How to easily send broadcast SMS text messages from your e-mail client to your opt-in list

You may have followers, clients or prospects who want to keep up with you, but are as busy as you and don’t have time to sit at their computer to look for your blog or sort through your tweets. You may also see value in driving traffic to your blog or Web site at particular times and dates. If you have an opt in list of people wanting to subscribe to your messages/alerts via text message, here is how to set that up quickly and for free.

To build your list, at a minimum you need to collect the following criteria from each subscriber: name, cell phone number and cell phone service provider. You then use this formula to build the e-mail address to which you will send your text messages: 10digitnumber@provider.com (for example, 6096861341@vtext.com would be the phone of a Verizon subscriber.

Once your database is complete and you are ready to send your first blast, add all of your subscribers as contacts within your e-mail’s user interface and put them into one group making sure that their e-mail address field is this cell phone code. Open a new e-mail and put the group name in the “To” field. As an aside, the e-mail from which you send this blast will be what the recipient sees, so you may want to create a vanity e-mail address, especially if you have your own domain (alerts@yourcompany.com). Now type in a subject line and body copy text. Note that most cell phones will strip out any HTML including hyperlinks, so the subject line will read like a first sentence, just put inside parentheses. Press “Send” to get your blast immediately out to your list and watch the phones ring and/or traffic hit your Web site!

Here is a list of domains you’ll use based on your individual recipients’ cell phone providers. This list may become outdated at any time as a result of the constantly changing cell phone industry. Note that these may not work outside of the United States and that standard text message rates may apply.

Aliant (NBTel, MTT, NewTel, and Island Tel)
number@wirefree.informe.ca

Alltel (from: 50, msg: 116, total: 116)
number@message.alltel.com.

Ameritech (ACSWireless)
number@paging.acswireless.com

Bell Mobility Canada
1number@txt.bellmobility.ca

Bellsouth
number@bellsouth.cl

BellSouth Mobility
number@blsdcs.net

Blue Sky Frog
number@blueskyfrog.com

Boost
number@myboostmobile.com

Cellular South
number@csouth1.com

CellularOne (Dobson)
number@mobile.celloneusa.com

CellularOne West
number@mycellone.com

Cincinnati Bell
number@gocbw.com

Cingular
number@mobile.mycingular.com

Cingular Blue (formerly AT&T Wireless)
number@mmode.com

Cingular IM Plus/Bellsouth IPS
8 digit PIN or user name @imcingular.com

Cingular IM Plus/Bellsouth IPS Cellphones
number@mobile.mycingular.com

Claro
number@clarotorpedo.com.br

Comviq
number@sms.comviq.se

Dutchtone/Orange-NL
number@sms.orange.nl

Edge Wireless
number@sms.edgewireless.com

EinsteinPCS / Airadigm Communications
number@einsteinsms.com

EPlus
number@smsmail.eplus.de.

Fido Canada
number@fido.ca.

Golden Telecom
number@sms.goldentele.com

Idea Cellular
number@ideacellular.net

Kyivstar
number@sms.kyivstar.net

LMT
username@sms.lmt.lv

Manitoba Telecom Systems
number@text.mtsmobility.com

Meteor
number@sms.mymeteor.ie

Metro PCS
number@mymetropcs.com

Metrocall Pager
number@page.metrocall.com

MobileOne
number@m1.com.sg

Mobilfone
number@page.mobilfone.com

Mobility Bermuda
number@ml.bm

Aliant (NBTel, MTT, NewTel, and Island Tel)
number@wirefree.informe.ca

Netcom
number@sms.netcom.no

Nextel
number@messaging.nextel.com

NPI Wireless
number@npiwireless.com.

Optus
number@optusmobile.com.au

Pacific Bell Cingular
number@mobile.mycingular.com

Pagenet
number@pagenet.net.

Personal Communication (Sonet)
sms@pcom.ru with your number in the subject line.

Plus GSM Poland
number@text.plusgsm.pl.

Powertel
number@ptel.net

Primtel
number@sms.primtel.ru

PSC Wireless
number@sms.pscel.com

Qualcomm
username@pager.qualcomm.com

Qwest
number@qwestmp.com

Safaricom
number@safaricomsms.com

Satelindo GSM
number@satelindogsm.com

SCS-900
number@scs-900.ru

Simple Freedom
number@text.simplefreedom.net

Smart Telecom
number@mysmart.mymobile.ph

Southern Linc
number@page.southernlinc.com

Sprint PCS
number@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Sprint PCS - Short Mail
number@sprintpcs.com

SunCom
number@tms.suncom.com.

