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.

Google – To Text or Not To Text?

Google recently launched a pretty cool program that links online content to real world locations with their new QR-code based program, “Favorite Places on Google.”

For the program, Google identified the 100,000 most searched stores in the US and provided those stores with a barcode to place on their windows. Consumers can now scan the barcode with their cell phones to get more information on the business, including reviews, coupons, or an option to review the business. The program is based around Google’s “Local Business Center.”

You can read about it on MobiADNews here.

Obviously there is one big problem with the program – only people with barcode readers installed on their phones can use it.

Sure, more and more people are buying smart phones and utilizing App stores, but how many are really using barcode readers? Wouldn’t it be smarter to incorporate a messaging side to this program so all 270 million mobile subscribers can participate?

The Company currently has a popular SMS option in place that allows consumers to text in the name of a location to 466453 (Google) and receive a message back with the business’ address and phone number. Why not take this option to the next level? Decals could continue to have the barcode but also include a keyword and a Google short code. Any costs could be offset by selling the messaging costs back to the businesses.

After all, Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Wouldn’t making the “Favorite Places on Google” accessible via SMS make the information more universally accessible?

Not to mention, SMS could be another potential revenue stream for them by selling mobile messaging packages into the SMB market.

Mobile Can (And Should) Be A Franchise Player In The College Football Marketing Game

Football season is upon us and I can’t start to explain how much I have missed it.

Now, I love the NFL as much as the next person, but for me Saturdays are a whole different game.  Nothing feels more American than crisp fall weather, ice cold beer, barbecued meats, and the mesmerizing week-to-week soap opera that is the college football rankings.

One of the most hotly contested rivalry in college ball these days is the one that exists between Michigan and Ohio State.

Below, you can find two randomly selected fans:

These two live and die for their football. On Saturdays they are at the game or in front of the TV dressed in head to toe team gear. During the week, they are thinking about Saturday, talking about Tate Forcier’s or Terrelle Pryor’s ability to deliver them the big “W” and ranting about changes that need to be made before the game.

On November 21, these two, along with every other Michigan and OSU fan, will spend an entire Saturday screaming at each other from opposite sides of “The Big House” (or through their TV).

Though these fans hate each other, they still have two things in common:

1. They both love their teams more than anything.
2. They both have cell phones in their pockets right now.

And because of that, college football-themed SMS promotions have immense potential. For colleges, they mean additional revenue during a brutal year for endowment financing; for brands, they deliver the ability to tie an advertising message to something as personal and beloved as college football. And of course, no marketing media reaches consumers more directly, more personally, than mobile.

AT&T has a brilliant thing going with its All-American Player of the Week campaign. Now in its sixth year, the campaign allows fans to text-in to select the previous weekend’s top performer (from a list of pre-selected nominees). By texting in, fans not only get to log a vote for their favorite player, but they also get entered into a sweepstakes to win a trip to the 2010 BCS National Championship game in Pasadena, Calif.

Look out OSU, Michigan’s “Tate the Great,” was week 2’s winner. Looks like it is time to get your cell phones out and start texting.

AT&T also allows fans to sign up for game day reminder alerts, stat updates and free ticket offers from certain college teams.

Along with AT&T, Anheuser-Busch is seizing opportunity with some exciting college football promotions. The brewer (and Waterfall Mobile client) is currently running a campaign and sweepstakes with the grand prize of two tickets to the Big 12 Championship in December. People can text RIVALS to 23377 to join one of twelve schools’ mobile subscriber lists. Once on the lists, the subscribers start receiving game day reminder texts and are instantly entered into the sweepstakes.

More teams really should be seizing this huge opportunity to connect with fans. And I am not alone in this opinion. Greg Brown, president of Learfield Sports, did an interview recently with the Sports Business Journal to discuss the upcoming college football season.

(Learfield, headquartered in Plano, Texas, is widely acknowledged to be a leader in collegiate sports marketing.)

Here’s how Brown concluded the interview:

SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL: In terms of generating revenue from football, what are your expectations for the year?

BROWN: I think it’s going to come from more of the technology developments, the text promotions, text sponsorships. There’s a whole new opportunity on the technology side that we’re all trying to figure out how to monetize. That’s where people are looking for the “text to win” promotion, the bounce-back coupon. They want more interactivity, more touches with the consumer. They don’t generally want straight-up branding, they want to reach out and demonstrate value. People want contact with the consumer in some fashion, and that’s true on radio, TV and at the venue.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

SMS-to-Garage-Door-Opener

Here at Waterfall Mobile HQ, we have the ability to integrate not just other software with our flagship product, Msgme, but hardware as well. The sms-to-garage-door-opener project was born out of an internal need – many at the office always faced problems getting into the garage because building management only gave us two remotes.

