Text Message Blog

According to this infographic, 84% of us are text message users.  You can learn more about the history of text message marketing and its uses today by watching this You Tube video.

2012 study by Pew shows that 81% of Americans are texting.  The younger, better educated, and wealthier you are, the more likely you are to be an avid text message user.

81% of Americans are regular text message users and that number increases for the younger, wealthier, and better educated.

Interested in how many texts the average American sends by age group?  Check it out here.

While there continue to be alternatives to text messaging, that doesn’t seem to be slowing down the use of text messages.  Take a look at the latest study from Experian on text message use in the USA.

While there have been previous studies on text message use in the US, and the world, this is the first time that I’ve seen one that analyzes text messages received and sent.

American text message use by age 2013

I love these infographics about text messages.  Heck, I love text messages too.

Every now and then, we come across an infographic that we just can’t resist.

No doubt that the restaurant industry is prime time for mobile marketing, especially the pizza industry.  If you want to watch a video of a pizza success story with mobile marketing, click here.

Mobile marketing just makes sense for pizza restaurants.

The Biggest Professional Eating Event in the World

Imagine an event where 20,000 people pack a major city arena at 6 AM to watch contestants gorge themselves to see who can eat the most chicken wings.

Welcome to Wing Bowl in Philadelphia.

Wing bowl is an annual event that occurs on the Friday before the Super Bowl.  It is now in its 21st year, thus the sponsors, WIP Radio, have dubbed Wing Bowl as now being “legal.”

At Wing Bowl, the parking lots open at 4 AM for tailgating and if you walked to the Wells Fargo in your bare feet, you would surely bleed to death no matter how hard you tried to miss the broken beverage bottles on the ground.

Patriots Games

As If the Eagles Season Wasn’t Bad Enough, a New England Fan Wins

STRONG WINNER: The chicken wing counts are not being questioned. The Bear won fair and square, much to the chagrin of Philly phans.

Wing Bowl 21 champion this year was James “The Bear” McDonald, a 36-year-old body builder from (gasp) New England.  In fact, The Bear even entered the arena wearing a Tom Brady jersey which got him a chorus of boos as well as just about anything that the fans could find to throw at him.  Only the one brave contestant that had the guts to wear a Tony Romo jersey received worse treatment from the tough Philly fans.

The Real Reason for Wing Bowl’s Success

It’s easy to see why 20,000+ fans come from all over the Delaware Valley to watch 31 minutes of wing eating where the winning contestant manages to consume 287 wings in that time period.  Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

No, I know it doesn’t.

The wing eating “athletes” at the event are akin to the reason that you used to subscribe to Playboy.  Of course, we know… you liked the articles.

It’s the side show that attracts the male-dominated crowd.  There is a lot of down time during the 3 hour event and much of that time is spent with the cameras scouring the crowd to find the outnumbered females in the audience.

Female fans sitting together are acknowledged on the Kiss Cam usually reserved for more traditional couples during Flyers and Sixers games.  Attractive, young, usually buxom women are singled out on the jumbotron to an array of cheers that will turn to boos if the women don’t pull up their tops.  After all, this is the city that booed Santa Claus.

KISS AND TELL: Kiss Cam at Wing Bowl is sponsored by a local gentlemen's club that encourages women seated together to engage in a sexy kiss in front the predominantly male audience.

Wingette of the Year

The highlight of the side show is the naming of the Wingette of the Year.  More than 100 pretty women act as valets of sort for the wing eating contestants.  They are all scantily-clad and many work at local strip clubs.  Some are even sponsored by doctors that specialize in breast enhancement surgeries.

SUPER BOWL ADS GOT NOTHING ON YOU: Talk about your target marketing.

This year, a 20-year-old brunette beauty from Allentown, Alexandra Warner, was named Wingette of the Year.  You can certainly see from Alexandra’s photo that she is well qualified for the title of  Wingette of the Year.

FINGER LICKIN' GOOD: Alexandra Warner -- Wing Bowl 21 Wingette of the Year

Get out the Vote

Here’s how the Wingette of the Year was decided.

Of the over 100 wingettes at the event, ten were nominated for Wingette of the Year and all received golden roses from Stephen Singer Jewelers, a sponsor of the event.  Two wingettes were then chosen for the finals and fans were encouraged to select either A or B to vote for either Alexandra or Tara by text message.

TEXT ME: The competition for Wingette of the Year was narrowed down to either Tara or Alexandra, but that's where things fell apart for the text message voting at Wing Bowl 21.