SureWest Communications
number@mobile.surewest.com

SwissCom Mobile
number@bluewin.ch

T-Mobile Germany
number@T-D1-SMS.de

T-Mobile UK
number@t-mobile.uk.net

T-Mobile USA
number@tmomail.net

T-Mobile USA (Sidekick)
username@tmail.com

Tele2 Latvia
number@sms.tele2.lv.

Telefonica Movistar
number@movistar.net

Telenor
number@mobilpost.no.

Telia Denmark
number@gsm1800.telia.dk.

Telus Mobility
number@msg.telus.com.

The Phone House
number@sms.phonehouse.de.

TIM
number@timnet.com.

UMC
number@sms.umc.com.ua


Verizon Wireless
number@vtext.com.

Verizon Wireless (formerly Airtouch)
number@airtouchpaging.com. This is ONLY for former AirTouch customers.

Verizon Wireless (myairmail.com)
number@myairmail.com.

Vessotel
roumer@pager.irkutsk.ru.

Virgin Mobile Canada
number@vmobile.ca.

Virgin Mobile USA
number@vmobl.com.

Vodafone Italy
number@sms.vodafone.it

Vodafone Japan
number@n.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Hokkaido)
number@d.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan
number@r.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Kansai/West -- including Osaka)
number@k.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Kanto/Koushin/East -- including Tokyo)
number@t.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Kyuushu/Okinawa)
number@q.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Shikoku)
number@s.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Touhoku/Niigata/North)
number@h.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Toukai/Central)
number@c.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Spain
username@vodafone.es

Vodafone UK
username@vodafone.net

Weblink Wireless
number@airmessage.net

WellCom
number@sms.welcome2well.com

WyndTell
number@wyndtell.com

Become a social media powerhouse in one week (phase 5)

Phase 5 of 5
The final installment and final remarks. Here we’ll be looking at some additional sites for you to check out to enhance your Twitter experience. These are not required, but are here for those with more serious goals in mind for marketing themselves or their business online. They will help you to be noticed by more qualified people. By now, you may have many questions about these posts. The comments section is available to you should you wish to ask a question and I will answer them for you.

5. Additional Twitter related sites
5.1. Go to www.twellow.com
5.2. Click on the “Get Listed” link near the upper right-hand corner
5.3. Complete the form, then hit “Submit”
5.4. Next set up your profile and select three categories in which you would like to appear
5.5. You are done here for now. Next up is www.mrtweet.net
5.6. Click the button “Sign up by following MrTweet
5.7. Click the “Follow” button under MrTweet’s profile picture
5.8. Go to your Twitter home page and you will find a tweet from MrTweet
5.9. Follow the link there back to their site where they will recommend people for you to follow based on who you follow now. You can also look at people following you whom you have yet to follow back.

Become a social media powerhouse in one week (phase 4)

Phase 4 of 5
In this installment, we’ll be setting up the rest of your online social media presence. After you managed these sites for a while and your confidence grows, you’ll want to go through and add more customization to each. And if you want to get really sophisticated, you can design each in such a way as to use a similar color scheme, profile language and image of you so that they have a consistent theme throughout. You’ll also want to include links to the each of the other sites from every site so people can interact with you in different ways, or at least the way of their choosing. In a future blog post, we’ll get you set up with your YouTube account. Happy socializing!

4. Setting up Facebook and LinkedIn
4.1. Go to www.facebook.com
4.2. Complete the mini form right on the home page and then “Sign Up”
4.3. Give yourself at least two hours for the next step.
4.4. There are no specific instructions here, complete as much information about yourself as you can, then have fun uploading photos of yourself, searching for friends, and interacting with whatever you find here. Facebook has a very friendly user interface, so you can confidently interact and know what’s going on at all times.
4.6. Click the Applications tab in the bottom left corner
4.7. Click "Browse more Applications" at the bottom of the list
4.8. Search for the "Twitter" application and add it
4.9. Add in your Twitter login and password, and hit "Submit"
4.10. Now when you go to Twitter and update your status, it will update your status on Facebook as well.
4.11. When you’ve had enough of Facebook, go to www.linkedin.com
4.12. Complete the form on the right side of the page and click “Join Now”
4.13. Once in, you can spend about an hour building and tweaking your profile here. You’ll want a nice head shot of yourself, you can build your profile out very similar to your resume.
4.14. After you feel you have completed everything here, search for some coworkers by company name or people you know.
4.15. From your home page, click the “Applications” link
4.16. You can search for and add any number of widgets to your page, and the first ones I recommend are the Twitter application that will feed your tweets to your profile page and the BlogLink application that will do the same for your blog posts.

