We hear and see everywhere about all of the things that divide the American people.
But there’s one thing Americans agree on. It’s mobile phones.
Data compiled by Pew Research shows that 97% of Americans own a mobile phone. And 90% of those mobile devices are smart phones.
Education and income disparities are non-existent when it comes to owning mobile and smart phones. Nor is there a gender gap when it comes to phone ownership.
Only Americans over the age of 65 are not adapting to smart phones at such high rates. While 94% of those 65+ have cell phones, only 76% have smart phones. Still that’s 3 out of 4 which is a serious level of technology adoption.
Ethnic lines mostly disappear too when it comes to mobile and smart phone ownership. Over 90% of Whites, Hispanics, and Asians have smart phones. But only 84% of Black Americans have smart phones, which is again a large percentage.
So what does this mean to you as a candidate for elected office?
It means texting needs to be a part of your campaign.
There are two types of texting you can send: MMS and SMS.
What do those letter combinations of MMS and SMS even mean?
SMS stands for Short Message Service. MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service.
And yes, I know that still probably doesn’t tell you anything, so what’s the difference between SMS and MMS text messaging?
SMS came along first with cellular phones and quite limited. Literally, SMS text messages are limited to only 160 characters. You cannot send photos, jifs, audio files, videos via SMS.
A person using a flip/dumb phone may indeed still be sending and receiving SMS messages when they text.
MMS messaging is probably what you are familiar with when you’re texting.
You can send pictures, jifs, audio, and videos in MMS texts – hence the word Multimedia in the name. MMS text message length is considered to be “unlimited” but realistically is 1600 characters, or ten times the character space of a SMS message.
Should Campaigns Send SMS or MMS Text Messages?
As with so many things on political campaigns, the answer is “it all depends.”
Given the limitations of SMS text messages, you can’t send out long texts. Because of this, mass text messaging with SMS is slightly cheaper than blasting out texts to the voters on MMS.
If your campaign funds are limited, you may want to find a way to send out a concise text message on SMS, especially when it comes to turning out your supporters to vote.
Most likely your campaign will be inclined to pay a little more and send out MMS messages to the voters. You have the space to send a much longer message and you can include a photo or video.
The temptation most candidates need to avoid when sending MMS is writing too much. Text messages are not meant to be full length letters or emails. They should be short and sweet. Just because you can send an unlimited amount of information to the voters, doesn’t mean you should.
When it comes to political campaign texting (as with almost everything related to the copy you write for your materials) less is always more.
On the campaign’s I run, I tend to send out MMS messages with a photo and three or four sentences of information, a link to the campaign’s website, any necessary disclosure information, and the required Opt-Out information.
When should political campaigns send out text messages?
People check their phones all the time and many are constantly communicating through text messages. That does not mean your campaign should send texts at any time of the day or night.
If you send a blast text out to your voters when its too early in the morning, too late at night, or on a holiday you run the risk of offending them and losing their potential support.
The rule I go by is to send texts only at times that the candidate could also be canvassing neighborhoods and knocking on doors.
My campaigns don’t start sending out texts until 10am, they stop before 7pm, and we never text on any holidays or during major events.
One Last Thing: Always Follow the Law
The most important thing to keep in mind when texting, whether you send SMS, MMS, or a combination of both, is to keep things legal.
You need to comply with federal laws, FCC regulations, and the legal requirements of your state. You also want to stay in the good graces of the mobile phone carriers, who want to stay in the good graces of the FCC, which means registering your campaign as a legitimate text sender.