A global network of people using mobile technology for social impact.
Amnesty's campaign to close Guatanamo using SMS has been bothering me ever since I opted in to the mobile action network. Don't get me wrong - the web campaign is great and the pictures and stories on the blog are effective.
But the mobile campaign is all wrong. Yes, mobile campaigns are a new medium, only beginning to show a return, and not well understood. This is even true for big commercial campaigns that are only now sticking their toes into the mobile marketing waters.
But come on, advocacy organization, you are smarter than that. Mobile marketing is not rocket science, there is already a lot we know, and even as you experiment, use some common sense and pay attention to what you already know about engaging users and constituents.
So in order:
1. What's happening in the mobile marketing market that advocacy organizations should pay attention to (caution: this is US-centric!)
But what's the ROI for mobile marketers - such as advocacy organizations?
Everyone agrees, the medium is young, it is risky when poorly done, and it'll take time to judge payoffs. MobileActive's research of existing campaigns shows some interesting returns with sizeable opt-ins, and rather impressive open and forward rates for campaigns conducted by IFAW and Oxfam, for example. We will be publishing more details from specific campaigns in the next MobileActive Guide on Mobile Advocacy.
While a lot of metrics are still elusive, Brandweek reports about a commercial campaign: For the "Everydayrocks" text initiative, some 13,000 people opted in. And more than 75% of the entrants responded to SMS messages from the brand and/or redeemed mobile coupons. Only 4.8% opted out. Most telling, however, was that mobile emerged as the conduit with the best market reach; mobile outperformed radio by more than 64% and billboards by 24%. Overall, the mobile redemption rate was 28%, making it by far the most effective component."
We have seen positive other PR as well - a clever campaign, especially one that goes viral, will get earned media coverage and word-of-mouth exposure
What are advocacy organizations concerned about?
According to Brandweek, there still is considerable "consumer resistance, the main reason behind the carriers' historic refusal to open the gates to ad content." Brandweek goes on: "Studies have shown that consumers are less than thrilled with the idea of receiving ads on their cells. While early adopter teens are among the biggest targets, three-quarters of cell phone users ages 10 to 18 said they do not think it's OK to be marketed to on a mobile device, according to a study of 2,000 users conducted by Weekly Reader Research, Stamford, Conn., on Brandweek's behalf. Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., found 79% of consumers are turned off by the idea of ads on their phones and a mere 3% of respondents said they trust text ads."
There are now strict guidelines, drafted by the Mobile Marketing Association, on opt-in and opt out procedures.
It's my phone! Be scrupulous about your opt-in practices, absolutely meticulous in following the mobile marketing code of ethics, and make your vendors follow them to the T. Your brand is at stake, and people will get very annoyed if they perceive you spamming them.
But this is not stopping mobile marketers who are chomping at the bit.
So, what do we know about effective mobile marketing?
Can we talk?
1. Mobile messaging should be about interaction, do not just pitch. A hard notion for advocacy organizations used to pushing email messages by the millions. Mobiles offer a unique opportunity for interaction. Advocacy organizations need to think about mobile marketing as a conversation, a way to interact two-ways with their constituents.
2. Trust is key here as the mobile medium is so very personal. Gain permission and offer relevant and timely content.
3. Pull people to mobile interaction through other media -- ads, billboards, the web and offer, in turn, mobile interaction with those media.
4. Be careful about targeting your demographics and make your ask accordingly -- asking an older constituency to upload mobile photos is probably not going to be very successful.
5. Be relevant. Offer timely news and functional updates that are of interest to your audience-- and be clever. Just by way of an idea: The American Lung Association could offer air quality updates via sms for where I live, for example. In Amnesty's case, I would like to know how many others are signing the petition and how it's going -- what are others saying and how successful is the campaign? Send me an sms with an update since signing on -- I have not heard a lick from Amnesty since I signed the petition two days ago.
6. Mobile marketing works best when it's pull, not push, and there is an opportunity for people to express themselves - to 'talk' back, to suggest, to respond. Humor works here!
