thus can send messages to worldwide destinations.

With the integration of the appropriate SMS software, you can append as many phone contacts as necessary for automatic processing. SMS software brings with it enhanced features that allow your business to customize the system for convenience and timeliness.   For instance, you may set particular days or dates as parameters for the sending of bulk SMSs to a particular set of recipients. At the same time, it is possible to send personalized messages such as birthday wishes through the system.

Always go for the best deal in the market; one that guarantees reliability all through and supports multiple phone networks. A stable system should address glitches at service provider ends, network links and server.  At the same time, integration should be very smooth for sustainable communication with your customers. When it comes to choice of SMS API, it is important to subscribe to one that permits communication through HTTP Post or XML.

Businesses all over the world have successfully send text from computer sources and interactively involved their customers, employees and partners in their growth and development agenda. Your business may also leverage on latest technology for communication with mass targets for sustainable growth. The technology is cheaper than ordinary mail and quicker than email.  While it may take long for customers to access the web for email, the mobile phone takes a fraction of a second to receive a message and alert its user about it.

article from: ArticlesAlley

Scripps Eyes Strong Upfront Season

While this is upfront selling season could be shaped in many cases by whether C3 or C7 is the deal currency, Scripps Networks Interactive stands in the corner of the former metric.

That’s because most of the lifestyle programmer’s audience viewing happens in the tighter window.

Jon Steinlauf, executive vice president of ad sales and ad sales marketing at Scripps, said that over 94% of Scripps’ C3 viewing occurs live. “That’s the best concentration other than sports or news,” he said.

C3 ratings is the current ad market standard, which includes digital video recorder playback and the average for all commercials over three days, while C7 incorporates seven days of delayed viewing.

Steinlauf attributed Scripps’ viewing immediacy to the entertainment, informational and aspirational appeal of the company’s programming – 150 original series and 2000 hours of lifestyle fare across six networks -- Food, HGTV, Travel, Cooking Channel, DIY and Great American Country.

For most networks, he said, individual shows drive the audience. That’s not necessarily the case for Scripps: “People tend to watch our brands first, the shows second,” underlining the point by labeling Scripps as “ESPN for women…If Macy’s needs to be there for its next-day sales, they want tonight’s audience, not six days from now."

He also said viewers “don’t skip the breaks,” as Scripps runs a number of vignettes that follow the program content. For example, the Feb. 11 episode of Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible centered on bringing tough makeover lover to The Curve in Palm Springs. Capital One sponsored a “Hidden Gems” 30-second vignette that showed markets, stores and experiences and where viewers subtly see the card being used around the resort city. The vignette then leads into the client’s Alec Baldwin creative. “We tend to program the breaks. Viewers think of our breaks as content. There is a lot of branded equity for our audiences,” said Steinlauf.

As to the overall upfront prospects, Steinlauf said the ad industry picking up again after uncertainty surrounding the election and fiscal cliff curtailed spending in the fourth quarter. Moreover, the impact of Superstorm Sandy wiped out ratings information for 10 days and halted advertising business in New York. “Seventy five percent of the transactions take place in Manhattan,” he explained.

However, there has been significant improvement of late with worries about the fiscal cliff somewhat subsiding, the S&P hitting a five-year high, auto sales improving and housing industry – a particularly important one for Scripps – recovering over the last six to 12 months. As such, Steinlauf said the ad market is “starting to percolate.” He said Scripps’ first-quarter scatter market has been up between 15% and 20%, another good harbinger for the upfront.

 “Cable will do fine,” he said, pointing to continuing shift in the medium’s favor by a share point or two every year to where the industry now holds a 70% to 30% edge in impressions over broadcast. He said that old argument that there is a significant gap between top shows on broadcast and cable is waning. “Of the top 15 shows on television, five to seven are now on cable. AMC’s The Walking Dead is the biggest show on TV, while History’s [miniseries] The Hatfields and McCoys was the top event. It’s more of a level business between top cable networks and broadcast,” he said.

The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau estimates that national cable networks wrote business totaling a record $9.79 billion during the 2012-13 upfront, a 5% gain from $9.29 billion for the 2011-12 season. Published reports peg broadcast’s upfront take and between $8.9 billion and $9.2 billion.

There has also been much talk about digital video, especially with tablets continuing to proliferate, commanding a larger share of spending in the annual Madison Avenue bazaar. Steinlauf believes there will be an uptick, but digital video “will not dismantle the TV world.”

He said authentication, rights and measurement issues currently remain factors in greater video adoption. CommScore’s research aside, Steinlauf said that “Nielsen will eventually organize a market around [digital video], compatible with TV.”

He said on average that cable networks draw 3% or 4% of TV ad sales from digital video, while Scripps is at 7%, as its lifestyle categories lend themselves to users delving deeper for information on the programmers’ online platforms, following the conclusion of linear shows.

