Live Blog: Mobile Marketing Strategy for Progressive Communicators

I’m getting ready to live blog from the Progressive Communicators of Washington, D.C. event at WWF on mobile communications tactics for progressive communicators.

UPDATE: The live event has concluded. The archived video of this panel discussion is available here:

Presenters (left to right): Jeff Lee; Jed Alpert, Mobile Commons; Rachel Labruyere, Reform Immigration FOR America Campaign; Ron Vassall, Kaptivate; David Miller, Mobile Discovery; and Susan Murray, American Red Cross.

Note: these updates should not be interpreted as direct quotes from participants, but instead, notes covering the substance of their comments.

12:36 - Thanks for joining the live blog!  We’ve been addressing some of the audio issues with the live stream, but will be providing updates going forward.  Thanks for your patience.

12:43 – Rachel Labruyere: our 140,000 SMS subscribers is the biggest SMS list for immigration activism outside of the Obama campaign.  Mobile is the right technology for the right time, and allows us to reach people that aren’t using the web.

12:45 - Rachel Labruyere: saw phenomenal response from mobile efforts.  Upwards of 5,000 people responded to the initial text campaign.  The campaign used text messages to recruit people to participate in house parties and followed up directly with those responding to text messages.

12:49 - Rachel Labruyere: prompted people to text “RIDE” to a central number if they needed a ride to participate in the immigration rally in Washington, D.C.  This enabled the campaign help to find rides for people in advance and bolster attendance at the rally.

12:52 - Rachel Labruyere: One of the biggest things that we do is to drive calls to Congress and the White House – at this point, we’ve driven over 300,000 calls.  Once you hang up on that call, you immediately get a text back thanking you for your call.  If you’re on the SMS list, it prompts you to encourage five friends to make a call.  If you’re not on the list, it asks you whether you would like to join.

12:53 - Rachel Labruyere: Prompting people to opt-in to the SMS list is most successful at live events.

12:57 - Jed Alpert: programs are successful because there is a reason to use mobile, and people are excited to participate in it.  Tools facilitate this participation, but a good campaign is essential.

1:00 – Ron Vassall: mobile web is an interesting addition to SMS as it expands your capabilities and what you can do in mobile campaigns.

1:02 - Jeff Lee: it is now more common that your mobile system is connected with your backend CRM system that you use to track who your top donors are.  When you get somebody texting in, you can bring that interaction back into your core system to help contribute data and information about your supporters.

1:05 – David Miller: APIs make it easier to share information across networks by allowing you to push information into other platforms – such as Facebook or Twitter – via your mobile efforts.  This helps you reach broader audiences and can help your messages go viral.

1:08 – Jed Alpert: The data shows that until you are 46 or 47 years old, you send more text messages than you make phone calls.  The largest growth in text messaging is occurring among those that are older than 65.

1:10 – Susan Miller: for the tsunami, we raised $120,000 via SMS.  For Hurricane Katrina, we raised an equivalent amount.  In 2008, we raised around $250,000 around the time of the Republican National Convention, as there was a lot of hurricane coverage and concern over potential hurricanes.  The 2008 effort was bolstered by support from the Obama campaign, who sent out a request to their list.  Today, it is a completely different landscape, where over 91% of people are mobile subscribers and over 20% are mobile-only households.

1:12 – Susan Miller: text HAITI to 90999 to experience how fundraising works via SMS, as part of the current effort in support of earthquake relief.  You will have to reply yes to confirm your donation, but this can show you how it works in practice.  It is very, very easy.

1:15 – Susan Miller: to date we’ve raised over $32 million for earthquake relief in Haiti, an effort that was bolstered by activity and publicity on social networks.  On mobile, 91% of what we raised was raised in the first two weeks.

1:16 – Susan Miller: to address potential user error in texting – such as spelling an opt-in keyword incorrectly – you must tell your carrier that you want to recognize as many potential spellings as possible.

1:19 – Susan Miller: we are at a crossroads of mobile fundraising and things will change – but right now, $5 and $10 limits are the norm.  Carriers may see it as a liability, as it is essentially a floating loan until people pay their phone bills.

1:23 – Jeff Lee: One thing to keep in mind is that the U.S. short codes do not work in other countries.  In each country that you work in, you will have a different mechanism to attract people.

1:26 - Jed Alpert: There was a recent authorization of a pan-Latin short code that will be able to be used across Latin America.

1:28 - David Miller: Premium SMS is not your only option, so you don’t always have to go through the carrier.  As we move forward and phones evolve, the reliance on the carrier for doing things in general is going down.  It is good to keep in mind as we think about campaigns in the future.

1:31 – Jed Alpert: 501(c)3 organizations and some religious organizations have been authorized for text message fundraising.  Mobile donations are not yet available for political candidates.

1:34 – Rachel Labruyere: having more information makes the list more useful.  We sent a message that offered a t-shirt to anybody that texted us their address to help increase the data that we have about those on our list.  That allows us to target them more effectively.

1:37 – Jed Alpert: the bigger mobile fundraising gets, the less incentive there is for the carriers to do it.

1:39 – Ron Vassall: smart phones will revolutionize what we’re able to do with SMS outreach.  We’re at 70 million smart phone users now, and will be at 100 million by the end of the year.

1:44 – Jeff Lee: there is some discussion about adding mobile to current regulations that prevent spam.

1:47 – Ron Vassall: nonprofits often choose to share codes to save money, but the risk is that one bad apple could cause the short code to be shut down if it is abused.

1:50 – David Miller: Apple revolutionized the entire mobile world when they introduced the iPhone and the App Store.  It tapped into a consumer demand that nobody was fully aware of – the success of the App Store surprised even Apple.

1:53 – Jed Alpert: mobile donation is just a part of mobile communication overall.  At certain moments it is the biggest thing in mobile communication for nonprofits – but it should be part of a mobile communication strategy.  The issues confronting nonprofits and mobile that are policy oriented are very similar to those confronting people in other areas.

2:00 – David Miller: one of the products that Mobile Discovery offers is called EcoShow, which can help to distribute materials digitally using mobile technology.

This concludes today’s live blog.  Thank you for tuning in!