SMS To The Rescue

Mobile Marketer recently posted an article on how SMS is the only reliable channel during significant events.  The article takes a look at the spikes in traffic around significant events, such as the Chile earthquake and events like football games, elections or big holidays.

The findings are not shocking – but they are extremely interesting.  After looking at the SMS traffic patterns, the results are: SMS surges after and during big events (something Waterfall Mobile experienced with “The Cove” after the call-to-action for that very successful campaign was flashed onscreen during the Oscars).

So, why the surge?  Simply put, SMS is the best way to communicate in high-traffic times.  Many of those texters probably tried to place a call and couldn’t get through and then realized they could get in touch with loved ones via text.

As the writer, William Dudley of Sybase 365 explains:

Traffic channels have significantly more bandwidth than do the control channels, but control channels are not held up as long as traffic channels.

So when multiple calls are in progress, as when there is some event, the traffic channels are allocated. However, there is almost always control channel room for SMS traffic.

Even if there is no network capacity to deliver the message immediately, SMS messages are stored by the carrier’s SMSC, so when the network capacity is available, the message is then delivered.

The Mobile Marketer article noted when the earthquake hit Chile on February 27^th, SMS surged as much as ten times the normal rate for the first 24 hours.  Since that earthquake the SMS levels have remained double the normal rate and have surged even further around any aftershocks.

You can read the full article here.

I know in times where I’ve experienced earthquakes, placing a call immediately after was impossible – but SMS messages to family worked perfectly.   Have you had any similar experiences?

(Jason Saroyan is the AlertU business lead at Waterfall Mobile. For questions or inquiries regarding the AlertU emergency notification platform, please email him.)

Using Social Media to Connect With Students During Emergencies

Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube — it’s no secret that Social Networking Sites are popular among college students.  In fact, 2009 marked the year that Facebook surpassed email as the top form of communication, according to Nielsen Online.

In response to that, colleges across the United States are stepping up their online presence to try and engage their students.  A majority of colleges have a presence in social media, as 33 percent of colleges maintain a blog, 29 maintain a presence on social networking Web sites, 27 percent maintain message- or bulletin-boards, 19 percent employ video blogging, and 14 percent issue podcasts, according to a study by the National Association of College Admissions Counseling.  Beyond engaging with their students, eighty-eight percent of admission offices believed social media were either “somewhat” or “very” important to their future recruitment efforts.

With these overwhelming stats, it’s time for colleges to link social media technologies to emergency contingency plans so the school can get news out to as many students as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Waterfall’s AlertU emergency notification system already enables colleges to send text messages to students, faculty and staff in the event of a campus emergency.  The system is integrated into current emergency action plans quickly and easily, enabling an additional communication channel that delivers vital information to registered users, students, faculty and staff at colleges across the country.

Our successful emergency notification system already has email covered – the platform can re-distribute alerts to the unlimited distribution lists the school has set up – and we have recently taken the natural step to link up AlertU to social networking sites that the students are frequenting.  For example, when a school closes due to weather or the H1N1 virus, a college administrator can log onto AlertU’s site or send the notification via SMS text.  AlertU then automatically sends the text out to users and to the school’s Twitter account.

We all know almost nobody leaves home without their phone, so combine our attachment to cell phones with our addiction to social media in your emergency preparedness and you will have your students covered.  This means students studying in the library, or surfing the web on their laptop during a lecture, are sure to receive any important campus notifications during times when they may not have access to their mobile phones.

We have a lot of exciting things going on with AlertU right now, so be sure to stay tuned for exciting announcements in the coming months.

Wells Fargo Sponsors Emergency Notification for College Campus

Wells Fargo has signed on to provide Copper Mountain College (CMC) with Waterfall Mobile’s AlertU, an emergency alert notification system, through a sponsorship deal.

With AlertU, CMC school administrators can communicate critical campus community information to students, faculty and staff during an emergency in real-time thanks to the Wells Fargo sponsorship.

Campus administrators will use the system to send quarterly emergency alert test notifications to CMC subscribers. At the end of each test alert notification, subscribers receive a short message from sponsor Wells Fargo that will say, “This is the quarterly test of CMC’s emergency alert system.  Brought to you by Wells Fargo.”

To support Wells Fargo’s sponsorship of CMC quarterly test messages, Waterfall Mobile will assist the college with on-campus marketing to promote CMC’s emergency alert notification system.  The on-campus marketing will help notify students, faculty and parents about the service and drive people to sign up.

AlertU marketing will include posters around campus, campus radio and television spots, articles in the student newspaper and outreach to students during school registration.

Waterfall will also provide the school with training sessions on the system.

For more information on AlertU sponsorships or emergency alert notifications, please contact us.

The Great California Shakeout

On Thursday, October 15, at 10:15 am, 6.9 million Californians participated in the largest earthquake drill in U.S. history.

The purpose of the Great California ShakeOut was for Californians to practice how to protect themselves during earthquakes, and to get prepared at work, school, and home.  Schools, civic centers, and institutions from around the state participated in the drill.

I’m proud to note that more than 40 AlertU client schools were a part of this effort to make us all safer.

AlertU from Waterfall Mobile provides mobile alert messaging for enterprises, institutions and school campus communities, and enables easy and rapid communication with registered users via text messages.

AlertU successfully provided emergency notification mobile messaging to the schools during the earthquake drill, and was crucial in the colleges’ efforts to successfully complete the simulation.

During the drill, AlertU was used to send mobile alerts to registered users with instructions on the “BIG ONE” and to “Drop, cover and hold” within minutes of the simulated earthquake.

Participating AlertU schools included:

• City College San Francisco
• Golden west College
• Coast Community College District
• Coastline Community College
• Chaffey College
• Rancho Santiago Community College District
• Santiago Canyon College
• Santa Ana College
• Canada College
• Skyline College
• San Mateo City College
• Orange Coast College

This forward-thinking exercise was a great way for these communities to test their emergency preparedness, and I’m proud Waterfall Mobile and AlertU got to be a part of it.  As the Associated Press noted, an exercise of this scale provides invaluable data to hospitals, institutions and first responders.

To all of our client participants – congratulations on a job well done!

(Jason Saroyan is the AlertU business lead at Waterfall, and believes being in the know beats being in the dark…most of the time anyway.)