My cell phone beeps a lot in the summer. As soon as baseball season begins, my phone alerts me to the latest Mets score. Every three innings during each game, I receive a simple text message. When the message says, "Atlanta Braves 0, New York Mets 5," I'm feeling pretty good. When it says, "New York Yankees 0, New York Mets 10," I'm feeling borderline ecstatic.
Just as text messages keep me informed of the score, the cell network can also be used to reach constituents for issue advocacy and election campaigns.
Greenpeace Argentina used text messages to recruit 4,500 people to contact their local officials to support an urban waste reduction plan.
In the United Kingdom, more than 50,000 people used text messages to sign up for the International Fund for Animal Welfare's campaign against Canadian seal hunting.
During the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, protest organizers relied on text messages to inform demonstrators of protest travel routes and streets blocked by the police. Text messages also alerted legal aid attorneys about where and when their services were needed.
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama offer text messages to supporters. The Obama campaign goes a
step further, offering issue specific text messages on health, education, Iraq, and jobs. Supporters can also download ringtones and four different wallpapers to their cell phones. (Obama text message page, Clinton text message page)
What do you need to start your own text messaging effort for a political or issue campaign? You need to have access to a short code. If you ever watched American Idol, you will recognize the short code as the five- or six-digit code you need to type into your cell phone to vote for the performer of your choice.
Getting your own unique short code can be expensive. The alternative is to work with a vendor who will provide you with their short code. The disadvantage of using a vendor's short code is that you will be sharing the short code with the vendor's other clients. People responding to your campaign via text message will need to type a unique phrase in the first line of the message to distinguish it as a message for your campaign effort.
MobileActive.org
is a good resource to learn more about text messaging and using cell
phones for advocacy campaigns. To download their papers, you will need
to register with the site. Another good source of information is MobileStorm.com, which has a very useful Mobile Marketing Tips page. The mobile marketing grid is a great tool to reach thousands of users, but must be used appropriately.
