Ez Texting SMS Marketing News

The New York Times ran a story over the weekend over a different usage of text messaging related to the Haitian earthquake. The mobile donations story is important in so many ways, but so is this:

From his makeshift workstation, Ryan Bank spends hours sifting through thousands of electronic cries for help from Haitian earthquake victims, many detailing the horrors of dead family members, hunger and homelessness.

“I’m hungry and I have no one,” says one text message from a Haitian man living in a tent city with thousands of others whose homes were destroyed in the quake. “People are unable to breathe due to the smell of the dead,” says another.

Mr. Bank, a Coast Guard volunteer who runs his own technology company in Chicago, said he had received more than 18,000 messages. “Most of them are utterly heartbreaking,” he said while staring at a list of messages sent to him through a new emergency relief effort that relies on text messages and social networking Web sites to help coordinate humanitarian aid in Haiti.

Read more @ the New York Times.

As you probably already know, Haiti has been devastated by 7.0 magnitude earthquake:

The earthquake, the worst in the region in more than 200 years, left the country in a shambles. As night fell in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, fires burned near the shoreline downtown, but otherwise the city fell into darkness. The electricity was out, telephones were not working and relief workers struggled to make their way through streets blocked by rubble.

So what can you do to help? The New York Times has a collection of information. If you want to donate money to relief efforts right now, using your cell phone, you have three options:

• You can text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti.
• To make a $5 donation from your phone text "ONEHEART" to 85944 & confirm by replying "YES", or go to www.sophiasheart.org to make a donation.
• Text the word “Haiti” to 85944 to donate $5 on behalf of the Rescue Union Mission and MedCorp International.
• Text the word “Haiti” to 25383 to donate $5 On behalf of the Internal Rescue Committee.
• Or, you can donate $5 to Earthquake Relief In Haiti by texting YELE to 501501 and visit www.yele.org (supported by Wycelf Jean)
  

P.S.  In the past we've covered other mobile-based charity efforts. Read about them.

To Text or not To Text...in a particular situation is a question the New York Times explores on Moral of the Story, their Ethicist columnist's blog. The issue:

We're not going to reveal all the answers here, but we will post the opening to the argument, which is addressed from a rather philosophical viewpoint:

Seek consent and do no harm is a useful moral precept, one by which some couples, that amorous community of two, wisely govern their erotic lives, but it does not validate ubiquitous text messaging. When it comes to texting, there is no authentic consent, and there is genuine harm.

Neither teenagers nor young workers authorized a culture of ongoing interruption. No debate was held, no vote was taken around the junior high cafeteria or the employee lounge on the proposition: Shall we stay in constant contact, texting unceasingly? Instead, like most people, both groups merely adapt to the culture they find themselves in, often without questioning or even being consciously aware of its norms. That’s acquiescence, not agreement.

From there the Ethicist covers everything from voting rights in colonial Williamsburg to the bizarre BlackBerry messaging induced chaos in the New York State Senate.

Wonder what any of this has to do with text messaging? Head over to the New York Times.

Check out our new case study about Choptank Electric, a non-profit energy cooperative that serves the entire Eastern Shore of Maryland. The co-op is owned by its members and provides electricity to more than 52,000 customers. They've partnered with Ez Texting to promote an innovative program that sends text messages to interested customers reminding them to cut back on power usage during 'peak' hours, when wholesale costs are the highest:

The company created an energy-saving initiative called “Beat The Peak." This is how they explained the program to their members: "Beat the Peak" is a voluntary program where members are encouraged to conserve or limit energy usage during peak times. "Peak" times are those when the Cooperative is purchasing wholesale power at the highest prices. By cutting back on the amount of wholesale power purchased during these peak, high-priced periods, the Cooperative can reduce its total wholesale power costs. Reductions in wholesale power costs are passed through directly to the members in our power cost adjustment.

Check out the entire cost effective, environmentally friendly case study @ Ez Texting.

Today the Washington Post explores the phenomenon of teen texting:

Some see this as a positive, though others see it as a negative:

Read more and decide for yourself at the Washington Post.

A look back at yesterday's big news, with Ez Texting's CEO Shane Neman tapped for comment by the Boston Herald:

Read the full article here.

There's a new sheriff in town:

Read the full release here.

The Washington Post has the story on how two local companies are going to save Washington...cellphone usage, that is:

Wireless carriers are expecting an explosion of cellphone traffic on Jan. 20, when millions of visitors pour into Washington to welcome the new president. So many calls, text messages, photos and video clips hitting the airwaves at the same time can choke communication networks and result in delayed messages and dropped calls.

While carriers are erecting extra cell sites to boost capacity, two local companies are also trying to help traffic move along. Wireless operators are urging people to avoid making calls and instead send text messages because they take up less bandwidth.

Michael Steele has embarked on an assertive campaign for the RNC chair, and he’s already giving a taste of what he has in mind for new leadership.  At his new website, Steele offers a way for people to text-message their ideas to the RNC.

Read more here.

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk Martin walked so Barack could run Barack is running so our children can fly."

That 86-letter text message is being forwarded from cellphone to cellphone. It began among African Americans then went viral, posted in various blogs. Exactly when it was first sent, who sent it and how many times it has been forwarded, we don't know.

Another unknown, and a hot topic among the political digiterati: How many cellphone numbers, through its nearly 18-month-old text messaging program, are in Sen. Barack Obama's database?

Scott Goodstein, the text guru who runs the program, declines to say. Same goes for his boss, Joe Rospars, who oversees Triple O, Obama's online operation. But since the campaign has been tireless in collecting their supporters' cell numbers -- they introduced Sen. Joe Biden as Obama's vice presidential choice by text -- many guess that it's in the millions.

Read more from the Washington Post.