If texting evolves and becomes useful in more ways than it serves today it may replace email. But right now there are many areas where texting is no threat to email. No one is texting a cover letter and resume to a job posting. No one is getting newsletters sent to them via text message. No one is forwarding humorous videos or pictures via text. No one sits down and writes a lengthy, thoughtful message via text.
But we are starting to see text messaging used in the real estate business. Some real estate professionals are building up a following on Twitter and sending listing updates via services like TweetLister. Services like TinyURL facilitate sending lengthy links to others by compacting those links into tinier URLs that don’t take up so much room in the text message.
Right now anyone sending mass unsolicited commercial text messages faces major financial and legal liability. But with the eventual arrival of universal free text messaging we’re going to face the same thing that’s plagued email since it became universally free: spam. The problem of tons of irrelevant, unsolicited commercial messages could get far worse with texting than with email since you only need a person’s phone number to send them a text. Text spammers will be able to acquire huge numbers of cell phone numbers or land line numbers forwarding to cell phones via directories like 411. That spells major trouble for texting. It may even cause a turning back to email since anti-spam technology with email is very robust today and works very well at keeping the good email in and the bad email out.
It’s known heavy users of social networks tend to use email more than casual social networkers. There’s also survey data showing teens are adopting email when they get smartphones. And statistics show younger consumers are more willing to receive permission-based email marketing messages than other segments of the population.
However, in case the tide turns against email in favor of texting down the road, you don’t want to have built up a database strictly of email addresses if fewer and fewer people are using their email regularly (or at all). So you should diversify by asking for both the email address and cell phone number of people who sign up for your list. To test what people’s preference is (email vs. text) you should give new signups the option of receiving newsletters via email and listing updates via text and/or email. You should also offer your current mailing list the option of receiving listing updates via text. As mentioned, TweetLister is a great way of sending these updates.
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