During the upcoming upfront, the programmer plans to stay its course, generating between 50%-60% of its overall ad revenue, with most deals finalized in June. Steinlauf said Scripps realizes another 15% of its ad sales during the calendar upfront market, which has been strong, and the balance in a scatter.

He said there is “a lucrative marketplace” for endemics in the food, home and travel sectors.  “Spring is like Christmas for the home categories,” he said.

Article from; multichannel

Build Your Business Thorugh Social Media Marketing

Promoting a business or website is challenging and takes some savvy. One of the newest ways to get your business out there is through social media. Following are some great techniques to use on social media sites to promote your business.

Only include information on Facebook that is directly related to your marketing goals. Do not waste your followers' time by posting something for no discernible purpose. Share some things you find to be factual, interesting, or exciting. Choose information that is relevant and interesting. Stay away from annoying quizzes or surveys that have no real worth to customers.

Regularly create new blog posts. This trains the people reading your blog to come back at specific times to read new blog entries. This is also the truth when people subscribe to other publications. So, make sure you are consistent to encourage more returning visitors.

Take care when employing some social media marketing methods to make sure the business information posted is accurate. Errors in social media can quickly become viral, causing embarrassment to the company. While this can give you a little more publicity, it may end up being negative publicity.

Always ensure that you add new content regularly. Many followers in social media have an expectation of frequent updates, and if you don't supply these, you can hurt your reputation online and lose followers. Work on updating your followers a couple of times each week.

One of the most effective and appealing methods of attracting social network users is to offer engaging and appealing contests, bonuses and rewards. The social aspect of this new online media makes it easier than ever to quickly disseminate information. Contests and promotions should be engaging, unique, and generous with rewards. Ask people to design a logo, or take pictures of your products.

Utilize social media marketing to advertise your business. It is not only reasonably priced, but it is also targeted at keywords posted by users in their profiles. Facebook uses this technique which will allow you to reach the correct audience.

Track your results to see what campaign strategies appeal to your followers. Base your observations on trends, and not just a one-day spike or drop in visitors. On the other hand, it's critical that you can be open to seeing a trend and moving on when needed.

It is important to used varied content to entice people to follow the social media marketing campaign that you are promoting. Include testimonials, relevant articles and links to content your followers will find useful. Interact with your audience, create giveaways, and post images, especially niche-relevant LOL cats. Interact with followers. Rather than simply product placement, shoot for product engagement. If you can help your customers to associate the brand with their own personal identity, you're set.

To get the best results from social media, create links that tie them all together. Put links on your blog that allow readers to easily follow you on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Be sure your Twitter profile contains a URL for your Facebook profile and your blog. By creating links between your different forms of social media, you increase your potential customer base.

Use these tips and advice to use social media marketing to dominate your market. Once you are skilled at social media marketing, the amount of business you will get will shock you.

Multichannel Marketing Solutions

This integrated, targeted multichannel approach creates relevance and clarity over your offering, your brand, and directly addresses the heightened needs found in your prospects and customers.

Your prospects and customers have adopted the online channel as an important source for information and commerce. They have the ability to discover information that transcends all traditional boundaries of geography, time, and access. However, through this evolution they have become more savvy and have raised their expectation of how marketers should handle them. You have mere seconds to prove that you have what they are looking for. They are empowered.

Your prospects and customers have evolved, have you?

At Acxiom, we enable a direct marketing sensibility at every interaction during the buying cycle, from awareness, interest, and consideration to conversion, cultivation, advocacy and retention. We reinvent direct marketing for a multichannel world, and extend it earlier in the buying cycle to include improving traditional brand performance metrics.

Serving an expanding list of addressable media channels, we seek to enable marketers to maximize their return on marketing investment and win in an increasingly complex and competitive world: Email, Mobile, Social, Website, TV.

KEY OFFERING

    Multichannel Marketing - Through more than 40 years of marketing innovation, Acxiom delivers true consumer-centric marketing programs, today. In this world world there are no "silver bullets"... deep technology investments and hands-on experience are what's needed to break down the "silos".
    Email Marketing - A recognized "leader" in and founding innovator of hosted email marketing solutions,we strive to deliver superior campaign execution, deliverability, and functionality to our client partners.
    Website Personalization - Recognized by industry analysts as a best-in-class onsite targeting solution, our proven technology and services can dramatically increase performance for your online business.
    Targeted Advertising - Integrated multichannel, multi-targeting line of advertising and engagement solutions designed to enable high-performance across key channels. Now, brands and their agencies can deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time – with certainty.
    Mobile Marketing - Apps, SMS, integration with email, geo-based advertising... we have the technology and services to drive success and certainty into this exploding channel.
    Digital Agency Services - Recognized this year by AdAge as the #1 agency in the United States and #19 digital agency globally, Acxiom has the strategy and execution to help clients drive return on their marketing investment.

To learn more, please download our complimentary white papers and case studies or speak with one of our multichannel marketing subject matter experts.