Becoming a social media powerhouse in one week (phase 3)

Phase 3 of 5
This blog will be of interest to people who are interested in using social media for a business, but is not limited to them. There are plenty of people who like to write about their lives, their pets or something else about which they are passionate and share with the world. Follow along to get set up for online blogging!

3. Setting up a blog and having it automatically feed into Twitter and vice-versa
3.1. Go to www.blogger.com
3.2. Click “Create a Blog”
3.3. Complete the form and click “Continue”
3.4. In the next screen, name your blog, then have fun designing the page elements, colors, etc.
3.5. When you’re all set, you can see your dashboard where you can set up your Profile, follow other blogs, and make your first blog post.
3.6. Look for the Twitter Gadget in page layout mode and add it to your layout.
3.7. To make your first blog post, click the “New Post” button, then type in the window. It works similar to Microsoft Word.
3.8. When you’re done, click “Post”
3.9. Now go to a new Web site called www.twitterfeed.com
3.10. Click the “Log into Twitterfeed” hyperlink under number two
3.11. In the text bar on the next page, copy and paste the URL of your blog (go back to www.blogger.com and click “View Blog”)
3.12. Click “Login”
3.13. Click “Go to My Twitter Feeds”
3.14. Click “Create New Feed”
3.15. Select “Create New Twitter Feed”
3.16. Click “Authenticate at Twitter”
3.17. Click “Allow”
3.18. Your RSS feed URL should be http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
3.19. Include your bit.ly API and login information
3.20. Click the “Active” checkbox at the bottom and then “Update”
3.21. To set yourself up to be able to post to your blog from your cell phone, click the “Settings” tab
3.22. Click the “e-mail and mobile settings”
3.23. Scroll down and click “Add mobile device”
3.24. From your cell phone, text the message that pops up to the number they give you
2.25. Now text back the word “stop” to not receive confirmation text messages
2.26. Now send a test text to this number and see it appear as a new blog post!

Becoming a social media powerhouse in one week (phase 2)

Phase 2 of 5
This will complete your Twitter setup and allow you to grow your followers without having to spend a lot of time searching for and following random people (although doing some of that will help you tremendously). Also, if you are using Twitter for your business, tracking the number of clickthroughs you get from your posts will be of benefit to you in determining what language generates the most response.

2. Automating following people who follow you on Twitter and enabling trackable hyperlinks
2.1. Now go to a new Web site at http://bitly.com/
2.2. Click the "Sign up for Bit.ly" button
2.3. Complete the form including your Twitter login information and hit the "Set Up" button
2.4. To test that it worked, click the "Home" button
2.5. Type the URL of your favorite Web site into the top URL bar, but don't click any buttons yet.
2.6. Now type a message in the box immediately below. Something like, "Check out my favorite Web site."
2.6. Click the button below the URL bar and you should see it attached to the end of your message.
2.7. Now click the "Post to Twitter" button. This should be your second Tweet if you go back to your Twitter profile page.
2.8. Now go to a new Web site at http://www.tweetlater.com/
2.9. Click the "Register" button in the upper right-hand corner of the page
2.10. Complete the form making sure to include your bit.ly.com login so that they are connected.
2.11. Click “Create Free Acount”
2.12. Your personal Tweetlater homepage will come up. Click “Manage My Keyword and Tracking Reports”
2.13. Set the frequency of your reports and type some keywords in there you’d be interested in tracking, such as your name (spell it both full and short), your business, or anything else in which you are interested in tracking.
2.14. Click “Save”
2.15. Click “Accounts”
2.16. A menu bar will appear under that. Click “Edit Account”
2.17. You’ll see a table in the middle of the page with your Twitter user name. Click “Edit” in the 10th column
2.18. Check the box titled “Automatically send a welcome message”
2.19. Type a welcome friendly message in the box thanking future Twitterers for following you. You can rotate direct messages (it’s considered a best-practice) by enclosing all the text in curly brackets and separating each message with piping like this {Thanks for following my tweets! Feel free to send me a direct message so I know a little bit more about you.|Are you into direct marketing? I am, but it's not all I tweet about. Keep in touch!|I'm starting to get a lot of followers. Tell me how you're different and why I should take notice.}
2.20. Click “Automatically Follow People”
2.21. Click “Save”

Becoming a social media powerhouse in one week (phase 1)

Phase 1 of 5
This post is a step-by-step guide to get you set up in such a way that your social media presence is integrated and automated, so that one text message can update your status on four social media sites. This post assumes you are relatively new to computers and have no social media presence as of yet. It will get you set up for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogger and include your cell phone.