7. Be multi-media. Integrate your mobile marketing and messaging into your entire media and messaging campaing; do not let mobile be an add-on - it shows, and it costs you if not done well.
This is a world that is rapidly evolving. Bandwith and technology improving al the time, we will see Internet- and TV-style ads, search, and much more branded content.
For advocacy organizations, mobile marketing is used most effectively for facilitating a dialogue with their constituents. This 'third screen' can create extended conversation, creating connections across online and traditional media exposures.
So what should Amnesty have done better here?
1. Do no ask me for my email to sign the petition, let me do it via sms.
2. Show what people are saying on the petition via sms, in real time on the blog, in ads, in public interest announcements -- in your other media campaign.
3. Tell me back how it is going -- what other people are saying, what is happening.
4. Communicate regularly with me VIA text, BUT remind me of how to opt out.
5. Ask me to forward a note, ask me to make a call, ask me to express myself in a some way in a poll, in a 160 character message, poem or statement.
6. Use humour, allow for humour -- it may be gallows humour in the case of Gitmo, but hey...
Overall: engage me, and do not let me feel that I am sinking in your typical advocacy 'push' hole that benefits you organizationally, but in the end has no impact on the issue, nor engages me in any way.
In the end, because mobiles are so personal, there is a huge opportunity for a conversation that few advocacy organizations used to messaging OUT have any idea how to do effectively. Mobiles are very much a read/write medium in the web 2.0 fashion and only those organizations willing to hear back and engage in 'it's the conversation, stupid' will end up running catchy, creative, engaging, and innovative mobile campaigns.
On October 24th, 2009, more than 5200 events in 181 countries took place as part of a climate change awareness campaign. Planned by 350.org, this worldwide festival of events is a call to action.
In December, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen with one critical goal in mind: to create a global treaty to curb carbon emissions. 350.org wants to ensure that the treaty is tough enough to enforce the changes necessary to lower atmospheric carbon levels.
The 350.org name comes from the level of acceptable carbon dioxide –350 parts per million – that can exist in the atmosphere before effects of global warming begin to manifest. Currently, the carbon levels in the atmosphere are at 390 parts per million; 350.org believes that lowering the carbon emissions in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million can help undo some of the damage caused by global warming.
In our ongoing series of How-To Guides, here is the newest: an overview on how to set up an SMS system.
SMS is everywhere, in an amazing diversity of applications. From enabling 'instant protest' in the Philippines, Spain and Albania, to election monitoring in Ghana, Lebanon, and Sierra Leone to HIV/AIDS education and support in Mexico and South Africa, we've seen that 160 characters can make a difference. This article covers the basics of setting up an SMS campaign system, looking at different approaches to suit your goals, budget and technical expertise.
Read the full How-To Set Up an SMS System here.
When your organisation decides to implement a project using mobile phones it is important to compare the cost of the project with the potential benefits it might bring.
If you prepare a budget and analyse how investment in a mobile advocacy project compares to investing in alternative methods, it is easier to make changes to existing budget allocations or to raise new funds in order to set up the programme or to keep up with the costs of running it. You may need to calculate pricing models if the project needs to sustain itself or generate revenues for the organisation.
Some reasons for investing in using mobile phones to support advocacy:
Budgeting for Mobile Advocacy is adopted from a How-To of Mobiles in-a-Box.
When your organisation decides to implement a project using mobile phones, it is important to consider the cost of the project versus the potential benefits it might bring.
If you prepare a budget and analyse how investment in a mobile advocacy project compares to investing in alternative methods, it is easier to make changes to existing budget allocations or to raise new funds in order to set up the programme or to keep up with the costs of running it. You may need to calculate pricing models if the project needs to sustain itself or generate revenues for the organisation.
Some reasons for investing in using mobile phones to support advocacy:
Allyson Kapin from Women Who Tech asked me to respond to some excellent questions about mobile campaigns for advocating for specific social issues. As I just received two text messages from NARAL and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America promoting two campaigns they are running, I thought I take the opportunity to answer Allyson's questions publicly, drawing on my experience and observations of the last few years of mobiles in advocacy, illustrating what works and what is better avoided in using mobiles in advocacy campaigns. This is, by nature of the question, somewhat US-centric. A follow-up article will focus on mobile campaigning in the Global South to differentiate some of the key issues.