    Multichannel Marketing - Through more than 40 years of marketing innovation, Acxiom delivers true consumer-centric marketing programs, today. In this world world there are no "silver bullets"... deep technology investments and hands-on experience are what's needed to break down the "silos".
    Email Marketing - A recognized "leader" in and founding innovator of hosted email marketing solutions,we strive to deliver superior campaign execution, deliverability, and functionality to our client partners.
    Website Personalization - Recognized by industry analysts as a best-in-class onsite targeting solution, our proven technology and services can dramatically increase performance for your online business.
    Targeted Advertising - Integrated multichannel, multi-targeting line of advertising and engagement solutions designed to enable high-performance across key channels. Now, brands and their agencies can deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time – with certainty.
    Mobile Marketing - Apps, SMS, integration with email, geo-based advertising... we have the technology and services to drive success and certainty into this exploding channel.
    Digital Agency Services - Recognized this year by AdAge as the #1 agency in the United States and #19 digital agency globally, Acxiom has the strategy and execution to help clients drive return on their marketing investment.

To learn more, please download our complimentary white papers and case studies or speak with one of our multichannel marketing subject matter experts.

Article from; http://www.acxiomdigital.com

Curious About Social Media Marketing? Check Out These Tips!

Social media has become the driving force of the Internet. The ability for users of different sites to share created content has made it possible for information to be spread faster than anyone could have possibly imagined. If you would like to advertise through social media, then read the following article for advice on proper social media marketing.

If you are using Facebook for your marketing needs, make sure you understand the difference between a profile page and a fan page. A profile page is for personal use and fan pages are for companies. If you fail to comply with these rules, you are risking the chance of Facebook shutting down your company's page.

Try to make lists when you make posts on social media. These are usually a big hit among people who pass on information to others through social media. Lists also highlight your main points, and make it easier to reference and remember the information that you are presenting to the reader.

Utilize RSS feeds. These all people to subscribe to your feed and have the posts go into their Google Reader account once your feeds are published. This makes your content accessible in an easy-to-access way for your customers. Make the button to subscribe easy to identify, so the whole process takes no effort on the part of those visiting your site.

If you are using WordPress for your site, be sure to put a Retweet button that is at the top of your posts for your readers to use. This will make it easy for them to pass on your information to others. WordPress has plugins for this, so it will be simple for you to do with huge benefits in the long run.

Things move very fast in social media, and your company will have to adapt quickly to the changes as they come. Just, a few years ago, tablet computers and smart phones did not exist in a mass-produced and publicly available form. Keep an eye on the new technology so that you are better prepared for the changes to your marketing.

Do not post irrelevant and trivial posts on your social media profiles. Always keep your posts professional and relevant. No one cares that you got a new cell phone, or that you are standing in line at the movies. These trivial posts should be reserved for your own personal profile, not your business profile.

Link your social media blog to email. In some circles, this may be considered old hat, but there is still plenty of market to be tapped via email. You can simply add a 'subscribe via email' link to your page that will allow fans to get on your mailing list.

As stated before, due to the ability for users to share content, social media has become a major Internet driving force. The ability to share content makes social media a viable advertising platform. Make some room in your schedule to apply the advice from this article, and you can spread your message far and wide.

Surge in spam text messages puts privacy at risk

Staff Writer

Mobile phone spam is rising sharply in the U.S. as unsolicited bulk message abuse migrates from email to text messages, raising concerns among federal and state officials that consumers are putting their personal information at risk.

“We are seeing complaints on the rise,” said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine in an exclusive interview with the Dayton Daily News. “As people move more and more to texting, the scammers follow."

American cellphone owners last year received about 4.5 billion spam text messages, more than double the 2.2 billion received in 2009, according to Ferris Research, a market research firm that tracks mobile spam.

A recent Pew Research Center report found that 69 percent of cellphone owners who use text messaging said they get unwanted spam text messages. Of those texters, 25 percent face problems with unwanted spam texts at least weekly.

The Federal Communications Commission reported that unwanted telemarketing calls and texts were among the top three consumer complaints in 2011.

DeWine said his office has received about two dozen complaints this year about text message spam, which is “just a fraction of what actually occurs.”

“I would expect it to continue to go up for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Spammers have the ability to send thousands of texts at once using automated dialing devices “programmed for every conceivable number,” DeWine said. A response indicates they have reached a working number.

“They want to know there is a live person on the other end and they want data,” DeWine said.

Unwanted messages sent to wireless phones and devices can be intrusive and costly, according to the FCC.

Not all spam texts are harmful, but some are devious attempts to collect your personal data, which can be sold to marketers or used to access your financial accounts.

Smartphone users who tap on a malicious link could be unwittingly signing up for bogus services with hidden, monthly phone bill charges as high as $9.99. “What we recommend is don’t respond in any way,” DeWine said.

