Sending and receiving of SMS via a PC as part of day to day business communications, aka Business SMS – is a rapidly growing channel. Users typically take advantage of Web SMS or Email to SMS tools, or integrate their own systems with a Business SMS service using an SMS API.
The Mobile Data Association recently published an excellent report highlighting its use by SMEs in particular. As an indicator of the growth of this sector, Esendex’s own traffic is growing by almost 100% pa and other SMS providers report similar growth.
However, there is also a view that SMS will be overtaken by communication channels such as Mobile Email, Instant Messaging or social media tools such as Twitter. There are certainly some staggering statistics around Twitter – Hitwise reported this month that their traffic was 500% up on the same period last year – despite their outages.
But one needs to be careful to strip the “US effect” within these statistics and the underlying assumptions. With a “Receiver pays” model, texting just didn’t take off in the States and alternative channels have been relatively more successful here than elsewhere in the world. This and the desire to spot the next “big thing” has contributed to a US-dominated investor sentiment which has trickled down to a general market view.
Even so, this misses the point that SMS is already a global phenomenon: it is the most widely used data application in the world with 2.4 billion active users. That doesn’t mean that SMS, and Business SMS in particular, will necessarily replace other communication channels – it should be viewed as part of the mix.
First Posted: ArticlesBase.com - Business SMS - Still a Valid Business Communication Channel?
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3 comments:
Agree that it's all surely part of the mix. Twitter started off as an SMS based tool, then quickly realised it would run out of money in no time if it ran it that way. SMS is still seen by consumers and businesses as more reliable and secure than Twitter.
Its certainly an interesting thought to add SMS as part of the mix. If you take this one stage further and add it is as part of your social media communication strategy it is a good way to start to build a conversation rather than just use it as a broadcast campaign.
The key for me, is building it with ears, so it is a two way thing - actually allowing your customers to come back to you rather than you just talking or broadcasting AT them.
A very thought provoking post.
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