3. Who’s using Mobile Messaging?
– On average, African-Americans send and receive
780 text messages per month.
– 78% of African-Americans use mobile messaging
on their phones.
– 31% of African-Americans are signed up for text
alerts
• Mobile messaging isn’t just for youth: 58% of
adults ages 50-64 use mobile messaging
4. Benefits of Mobile Messaging
• Mobile messaging allows you to reach people
who you normally would not have reached
through solely using social media.
7. Case Study:This Is My Vote
• We connected with the list through keywords
like PLEDGE to Pledge to Vote, VOTE to get
more information about voting and voting
rights, and VOTED for people to send us after
they had voted.
8. Case Study: This Is My Vote
•We used mobile messaging to remind people of
registration deadlines, early voting and absentee voting
• Also connected people with our polling place look up
via text message.
9. Case study: This Is My Vote
• Mobile Messaging was used for Rapid
Response during Hurricane Sandy
11. Other Uses for Mobile Messaging
• Events
• Collect Demographic Information
• Volunteer communication
12. Contact
I am here to help! Feel free to contact me.
Lauren Wilson, Digital Media Field Manager
Email: lwilson@naacpnet.org
Office: (202) 559-9617
Cell: (443) 676-7503
Twitter: @loryn24
Show of hands – how many of you are on Facebook? How many of you are on Twitter? How many of you have received or sent text messages? Who has a blog? Who reads blogs?
From left to right in this picture is my little sister, my grandmother, my mom, and me during my mother’s wedding weekend last month. My mother and grandmother aren’t big on email or facebook – my mother JUST joined facebook earlier this year, and normally when I email either one of them I generally won’t get a response. Regardless of this, my mother and grandmother will text me to reach me before emailing or facebooking. Mobile messaging is a simple way to send and receive short, 160-character messages on your mobile phone.African-Americans and Latinos use text messaging more than any other group. On average, African-Americans send and receive 780 text messages per month.78% of African-Americans use mobile messaging on their phones.31% of African-Americans are signed up for text alertsMobile messaging isn’t just for youth: 58% of adults ages 50-64 use mobile messaging.
Mobile messaging is a simple way to send and receive short, 160-character messages on your mobile phone.African-Americans and Latinos use text messaging more than any other group. On average, African-Americans send and receive 780 text messages per month.78% of African-Americans use mobile messaging on their phones.31% of African-Americans are signed up for text alertsMobile messaging isn’t just for youth: 58% of adults ages 50-64 use mobile messaging.
The digital divide: many African Americans still do not have access to the internet or a computer.I just told you about my mom and grandma, who aren’t as likely to engage via facebook or email but will connect with me and others via text message. This is just one example of how mobile messaging allows you to reach people who you normally would not have reached through solely using social media.I want to point out here that mobile messaging is a tool you can use in addition to the rest of your strategy. You may already be using email or digital media, but mobile messaging will help amplify your work and your message.Add uses for mobile messaging: Rapid response communicationsSupporter engagementOrganizing events and rallies
So how did we get here?Mobile messaging was a key part of our strategy to register voters, grow our mobile list, and ultimately impact voter turnout.We used a variety of mobile messaging strategies to make sure we reached people in our deep-dive states. I will go over:-The use of key words-the use of targeted messages- Rapid response and deadline reminders
A Keyword is the word that you text into 62227 (which spells NAACP) We used keywords as an opportunity both grown the list and engage the list as well. When I did trainings out in the field, I would use keywords to grow the list and teach people how our text messaging program worked Having people reply with VOTED also gave us an indication of how many people on our list turned out to vote.
We sent geotargeted messages to remind people of registration deadlines as well as early voting and absentee voting deadlines.A Geortargeted message is a message that it sent to a specific city, state, or region. For instance, once people sent us their zip codes, we were able to send messages to people about registration and early voting deadlines in their area. -We also used mobile messaging to send people their nearest polling place. Once they sent us their address we would then respond with their polling place for Election Day. -we used Mobile Messaging as a way to get voters the information they needed to be ready to vote this election season. We also used it to connect voters to resources such as the polling place lookup.
We let people on our list from New York know that the deadline for absentee ballot requests had been extended in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. -using text messaging for rapid response allows you to send info about changes to an event or in this case a deadline.
You can use mobile messaging to ask the people on your list trivia questions about NAACP history – we did this during convention.You can also engage your mobile messaging list during panels and encourage them to text in questions they’d like to be included.You can also use mobile to collect demographic information that you can then use for targeted mobile messages in the future. We will be working with the New Organizing Institute to send messages to specific states. For instance, if you ask for people to text their state or their address you can send them information specific to their state.Another great use for mobile messaging is for communicating with volunteers about information on where to meet, upcoming volunteer opportunities, etc. You can also ask ppl if they’d like to volunteer via text message.
If any of you are interested in using text messaging, and would like to send a message to our list, you can do so by filling out the mobile message request form. The message must be approved by your regional field manager. Once I get the form and the message is approved, we can move forward with sending it out.Also, I will be doing webinars like this one every Tuesday about different digital media topics. If there is something you’d like for me to cover, please feel free to contact me. If you have any questions related to digital media and need guidance on using certain tools, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone or shoot me an email! If you’re really fancy, you can also tweet to me at @loryn24.