DeWine’s office also suggests only submitting your cellphone number to websites that you know and trust. For example, Internet sites that offer “free” ringtone downloads may use the number you provide to send unwanted advertising to your phone.

Unsolicited text messages are “an annoyance,” said Renee Knapke of Centerville, who uses her cellphone for business and receives two to three spam texts per week.

Spam texts to her husband’s phone, which doesn’t have an unlimited messaging plan, add 10 cents each to Knapke’s monthly phone bill.

“There is no spot on my phone that says I can mark it as spam,” Knapke said. “And I don’t dare reply, because if I do they will know they have a valid number.”

Knapke said she deletes all spam texts and checks her phone bill every month for any unauthorized charges.

Mobile spam is illegal under two federal laws — the 2003 Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The FCC’s CAN-SPAM ban covers messages sent to cellphones if the message uses an Internet address that includes an Internet domain name. However, the ban doesn’t cover “short messages” (SMS) sent from one mobile phone to another that do not use an Internet address. SMS codes typically have four, five or six-digit numbers.

DeWine said it can be “extremely difficult” to track spammers, many of whom operate from outside the U.S.

The Middle East, Africa and Central America are the dominant origination regions for spam, according to Cloudmark, a San Francisco-based anti-spam software company.

Cloudmark’s Global eMessaging Threat Report released last month found that the number of text spam pitches increased 110 percent during the first quarter of 2012.

Free gift card offers were the top text scam, nearly doubling from 28 percent of all text scams during the first quarter to 53 percent in the second, the report said. The gift card scam asks users to take a survey and divulge personal information to the scammers, similar to email “phishing” frauds. In mobile terms, the SMS scams are known as “smishing.”

The mobile phone industry in March joined with Cloudmark on a new reporting service that lets users forward spam text messages to “7726,” a number that spells “SPAM” on traditional phone keypads.

“It is through these messages from our customers that we can assemble information to help us fight spam texts,” said Holly Hollingsworth, an AT&T spokeswoman. The information can be used to start an investigation and block mobile numbers that send spam.

There is no charge to report mobile spam, and messages forwarded to 7726 don’t count toward customers’ data usage or voice packages, Hollingsworth said.

Article from: Dave Larsen

Build A Stronger Business With These Network Marketing Strategies And Tips

Make it your goal to disseminate the information you find and stick to reliable, trustworthy sources. The article below will lay out some great tips you can use for network marketing that are current, accurate and very helpful.

You'll become a leader in network marketing when you base your efforts on doing all that you can to help others be successful in reaching their goals. When you can assist people in their marketing, you'll notice an immediate increase in your profits.

When you're speaking to the lead on a networked market, nod your head, but never shake it. Everything needs to be positive, even your body language. )

Spend time with the people you care about to help you relax and maintain healthy relationships. Your business will initially require a significant time investment; however, as your success grows, find time to spend with your loved ones.

Do not expect to see results right away. A lot of people become discouraged when they first start in the initial starting period. The most critical time in getting your business to succeed is the opening weeks and months. You may have a slow beginning, but you will notice your network marketing business slowly gaining speed over time.

Do your research, and learn more about the product that is being promoted. In order to make others like a product, you have to like the product. That means you have to be knowledgeable about it, as well as enthusiastic about selling it. Enthusiasm for everything you do is going to be a key component to achieving great network marketing skills.

One good pool you should try to tap for network recruiting is that of the business professional. Most business professionals bring ingrained work ethics with them and already mentally connect the dots from their personal efforts to their paycheck; those who have experience in sales or commission positions really reflect this. Business people are more open to responding to network marketing.

When marketing a product, it is helpful for you to use it yourself. Use the products yourself so that you're not an uninformed marketer. By using the products and enjoying them, people will have more faith in you, and seek you out. If you use the products you are selling, you will also be able to better handle technical questions relating to those products.

To be in the lead with your marketing strategy, let value be foremost. Establish what you can do and what your skills are from the very beginning. This will over the long run be in your own interest and help increase your profits. Just remember that you're not the only one doing this. Find an angle that benefits them. In what way can you improve their lives? Present your proposals for this at the beginning, and keep it in the forefront of your discussions.

By adhering to the tips from this article, you will be on your way to successfully having a network marketing strategy, with a product that you can believe in. If you make these tips yours, you can really make some nice profits.

'Hpy B Day 2 U!' - 20 years of the text message

Filipino texting addicts should mark December 3 on their calendars: that's when the first SMS message was sent 20 years ago.

The 160-character messaging system has connected and changed the lives of Filipinos and people worldwide by delivering news and alerts.

"It connects more people than Facebook and Twitter, has brought down governments, and in so much of the world still holds the ability to change lives," tech site PCWorld.com said.

The SMS message traces its roots to a meeting at a pizzeria in 1984 between Finnish engineer Matti Makkonen and two colleagues, where they discussed the idea of a messaging program on the GSM system.

