Mobile adoption in the U.S. has experienced phenomenal growth. According to CTIA‘s President and CEO Steve Largent, the U.S. wireless industry reached 270 million total subscribers at the end of 2008. While that number alone is already quite impressive, what I find even more amazing is the fact that U.S. subscribers have sent 1 trillion text messages (yes, that’s TRILLION with a “T”) in 2008, which triples the previous year’s SMS traffic. Worldwide, SMS is being used by 3 billion wireless subscribers and is now the most widely used data application on the planet. So, is it really any surprise that SMS (A.K.A. “text-messaging”) has become such a widely used tool within the U.S.?

Mobile Marketing & SMS

If you have followed my blog in the past, then you have likely seen my posts on why I believe mobile-marketing matters, as well as why SMS in recruiting can be key to engaging a target audience. Suffice to say, I’m a big fan of SMS but I also realize that there are still many within our industry that still don’t quite “get” mobile. It is often a confusing topic, which is why I wrote my earlier post on Mobile Recruiting 101.

In general, mobile marketing is a broad term that simply refers to the use marketing over a mobile device. Mobile campaigns may include contests, coupon-give away, info-alerts, job-alerts, mCommerce, movie promos, ringtone give-away, etc. We frequently see mobile and SMS linked because it’s medium by which many of the promos above are offered. SMS services run off a short code, which is typically a 5 or 6 digit number (either shared or dedicated). For example, last year BMW kicked-off a mobile campaign using a keyword and short code to encourage consumers to learn more about the BMW X6. Consumers were prompted to text the keyword “BMW” to 67463 (short code). The result? BMW fans were provided a link that (once clicked) redirected them to BMW’s mobile-optimized site showcasing the X6. Leveraging a mobile through SMS is becoming a common practice for many forward-thinking companies (e.g., Nike, Coke-Cola, Microsoft, etc.) all carry their own version of a short code. That said, SMS is not the only channel for connecting with a target audience. We see Multimedia Message Service (MMS) as another channel for engaging consumers. However, compared to the 3 billion global SMS users, there are only 1.35 billion global MMS users so we will table the MMS discussion for a later post.

Mobile Marketing Success Stories

Two key events have contributed to the popularity of mobile-SMS in the U.S.:

1. American Idol Voting for your favorite singer was made simple (and interactive) by simply placing your vote via text message. American Idol set an SMS record in 2008 when over 78 million viewers responded by “texting” in their votes.

2. Presidential Race in 2008 Most notably, President Obama set a world SMS record when he alerted approximately 2.9 million opt-in subscribers during the announcement of Joe Biden as his VP selection. Followers joined by texting “OBAMA” to 62262 and they were immediately provided real-time status updates. Obama was even named Mobile Marketer of the Year for running one of the most successful mobile campaigns in history.

With 270+ million U.S. subscribers, and 1 trillion text messages sent last year, SMS is clearly a communication channel that we cannot and should not overlook. Kim Dushinski, author of The Mobile Marketing Handbook, cited that companies should think about allocating 5-10% of their digital marketing budget towards mobile marketing efforts. Bottom-line, it’s time to get creative in how we engage prospective talent through this unique channel.

Upcoming Mobile Recruiting Webinar: April 23rd

If you are interested in learning more about how mobile integrates with recruiting, I will be delivering a webinar on Thursday, April 23rd. The event is being hosted by Shally Steckerl from Arbita ACES. You can get more details by visiting the registration link here.