1. Getting set up for Twitter
1.1. Visit http://twitter.com/
1.2. Click the "Get Started, Join" button
1.3. Complete the fields shown and click "Create my Account"
1.4. Click the "Settings" button in the upper right-hand corner of the page
1.5. Complete the Account information and click "Save"
1.6. Click the "Devices" tab and enter your cell phone number
1.7. Now grab your cell phone and you should receive a text message. Text back to confirm.
1.8. Add the five digit number to which you just texted to your phone's list of contacts and call it Twitter.
1.9. Now send a test message to it. Try something like, "Hey, glad to be on Twitter!"
1.10. Now send a text with the message "off."
1.11. Send it a second time. This will prevent you from getting buried in text messages with everyone's tweets.
1.12. Click the "Picture" tab
1.13. Click the "Browse" button to upload a photo of yourself. The best photos here are just of your face, are crisp, clear images and should be flattering if you care what people think of you.
1.14. Click save and then click the "Design" tab
1.15. (Optional) You can create a custom background (to be explained in a future post) or choose one of the canned backgrounds by clicking on your favorite.
1.16. Click "Save Changes"
1.17. Now click the "Profile" button in the upper right-hand corner of the page and you should see your picture, the background you chose and the test text message you sent.
1.18. Click "Find People" in the upper right-hand corner of the page
1.19. Type "Phillip Barnes" into the search box and my name and picture should come up.
1.20. Click the follow button to the right of my bio. You are now following your first person! I will follow you back within a couple of hours, so you will have your first follower. Then you're official!

This blog post was made from my cell phone. Ill teach you how you can set this up as well!

thePRguy: If You’d Rather Twist Than Tweet …

thePRguy: If You’d Rather Twist Than Tweet …

I know you don't think you do, but here's why you need to be on Twitter

Okay, I get it. You don't understand Twitter, you don't see value in it, AND you think it's a fad. But here is my case for why you should sign up today (and I'm not even getting a commission for this).

1. Satisfy your need for celebrity
You have two options, you can either read about pop culture icons in the pages of US Weekly, or you can get off the sidelines and talk to them directly! All your favorites are here, Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Suze Orman, Justin Timberlake, P Diddy, Oprah...the list is extensive. Twitter enables you to follow and be followed by these celebrities giving you direct access to what they're doing right now, or on what projects they're working. Sometimes you might even get a gem and watch Lindsay Lohan break up with her latest boy/girlfriend! AND, you can send them a message and have an actual conversation! Too cool.

2. Promote yourself and/or your small business
It's all about "me," isn't it? If you have a fledgling blog or business (particularly in the consulting, beauty, real estate or online marketing industries), or are responsible for promoting the business for which you work, Twitter can help you big time! Using related sites like TweetLater.com and MrTweet.net, you can automate the process of finding, attracting and starting relationships with the people you want to reach around the corner or around the world! Plus the search engine optimization you get from it and the direct links to your site can't be beat! If you have a Web site, blog or other social media presence like Facebook, you need to add Twitter to your promotional mix. I'll give you some more "how to" steps in a future blog post.

3. It's free and not a huge time-sucker
Unlike some other social media sites, you can get on Twitter, make a quick post (under 150 characters), check to see your number of followers or direct messages, and be back to whatever you were doing in a very reasonable amount of time. Now, if you have the time, you can spend hours searching for and following people (up to a maximum of 2,000 per day) to have a huge number of followers, but it's not necessary.

Here is information from LinkedIn regarding what business people think of which social media applications are important. Twitter seemed to have come up big here. See the results at http://polls.linkedin.com/poll-results/35931/uxtqg.

Two ways in which a campfire relates to direct marketing

Last night I invited a few neighbors over to discuss a first-ever block party for our development. I put a fire in my new fire pit so while we talked, the kids could roast marshmallows for s'mores and the adults could watch while we discussed ideas and plans for this party.

Long after the last red-hot embers turned to tan-colored ash, two things about last night made me think of direct marketing. The first was the way the wonderful smell of campfire smoke still still followed me around. The second was about our conversation of getting support for this party.

A great direct marketing campaign not only has all the mechanical elements such as headline, offer, expiration date, an image and messaging, but it also hits home with an emotional response. Seeing those kids, some of whom have never been near a campfire and the adults who felt like kids again made it clear that campfires create a positive emotional response. In your next campaign, try taking your audience back, waaay back, to a simpler time in their lives when they were kids and associate your brand with something they love about their own time growing up. It's something that will follow them around like the aroma of campfire smoke long after your direct mail piece comes and goes.