Neil Papworth, an engineer working for Sema Group in the UK and a member of a team developing SMS service center software for Vodafone, sent the first SMS message after weeks of testing.

"Merry Christmas," read the SMS message Papworth sent via PC to Vodafone Director Richard Jarvis, who received the message on a 2.1-kilo Orbitel 901 phone.

"People always ask me if it was a monumental occasion. For me, I was working for Sema, Vodafone paid us to write the software and we got the job done," PC World quoted Papworth as saying in an interview.

But Papworth said he is not surprised with the success SMS has enjoyed.

"At the time, I never thought it would be so big. Now I see what it has become, I'm not surprised because it's so easy. It's on all phones. Not everyone has a smartphone and GSM is still rolling out in some countries. In those countries, not all customers will have a smartphone, but at least everyone will have a basic phone," he said.

Today, PCWorld.com reports more than seven trillion SMS messages, or 200,000 per second, are sent every year. The site also quoted JF Sullivan, chief marketing officer at UK-based Acision, as saying the market today is almost saturated, but it continues to grow.

Acision accounts for about a third of the SMS messaging system market. Its customers include the likes of Vodafone, Telefonica, Telia Sonera and Sprint.

"Everyone continues to use SMS and it doesn't look like it's dropping off anytime in the future," he said.

"You can still get to everyone. All of those people holding a handset can be reached," he added.

First use

On the other hand, PC World said the SMS system's main use at first was to inform subscribers of waiting voicemails - and it was free at the time.

As of 1995, it said users were only sending an average of one text every two and a half months.

"It took me a long time to get a cellphone. But I remember, I went to the Ideal Home Exhibition in London and Vodafone had an offer so I finally bought one. Back then, I didn't think I needed one. I only got a few calls a day," Papworth recalled.

But with prepaid cellular service and innovations like the T9 predictive text input, SMS messaging grew--PC World said Ericsson estimated there were 17 billion text messages in the year 2000.

"It's estimated that there are around six billion cellphone subscribers today and almost all of them have access to SMS," it added.-- KDM, GMA News


Article from: GMA News Online

London Calling: Twilio Cures Hangovers, Hacks with Amigo Labs and Readies for MWC

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

February is dominated by the monster that is Mobile World Congress. Team Twilio will be there in force. If you are attending the show then make sure you swing by and visit us in App Planet – we are booth number #8.1L14.

In addition to MWC we are out and about at the following events over the next few weeks. Be sure to catch our CEO, Jeff Lawson, speaking at London Web Summit on the 1st March.

Follow Team Twilio on Plancast to stay up to date.
Latest Twilio API Feature: Hangover Cure

In other news the Twilio API is now able to cure hangovers. We exclusively released this feature at Monki Gras.

Internal Hack Day with Amigo Loans

Sometimes a company just needs to sit down and have a good ol’ hack day to figure out the next best thing to build. We hosted an Internal Hack Day with Amigo Loans, a new kind of loan platform based on your personal network. Together we walked through the Twilio API and prototyped out new ideas for Amigo Loans to use in their business.

IT Director Mark Burgess said “it was great to do a deep dive into something new with my team, away from the office and with the product experts.  The guys from Twilio did a great job introducing the technology, got straight into code examples and within minutes my team were up and running, making calls and sending texts.  The challenges they were set helped us quickly get an understanding of the platform, capabilities, limitations and gave us some examples/demos to take back to the business.  There was no sales pitch, just people that deeply believe in the solution and its possibilities.  We still have work to do to be certain Twilio is right for us, but by doing the hack we learned a lot very fast and can now make a more informed decision.”

Article from: jamesparton

Affiliate Marketing Tips To Help You Make More Money

Affiliate marketing has so many different possibilities for what you can use,the things you can do, and how you can apply it, to your own personal business. It is rare to find somebody that will market just like you, so why not take advantage of that and create a marketing plan that works for only you? This article can help you.

When selecting an affiliate marketing program, make sure to consider the needs of your site's audience. You want to select a product that is relevant to your readers, otherwise it will make you appear like a con artist that is just after their money. Focus on your niche market and recommend only products and services that are relevant to them, and they will be more likely to follow links and buy.

A great tip that affiliate marketers can use to check on the quality of the companies they are dealing with, is to contact them pretending to be a customer and check their phone order system. If you find it difficult or have a bad experience, there is a good chance your customers will feel the same way and not buy anything.

Use the keywords from your website's Search Engine Optimization on Twitter, too. Include them in the first thirty words of your description, as well as in the Tweets you post. Also include your URL in your biography to get another backlink to your website, driving people who enjoy your Twitter feed to read more on your website.

Be positive! It's always important that your affiliate campaign uses positive language when promoting a product. You cannot speak in any negative context whatsoever, and that includes speaking badly of the competition! People need to hear that your product is the best on the market, but they don't want to hear you attack the other product.