The project used only off-the-shelf hardware and took an afternoon to complete. The key was a USB-to-serial converter. This module converts USB signals into lower level digital signals that low-level electronics, such as a garage door opener, can understand. Then it was just a matter of writing some simple code, in our case using PHP, to activate the remote when an SMS message is sent to Msgme.

By using Msgme’s dynamic content keyword feature, every time a request for the garage door opener’s keyword is received, Msgme forwards the request to the opener’s web service hosted within our office. The web service then validates the phone number requesting the service as a security precaution to prevent unauthorized openings. If the number is valid, the web service triggers the hardware and voila! The door opens. An added feature is the ability to make the keyword interactive, so whomever is first to arrive and takes one of the two parking spots, can text their name. This way everyone in the office can know whether a spot is open and adjust their commute accordingly.

The only problems that we ran into were mostly caused by the delay of message delivery from the carriers or aggregator into our service. Usually it’s near instant as soon as the SMS leaves the handset.

The model is designed to be completely portable. If our building management decides to switch garage door opener models, we can adapt the hardware to the new remote with a few simple tweaks. We also are planning to build a smaller and more integrated version to make the garage door opener even more portable.

The sms-to-garage-door-opener project only scratches the surface of what SMS and simple integrations can do, especially with physical hardware. Currently there are numerous services available that tote the virtue of using SMS to do everything from mobile payments, to location-based marketing, and robust search services. However, few projects out there address how convenient it is to have SMS physically control the every day objects we use.

But with Msgme’s ability to integrate with other web services, and even physical hardware, a developer can easily extend SMS into every facet of daily life!

Beck Media Shows the Power of Mobile: Green Beer Finder

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day (Tues., Mar. 17), Beck Media & Marketing may have unlocked the greatest potential yet for the mobile platform: a text message-based search engine to find green beer.

Mobile phone owners in four major cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and New York City) can text GREENBEER to 67463. After selecting your closest neighborhood, the system will match you with a nearby pub or brewery serving the time-honored, magically green concoction for St. Patty’s Day.

Cheers!

Best Practices: Mobile Improves Healthcare Marketing

Mobile Marketer

“Today, SMS messaging is really the only viable, interactive means of reaching people on a massive scale around the nation. The mobile channel also represents an enormous untapped potential for changing health behavior on a massive scale.”

“(Mobile marketing) has the opportunity to help make the healthcare system more efficient, to help agencies make better use of existing data, to help reduce costs and to help consumers improve their health and their lives through a medium they understand and embrace.”

The healthcare industry is beginning to leverage the advantages of mobile marketing. Healthcare professionals and marketers look for innovative ideas to increase communication and enahance relationships with loyal patients. With text, voice and WAP mobile marketing, healthcare marketers can extend branding reach, create two-way relationships with patients and provide interactive customer support and follow up.

For more information on text, voice and WAP mobile marketing, please contact your account manager or email sales@msgme.com.

View article.

Industry Case Study: Kroger’s Mobile Coupons

Campaign Overview
With the success of mobile coupons in Asia, Kroger Co., one of the largest retail food companies in the Unites States with 2, 2000 stores, wanted to provide its customers similar coupons and discounts with interactive mobile marketing campaigns.

Campaign Objective
Create mobile loyalty programs for Kroger customers and provide redeemable mobile coupons and discounts.

Marketing Tactics
The retailer created a Kroger Plus Card for shoppers to receive large discounts from major brands and select Kroger labeled products to their mobile device. The retailer decided to test its mobile coupon program in stores located in South Eastern states, Illinois, Ohio, Louisiana and Texas. To sign up for coupons, Kroger shoppers need to go online to create and activate their account.

Read more

Verizon Wireless Sets Record with SMS Messages Over Holidays

Mobile Marketer

Verizon Wireless has set a record with the number of SMS text messages processed on its network in the holiday season.

The wireless carrier processed an estimated 1.6 billion text messages on Wednesday, Dec. 31, New Year’s Eve. This was a 20 percent jump from an average Wednesday in December 2008.

View article.

SMS Short Code Marketing Maturing: Nielsen Report

Mobile Marketer

Advertisers are ramping up SMS short code marketing, according to a new Nielsen Mobile report.

“The text-message audience is there, it’s now up to marketers to create a reason that consumers would want to relate to them through such a personal and immediate medium.”

– Nic Covey, Chicago-based director of insights for Nielsen.

View Article.

No Slowing of Mobile Messaging Services Growth in Tough Economic Times

Fierce Wireless

With the global economy showing more and more signs of slowing down, mobile messaging growth will continue. In a recent report from ABI Research, mobile messaging services revenues will grow from $151 billion in 2008 to greater than $212 billion globally by 2013.

“One of the main reasons: more and more customers see mobile messaging services as a more efficient way to communicate than voice services.”

Continue your multichannel mobile strategy across traditional and online media placements.

View Article.