I know, I know; it’s not news but there’s something about texting that is remarkable because it has so quickly become not just ‘a’ communications medium but, at least if you’re a teenager, the primary non-traditional communications medium.
I couldn’t find more recent stats on texting but a 2010 survey by The Nielsen Company found the average teenager (13 to 17 years old) sends or receives 3,339 texts per month which is something more than 100 per day or, about one every six minutes in a 10 hour day … that’s a lot of interpersonal networking.
Texting while walking, woman falls in mall fountain, then …
While it is a fact that adults don’t currently use texting anywhere near as much as teens, as teens turn into adults, it is pretty certain that texting will become even more pervasive.
So, to stay at the front of how people are communicating, no matter what other channels you’re using, it would seem to be a good idea to have texting as a significant component of your marketing communications mix.
Which brings me to my focus this week, DOTGO, a Web service that allows you to set up a texting response service for your domain name.
The way this works is when someone texts your domain name (for example, gibbs.com would be “gibbs”) and an optional keyword to the SMS shortcode DOTCOM (368266), a response is texted back. There are also shortcodes — DOTEDU (368338), DOTGOV (368468), DOTNET (368638), and DOTORG (368674) — for sites in other top level domains.
Getting this service up and running for a domain is simple: You sign up for DOTGO account, specify your site’s domain name, add an alias (“A”) record to your Web site’s DNS configuration, and wait until DOTGO can check the DNS modification.
Once DOTGO has validated your site by finding the DNS alias (this can take some hours) you can either build a menu of keywords and responses using the Web-based DOTGO Publisher or you can add an index.crml file to the root of your Web site. CRML or “Concise Message Routing Language” is DOTGO’s XML variant that specifies what responses texting keywords to your domain name will produce.
Here’s an example of a CRML file:
AS you can see from the above content, the DOTGO service is quite versatile supporting, as it does, replying with a text message, an RSS feed menu, or subscribing the text originator to an alert group or, when using a CRML file rather than the Publisher, calling any URL you please and returning the result.
The free account allows for unlimited responses to your keywords, while premium accounts that add broadcast messaging along with a Web-based message center and analytics reporting start at $9.99 per month for 1,000 broadcast messages.
The DOTGO site and documentation (which is extensive) could use some revision (the explanations and layout aren’t as clear as they could be) and there are inconsistencies in the site such as the public price list referenced above is different from the price list shown when you upgrade an account (the Web-based site builder is available with free accounts not just the premium accounts).
The bottom line: DOTGO is a clever idea and provides a cost-effective, and valuable integration between your Web site, your brand, and texting. Definitely worth checking out.