Focus on high margin items if your targeted audience can afford it. Promoting a high value item and a 99 cent book both take the same amount of time and effort. If you are going through all the work anyway, focus on something that can make you some real money. The other benefit is that you need less sell throughs to make the same amount of money.

If you have successfully marketed one product and are looking to start more campaigns in affiliate marketing, it is generally a good idea to choose products that are related to the one you have already done. You already have a good idea how to promote this product and thus it will be easier to promote the new products.

Are you wanting to get a start in affiliate marketing? One simple strategy to remember is to not put all of your eggs in one basket. It is best to promote products from more than one merchant. This way, if one merchant is slow in paying you your "piece of the pie", the effect on your business will be minimal. It is prudent to protect yourself and diversify with promoting niche merchandise from different merchants.

Isn't creating your own personal affiliate marketing plan exciting? As you have seen in this article, there are a lot of ways this can be done and no two plans or programs will yield the same results. There are also lots of customizable options that can work with your business and budget.

Instagram Does the Two Step - And Steps In It

 

And just like that, the photo sharing app market is up for grabs.

It didn't seem possible just eight short months ago when Facebook announced that it was acquiring the fledgling hipster photo sharing app for $1 billion. Instagram was all the rage, and I've even heard from a number of sources that it is now one of the definitive social networks for the teen and tween demographic.

But with yesterday's announcement of pending changes in its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, Instagram is quickly falling from grace.

So what happened?

It's not too long ago (okay, in social media terms, it was eons ago) that Flickr was one of the major social networks. It was the photo sharing site of choice. Backed by Yahoo!, there seemed to be a bright future for this repository of images. But the rise of Instagram as a deft and light app that allowed seamless integration into sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more made some wonder if there was a future for Flickr.

Article from: Scott monty

Trying to find Blogging Tips? Attempt These Suggestions!

If you'd like a brand new method to communicate with individuals that share your interests, attempt blogging. It is possible to commit as a great deal time as you'd like with posting content material, which tends to make blogging a handy hobby. Read this short article to find out extra on ways to produce a thriving weblog and retain web page guests!

Retain tabs in your website traffic level. These numbers can let you know a good deal. You are going to locate, nevertheless, that the amount of readers that frequent your weblog is very important however it will not be the only deciding aspect in irrespective of whether you may generate profits. Some blogs might have a really pick readership but be really lucrative.

Permitting guests to post in your weblog is an excellent strategy to get additional men and women for your website and enhance your visibility. Bloggers are constantly trying to find locations to contribute their material to. And obviously, they're going to in all probability wish to promote their contributions, major individuals back for your weblog.

Should you can, you'll want to make use of a custom WordPress theme. In today's time, readers possess the capability to recognize themes which are really generic in nature. Applying these generic themes are just fine provided that you adjust up your header style in order that it really is far more special.

Attempt locating your size your self. Determine a post size that could match together with your capabilities and habits. Do not copy other bloggers, attempt obtaining what functions for you personally by experimenting. Some 600-700 words per entry, and some write 2000-3000 words per entry. Attempt testing what performs for the personal writing style and requirements.

When beginning a productive weblog, you need to study to become constant and patient. Consistency is often a main element since you should offer fresh facts which will engage readers frequently. As a way to obtain readers and make a thriving weblog, it's essential to also be patient. It may take time for the weblog to catch on.

Contain a simple to adhere to index in your weblog page. Should you usually do not have an index, the individuals who view your web-site might have a hard time looking to navigate across your internet site. An index will make your web site a lot more user-friendly, that will bring your readers back for much more.

A simple issue to complete, that can help your readers assessment pertinent material inside your weblog, is usually to involve bullet points. These not just help the reader in scanning, but will also break up your entry into a extra simple to read piece. Make your bullets bold to boost the ease of use also.


Do not go also broad together with your posts. For those who have diverse capabilities, attempt applying them on a precise subject. Producing broad weblog posts in an uncontrollable way could make your brand dissolve. Even when you've readers which are keen on many topics, you are creating it tougher for folks to recognize your single brand.

Make your writing and also the subjects that you just write about tempt your reader. You generally choose to leave them wanting a lot more, and searching forward for your subsequent post. If you're in a position to perform this 90% of your time, you might have most people coming back to check your weblog usually.

If you'd like to succeed with blogging, you will need to create confident that you simply know what you might be undertaking. Take the time ahead of you get started your weblog to perform investigation, to ensure that it is possible to ensure to obtain out of it what you wish. Read as significantly as you are able to around the topic, and be 100% particular which you have all of the expertise that you just will need.

Generate archives for the blogs which are sorted by title, as opposed to the month they had been designed. Choose about ten topics that your posts could possibly be sorted into. This may give readers much easier access for the archived facts associated to their interests. Monthly archives are far additional hard to find certain topics in.

Think about obtaining sponsors for the weblog. Sponsors offer you funds for certainly one of two causes. They either would like to assistance the message you're broadcasting or they're benefitting by placing their very own name or item in front with the reader. Either way, you may have manage of what your reader sees and this really is surely an benefit.

