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Cell phones and text messaging have been popular even prior to the Web 2.o tools, in the U.S. cellphone users were around 34 million which grew to touch 203 million within a decade (post-gazette.com). Businesses have used text messaging, so have universities, non-profit organizations and politicians for their campaigns. U.S. President Obama’s text messaging campaign was extremely successful and much talked about. Recent earthquake in Haiti has witnessed fund raising efforts through text-messaging.
Text-messaging has been even more popular in Asia, according to NASDAQ cell phone users in India at the end of 2009 were at 492 million and the number is expected to reach a whopping 900 million by 2012. Text-messaging has therefore been highly explored in India. A public diplomacy blog informs how text-messaging has been employed for activism in the country. Bharti Airtel the largest mobile service provider in India with its aggressive text messaging campaigns has often been in the news for customer complaints over unsolicited text messages to customers.
Still text-messaging has been very popular and profitable in India. People have been extremely innovative with their cell phones devising ways to communicate even with a missed call(“Will give you a missed call when I reach home” is a familiar example)!
My first encounter with text messaging in public relations happened when I started working in a small PR agency in Delhi in 2004. My boss would hand me her mobile phone and a long list of journalists’ phone numbers to whom I would mechanically forward drafted messages promoting story ideas or a new fashion line by a designer(client) on show at a gallery! I started personalizing those messages mostly to help me feel a little less of the technician!
Extremely low on creativity as it may seem, the SMSs did work, it required very little time, money and effort yet journalists did respond. However, in the months and years to come as I moved to Sampark PR and then to Hanmer MS&L (two of the top PR agencies in India) I realised that people (journalists) respond to your efforts well when you already have built a rapport with them. Text-messaging for public relations can be explored in a number of other ways with different stakeholders.
Journalists in India often choose to send quick texts to check if the PR professional can provide them suitable material for a story that they are working on. Another simple and practical use of text messages with media can be during company events and press conferences. On a busy day when several companies have media events lined up journalists (if the oganizations are relevant to their beats) have to run from one event to the other, in such cases text messaging often comes handy in reminding the journalists about the conference and ensure their attendance.
What are some of your experiences with text messaging in building relations with stake holders?
You’ve made an excellent point by sharing your personal experience! : ) I agree that the receiver of the sms is more likely to respond if they know the sender or already have a rapport with them. One of the ways I’ve used sms to build relations is by sending personalized New Year/Christmas greetings to our stakeholders e.g. vendors or suppliers. Helps keep in touch with them, especially during those months when we’ve not hired them for our projects. : )
Thanks Neha for sharing your use of organizational text-messaging. It is an example of maintaining good relations.
Texting is definitely the cheapest n d most easiest way to get in touch with some1. I found it most convenient while informing or reminding my group mates about a certain project meeting. But obviously the the idea of texting to build PR is really interesting and is still very new to me.
Hey Piu, thanks for sharing how you used text-messaging for work related functions. Text-messaging is a very efficient tool for being on top of things when working in a team. Also, at work when at a meeting but need to do a quick check or reminder with someone not present at the location text-messaging can be a discreet way of communicating. Let me know how you are using it at work!