How can integrating mobile technology benefit online advocacy campaigns?
What does it take for smaller organizations to adde a mobile strategy to advance the work? What are some ways in which small organizations can get started in mobile, and get what they need for free or at very low cost to try the mobile medium for their work?
We were recently at the Institute for Nonprofits organized by the Bay Area Video Coalition to help a select group of organizations develop their social media strategy.
Lots of the groups at BAVC were interested in exploring how mobile phones fit into their work. Many work with constituents of color and lower-income communities in America that are more likely to be on a mobile than on the web. And of course, this is true around the world already.
In that same vain, a reader asked recently: "How can I get started in mobile?" He wrote:
Mobile phones are nothing new for Greenpeace Argentina. The organization has used mobile phones multiple times to mobilize its now 350,000 person-strong mobile list to successfully lobby for important environmental legislation. One of Greenpeace's significant accomplishments was the passage of the Ley de Bosques, or Forest Law.
According to a recently UN/Vodaphone report, Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use, before the law was passed forests in Argentina were being quickly destroyed. From the report:
Every hour, trees covering an area the size of forty soccer fields are cleared from the old growth forests of Argentina, home to indigenous tribes and numerous endangered species. According to Greenpeace, 300,000 hectares (3,000 square kilometers or 1,150 square miles) of native forest are cleared in Argentina each year.
Have you heard the joke about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? If you're a young person in Iran you probably have. Political jokes are spreading like wildfire in Iran, reports Parisa Dezfoulian in an article on texting in Iran in Middle East Online.
According to Desfoulian, SMS has become a way for young people to circumvent authority, largely through the spread of political jokes on subjects from nuclear energy to petrol bans to government rationing. She notes that with more than 20 million SMS messages sent every day in Iran,
Political ringtones, wallpapers, and SMS election updates are part and parcel of election campaigns in countries around the world -- from Spain to Kenya to the Phillipines, from Argentina to the Ukraine. It is has taken until this year's presidential election, however, for political contenders the United States to catch up.
MobileActive friend and colleague Anders Carlius runs Terranet, an innovative company providing mobile peer-to-peer technology. Anders is a former businessman from Sweden who decided he wanted to do good in the world with a new venture after a career in telecommunications. His company is after an emerging market in developing countries with either a rural or densely populated market (such as a refugee camp, for exaple).
The technology is simple: Terranet outfits a special Erricson phone with peer-to-peer wireless networking ability. In its pure form, there is no need for base stations, antenna installations or infrastructure. With this phone, a user can call and text anyone at no cost within two kilometers, or up to 20 kilometres in a mesh network. Through TerraNet wireless Internet access point, the phone turns into a normal wireless communication device.
From Terranet's prospectus:
Sexual education is entering the mobile age. In Singapore, famous "Dr Love" offer answers to sex-related questions to the predominatly Muslim population via mobile phone. Half-way around the world, SexInfo doles out sexual health info to teens in 160 characters on the Unites States West Coast, and similar services operate in London and in Australia.
In Singapore, according to the Age:
Indonesians are invited to send a text message with any sex-related question to a panel of volunteer local doctors who will either send them a message back or use their question to help compile information on a website.
The brains behind the idea, Wei Siang Yu, who is nicknamed "Dr. Love" for his flamboyant methods of teaching Singaporeans about sex, told a press briefing his scheme would turn conventional sex education on its head.
LiveEarth, the global music event taking place today, is launching one of the most ambitious mobile campaigns in its effort to organize people worldwide on climate change.
Live Earth is broadcast to more than two billion people with concerts in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, and Hamburg.
Concert goers and those watching online and on television in four countries will be able to 'answer the call' via sms by texting in a key word in one of six issue areas, pledging to change their behavior to save the earth from climate destruction. Keywords such as home, job, shop, ride, share, and lead can be texted in to short code 82004 in the Unites States and UK, to 70707 in Germany, and 199 66 777 in Australia.