As mentioned previously inside the post, blogging is usually a enjoyable, quick hobby to choose up. Obtaining the correct weblog hosting web page and layout for the content material is definitely the most tough aspect. When you get that accomplished, just begin sharing content material! Recall the guidelines within this short article, should you to run a effective weblog.

NASA International Space Station email and text service

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KFSN) -- Galactic tourism may still be a daydream for most of us, but for anyone interested in a glimpse of the International Space Station sooner, NASA is ready to help.

The U.S. Space Agency, celebrating the 12th anniversary of astronauts living and working on the orbiting lab, launched a new service Friday that alerts people when the space station is visible from their back yard.

Those who sign up will get an email or a text message with a few hours warning. Then, when the moment is right, NASA said, you just go outside and look up -- no fancy equipment required.

"It's really remarkable to see the space station fly overhead and to realize humans built an orbital complex that can be spotted from earth by almost anyone looking up at just the right moment," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, said in a statement.

The space station is typically visible right at dawn or dusk, when the moon is the only brighter object visible in the night sky, NASA said.

"Spot the station" service is available worldwide, the agency said, adding the station's trajectory carries it over more than 90 percent of the earth's population.

Article from: abclocal

Do You Need Help With Your Mobile Marketing Campaign?

Mobile marketing may be a great source of major or minor income for you. These tips will help you to be an expert at mobile marketing.

Try to find out as much as you can about your target demographics when mobile marketing, because then you can target what they want and need. This is how you can help to cater your message to your target's tastes.

Make sure you have a business presence on each popular social networking site. If you want your business to be found, this is critical. Keep your business focused on the basics at first and branch out from there. Use Foursquare and Facebook as a bare minimum for advertisement of your business.

Effective mobile marketing techniques often include offers that a potential customer must access through codes or coupons. Upon receiving special offers in a direct message, many potential clients will be willing to give up a little of their time to see what's available.

Recruit friends to test your marketing methods before trying them on the public. To get a truly unbiased opinion, you could pay an outside firm to test out your campaign.

Think about what your goals are BEFORE you start planning your mobile marketing campaign. When starting off, figure out what your goals are and how you can apply them to mobile marketing. Your goal may be to increase your business traffic, pull in repeat customers or to interact with customers.

Running a picture-to-screen campaign is a wonderful idea. These campaigns involve having customers use their phones to take pictures. The user then sends the pictures using a short code enabling it to be instantly posted on a digital screen. Either a television or several digital billboards can show these pictures.

Use a variety of online media to supplement your mobile marketing. Your content should be relevant to your page and you should put anything interesting in there that will get people coming back. When you provide your reader room to comment and other ways that they can participate on your site, you will see your sales soar.

Make sure you market through all platforms your costumers might use. Every message should read properly on a wide variety of mobile devices, including Apple iOS devices, Android devices, Blackberries and more. Remember, it's much easier to send simple messages than to adjust them to each platform. Remember "KISS", or keep it simple stupid, when doing mobile marketing.

Allow message recipients to leave feedback about your mobile marketing communications. This offers an excellent opportunity to connect more effectively and interact with your customers. Continue to solicit customer feedback from those who seem willing to give it.

Be precise and easy to understand. If you minimize the number of required clicks, you will increase your chances for success. Mobile keypads are extremely tiny and can become very frustrating to use. Therefore, cut everything from the campaign except for the items you absolutely must keep.

Mobile marketing is not brain surgery, but there a few things to consider. You need to work at it, but the rewards are definitely worth the effort. Use the tips listed above to help your business thrive even in a rough economy.

Help your clients find the right seo reseller

Congratulations! You are running a successful website design and development company. Now your customers are asking you to provide search engine optimization (SEO) services. If you had been an English major, this task wouldn’t be so daunting. Time to integrate an seo reseller program. You know of a few resellers out there, but you’d better read some seo reseller review before sharing this info with your clients if you want them to continue to do business with you.

You found what you think is the best seo reseller out there. Oh right, you have no clue if they are the real deal. Remember when you where building your business and people started to write reviews of your company online? The thought made you cringe. “What if they write horrible crap about me?” Well, you had to trust that you knew website design really well and offered incredible customer service. Those are the key elements of what you want to find in the seo reseller review.

As you find the seo reseller review of the SEO resellers you want to explore, you likely uncovered a bunch of options. Think of it as the value meal options of SEO world. Want a side of fries with that? You find out that white label seo will allow you to appear like you are doing all of the SEO writing under your company. That kind of seamless service might serve your customers well.

Then it dawns on you that you really don’t want to have to pretend to know as much about SEO as the professionals do. You are looking for an SEO partner, really. When searching the seo reseller review look for the ones that are looking to work with you and your client directly as an option. If they have the infrastructure for this kind of cooperation, it might make the process work smoother than you think.