I reached into my pocket to vote for contestant B by texting B to 84828, just like I was encouraged to do.  Shocked by the reply message, I then decided to even up the score and vote for contestant A.  What did I receive back?

WINGING THE RESULTS

Well, my vote apparently was received, but the voting showed Chris as the leader with 62% of the vote over Todd.  Now, the name Chris might have fit with being a wingette, but I’ve yet to meet a hot girl named Todd.

HARDLEY FAIR: Chris should be riding home on the Harley, not Alexandra, according the reply message I received from Wing Bowl 21.

According to Philly.com, WIP personality Angelo Cataldi announced that Alexandra received 56% of the vote for Wingette of the Year and she was then crowned as Wingette of the Year for 2013.

But, did she really win?  Certainly, Tara has to be questioning if the results were legitimate or made up on the spot.  After all, I received two texts that said that Chris won and won with 62% of the vote.  Maybe the text message voting had no impact on the actual results, but then why did Cataldi say that Alexandra received 56% when the final text stats showed 62%?

It is not known if Tara has hired a lawyer yet to investigate the text message voting fail at Wing Bowl 21, but based on the text message reply message, there is certainly some question as to who should have won the Harley.

I wonder if Chris can ride a bike?

While text message marketing isn’t new and more and more businesses are jumping on board, texting coworkers about business isn’t something many businesses have plans in place for. When determining whether or not your business needs a policy, or if you’ve discovered your business doesn’t have one, make sure you’ve covered your bases. You don’t want to damage your personal life or professional career. Here are 3 things to consider before you push send.

Content

Is what you’re sending going to the intended recipient? It’s easy to blur the names of professional and personal contacts when quickly scrolling through your address book. An inappropriate text sent to the wrong person could damage your personal or professional life, or both. Office gossip is something that happens regardless of where you work. Is the context of your text to a coworker suitable should another employee or your boss read it? Scan before you send. Just as with emails and IMs, texts can be saved and brought to the table at a later date. Make sure the content is something you’ll standby and accept responsibility for should someone ask you about it.

Communication

Business calls for clear and concise communications. Text messaging often leads to misinterpretations of meaning or tone. When you’re establishing a new working relationship with someone, you don’t want a miscommunication to take place that could hinder your ability to get promoted or close a deal. Asking your employer, employee, clients and vendors for their preferences when it comes to texting is one of the easiest ways to avoid a miscommunication. If someone is an avid texter, they may be more comfortable. If your client is more inexperienced, they may indicate they prefer other means of communication. If you’re unsure whether you’re on the right track when it comes to texting with coworkers or clients, just ask them.

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AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications, Sprint Nextel Corp and T-Mobile have agreed to provide text-to-911 services, with major deployments expected in 2013, according to a report from the FCC. The service should be available nationwide by May 15, 2014.

Texting to 911 could save lives.

Trials of the texting to 911 service are being conducted in Iowa and Vermont now.

“Access to 911 must catch up with how consumers communicate in the 21st century and today, we are one step closer towards that vital goal,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.

One of the great things about this new service is that endangered people will be able to notify 911 without having to speak.  I can imagine that coming into play during a home invasion, for example.  Clearly, this service could save lives.

It’s great that the FCC and the 911 service is realizing that today people communicate via text message.  The only problem is that while the Big Four have a large percentage (90%) of the market share in the USA, they don’t have 100%.  It’s time for the third tier carriers to step up and add emergency texting to 911 too.

The carriers have committed to provide an automatic “bounce back” text message by June 30, 2013 if text-to-911 is unavailable in their area. The message would tell users to make a voice call to a 911 center until the program is rolled out.  Sorry guys, that’s a good start, but not enough.

The text message turns 20 today and is no longer a teenager. It was 20 years ago today that Neil Papworth, a British engineer, sent the first text message. Papworth used his computer to wish a “Merry Christmas” to Richard Jarvis, of Vodafone. Papworth didn’t get a reply because there was no way to send a text from a phone in those days. Years later, Papworth was featured in a Super Bowl ad!

The first text messages were free, but could only be sent between people with the same carriers. By February 2001 the UK was sending one billion texts a month, which at the standard 10p-a-text charge meant the business was raking in about £100m a month.

We at the Text Message Blog have been around for so long that we actually celebrated the 15th birthday of the text message just five years ago. See you on the 25th!