Direct marketing is all about the numbers, and so is life. During our conversation, we knew that we would need full support of our community to make the block party happen, so we had to think like direct marketers. We had to calculate the numbers for all the households in our block, and the number it would take to get sufficient momentum for the next planning steps. Unlike the acceptable two percent response rate typical in our industry, we're shooting for an ambitious fifty-plus percent! That will take a seriously targeted, multi-channel, multiple-touch campaign in order to reach that goal. But like a good direct marketer, I'm up for the challenge of blowing away acceptable numbers with a great results!

Twitter Profile Pic Testing

I saw a guy I happen to follow on Twitter do something interesting. He replaced his profile picture with an edited version in which he now had flowing, silky blonde hair framing his square, stubbled face. It was a bad photoshop job, but you can't really tell when you're looking at a 25x25 pixel thumbnail of it.

It will be interesting to see if he gets a lift in clickthroughs to his profile. Of course, once a visitor sees the image a little larger, they may choose not to follow him.

This got me thinking about the importance of how a profile picture is perceived by fellow Twitterers at such a small size. It's the only thing you have to capture someone's attention, so it should be clear, as attractive as possible, and probably accurate if you don't want to just bait people to your page. What your actual page looks like is another matter, but of equal importance.

Perhaps I should do some profile picture testing myself and see what happens. I think I'll skip the photoshop addition of long, blonde hair though, it just isn't me.

Media Overload

The dishes were washed, the baby put in bed, and I was all set to get comfortable and watch some American Idol when I remembered that there was a presidential press conference tonight.

I began watching the conference and listening to President Obama explain the budget that came out this week, when I decided to also check my e-mail. Of course, while I was there, I checked out Facebook and Twitter and thought about putting in another blog entry.

So I've got on the TV while following what George Stephanopoulos was saying about it on Twitter, and that's when it hit me, this may be more information than I need (or can properly digest) at one time. The thing about integrating social media with offline channels is that it becomes very easy to get swallowed up in media overload!

I'm sure at some point a proper balance will be struck and folks will find an appropriate place in their lives for social media, but until then it's funny to see how ingrained these things can become into our lives.

New media requires new metrics

So you've got a Facebook page, a blog, a Twitter profile and you've posted some great videos on YouTube. Now what?

Okay, so far so good. Any direct marketer will tell you, however, that it's all bogus until you can measure its success against your own quantifiable goals. With today's social media applications, that's tricky. It's not as simple as response and conversion rates, and forget about seeing a clean ROI. But don't let that stop you!

New media requires new metrics for success. For example, your Facebook page might live by such metrics as new fans per month, or posts per day. Your blog might contain measurements on number of new followers per month or number of comments per post. Twitter can tell you the number of new followers per month if you keep a record of it as you go.

These aren't hard metrics on which you should run a small business, and definitely not by which you'd want to run a large business, but rather are directional in letting you know you're creating an impact. If you properly integrate your social media efforts and use tracking code, such as that provided by Google Analytics, you'll be able to see how each piece works together to create an experience for your customers and prospects.

Take a good look at what is important to you in reaching your goals and go from there.

Why do we love social media so much?

I should be in bed now.

My wife has probably given up waiting for me and is fast asleep. I'd join her, but I just need to tweak my Twitter design and check Facebook one last time, in case I missed something vital in the last 20 minutes.

Some people seem surprised by the social media phenomenon, but it's really no mystery at all. People were built to be in relationships with each other, they just can't help it. And social media makes it ridiculously easy to dig up old high school buddies, feel connected to celebrities and people of power, and scratch that itch for a connection with another human being.

If you ask me, social media is here to stay. This digital version of friendship and communication is only going to get more prevalent and more ingrained into people's everyday lives. In fact, for millions of people around the globe, that day has already come.

Why is Twitter so popular, even though few know how to use it?

The more time I spend on Twitter, the more I see it dominated by four groups of people. CEOs of large corporations, celebrities, online marketers looking to promote their small businesses and news media types. When I talk to these people, or others, about Twitter, few really seem to know why they are there or what they're doing. It seems that Twitter is a new tool for which we don't yet have a defined need or purpose, but we're committed to using it anyway.

For me this begs the question, who is driving this commitment, users who are convinced of its coolness or effectiveness or some genius marketing type at Twitter? Either way, its popularity is growing, even if no one can explain why. I guess this is the part where I confess to having been on Twitter for more than a year now (but only for research purposes only, of course). See my experiment at http://twitter.com/phillipbarnes.