One more thing to think about is how legitimate the seo reseller review sites are. I already know what you’re thinking, “they wouldn’t fake their own reviews would they?” Well, I’ve got a bridge to sell you if you think for one second they don’t play hard at this game. There are real seo reseller review out there, you just have to do a little more digging.

Once you locate real seo reseller review sites you will find a virtual smorgasbord of SEO resellers.

Article by Michelle

SMS Text Messaging

Text messaging or SMS (Short Messaging Service) has exploded in popularity in recent years and is now an important channel of communication for businesses to interact with their customers. SMS text message marketing gives you the ability to reach out to your customers instantly, wherever they are, with important information they have requested. MESSAGE SPECTRUM’s SMS test messaging platform enables any business to position itself at the forefront of this cutting edge technology. Use the resources at our company to help you understand the power of SMS message marketing and contact us today to find out more.

Why use SMS text to contact my customers?
Cell phones today are so much more than just phones. They double as our alarms, calculators, personal organizers, cameras, music & video players. The cell phone is now the must-have all-in-one handheld device that people don’t leave home without.

Text messaging affords an immediacy unsurpassed by other marketing channels. Unlike email, a text message won’t sit in an inbox waiting for you to login to your computer.

SMS text messaging is significantly less expensive than direct mail and by providing information only to customers who have opted in to receive messages from your company you ensure you are only paying to reach interested customers.

Text messaging as a communication channel is applicable to any business or organization. Use SMS text messaging to send limited time special offers, coupons, last minute information, reminders and invitations.

Building an SMS text messaging database
It is important to gain the permission of the people you plan to send text messages to ensure that your customer wants to receive the messages while avoiding wastage of your marketing budget. Furthermore, if you send unsolicited messages this could create negative sentiments on the part of the recipient towards your business / brand and have the opposite of the desired effect.

Legally you must provide a means of the recipient opting out. This is usually managed by the recipient being advised in the text they can reply STOP to be removed from your list.

There is legislation in place covering permission based SMS marketing. If in any doubt as to your compliance please review the following Best Practices from the Mobile Marketing Association by clicking here.

So how do you get customers to subscribe? Perhaps you already have a customer database that you can get in touch with to begin with, if not - don’t worry. Think about how you communicate with your customers currently. Here are several ways in which you might do this:

By using their phone – your customers simply need to send a text stating your custom ‘keyword’ to a shortcode that we will provide you with

  1  Online - create a simple sign up form on your company website.

  2  Email - email your customers about your new text service and include sign-up details.

  3  Direct mail - you may have to mail your customers, include sign-up details in your next mailing.

  4  Print communications - include sign-up info in your press ads, flyers and other printed matter.



Position your SMS text messaging service as something they will benefit from, for example, 'Receive exclusive special offers' or 'Get up to the minute information'. By communicating the potential benefits you are securing a new direct and personal marketing channel between your business and the customer.

Creating Effective SMS campaigns

So you have a database of willing recipients…now what?
The next step is to identify how you will deploy text messaging to achieve your business goals. Text messaging can be highly targeted and is unique in it’s immediacy. Think about messages to your customers or members where speed of delivery (and receipt!) is the foremost priority. It could be a change of venue at a trade show, cancelled school or soccer practice at school, a weather or traffic alert. Some of our clients send out coupons for a special that lasts only hours or use SMS for a simple survey. Financial services clientele use SMS for rate changes or balance notifications triggered at certain bank balances. Other companies use SMS to notify customers of changes in travel or delays.

Think about your type of business and your objectives. Text messaging can be especially effective in

 1   Driving sales of slow moving product.

 2   Stimulating uptake of new services.

 3   Creating awareness of ongoing / regular promotions.

 4   Introducing existing customers to new products / services.

 5   Last minute notices and offers.

 6   Delivering coupons (affording measurability of campaign success given that the customer must show the text to redeem the offer).

 7   Sending customers notices and reminders.

 8   Content delivery (can be monetized via premium rate SMS service – ask about our turnkey premium billing services).



In addition to affording you the ability to send broadcast text messages to your customers and the ability to target your messaging by segmenting your database by whatever parameters you choose, our SMS platform is also fully integrated with our cohesive one stop messaging platform, WebLaunch.

WebLaunch allows you to manage all your messaging – SMS, Voice, Email and Fax – from one convenient interface. Furthermore you can now create single campaigns that trigger multiple communication modes to your customer such as

 1   Launch an outbound voice call that triggers a follow-up SMS to all or select respondents.

 2   Have customers respond to a short code via SMS that triggers an email.

 3   Trigger an SMS from an inbound voice call - eg. the customer presses ‘1’ and receives information via SMS.

 4   Trigger a voice call or email from SMS – promote your shortcode to customers and prospects - within minutes of them texting in they can be receiving information to their phone or email.


Article From: http://www.messagespectrum.com