MobileActive.org

Introduction

Over the last several years, it’s become clear that mobile phones are becoming one of the most influential devices in our social, political, and civic lives. Savvy nonprofit organizations and NGOs are experimenting with using mobile phones as persuasive devices to recruit new supporters, organize groups, and advocate for causes.

Thus far, most of the successful mobile-phone campaigns have relied on text messaging as their persuasive technology of choice. It’s the only mobile phone technology that works reliably across the majority of mobile phones in most countries. In addition, most people in most countries are familiar with text messaging.

Many organizations want to use text messaging in their campaigns. However, the barriers to setting up a texting campaign appear to be steep. The process seems expensive, technical, and complex overall.

There is good news.

Setting up a text messaging campaign

There are two ways to set up a text campaign that require little technical knowledge – and one of these is inexpensive.

1. The first method is to hire a Mobile Application Provider (MAP) with a nonprofit focus. These vendors will guide you through the process – they’ve done it dozens of times and are familiar with nonprofit issues. Costs vary by country (as does availability of providers!) for ongoing management, advice, and service. But if your organization can afford it, this is the way to go.

2. Many organizations cannot afford to hire a provider or there are none available in the region where you operate. This document describes the second way – bootstrapping your way to a texting campaign by using Desktop SMS Campaign Tools on a tiny budget and with a minimum of technical expertise.

This method focuses on using software that you download and install on your personal computer that can control the texting software on your mobile phone. Using a simple cable from your mobile phone to your PC along with this software, you’ll have your own personal text messaging system set up in under an hour. Let’s look at a simple diagram that shows your laptop connected to your mobile phone, communicating wirelessly (sending and receiving texts) with any number of mobile phones.

We are proposing the name Desktop SMS Hub to refer to this category of software.  Very few people know that this type of software exists - and we are thinking that the lack of a name is part of the problem.

How it works

1. You tell the software what you want it to do.

For example:

a. KEYWORD RESPONSE:

When someone texts the word “VOLUNTEER” to my mobile phone number, respond with “Thanks for texting! You’ve joined our volunteer list. We’ll call you later to coordinate.”

b. TEXT BLASTING:

On Tuesday, February 5th, at 10:00am, send out the following text to all of the phone numbers in my contacts list “Don’t forget to vote today! Call us at [phone number] to get your polling place information.”

c. SMART TEXTING:

If someone texts the word “VOLUNTEER” to my mobile phone number, respond with “Thanks for texting! Would you like to volunteer this Friday or next Monday? Respond F or M.”

On the next message from this person, if they respond with “M,” your might send back “Great, the address is [address]. See you at 9am.” If the person responds with “F,” you might send back “Great, the address is [address]. See you at 10:30am.”

d. WEB CONNECTED TEXTING:

If someone texts the phrase “VOLUNTEER in Johannesburg” to my mobile number, send the message to a Web site for processing and receive a response. When the response comes back, send it along to the person who texted in. Note that what happens at this theoretical Web site is up to you. You could send the phrase to Google and then text back Google’s response. Or you could write your own script at this web site to pull volunteer opportunities from your database and text that information in response. The possibilities here are quite endless.

2. Connect your personal computer to your mobile phone using the cable that’s built for your phone.

Note that not all phones can connect to computers. You have to find one that does!

Alternatively, you can purchase a wireless modem – which is just like a mobile phone except that it’s built for the express purpose of connecting to a computer. Costs and availability of modems vary; however.

That’s it. Assuming that your computer and phone are plugged in and that you’ve installed the software without any problems, that’s all you’ll need. You’re done.

Note that when someone texts your phone number, the software will record the following information for every text:

• Phone number of person texting
• Time and Date
• Body of the text message

You can see why texting is such a great recruiting tool. As soon as you convince someone to text your number, you’ve gathered (at the least) their phone number – and can then begin a more substantial dialog with that person either by calling them or by asking for more information such as their email address.

A few caveats!

• Phone numbers are very private bits of data! It’s a best practice to tell people that you are gathering their phone numbers and to tell them what you intend to do with it. You should do this either before they text in, or in the first text that you send to them. You should always give people an option to remove their number from your database – to opt-out by replying to you with the text END or STOP.

• Most of the software you’ll need runs on Windows (most on Windows XP in particular). A lot of it works on Vista, but I’ve experienced quite a few technical difficulties across the board.

• Not all of the software can do all of a+b+c+d as listed above. See the SMS Tool Comparison Matrix for more details.

• Typically, text messaging campaigns involve sending messages to and from a shortcode, which is a five or six digit number that is like Web URL, but for mobile phones. Shortcodes are expensive and require carrier approval before you can operate a campaign on one. When you hire a vendor, they typically do this work for you.

• This method does not use short codes. It uses standard phone numbers.

• It takes quite a while to send and receive messages using this system – in tests that I ran, it took about 20 seconds to read 30 incoming texts and then about 5 minutes to send responses to 30 phones. Don’t use this system if you need high throughput.
  • However, some of this software can be used to connect EITHER to your mobile phone OR to an SMS aggregator such as Clickatell or Singlepoint. By connecting to an aggregator your throughput increases, you play by the carrier’s rules, and reliability increases. However, you have to pay a per message fee of about $0.06 - $0.11. Software that gives you both options gives you this flexibility. Look for a note about this capability in the matrix.

• OK, the big caveat: wireless carriers in many countries look down on this method because it cuts them out of revenue and control. They may turn off service to your phone if they discover that you are sending an abnormally large number of texts.

However, if you’re not sending an extraordinary number of messages, chances are low that this will happen. And even if you are – the carriers need to be pushed on this issue.

The Software

What software performs this bit of magic? There are a handful of options that runs the gamut of price and ease-of-use. But wait, didn’t I just say that it was free?

Yes, there are some free options – and good ones – but for some, you have to pay for the software. In general, this class of software consists of a good number of hacker projects, a collection of older software that works but that is no longer supported, and a few software packages that are alive, supported, and growing.

I've applied ratings to the SMS Hub Comparison Matrix that indicate whether it's a hacker, old, or active piece of software. I've also evaluated the ease of installation, ease of use, and support.

Results Summary

You can get all of the details on the SMS Hub Comparison Matrix. By all means, take a careful look through the ratings, notes, and features to decide what’s right for your needs. In sum, this is my opinion:

• FrontlineSMS is best for KEYWORD RESPONSE
  • Pros: It’s been used and is in use by dozens of nonprofits around the world. It’s alive, active, and improving. Ken Banks, the coder, is dedicated to the NGO sector and to making the software better. It’s currently undergoing a range of improvements and is free for nonprofits.
  • Cons: I ran into several bugs with the software on Vista (it's intended to be run on XP). The software is currently supported only by Ken. If he’s on a plane, you’ll have to wait for support. The other main con is that you can’t do smart texting with the software (this should change in the next version).

• SMSCaster is best for BLASTING
  • Pros: It’s the simplest, easiest to install and use, and works well.
  • Cons: It only does blasting. FrontlineSMS also does a good job at blasting, but it’s not as easy to use as SMSCaster.

• ActiveXperts is best for SMART TEXTING & WEB CONNECTED TEXTING
  • Pros: It’s got a robust set of filters that you can set up to configure a complex smart texting campaign.
  • Cons: It’s expensive. It’s complex. You’ve got to sit down with the user guide to figure out how to operate the software. You may need to be a technically inclined person to figure out some of the features.
  • Kinkmann looks like another good option, but it’s created for a dramatically different intended type of industry (robotic automation), so while it may work, it’s not going to be set up to answer questions or needs that nonprofits may have.