Protest campaigns in recent weeks in China and Pakistan are pointing to a quickening pace of social activism primarily enabled by mobile phones.
On May 31, 2007, authorities in Xiamen halted construction of a large petro-chemical plant, following a furious Internet, street, and text campaign. The story began on a few local blogs, spread wide on the Internet with sites like antipx.com, and street graffiti.
On March 25, according to news reports in the Asia Sentinel, Sydney Morning Herald and others, a text message began circulating:
Nonprofits the world over are trying to tackle sms marketing. Whether it's list building, earned media, or fundraising, text messaging or sms is all the rage.
Recently YouthNoise and Virgin Mobile launched a mobile campaign designed to raise awareness of teen homelessness in other teens in the United States. The campaign – called Ghost Town – takes a unique twist on more typical SMS campaigns. It gets its message out through an SMS story sent in regular installments over a month.
Teens can subscribe to the story by texting GHOST to the short code 1234. After that they’ll receive a chapter of the story in a 160 character text message twice a day for a month. Sounds like a mobile soap opera, doesn’t it?
SMS campaigns are becoming common in many parts of the world, but perhaps no where so much as in India. Every couple days it seems like a new campaign has been started and is getting coverage in the Indian online newspapers.
On the heels of the Justice for Jessica SMS campaign that received significant press coverage in India and abroad, a campaign has been started seeking justice for a woman in Patna, India. Text messages asking people to forward the message on to friends and to the head of police showing their support for a woman who says she was sexually exploited by a police officer.
A political candidate in West Bengal, India, is sending text messages to reach out to urban and semi-urban citizens to ask for their vote in an upcoming election. Text messages are being circulated in Madhya Pradesh, India,asking people to conserve water. In several parts of India SMS campaigns are urging parents to send young children to schools that teach in their native language, rather than in English. And university students started a campaign for the quick recovery of Pramod Mahajan, an Indian politician who was recently shot several times.
The SMS petition campaign for justice in the Jessica Lal murder case that we wrote about here wrapped up last week with more than 200,000 SMS signatures (previous links no longer active). On air the 24-hour news station NDTV solicited their viewers – mostly middle class and mobile phone owners - to send a text message to the station protesting the injustice they saw in the acquittal of all nine men accused in the fashion model's murder in a crowded bar. These text messages, treated like signatures on a petition, were promised to be sent to the president to show the nation's outrage in what they saw as government corruption and a police cover up.
NDTV's managing editor said, "That just goes to show you technology has changed the face of mobilization completely. Because if this were like ten years ago and you were going door to door collecting signatures, which would have been its equivalent, it would have taken you many more logistics, just an army of volunteers. You didn't need any of that. You needed one rallying point on television."
Who would not want to save this guy?
As the seal hunting season opens, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is launching a major campaign at stopthesealhunt.com and on cell phones all across the UK.
Starting yesterday, IFAW launched advertisements, like the one showed above, in the Sunday Mirror and has already received well over 10, 000 responses which, according to Jed Alpert, CEO of Politxt (the political arm of his Rights-Group media) the company responsible for the back end technology of the campaign, is a very sizeable response rate for a newspaper ad. IFAW will be displaying the add in various UK newspapers throughout the week and will be putting them up in the London tube some time in early April. In the UK, send the text message "Ban It" to the short code 60123.
More on the story is at Personal Democracy.
From India: The "Justice for Jessica Lal" campaign is fueled by massive sms campaigns across the country.
In Mumbai, "TV news channel NDTV launched a "Fight for Jessica Lal" campaign to garner support for a fresh trail in the ‘Jessica Lal murder case’ where all the nine prime accused were "honoroubly" discharged by a Delhi sessions court this week. (Lal, a model, was filling in as a bartender in a posh south Delhi restaurant when she was shot in the wee hours of 30 April 1999 after she reportedly refused to serve liquor to Manu Sharma, the son of Haryana Excise Minister Vinod Sharma." Sharma was recently acquitted.
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